Diablo 4 — the RPG you may remember from the brief time you spent with it before Baldur’s Gate 3 took over your life — stepped up to the podium at last night’s Gamescom Opening Night Live ceremony to remind you that not only it is still here, but Season 2 of its live service content will be launching on October 17th.
It’s got to be said that Season 1 wasn’t especially well-received when it launched in late July, and given that Season 2 will have the added disadvantage of needing to compete against peoples’ ongoing playthroughs of both BG3 and Starfield, the game is in sore need of a better hook if it wants to entice players to return.
The promise of quality of life improvements with the Season 2 update is therefore probably even more important than the season content itself. An overhaul of the game’s inventory system promises to make it easier to search and filter your loot, and Gems will no longer take up inventory slots, to the audible relief of hoarders everywhere. There’ll also be the usual balance tweaks to some statuses and abilities, as well as the welcome confirmation that Renown rewards will carry over between seasons.
As for what the Season of Blood will bring for its main event… well, take a look at the trailer below:
“When in doubt, make them vampires” isn’t a bad philosophy to follow when you’re looking to entice players into your fantasy setting, so the new questline for Season 2 is showing some promise. Although it looks like you’ll mainly be fighting the vampires, the trailer strongly implies that our characters will eventually gain access to some of those vampiric powers too — but remains extremely reticent on whether you can smooch them, so they’re still missing a trick there. Never mind, you can’t have it all.
Speaking of which, it’s always worth remembering that while Activision Blizzard make games that bring joy to a lot of people, the company is also the subject of a number of ongoing legal actions relating to allegations about serious mistreatment of its staff. Real people make the games you love, so spare them a thought — in whatever way feels most appropriate to you — when engaging with ActiBlizz products.
Diablo 4: Season of Blood will launch on October 17th.
