Diablo 4 Will Have a Branching Campaign In Its Open World

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Diablo 4 is shaking up the saga's formula in a big way: its open world will allow players to tackle the storyline in an order of their choosing. In previous Diablo games, the narrative was linear and structured in a series of Acts. For Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, this meant five Acts – with the fourth Act being shorter, and the fifth Act coming from its expansion pack. Diablo 4 breaks from tradition in its open world by introducing five Regions instead of Acts, each representing a cohesive collection of zones.

In Diablo 4, players are free to delve into the dangerous wilderness and wicked dungeons of Sanctuary without worrying about entering an over-leveled area, because the world scales around them. With the addition of World Tiers serving in lieu of a difficulty slider, Diablo 4 seems to be taking the best of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 to build its zones and overall progression system.

As part of a series of interviews with IGN, Game Director Joe Shely and General Manager Rod Fergusson sat down to discuss the way Diablo 4 handles its open world, and how the game's campaign had to change as a result. Introducing open world into the Diablo franchise made Blizzard realize very early on that a linear narrative could no longer work in Diablo 4 – it had to branch out. Though the story is still linear, it seems that players are allowed to choose which Act (or Region) to undertake after concluding the game's prologue.

Fergusson goes on to say that despite having a clear main story, players aren't necessarily pigeonholed into following it. Diablo 4 isn't interested in holding the player's hand, and will guide them towards the main quest if they want, but will otherwise allow them to explore a Region and level through its side quests, dungeons, and the open world overall.

When it comes to designing a balanced game world, Joe Shely states that Diablo 4's philosophy is all about monster density. Traversing through the lands of Sanctuary should feel exciting and be devoid of dull moments, but never to the point where too many groups of enemies clutter up the screen and make it hard for players to go through a zone. With Diablo 4 introducing mounts to the franchise, it also allows a bit of leeway to make bigger zones.

Though Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons will make up the vast majority of Diablo 4's endgame, thorough exploration of its Regions while players level will be rewarded as well – and this is where the game's Renown system comes in. In addition to earning skill points through leveling, Diablo 4 players will also be awarded with skill points by completing a Region's zones. Unlike regular skill points, these would also benefit alt characters, further incentivizing active exploration. Diablo 4's Closed Beta is ending in a few days, but players will have a chance to try the game's open world in early 2023 and make their own judgment.

Diablo 4 will launch in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.