Trở thành kẻ săn mồi đỉnh cao (Gamescom) - Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Phỏng vấn Blizzard

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"Welcome back to Gamereactor's coverage of Gamescom 2024.
It's been a very long day, so I'm very grateful that I can come here and actually sit down and do an interview.
And we're looking at one of the most interesting titles, I can say, of the whole Gamescom."

"It's the new expansion for Diablo IV. It's called Vessel of Hatred.
And to speak about this expansion, I'm here with Brent and Rex, who can tell us a lot more about it.
So yeah, let's start by doing a very short introduction on what players can expect in this new expansion.
Yeah, thanks for having us, by the way."

"Yeah, Vessel of Hatred is the first big expansion for the Diablo IV game.
And it's really a content-rich package that is going to take us to a whole new region of the eastern continent of the game.
As well as introduce a brand new class, the Spiritborn, which we can talk a little bit more about.
And we're continuing the story that we started to tell with Lilith and Mephisto, moving into or coming back to a region that Mephisto was once held."

"So we couldn't be more excited about all the content that we're adding to the game.
And yeah, we're looking forward to everybody getting their hands on it.
Yeah, so Vessel of Hatred is a really big swing for us.
We have multiple new modes coming."

"We have a new cat mount.
We're adding a new character slot.
We could just keep going and going and going with all the stuff we have packed in there.
And for us, it's really about, you know, we've listened to our fans since we've been out with the base game."

"And we've been evolving the game over time.
And I think Vessel of Hatred is kind of like the pinnacle of us landing on all the things that the fans love and giving them more of that and new ways to play across the board.
Yeah, and when I saw it was going to take place in a jungle kind of region, I immediately thought about the jungle in Diablo 2."

"And we had all these enemies that were like shooting at you and running away.
And you had these traps.
And yeah, so to say that basically very annoying enemies, at least for a player, a young me.
So is it the same kind of enemies, very agile, stealthy enemies?
Or what are we looking at?
Yeah, we have an awesome combination of new things to the franchise, as well as revisiting some nostalgic stuff."

"So, you know, we're introducing the dregs and the hollows.
Those are brand new monster families that you can find in the Nahantu region.
But you're also going to be able to see the flares and the lacunae, who are both monster families that you would see in Diablo 2."

"It's probably one of the things I'm most proud of in the game is being able to add a whole new sense of wonder to the Diablo 4 franchise, but also hitting those really nostalgic beats for fans that have been sticking around with us for a very long time.
Yeah, there's some great fan service moments in the game."

"You'll return to Karas Docks, you're going to get to explore the Durance of Hate again.
There's returning characters in some places.
So I think there's a lot of really cool fan service in there.
But I think for us, it's like going back to the jungle and unleashing our art team on that environment was really one of the most gratifying things about the expansion."

"We've also added some new biomes.
We have a Red Rock Canyon environment in Nahantu, and that's one of the more exciting places to go explore.
So there's lots to see and do."

"Yeah, and speaking of the jungle environment, is it inspired by any real locations or is it mostly based on your own lore in terms of the artistic design?
Yeah, it's inspired by both."

"We obviously took a look at Diablo 2 and wanted to make sure that when you revisited the Karas Docks, for example, that we had the things that you remember.
However, time has passed in the world of Sanctuary, and so we needed to layer on new inspiration to update it for the game."

"And so this is where we take a look at all the different cultures out there that actually have a rich jungle culture.
And we looked at them for inspiration.
It's important to us that we don't lift from those cultures, but we definitely stay inspired by those cultures."

"And so you can see that woven in into the architecture, into the trees, the grass, the floor, the fauna, all of those things.
But it is very unique to Diablo itself and really taps into some of that lore that has existed in the universe for a while."

"Yeah, we take that really seriously.
Brent even brought in a cultural advisor who talked to us all about these South American cultures, the Incas, the Aztec, the Mayas."

"There's things from that that we borrowed.
You'll find some ziggurats in the jungle that feel very much like within that realm, but also have that layer of Diablo fantasy added to them.
I think we found a really nice balance between the two."

"Yeah, and of course, besides the new story content and the whole new area, the thing that most players are looking forward to is, of course, this new Spiritborne class.
So, yeah, what does this class bring to the table?
Yeah, so first off, from a theme standpoint, we wanted to make sure that the Spiritborne came from the place that we were going."

"And so this is a warrior class raised in the jungle that have a very deep connection with the Spirit Realm.
The other thing that was important was that we were bringing a new combat archetype to the game."

"And so it's a very martial arts-focused combat style, which you don't see in the original five classes.
And it has this really cool way that we've been looking at the skill tree, where you can actually spec into four spirit guardians."

"Each of those spirit guardians have a different combat flavor to them.
It could be one of them, the gorilla, is more defensive, where you might want to go with jaguar, which is more aggressive.
Or maybe you like crowd control stuff, so you'd go into the centipede."

"The combinations of all four of those are the root of a lot of experimentation that the players are going to be able to see, because it's our first true hybrid class.
And that offers up something completely different from the original five."

