Buckle up, this is long. However I wrote it with the developers in mind so don’t fret if you’re a fellow player and do not wish to read the whole thing.
Here are my notes on the Open Beta, consisting mainly of UX feedback and some bugs. For background, I have been embedded QA at a AAA studio and had a high focus on Player Experience. My purpose for posting this here is that I hope the devs will find it. If others feel the need to comment/discuss, please stick to adding to the feedback instead of refuting it. Even if you disagree, this is still valid feedback from a certain type of player perspective.
Overall this was a very positive experience and I am very excited to play the full game, but I do hope there are a few things that get addressed before then. This beta felt very polished but some of the UX things noted felt more unfinished.
These notes are mostly in the order of when I thought of them as I was playing through. There is a section at the end for praise (positive feedback).
Scenario: I played on PS5. I started one of each class and played until reaching Kyovashad or slightly further, and played a Sorcerer to level 25 and the end of the campaign content. I did some of this in networked co-op with one other player, and the rest solo.
Feedback Notes:I feel like Evade and teleport cooldowns should be half as much as they are. (later found boots that can reduce cooldowns or add more charges, this feel like a step in the right direction).
Need a quicker way to teleport to another player in your party without going to town first. Interact wheel? Map? If it exists, I couldn’t figure it out. Appreciated the ability to travel directly to a waypoint from anywhere though. Maybe the player marker on map can act as a waypoint.
Potion upgrade crafting feels wholly unnecessary. Feels like crafting only for the sake of having crafting. No value add. The friction for crafting mats is so minor and only punishes those who have never picked up any crafting mats. Basically if you have mats, you just press the button and now your potion heals you more. No step to go out and seek the materials. The main friction is your character level. Why not just have it automatically increase with each level? Or keep the D3 system where it heals for a percentage of your health. I’m level 20 and already have enough materials to nearly upgrade every tier of the potions up to 90. The materials have no bearing. And I collect them passively, may as well just be gold, or nothing at all.
Want to assign melee button to a skill slot. Wanna go back to my stabby-stabby rogue. Once you spend your first ability point, you cannot go back to just using your weapon. Have unequipped slot act as a melee? Or have melee be an option for assignment? My party partner was so frustrated by this and spent a half hour trying to get it to work and ended up quitting.
Why can’t I remap my skills to other buttons from the beginning? I want to have my primary attack on the right trigger, but have to use X and then wait til I’m level 10 to remap it, at which point I have to retrain my muscle memory again.
It’d be nice to have the option to tune the PS5 controller’s trigger threshold for an attack. I have to pull the trigger all the way to use my skill but it’d be better to have it only a partial pull (I could be wrong but regardless it’d be nice to be able to tune it).
Item tooltip in inventory covers up the view of the character stats, which i want to see change as I equip the item. Have to constantly dance my cursor on and off the item to compare how the numbers change.
Want to preview all stat changes as a whole for a piece of gear, like the down/up arrows in D3. Currently a +3 damage can be misleading if it removes a +3 intelligence (or primary stat) property in the process, which reduces attack power. Maybe while hovering or comparing an item, show the (+3) next to the current Attack Power, Armor, etc to show how it would change with that item.
I want to disable the clicking sound when I highlight an interactable/lootable object. I see other great sound options in the menu but could not find that. On consoles, since it’s constantly targeting items as I’m walking around, I was hearing it incessantly and it became meaningless.
Can I have the option for item labels to display indefinitely? And/or have the L stick toggle on/off but otherwise no timer? Appreciate having options for how long to display them, but I want longer options than 10 seconds.
Rogue should have more dodge as a class perk. Maybe multiple charges, less cooldown, or no cooldown? Upgradeable dodge? Boots can have these properties but rogue should have it inherent since moving around the battlefield is a core strategy in this class.
Health globes seem to despawn after a short time? Feels like this needs to be much longer. Seemed inconsistent. Maybe they were getting despawned during more intense battles, which is exactly when I want them to stick around for when I need it.
Hard to get used to not being able to walk over a health globe to heal. Nice if it would heal you and give your potion a charge like the healing wells do. Combination of the D3 and D2 health systems. I find that when I see a health globe, I look at my health to see how low it is, press the heal button, then walk over the globe to recharge. Just remove the step and heal me when I walk over it.
