The MMO-fication of Diablo 4 was sure to be divisive among fans. Even though you can see the beginnings of Diablo 4’s shift to open-world in Diablo 3’s Adventure Mode, it’s still a significant change from tradition that comes with a laundry list of advantages and disadvantages. It’s a much slower game than its predecessors, thanks to the larger map filled with activities and POIs that constantly threaten to divert your attention. But all those diversions also create space for stories and moments that weren’t possible in previous Diablo games. The structure of the world has a huge impact on the approach its narrative takes, and if you’re willing to look around, you’ll find some genuine horror waiting for you in the cellars and caves of Sanctuary.
Diablo probably isn’t the first game that comes to mind when you think of horror. Playing Diablo 4 is not the kind of edge-of-your-seat, panic-inducing experience that games like Silent Hill and Layer of Fear are - unless you’ve encountered The Butcher on a hardcore character (if you know you know). But Diablo is horror in aesthetic, tone, and obviously, narrative. Fighting hordes of the unholy as you descend through gothic cathedrals, the floor slick with viscera, the distant sounds of tortured women barely heard over the somber chord of an instrument that sounds like it’s made out of human flesh. It may not be scary, but it’s definitely horror.
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When Diablo 4 begins, the demon Lilith has already descended on Sanctuary. Much of the campaign is spent following her trails to find out what her mission is, and along the way, you’ll quickly discover what her demonic influence has already done to the world. She’s able to manipulate and control people through their desires, appealing to their base instincts and promising them whatever it is they want the most. The first time we see Lilith, she’s convincing a church congregation to beat the pastor to death and embrace the freedom of sin. This twisted hedonism spreads quickly throughout Sanctuary and informs many of Diablo 4’s subplots and side quests.
I don’t want to oversell the narrative value of Diablo 4’s optional content. This is a Blizzard game after all, and you should expect a whole lot of fetch quests and filler missions. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run out to a field to collect 15 goatmen horns at this point. Somebody has to cull the forces of evil, and there’s not always going to be a gem of a story behind every little mission. But here and there you’ll find a quest chain that has more to it than the standard search-and-destroy mission, and this is where Diablo 4’s story elements shine the brightest.
I don’t want to give too many away, but it’s clear that Diablo 4’s narrative team is filled with horror movie fans, because there are a lot of great references to classic horror cinema to be found. One of my favorites so far is a send-up to Hellraiser, which is appropriate given what we know about Lilith’s preferred form of manipulation. In Yelesna you’ll find a woman whose husband has gone missing, and when you find him in a nearby forest he’s been flayed, stabbed, and lashed to a tree. This, you soon realize, was by choice. In the pursuit of ultimate earthly pleasure, he’s allowed himself to be tortured and left for dead by a demon. After slaying the succubus at his wife’s behest, you’re permitted to pull the blade from his chest and take it as your reward for completing the quest.
After killing Vhenard in the Black Lake, there’s a quest chain you may start Kyovashad with a woman named Sister Octavia. She’ll ask you to join her in a nearby cellar to help her conduct an exorcism on a young boy. The ceremony plays out just like an exorcism movie. The boy is chained to a bed in the center of the room, while Sister Octavia delivers the invocation. The boy’s body begins to float above the bed, and the demon within him proclaims, “Pathetic! This child belongs to me!.” As the ritual continues the undead burst through the floor to try to stop Sister Octavia, and eventually the demon itself emerges from the boy for one final fight. The boy is safe, which makes this one of the only happy endings in Diablo 4 - though the next exorcism attempt in this quest chain isn’t quite as successful.
There’s lots of fun movie references throughout the game, both to specific movies like the Hellraiser quest and to genres like the exorcist one. The narrow focus of previous Diablo stories never left room for moments like this, which add depth and texture to the world in Diablo 4. Racing to max level might be the conventional way to play Diablo, but if you take the time to explore the world, there’s plenty of worthwhile horror stories to be found.
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