"One of my favorite things about the Spiritborne, and Brent was talking about the Spirit Realm, that's actually a place that's woven into the narrative.
So you'll be visiting the Spirit Realm, you get to come out, go back in again, pull in your rulers from the Spirit Realm, and really the narrative arc of the game takes you through that."

"Like, what is the Spirit Realm? Why is it so important to this land?
What's the relationship between the Spirit Realm and the Spiritborne?
And we cover that a lot.
It's a heavy theme that runs through the entire experience, and it really makes the class lore feel special."

"Yeah, and another interesting new feature that kind of harkens back to Diablo II is these mercenaries that you can recruit.
And I was thinking with the name mercenaries, obviously it was called the same in Diablo II."

"But does this mean that they're like soldiers of fortune, and if they die, you just lose them, or can you form a bond with them and give them equipment and stuff like that so they function more as like a companion?
Yeah, the mercenary features is definitely focusing on something that's more like a companion."

"So, fictionally, these are ordinary people that have extraordinary skills.
So they're not powerful like us as heroes, but they band together to work as a secret society that is also in the fight against Elf."

"The game design is set up in a way where each mercenary has a unique set of skills that complements different build types with the other classes.
And so, for instance, if you're playing a necromancer and you want to get your attack speed up, you would bring Varianna along with you, who has a special perk that allows you to get killstreaks that speed up the attack speed along the way."

"And so each mercenary brings a unique skill like that, but you can also level them up, and you can actually spend points on their skill tree to give them new and different powers."

"One of the features that I really love is that in single player I can bring them along with me, but when we're playing multiplayer, I can still have them set up as what we call a reinforcement, which is a system that allows you to slot that character to come in and pull off a special power move based on a condition that you set."

"So if I want, I can set it up to say, I want Rahir to come in with a shield and block a bunch of damage when my health is low.
Or I want Varianna to come in and do her abilities whenever I'm using my AoE skills."

"It's like programming.
If you're familiar with programming, it's kind of like an if-then statement, right?
And there's so much flexibility in that."

"The amount of experimentation that you get in this far surpasses what you would see in Diablo 2 or even Diablo 3's system.
One of the other cool things about the Merc is the more time you spend with them, you're actually leveling them up, just like you would your player, building out their skill tree and earning what we call rapport."

"The more you work with them, the more higher your rapport goes, and that enables you to then work with a vendor who lives in the Merc Den to then get rewards and items that are specific."

"The more you level them up, the better the items you get, and there are some really interesting, cool rewards that you get by fully maxing out your Merc.
There was one thing I wanted to add to that too."

"It's like mercenaries in Diablo 2, for example, were someone that you would hire over and over again and they would die.
Because these mercenaries stick around with you, we felt it was really important that we built them out as real characters."

"So each of them have their own quest lines to unlock them.
And so you get to find out their real human story.
You get to identify with them as characters.
Once you've unlocked them and they can join your party, they actually have more dialogue lines and quips that they share with you."

"So we really build them out as real characters in the game.
Yeah, so if you have worked together with one of the characters for a few missions, can you switch to another companion and then later switch back also?
Absolutely."

"Switching is a really important thing in our game because there might be some things that you set up for early game where you might want the mercenary to behave in a particular way to help you with your leveling experience."

"But then you might be in the late game where you need sustainability or you need more damage output to help you with the end game modes.
And so you're going to be swapping them in and out."

"You might even be respeccing them to have different behaviors.
But the experimentation is a really important part of the game.
Do you want to add to that?
Yeah, and of course, speaking of this companionship, there's also a new mode, a co-op mode, where you can play in this big dungeon with your friend."

"What made you include this in the expansion?
Including the Dark Citadel is something that I feel very passionate about.
We have a lot of different types of players who are playing our game."

"We have players who love the Eternal Realm, they love the story, and so we're adding more campaign for them.
We have players who love seasonal content, and so we're adding new ways to level your character with modes like the Kuros Thunder City that is a great early to mid-level experience that helps you with your leveling process."

"But the Dark Citadel is really for those cooperative players.
It's a community that's been growing over time.
We have a bunch of new players coming in with Game Pass, and the ask was, hey, we need more end game content for some of those cooperative players."

"The Citadel is designed to take everything you know about Diablo combat and put it to the test through cooperative mechanics and give those players that really hearty end game challenge that they've been waiting to see."

"One of the things we've added is Party Finder, which is on a top community request, but it makes it easy and seamless for you to group up with other peoples to try to tackle the Dark Citadel."

"It also works in other activities.
For example, if you wanted to take on a nightmare dungeon, you click on that dungeon entrance.
There's a Party Finder link right there."

"It pops it up, lists your dungeon, and people can either join you or you can join other people who are doing that same activity.
Another thing that's really cool about Dark Citadel is as you play, you'll collect currency."

"There's a custom vendor that lives inside the Dark Citadel who has custom rewards that you can buy with this currency.
Those rewards will be updated weekly, so there's always a reason to go back and play again and try to acquire some of that new stuff."