Unable to evade away when stunned but able to sorc teleport (“unstoppable”). Let me evade out from a stun please, especially since evade is on a cooldown so I still have to be strategic with it.
UI/UX interactions on the character creation screen are inconsistent. Sometimes I can just hover select an option to see it previewed, and sometimes I have to manually click it to see it. Most of them allow you to scroll through one at a time with D pad, but the Markings options scroll one at a time til it gets to the edge, then scrolls an entire page, skipping 3 of the options if you just continue to press the right D pad.
Class perks (enchantments, book of the dead, etc) have really inconsistent requirements and ways/frictions/times to obtain them. Necromancer gets theirs at like level 3. Sorcerer gets a side quest to go find the book in a dungeon, not sure when that showed up, maybe around level 15 (didn’t notice it til much later.)? But druid at level 15 is just given the perk, no fetch quest required?
If I’m targeting a destructible object with a skill that uses resource, but don’t have enough of that resource, just use melee please, instead of just telling me I have no resource and not hitting the object.
I want to pick my character’s voice/accent in addition to the rest of the appearance stuff. Don’t need to add more, just let me choose from the ones that exist across the character classes - basically I don’t want the voice tied to the class, just let me assign the voice to my character as I see fit. This would be even better if you could choose a feminine/masculine voice regardless of the body type chosen.
Can I also pick my pronouns?
Also I want facial hair options on female models (hide this toggle in an option menu if you have to), body hair options (including for women - I want my druid to have hairy legs), and scar options that aren’t intentional markings but are more like battle wounds.
The scarring marking color does not really look like scarring. Looks more like paint. (blood is awesome though)
Henna has a lighter outline on some skin tones.
Wish list: Lost and Found loot for high rarity items like in Borderlands. If I’m partied with someone and something they killed generated a legendary for me, I want that item to go to a lost and found instead of requiring that I comb through everywhere they’ve been to ensure I didn’t miss something good.
Are there no more pets to pick up your gold? Or can I have a bigger pickup radius? Feels tedious to run around a bunch of circles to pick up gold. I wish this was more automatic. There’s never a time I don’t want to pick up gold.
I want the big center button on PS controller to open inventory, not map. But I can’t remap that one. Want more similar to D3 controller layout, with map on Lstick and inventory on big button. That’s not an option apparently. Why keep changing the controller mappings with each new game? Terribly inconsistent across D3, D2Res, and D4 with very few customization options.
Salvage interface does not match sell interface. Cannot sell individual junk item (can only sell all Junk at once), or sell all of a rarity class like you can in the salvage menu.
Button mappings in sell interface are exact opposite of when in inventory (square to mark as junk in inventory equips in sell menu). The Stash interface matches the Sell screen too. I tried to mark an item as junk while looking at my stash, and it equipped it instead. This felt confusing and annoying.
When you first get to Kyovashad, Boza gives the Raising Spirits quest, and then the next side quest has us seeking out Bozan in Masetad Coffers. Names are too similar and confusing. I thought they were talking about the same person at first.
Distance from waypoint to stash/wardrobe seems a bit long, having to go up narrow stairway or wide path around back. Should place it outside of the inn near the waypoint. And its location on the map is misleading since you have to travel through the building to get to it, instead around the building like it looks on the map.
Aspects tied to an individual item - I wish it were on the slot like kanai’s cube. Maybe if you were allowed to re-extract the same aspect at a discount/free for the next item upgrade? Or have one aspect able to equip to each slot, in addition to having them on an item?
Ore generators keep glowing/shimmering after I’ve collected from it.
I want my character to be barefoot or have sandals. Can the “unequipped” look be minimal foot attire?
I want to be able to zoom out of the skill tree to navigate the whole thing instead of little by little.
Wishlist: I want to send items to stash or sell or salvage them from the field. Like No Man’s Sky salvage/refine and trade rocket, or Torchlight’s pets that run back and sell at the market. Minimize trips back to town just to sell/salvage. More merchants/blacksmiths littered around are very helpful though.
Very early on, I keep picking up items that say they unlock new looks on salvage, so I want to save them, but I have no idea how long it will be until I find a blacksmith (before I’ve gotten to Kyovashad for the first time). Also my inventory got cluttered up with items that I picked up before I got poisoned and didn’t get a chance to sell before I was forced to kill the merchant. On second playthrough I was able to mitigate that, but first time (when I need the gold a lot more) it felt like I had screwed myself.
