Diablo 4 Season 12 just dropped, and on paper, it should be exciting. You get to play as The Butcher, there’s a Doom crossover with cool cosmetics, a killsteak mechanic to tickle your neurons, and more. It was Blizzard’s best opportunity to get people back in the game and hype them up for the Lord of Hatred expansion, releasing April 28. However, in what is now the traditional Blizzard fashion, the studio instantly torpedoed any hype the second Season 12 dropped.
Diablo 4’s seasonal system is horrible
I played Diablo 4 when it came out, and liked it a lot, at least until the first season dropped. In addition to nerfing pretty much everything and buffing enemies, Season One introduced a bunch of half-baked mechanics, including Seasonal vs. Eternal characters. (No, I don’t care that other games do it; it’s probably a bad idea there, too.)
Having to reroll a character every three months or so is exhausting and completely unnecessary, and grinding to Level 60 is basically just busywork to make you play a few extra hours. You can’t really get into endgame content until you hit max level, even if Blizzard absolutely had to make you start a new character for each season (it doesn’t), there’s no reason not to boost you to 60 other than the studio wants those precious player retention numbers.
The Doom crossover gear is ridiculously expensive
When I saw there was going to be a Doom crossover this season, I was pretty hyped up. I’m not huge on cosmetics, but I’m down to cosplay as the Doomslayer with a Cacodemon pet following behind me. I deluded myself into thinking this would all be free (since the PR specifically mentioned it was free and minimized any shop items). Sure, I expected to grind for currency to unlock it, but that’s whatever.
Instead, you get a special reliquery where you can unlock a few Doom items with seasonal currency that I haven’t actually had drop yet. The rest is in the shop for the typical prices. So, you can buy the Doom-themed “discounted” armor bundle, mount, and the two pets for around $125 (depending on which Platinum packs you buy).
You read right. If you buy all the Doom cosmetics from the store, it is the equivalent of:
- 3 copies of the upcoming Lord of Hatred expansion.
- 2.5 copies of the base game.
- Almost 2 copies of the Age of Hatred Collection, which gives you the base game and both expansions.
- Almost 2 copies of Doom: The Dark Ages (in case you just want to play Doom instead).
Considering Blizzard’s horrible decisions across its entire library of games, I barely cared enough to pony up $40 for the standard edition of Lord of Hatred. So, no, I am not going to get excited about your $25 Cacodemon, even though I do like Doom. Paying $5 apiece for these cosmetics, which should be given away for free to hype up what is sure to be a disappointing expansion, would be a travesty, and the expected $25 is practically comical. If someone had told me that was how much they wanted for what is basically copy-and-paste Doomslayer armor from The Dark Ages, and I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d assume it was hyperbole.
You supposedly can earn transmogs as well by finding them in special chests, but I haven’t seen a single one. I thought it was just me, but plenty of people seem to be having the same issue. So, either it’s bugged, or they’re incredibly rare.
Blizzard needs to chill out
Blizzard has managed to completely torpedo its reputation over the last decade. The studio’s name was once synonymous with quality. If it was a Blizzard game, you knew you were in for a treat. Now, most gamers cringe at their mention. The normalization of loot boxes and the overemphasis on esports can be traced to Overwatch and OWL, and players tend to enjoy Blizzard games despite the studio’s actions rather than because of them. Diablo 4 Season 12 was a chance for Blizzard to be generous and get people excited for Lord of Hatred. Instead, I’m just dreading the huge amount of changes to progression that are coming because I’m just going to assume they’re geared toward sucking as many minutes making me drag myself through glass to accomplish anything as possible, so Microsoft can tell its shareholders how the people who play its games are SO engaged.
