24 minutes of Diablo IV Barbarian gameplay showcased

Diablo IV has just received close to a half-hour of gameplay. The footage comes via Game Informer via their exclusive media coverage and focuses on one of the characters classed with the Barbarian. Check it out to get a better look at the brutal melee combat here!

Blizzard unveiled the rumored next chapter in the Diablo franchise last weekend during this year’s BlizzCon. Despite the publisher having suffered from massive fan scrutiny for their handling of the Hong Kong controversy, Diablo IV was simply so big of a game announcement that once the trailers were running, everyone was talking about that.

But once you manage to separate the art from the publisher, there is indeed a lot to be excited about. Diablo is returning to its darker, more grim roots that made it the unforgettable hack-and-slash classic in the first place. Gone are the cartoony and color-drenched aesthetics of Diablo III. Instead, we are greeted with a subdued color palette while avoiding to look dull or lifeless. Quite the opposite. Diablo IV is chock-full of detailed objects, scenery and enemies. There’s also a nice variety of areas. From swampy marshlands to rocky cliffs and even sandy deserts.

To start off the in-depth presentation of the character classes, Blizzard went with the tried and true heavy-hitting Barbarian. As you’d expect, it’s all about brutal close-quarter combat with him. Slashing, dicing and reducing evil monsters to gibs. It’s satisfying to see sheer force in action. We’re still looking forward to future magic-oriented classes to see flashy spells, however. Today’s gameplay footage is solely about the gameplay, so we don’t really get to see the skill system.

Diablo IV has no release date and the developer already stated that fans will have to wait for a long while, even for Blizzard standards. Chances are, the game will be a cross-generation title for current and next-gen consoles, alongside the PC.