Diablo IV early access beta players are asking Blizzard to improve the randomisation of dungeons, among many other things.

Over the weekend, players of the Diablo IV pre-order beta test have been heavily criticising the game’s dungeons. Several players are calling on Blizzard to improve randomisation before launch. Dungeon crawling is at the heart of the Diablo franchise. The fourth instalment is no different. Blizzard previously confirmed that the new game will feature more than 150 “hand-crafted yet procedurally generated” dungeons. Some players are worried that Blizzard’s dungeon design is too simple and could make replaying the game tedious.

Procedurally generated dungeons are at the heart of the Diablo series, going back to the original game.

Although Diablo featured a single dungeon, as players got deeper and deeper, the design of each level was unique from the previous ones. Diablo III, however, received harsh criticism for its dungeon-node layout. Players felt they were too simple, lacking the complexity of Diablo and Diablo II. They were simplified to speed up completion and loot-gathering.

Now it seems that Diablo IV is being criticised for a similar reason to Diablo III. The current top comments on Diablo and Part 4 subreddits are that the new beta’s dungeons are too simple and lack randomisation. According to one post, the dungeons are “brutally repetitive” and the player gets bored quickly. Another post claimed that a third of the dungeons they played had “exactly the same layout” and that, like Diablo III, there was “no room for exploration”. They pointed to the great dungeon mazes of Diablo II as an example.

It wasn’t just the layout of the dungeons that annoyed testers: Diablo IV beta players also criticised the repetitive puzzle elements in the dungeons.

Players are tasked with finding a key or crystal and collecting anima or other items. Possibly fighting certain sub-bosses to progress. Although these mechanics changed the pace of the dungeons, players argued that there was not enough puzzle variety. So dungeons just felt more repetitive because of it.

However, it’s worth asking whether beta players are exaggerating. The current beta for Diablo IV offers a very limited portion of the full game’s content. Only the first of the game’s three stages, the first explorable zone out of five, and only twenty-three dungeons out of over 150. Inevitably there will be more enemies, bosses, puzzles, tilesets and much more to discover. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the dungeons will be more complex. Blizzard will hopefully take players’ opinions into account.

Source: Reddit

BETA FEEDBACK: Dungeon design needs a revision to not become tedious from Diablo