Loading screen tips are useful, but go by too quickly of you are on PS5 (first world problems!). It’d be nice to have a place to read those in a menu, since some of them looked pretty useful to know.
Sometimes I see the orange circle like there’s an event but there’s no event happening. The last time, I came back to it a minute or two later and an event started. Maybe missing a countdown to event start?
I want to change the name of my character. Maybe limit to one change? Or cost a bunch of gold? In D3 I did this by creating a new character, power leveling it, then equipping all the gear from my old one. I don’t think that option is going to be quite as viable here (maybe?)
Appreciate being able to change jewelry and markings after creation, but I also want to change the hair and facial hair too. Character needs a haircut.
Bug: when changing character appearance at wardrobe, the current markings are not selected.
I want to mark something as a favorite or be able to manually sort inventory to set aside items I might use. On console at least, the inventory cannot be manually sorted, only automatically by pressing R3. Then I lose track of which item it was I wanted to keep. Maybe also give me options for how the inventory gets sorted? Sort by type, rarity, value, order of pickup, etc?
Wishlist: small training grounds area in town to test new weapons and abilities, since you cannot use these in town. Maybe attack some dummies in the training area at the NE of town where you first cheered on the recruits?
Lots of inconsistency in what progresses for the party vs what progresses per player. If I interact with an npc, it may show only me the cinematic, or it may pull both of us in. I have no way to know before I start it. If I skip it, and my party-mate does not, when I press to interact on the next step it pulls them out of their cinematic. No obvious indication when it’s an action that affects the party as a whole. Side quests do not progress for both of us at all, even if we’re on the same side quest on the same step. Each needs to do the interaction separately. I think this either needs to be made more consistent, or communicated much better to the players what to expect as far as party progression.
Rogue is far more vocal than other classes. The sounds are over exaggerated and a bit inappropriate sounding. This was played on a female Rogue. Haven’t tried male.
I don’t want gems to take up space. Moved in the right direction in D3 to allow stacking, but I wish they wouldn’t take up space at all, especially that each gem tier and type takes up a stack space. Can they go into another tab like the consumables and quest items do?
When refunding and reallocating ability points, it’s difficult to swap points from one first tier ability to another because it temporarily would break a connection to a later ability (so would not allow me to do it). Had to do some weird juggling to make it work. So if I wanted to switch from Claw to Maul, I had to undo points higher in the tree (Shred), spend it on Maul, then undo Claw, then re-spend on Shred. I should be able to just swap points on the same tier. Or what if each tier of the tree unlocked at a certain character level instead of being based on number of skill points spent?
Couldn’t salvage an item that I had upgraded, but it still said unlocks new look on salvage (what a tease!).
Bug; around the right of the alabaster monastery entrance is some black spots / Z fighting, maybe something clipping through the snow?
Before the final act boss fight, I did hear the clanking footsteps but didn’t know what it was and thought it was a bug, until my character said I’m being followed. However, during the big boss fight, I did not notice when the Knight Penitent showed up. And when I did see him, I didn’t know he was on my side. I was very confused for the first half of the fight. I finally figured out he was there to help and shield me, which was a nice mechanic. I both loved and hated having to dodge all over the battlefield to avoid getting hit by the poison stuff. Made for an interesting fight but didn’t leave me a lot of chances to deal damage since I was constantly playing defense.
Boss enemies have no introduction. I’m just suddenly fighting them and often do not get a chance to look at their design or size them up before engaging in battle. D3 had a nice little intro for each boss where they’d talk to you for a moment and you could appreciate the art and mentally prepare yourself for battle. I couldn’t tell you what the final boss was called or what it looked like, since I was too busy trying not to die through the whole fight.
Lots of running back and forth to previously discovered places that did not have waypoints. Examples: Kor Valar, Horadric Vault, Black Lake. Like, Go from Black Lake back to Horadric Vault back to Black Lake and I’m like “C’mon, I was JUST THERE!” and then I have to find a somewhat nearby waypoint and then trek the rest of the way there. These places should have waypoints or else like a portal that opens in town as a shortcut to return for the quest.
