How Blizzard keeps Diablo 4 feeling single-player despite its MMO elements

If you played Diablo 4 during any of the various playtests Blizzard has held ahead of the game’s early June launch, you’ll probably have run into another player or two.

I saw players running around Kyovashad, the city in the Fractured Peaks region, popping into and out of portals, visiting vendors and milling about. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect from an MMO – perhaps in a city set within Blizzard’s own World of Warcraft.

Outside settlements, most of my impromptu encounters with other players revolved around public events either in progress or just finished (annoying).

I also joined a group to take on Ashava, a world boss encounter designed for 12 players. Unfortunately, I failed miserably (yes, someone managed to solo Ashava in the Server Slam beta).

Encountering other players in the always-online Diablo 4 is but one of a number of MMO-lite elements in the game. There’s a clan system, raid-like boss fights such as the aforementioned Ashava battle, and a player revive mechanic.

At first glance, these systems are at odds with the traditional Diablo dungeon-crawling action RPG experience Blizzard is shooting for with the bulk of Diablo 4. You play the “Lone Wanderer” who strives to help humanity survive in a brutally oppressive, bleak world. There’s a cool claustrophobia to the ‘do it alone’ dungeon crawling in Diablo 4, so it can feel a little jarring to see other Lone Wanderers step on your turf.