BenKii: Just a short review for Diablo 4 today. Spoiler, don't support this DRM laden trash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWND5H0MPKs The series ain't been the same since Activision wanted D3 to be always online on PC for numerous reasons:
1. RMAH (Real Money Auction House) which they eventually killed;
2. Micro-Transactions;
3. Trying to make sure players have access at all times to co-op (if they want to even co-op);
4. WoW (MMO, always online) brought in so much money, Acti wants to put always-online on almost everything now, even SP-games (Single-Player games) like Crash Bandicoot 4;
5. and a different Blizzard studio [Blizzard South] took on D3 and restarted it; they really dumbed-down sinking #'s and choosing stuff in the Skills Tree (i.e. you can't do either anymore) and then was also consolizing the game in so many ways too.
So, yeah - the real Diablo stuff's been dead since D2, if you ask me.
Diablo more or less died w/ key figures at the Real Blizzard North OG company like David Brevik, The Schaefer Bros., Bill Roper and any of the OG D1 and D2 dev's left Blizzard b/c Blizz was basically mounting their corporate takeover.
Hence why most of those guys left to go...
1. Flagship - to make HG: London; RIP to Flagship, as I think Hanbit got that and also Mythos now.
2. And/or they went elsewhere to create or join other studios.
The Schaefers formed Runic to make Torchlight stuff - and even Torchlight ain't been the same since after Torchlight 2, which was the last great Torchlight game.
Torchlight 3 was released and Runic is some other name or whatever it is now. Notice how w/ #3 in a series w/ Diablo and Torchlight, those games since to aim for consolization, online-mess, corporations/publishers above the dev's want MORE money & greed, and other mess cause it all to fall apart?
EDIT:
David Brevik goes into the OG version of D3, before numerous key guys left to form Flagship and/or go elsewhere.
-> PC Gamer on this -
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-original-diablo-3-was-canceled-and-it-looked-surprisingly-similar-to-diablo-4/