Diablo 4 update teases "five distinct regions and hundreds of dungeons"

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

The latest Diablo 4 quarterly focuses on the dunge✱ons and biomes of Sanctuary, with art director Chris Ryder promising "five diဣstinct regions and hundreds of dungeons" featuring dynamic regions and themes.

Ryder described the "dual pillars" of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Diablo 4's aesthetic as "old masters" and "a return to darkness." The former refers to tꦿhe techniques of painters like Rembrandt and how Blizzard sought to integrate the attention to detail, range of tones, and variety of colors seen in classical works. Today's art blog may not be the best showcase for that last one because most of the featured environments are as brown as the shooters of the 2000s, but varied and lively too.&nꩵbsp;

The "return to darkness" motif will likely ring more bells for longtime Diablo fans. Blizzard wants to recap🧜ture the dangerous, dark, medieval Got𒉰hic atmosphere of Sanctuary, and it's beefed up its lighting and weather tech, among others, to help flesh it out. Ryder says Diablo 4 is aiming "for believability, not realism" by giving regions and biomes clear, consistent, but fantastical themes, and stresses that "weather and lighting play a more prominent visual role" than in previous games. 

This updat𒆙e features environments like the soggy Scosglen Coast, the Orbei Monastery maintained by Zakarum followers in the Dry Steppes, and the frigid militaristic settlement of Kyovoshad, where even high-class districts look like slums. With all these new and improved assets at its disposal, associate art director Brian Fletcher says Diablo 4 will deliver more and more varied dungeons "than eve♏r before." 

Diablo 4

(Image credit: Blizzard)

"In order to support over 150+ dungeons, we’ve had to shift the way we make environment art so that it's flexible enough to be used in multiple locations and not just in a single dungeon," Fletcher explains. Diablo 🌊4 uses dynamic dungeon "tile-sets" that can be rearranged to create a broader range of environments, meaning Diablo 4 should feel less same-y as you grind your characters to infinity. 

"New dungeon features such as seamless floor transitions or traversals are exciting, but my favorite new feature is what we call tile-set transition scenes," Fletcher says. 'These are scenes that allow us to connect two different tile-sets together in the same dungeon. Imagine running through a crypt, only to find a hole in the wall that seamlessly leads y🐷ou deeper into a vast underground cave network. All while keeping the randomized layouts that change with each dungeon run." 

In the last Diablo 4 update, Blizzard outlined 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:how loot and endgame grinds have evolved, and at the time it teased "a significant milestone" for the game's development. More recently, global community lead Adam Fletcher acknowledged player feedback that blog posts like these can leave bigܫ questions largely unanswered and assured fans that Diablo 4's testing phases will be more informative. 

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Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelancꩵed for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realꩵize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.