Why is the story so bad?

[Tiearian]

I'm in Act 2, I know that not really far, but I am struggling to keep interest in the game. The story feels -so- stretched thin, and absolutely nothing of interest has occurred so far. At least IMO. It's basically a waking simulator, with occasional dialog that is most of the time not worth listening to as it doesn't have any meaningful impact to story progression. So far everything that has happened, cutscene wise, is basically the same scenario of Lilith doing yet again the same thing, but with a different person.

I'm constantly wanting to go back and play Diablo 3's story instead, and I'm struggling to find a reason to continue playing Diablo 4. There is practically no sense of progression in the first 3-4 hours of gameplay. And so far 90% of the time has been spent just running to another NPC to talk to them.

Does this game get better? Or is the writing just an atrocity the entire game?
No spoilers please. Just want to know if this gets any better, and how many hours of brain dead running around am I going to have to endure in-order to reach it?

Am I better off just watching a youtube video of all the cut scenes and then make a new character and just skip the campaign? I'm at a loss trying to figure out how I can not feel like I've wasted my money on this game.

PS: I have this on Battle.net Launcher.

[ಠ_ಠ]

The campaign sucks the whole way through. I don't even think the cutscenes are worth watching. The game gets much better if you skip the campaign (though still not excellent).

[Tiearian]

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ:

The campaign sucks the whole way through. I don't even think the cutscenes are worth watching. The game gets much better if you skip the campaign (though still not excellent).

dang... That too bad. That's basically the only reason I bought the game. The gameplay is pretty dull so far. And (i think) the classes all sorta suck. So if that's all there is, then I may just have to cut my losses, and not waste anymore time on this game. Maybe go back and play D2 or D3 for the good'ole days and leave it at that.

[yuzhonglu]

Story is a lot better than D3's in my opinion, but yeah I liked D2's "story" the best. Play Hardcore if you want more excitement. But to each their own.

[Lancenig]

They blew their entire wad on that opening cinematic...
That was the only part of the game that really wow'd me.

[moody]

What keeps me optimistic is that we learn it was all a plan by Mephisto. Hopefully D5 goes back to us stopping Baal or Diablo or all the Prime Evils.

[bryanrangel1203]

this is more like the origins i guess where all started..?

[Black Hole]

Because it's woke people making these games now, and they have proven they dont have talent for good story telling.

I played the story once and never bothered to again.

[moody]

Originally posted by Megatron:

Because it's woke people making these games now, and they have proven they dont have talent for good story telling.

I played the story once and never bothered to again.

And that is such a huge issue in so many things now. We got all these people who have gone Woke, through COVID and this weird 2019 vibe that has been a poison in so many things.

Eventually all these gaming companies are going to be ran with all these young people who have been born after 911 and they are soft and weird.

It is scary. It's BEEN scary.

[Black Hole]

It's sad is what it is.

Borderlands 3 suffered same fate I'd argue worse than this by far, the guy that wrote the story even admitted he didn't know how to tell a great story he never has, but they wanted woke so he gave them that in spades.

[ImpactHound]

I thought Act 1 is overall very weak. It only shines when Neyrelle is interacting with her mother, or when you're directly interacting with Vigo. The running back and forth is really awful to set the intro pace up. I thought Scosglen's section of the story is stronger(Act 2) and Act 3 has more high points than low in the Dry Steppes, although it's too long an act overall and should have off-loaded the tail end into 4 a little. Once you get your horse, the story wraps up nicely, 4, 5 & 6 are the right lengths with more interesting dialogue and storytelling, although they spend entirely too much time on a certain parent and it doesn't pay off at all in Hell.

I was pretty impressed with some of the sidequests though, I especially like Taissa's after-story where you find she continues to be haunted by Andariel & you help her suppress them.

[Tiearian]

Is it true that Heaven isn't involved in the game? Like do we not see Heaven vs Hell wars like the previous game? Is it all just Sanctuary, the corrupt angel, and everything else Hell-like? A friend said Heaven isn't apart of the game yet™.
To me, if this is true, and we take the idea of Heaven being Good, and Hell being Evil, then if Heaven isn't involved(doors closed or whatever), then that just means everything that's left is Evil, cuz Good is out of the equation. So if everything is just Evil, it's just fools fighting fools for their own prerogative. We are just seeing a blood bath of lost souls with no end in sight. A kingdom can't stand if it's against itself, so there is no guess work in the story. It's just a 24/7 sh!t show.

That's my take anyway, if Heaven isn't involved.
IMO the Heaven scenes, where an angel comes in are my favorite parts of D3. Like the monsters from Hell look neat and all, but we inevitably want to see the opposite of it, in this case an Angel. Even the D4 Launch Trailer where the angel drops down and all the sound effect and Sheeet was awesome. But Inarius sounds like a lost tool from what I saw of him in early on. So I sure as heck hope that's not the only indication of Good in the game, cuz the whole church that follows him is all kinds of messed up.

Like I sorta see it like two sides of a coin. One side Good, the other Evil. If every-time you flip the coin, the only option is for it to fall on Evil, then the coin is pretty pointless. Like-wise for the story in the game, if they are gonna reference Hell 24/7, and never talk about the other side of the coin, then the story becomes pointless.

[Deathbed Atheist]

Originally posted by Megatron:

It's sad is what it is.

Borderlands 3 suffered same fate I'd argue worse than this by far, the guy that wrote the story even admitted he didn't know how to tell a great story he never has, but they wanted woke so he gave them that in spades.

Yeah we've all been waiting for you to tell us what the main character from the main culture thinks about the game in the context of your politics. This is relatable and you seem sane and your opinions are reflective of market trends so I'm sure now that we know about how Diablo 4 fits into your political spectrum we may consider the discussion closed.

Here's to you, your one real cool guy

[lyckegard]

We don't play this game for it's amazing story.. Let's see
Diablo 1:
We walk painlessly slow back and forth to town, killing every monster and picking up everything to have the slightliest chance to kill the end boss. Storywise? "Oooh, Leoric and butcher and that dude's son and then Diablo, uääk"

Diablo 2:
Bunch of stuff you have to kill, obstacles and then kill Diablo, again! Uäääk

Diablo 3:
Don't even get me started on the story...

Still, every game was amazing in it's own way.

[Cubez]

The D4 story is pretty bland. I enjoyed the D3 story a lot more, and D2 of course.

I think the vibrancy of the environments helped in those games. In D4 everything looks and feels the same. In D4 you’re either running on green grass or yellow sand - but the layouts and design of the areas are almost identical.

This game unfortunately begins once you complete the story. It’s a shame cause most people drop off around act2 or 3 due to extreme boredom.

[LOL]

What story? It's just random events where nothing happens. They forgot to even put Diablo in. Diablo 1 had more story.