Blizzard game director on Diablo 4’s direction: “We are going back to the franchise’s darker roots”

For fans upset by Diablo 3’s bright and colorful landscape, you’re in luck⁠—the dungeon crawler’s going to get a whole lot darker.

Blizzard unveiled Diablo 4 today at BlizzCon 2019, promising a return to the sinister and grotesque gameplay that hardcore fans of the series’ sequel loved. Diablo game director Luis Barriga expanded on the game’s future during the event’s opening ceremony, assuring a whole lot of gore.

“Whether it’s the art, the story, or the horror elements that we’ve embraced… we are going back to the franchise’s darker roots,” Barriga said. “It’ll mean blood and gore. It’ll mean Occult symbols and rituals. More importantly, it will mean victories are neither clean nor guaranteed.”

If Diablo 4 is even remotely as gruesome as its cinematic, players are in for a treat. The trailer takes us through the summoning of Lilith, the Queen of Succubi, who literally creates a cape out of the blood and organs of three ill-informed volunteers.

Similarly, the gameplay trailer showcases a world that’s barren and dismal. Hopeless civilians mar the streets and taverns with their depressive nature, impaled and amputated bodies are strewn across the terrain, and blood stains the ground.

To further the Diablo 2 nostalgia, three original classes will make their return—Sorceress, Barbarian, and Druid.

No release date has been announced yet, so fans will have to wait a bit longer before traversing the Underworld.