Blizzard Entertainment’s highly anticipated Diablo IV, the fifth full instalment in the series, launched globally on June 6. A former golden goose in the video game industry, Blizzard hopes to reclaim their former glory on the back of their latest release. Diablo IV took Blizzard over six years to develop, and their labor can be seen throughout the world of Sanctuary where Diablo takes place. The world is dotted with villages, cities and demons to slay.
Most reviews will focus on the end-game aspect of Diablo IV and its world of many numbers and stat-increasing factors that go into an action roleplaying game. Instead, let’s look at what almost every video game offers: a story.
Diablo IV takes place in a war between the angels of Heaven and demons of Hell in what is known as the Eternal Conflict. However, the story of Diablo IV is one much closer to the heart. It’s a story of parents, their children, and the many different avenues these relationships can go down.
The primary antagonist of Diablo IV is the demon Lilith who has returned to Sanctuary with the help of her cult that all lovingly call her “Mother.” The first allies the player character seeks out are the holy servants of Inarius, a forlorn angel living on Sanctuary, whose pilgrims call him “The Father.” These titles aren’t just to represent how their followers feel about these two though. Inarius and Lilith are former lovers who sought to abandon the Eternal Conflict and find safety from the chaos. There they created Sanctuary and its inhabitants, who call it home.
This leaves the player in between the two as they march their armies and devout followers into a clash of apocalyptic proportions. But the story of a family being torn apart from its own internal struggles doesn’t end there. The writers of Diablo IV wrap up their story of prophecies and world-saving antics with family drama and struggle.
Inarius, an angel, is not a father you would want. He is cold, detached, looks at his past as a mistake and wishes to atone to the heavens. To him, even though he created this world of Sanctuary, the beings that lived there were constant reminders of his past self he no longer is. His followers calling him father means nothing as they are just tools to see him ascend to his original home and people. As players progress through the game, they will see that his religion is all about pain and deserving punishment. To Inarius, the humans of Sanctuary are his sin to bear, and a constant reminder of what he did with Lilith as a legacy undeserved of his glory. For he is an angel of Heaven, mighty, unfeeling, all knowing, pompous, arrogant, all the hallmarks of a toxic father.
Lilith is the reverse side of this coin. As the mother of Sanctuary, she wants her flock to relish the pleasures of life. A far cry from Inarius’ “shame on you” approach to worship. But Lilith isn’t a mother you would want either, as she knows what her children want to hear. However, her words aren’t said to empower her children or free them, they’re said to bring them into her own devious plans. Just like Inarius, Lilith sees her creations as a tool to attain what she truly wants: her own father’s powers. She manipulates her own children’s emotions and uses these desires for her own personal gain, never truly caring about the cost or who dies so long as she gets to where she wants to go. This makes this apocalypse a family affair as you’re left in the middle picking up the pieces of the shattered family as the two parents go to war over the future of Sanctuary.
The main characters aren’t the only ones dealing with family issues involving demons and angels. Every character that joins a player in their journey to stop Lilith has a family relationship too. A young daughter exploring the world with her mother. A hero-father teaching his prodigy son his legacy and trying to prepare him for life. A mentor and his apprentices and his own personal failures to said apprentices that lead to a life as a hermit. Even the side quests extend this theme out as families look for their missing children or grandparents, finding themselves in dire situations and having to provide for their family again in their elder years. Disappointment in parents for their children wanting to go off make their own way in the city. Never intending to take over the family farm but returning to their rural home in a bag of their guts as the apocalypse is happening all around them. Throughout the story, Blizzard’s writers are constantly taking a closer look into the people and families that make up this world and blast their stories through loudspeakers.
Thematically it works. Players can easily spend countless hours exploring Sanctuary. Whether dealing with the family drama of remote villages, big city problems, the main story, or walking the muddy roads and splashing through the rivers that cross throughout the land, family takes center stage. No matter where players find themselves, in the snowy peaks, vast deserts, or deep jungle swamps of the game world, they know that around the corner there are going to be more families. Even during the apocalypse, family drama won’t be put on hold as it’s probably family drama that’s causing the apocalypse in the first place.
Ricky Simmons can be reached at [email protected]