Diablo 4’s Vessel of Hatred expansion has mostly gone down well with players, but there has been a minor controversy in some quarters over the Dark Citadel dungeon. Intended to be an intense, raid-style endgame challenge for groups of players, the Dark Citadel is the first content in any Diablo game to require multiplayer. Diablo games have always had optional co-op, but they have also always been fully playable solo — until now.
Diehard solo Diablo players were quick to voice their displeasure about the new mode, which they felt forced them into a style of play they didn’t like. But Vessel of Hatred game director Brent Gibson insists he’s happy with Dark Citadel and its reception, and with the idea of forced group content in Diablo in general.
“I absolutely am sticking to my guns [on Dark Citadel],” Gibson told Polygon in a video interview alongside Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson. But Gibson stressed that players shouldn’t feel railroaded into playing it.
“We’ve designed it in a way where, to be the most efficient in the game, it’s not required to have to go through that multiplayer content. I love the fact that we have this huge, rich game that has a bunch of different activities that give you alternate paths in the same loop.”
Fergusson chimed in to reinforce the view that Diablo 4’s endgame offers such breadth now that the developers can afford to “start looking in these new spaces,” as Gibson put it. “The thing that’s been great about our endgame evolving over time is there is quite a diverse set of experiences now,” Fergusson said. “When you started off in season 1 or season 2, it was, I’m going to go do the thing. I have to go do my Nightmare Dungeon and I have to go do this Helltide. And now, where we are at season 6, I actually have moments where I’m in town standing on the waypoint going, like, Where to next? There’s a lot of choices. I could go to Kurast Undercity and target some runes. I could go to the Citadel, I could go to the Pit, I could do a Nightmare Dungeon, I could do an Infernal Horde, I could go kill the Blood Maiden.” Fergusson also noted that Diablo 4 now has a Party Finder function to make it easier to find groups.
Gibson said it was important for Diablo to address the growing contingent of gamers (and game developers) who can’t imagine playing games any other way than with friends. “The other thing I want to really pay attention to is that, even though we have a lot of players who play games solo, the community in the gaming industry that doesn’t know playing games any other way than with their friends or online with other people, it’s growing over time,” he said.
Gibson seemed untroubled by the criticism of the Dark Citadel’s multiplayer requirement in some quarters. “The reception to the Dark Citadel has been fantastic,” he said. “It’s not an easy mode for everybody to go into, but for those players who have been playing, it’s a lot of fun. So I expect us to continue to watch the Citadel and see what kind of additional feedback that we’re going to get on it. […] But yeah, I’m sticking to my guns on it.”
Source：https://www.polygon.com/diablo/490542/diablo-4-dark-citadel-forced-multiplayer
