Diablo 4 is bringing Blizzard's dungeon crawler back with a vengeance, inviting players to explore dark and gruesome environments as they battle against the best (or worst) that hell has to offer. As BlizzCon continues into its second day, even more hype is slowly being piled onto the Diablo franchise as Blizzard slowly pulls back the curtain.
During a panel today, Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga received a question regarding the on-hit glow effect seen in some trailers. Barriga stated that while Blizzard ultimately enjoyed how it added to the "visceral combat" they also noted some testers hated it and became an impediment to the gameplay.
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Thus, Blizzard has decided that players will be able to turn off the glow effect upon being hitting enemies. If players are finding that it ruins the ambiance of dread, the planned option will be entirely toggleable on release. Barriga stated that, as some testers found it to be an impediment, they've tucked the feature into the accessibility menu where players can alternate effects at will.
Players could benefit greatly from the on-hit glow effect: multiple classes tend to have large area-of-effect abilities that can cut through hordes in sporadic angles, making the full ability difficult to track. Proc hits stemming from percentages are also highlighted, helping players understand the consequence of specific build styles. Presuming that it's available in cooperative play, it could even help you understand what your friends are attacking without needing to further clutter comms.
The glow effect on-hit can be a double-edged sword for Diablo 4, however. In the later stages of the Diablo franchise, levels are readily overrun with monstrosities, stomping over troves of loot as players alternate between filling their pockets and slaying minions in a frantic flow of battle. Additional effects, such as the on-hit glow, could invite even further screen cluttering of late-stage gameplay on top of standard UI elements. From what has been seen in the new Rogue class reveal, this paradigm isn't shifting anytime soon.
The visual effect has been sporadically seen throughout trailers released thus far, where enemies briefly glow when struck by a hero, and they typically aren't coupled with UI or late-stage gameplay within Diablo 4. While some may be questioning precisely how intrusive this glow effect becomes in the more hectic levels, the fact that it's already planned to be toggled shows that Blizzard is taking a scouring look at the upcoming title to reclaim their dungeon-crawling crown.
Diablo 4 is currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.