I felt like I was getting weaker as I leveled up. This is likely because enemies are scaling to my level, but I had not found better gear, so my damage felt lower. I even checked to make sure I was on the lowest world tier since I was struggling to get through portions.
Praise (with some suggestions):
Skill system is novel and interesting. Works fairly well. Good balance of D3 style rune choices and D2 style added skill points. Though I do wish each additional point gave a bigger bonus since it’s limited to 5. Appreciate that you can respect for free under level 15, and that you can undo/return a single skill point spent rather than the entire tree. More freedom to try things.
Potion charge system is a big improvement on D3’s single use cooldown. Though I kind of wish there was a hybrid approach. Let charges recharge themselves over time? Auto heal when picking up an orb?
Fast travel is nice, skips the step of going to town and then hopping on the waypoint. Just go directly to the waypoint you want (just need this for getting to other players now).
World building is more immersive. There is more showing and less telling. Side quests, inspectable objects, NPC dialog, etc. Much better than the lore book entries. Even when there are lore-book type things the way they’re done is much more from the perspective of the people inhabiting this world and less like an entry in a bestiary. For example, the one about the monk trying to save someone that was killed and resurrected by the Khazra…. It was so emotional and heartfelt and gave you much more immersion into this brutal world than a bestiary entry that tells you that Khazra can resurrect people.
Voice acting is superb. Enough said.
I love that the looks (transmogs) are slot based instead of item based. Can turn off a look on the fly. Big thumbs up.
Also the entire character creator is something I never knew I needed in a Diablo game. I really enjoyed getting to create my own interpretations on the classes. Wakanda Warrior Rogue, Native American Druid, Arab Sorcerer, Necromancer Jesus…. This was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed seeing other people’s takes on them as well. It allowed me to build a little backstory of my character. But also each class is still distinctive enough that I could tell what other players’ classes were just at a glance (mostly from body type).
Oh also the body type diversity is really great.
I like the distinction between cellars and dungeons. Dungeon objectives and bosses were a nice surprise, and a bit of a challenge!
Merchants and blacksmiths are present enough that I rarely, if ever, had to run to town just to offload items despite picking up literally everything.
Camera moves in closer when in a town/village and subtly pulls back when leaving town. Nice.
One hand weapon + offhand is more viable dps now. Haven’t had to swap for a 2 handed weapon like I usually do in D3.
Checkmark in dungeons and cellars to indicate you’ve completed them is really nice. But I wasn’t sure if that persisted the next time I loaded the game. It’d be nice if it did.
I like the persistent world maps but randomized dungeons. This felt like a nice balance. Don’t have to re-explore the area every time you travel back to a place.
Liked that the enemies respawn in the open world.
I like that completion (exploration, cellars, etc) persists across sessions but being able to reset dungeons manually. Less pressure to stay in a current play session in order to maintain maps, etc.
The scenic views are a really cool feature. I want more of them!
So much more moral nuance. I’m loving this so far. Please give us more reason to question why we immediately assume all demons are bad and evil, when it was both demon and angel that created humans. We’ve got the “angels aren’t all that great either” but I want to see the other side of that coin which is “not all demons are literally the worst”. I’m seeing seeds of this with the bloodied wolf and Lilith, and I hope it continues moving in that direction.
THANK YOU for allowing me the option to disable the “I can’t use this yet. Not enough Mana.” dialog. Though I had to dig down all the way in the sound (or accessibility?) menu to find it. I’ve been wanting this option since D2.
Appreciate that the “looks” are unlocked for all of your characters, so you don’t have to re-salvage the same items on each.
Some really neat quest mechanics like the pilgrimage. Though I feel like that could go a bit further. Maybe reduce the abilities you can use, make you move slower, no/less healing, or something like that to really make it feel impactful. Right now it’s just dark around you but otherwise normal.
Finally fixed my #1 complaint about D3 - We now have split screen inventory management in couch co-op! Yay!
If I had to pick only one thing from this list to fix before launch, it’d be the inconsistency/lack of communication around what quest steps and cinematics get shared across the party and what is individual. The number of times my party mate and I had to say, “Are you still in the cinematic? Did that advance for you? You have to talk to the guy. Stop talking, I’m trying to listen. Oh geez, I didn’t know it was gonna skip your cinematic!” were too many.