Summary
Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant introduced a lot of new things to the ARPG, but one of the most interesting additions came in the form of the game’s first-ever battle pass.Diablo 4’s battle passfunctions like most battle passes, as it gives players a variety of new cosmetic goodies they can claim throughout the season. While earning all of these goodies is relatively straightforward, the actual quality of them leaves much to be desired.
Battle passes sell themselves on the quality of their cosmetics, butDiablo 4’s first battle pass is kind of lackluster. The pass itself feels like it was built around incentivizing tier skips, it fails to give players enough Platinum to buy any additional cosmetics, and most of the rewards look bland. While it may be too late for Blizzard to change it now, future seasons cannot follow the lead of this first battle pass. Doing so could hurt the longevity ofDiablo 4and give players little reason to buy into the concept going forward.
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Diablo 4’s Battle Pass System Needs Work
SinceFortnitepopularized the battle pass system, it seems like almost every single live-service game wants to copy the concept. Blizzard is no different as it introduced the concept toOverwatch 2and brought it over to theDiablofranchise withDiablo Immortal.Diablo 4marks the first time a mainlineDiablogame has included this feature, and that meant that it needed to impress its audience right away. However, its cosmetics seem a bit underwhelming after the season was hyped up for weeks.
Diablo 4prides itself on returning to the rootsof the franchise and shedding the more cartoony nature of its predecessor. While that is a fantastic change, it also means that the battle pass is heavily limited. Blizzard cannot introduce silly or colorful armor sets because that would not mesh well with the art style that it chose for the ARPG. Instead, the studio has to play it safe by sticking to duller colors, but that does not have to mean bland armor as well.
A lot of the armor pieces and weapons inDiablo 4’s battle pass seems to be a different shade of gray or black. The pass does offer a colorful Artisan’s set and various emotes to liven it up a bit, but most of the items are not that different from cosmetics players can already earn in game.Diablo 4’s cash shopalso offers dozens of armor sets that look a lot nicer than most of the battle pass rewards, and that gives players little reason to spend their money on the pass instead.
This first season pass was Blizzard’s chance to show its audience why it should be excited forDiablo 4’sseasonal structure, but it may have failed to do that. Players were already angered by the controversial update that saw the entire game get slowed down, and the content that the Season of the Malignant added did little to alleviate concerns. Instead of convincing players to keep coming back for more, Blizzard may have succeeded in pushing even more away.
Fortnitebattle passes do not sell because they offer just about any cosmetics, they sell because they offer unique cosmetics that cannot really be earned anywhere else.Diablo 4’s battle passgives players armor that looks a lot like what they already had, and the dull colors make them look even more underwhelming. Future passes need to give players something new and unique that makes them want to buy the pass, because right now many may just pass right by.
Diablo 4is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