"So is co-op dungeons like this a feature you're looking to introduce even more in the future, or is it like this is it for now and you're going to evaluate on what is coming up?
Yeah, with every new feature we add to the game, whether it's the Dark Citadel or the Kuras Thunder City or even Mercenaries, we like to deliver that to the fans in a really clean, pure state so that we can see how the fans are reacting to that."

"I feel very strongly that growing the different groups, the amount of activities that each of these groups can see is something that we need to do.
But we're very fan-driven, and so when you get your hands on it, we're going to start listening to the community, hear what they have to say, and then we're going to be taking it from there."

"Yeah, and of course in delivering Diablo 4 after so many years, there was a lot of fans' expectations both from people who have played Diablo 2 and also those who came in Diablo 3 and you had to satisfy them all, and maybe even some from the first Diablo."

"And that is actually my question.
Is there something in these expansions that harkens all the way back to the very first Diablo game?
Some kind of inspiration or something?
All the way back to Diablo 1."

"So I like to tell people, in my opinion, and even before I got the job with Blizzard, Diablo has one of the best core loops in gaming, and I think that hasn't changed, right?
Going around, exploring, fighting monsters, really visceral dopamine hit drops, collecting these rewards, changing your gear, upgrading."

"That's inherent to every Diablo, and I think it's one of my favorite things about the franchise is that core loop is so satisfying, and it pretty much hasn't changed from Diablo 1."

"Despite all the other stuff we've added, that core loop still sings.
So yeah, it's been about a year since the release, and you have continuously worked very hard on the game, and I can imagine also this expansion for quite some time."

"With all these new features coming up in the expansion, which feature are you most proud of, or which little aspect?
I think the feature I'm most proud of is the class.
I know sometimes we don't talk about class as a feature, but this is our first big shot at adding something brand new to Diablo 4, and it hasn't existed in the previous Diablo games as well."

"So that's a very big risk for us to do, right?
There's a lot of people out there that have their beloved class, and to venture into doing something really brand new is a huge responsibility."

"Many of the people that have come and actually gotten hands-on with the Spiritborn are just floored at how good it feels, right?
And so to take that risk and then have someone come back and say, you know what, I know I was asking for that one class, but I might main the Spiritborn, that was the best feel-good feeling I've had in quite a while, and that's been pretty consistent for the last couple of weeks as we've been getting hands-on with the demo."

"Yeah, for me, Diablo's a very systems-heavy game, and we have done so much to change and refresh some of those systems.
Entirely new progression system, new paragon system.
We're going to go deep on these things in a livestream next week, but for me, the fact that we were able to refresh so many things, it feels like a whole new game, and everybody who's played it and seen it has said, wow, this doesn't feel at all like base game."

"It's like we've learned from all the things the community told us they loved, we've doubled down on them, we've changed it up, so it feels fresh, it feels new, it feels very different, and I'm most proud of that."

"And yeah, with the jungle setting coming to the game, of course, you've got even more visual, environmental, and variety in the game, but it's like a special biome or place or environment that you would, in your own dream world, would like to add to the game."

"Oh, beyond what we've already added?
Yeah.
Oh.
Beyond what we've already added, where do we want to go?
I know what my answer would be, I think."

"Do you know your answer? I'll let you answer first.
Yeah, so I think from base game, what I remember a lot was going into Hell to fight Lilith, and I think blowing out Hell and returning there is always interesting to me, and seeing more of that world."

"So I think if we were going to go anywhere, that would be where I would choose, and there's so much cool stuff in Nahantu.
Just as an example, we have this area called Field of Giants where these colossal demon skeletons that were felled long ago are still there, and people are actually mining their guts, and it's really cool."

"And there's stuff like that all over the map.
Lots of really cool POIs, interesting areas, lots to explore.
Yeah, I think I'm fulfilling one of my dreams right now, because I was a big Diablo II player, and I always wanted to know what was below the ziggurat, and the fact that we were able to explore and actually create a whole dedicated mode to what's underneath the ziggurat, we call it the Kurost Undercity, I think has been kind of a dream come true, and finally fulfilling that childhood fantasy of wanting to click and go deeper."

"Yeah, and Kurost Undercity is a whole unique mode.
It's a time attack mode where you have a set timer, and you're trying to get to the end of the dungeon before time runs out."

"You can actually hunt elites to increase your time, and so it has a whole unique vibe.
But one of the coolest things about it is we have these scalers called tributes, and you can apply different tributes, and the risk will go way up, so it gets more and more difficult, but you can also scale your rewards."

"So you can really get some amazing rewards by turning up the difficulty super high, and it makes that mode feel really customizable and cool.
Okay, thanks a lot for explaining all these exciting aspects of the game."

"And yeah, good luck with the release.
Vessel of Hatred comes out October 8th, and we're really looking forward to everyone getting their hands on it then."

"Oh, and we have a PTR coming up.
You should definitely check out the PTR coming up, which should be releasing in no time.
August 29th, yeah."

"Tune into the livestream on the 29th.
Yeah, thanks for helping me.
Yeah.
Thanks, guys, for watching and tuning in."