Esquire First Look: Diablo V Is Doubling Down on Darkness

Blizzard7 min readThe end is now. Three and a half years after Diablo IV, Blizzard Entertainment is announcing the next installment in its popular action role-playing series: Diablo V. For the first time in more than 15 years, players will square off with the Big D himself, Diablo, who has changed quite a bit since he rose as the ultimate Prime Evil.Diablo V is scheduled to launch in 2029 on platforms Blizzard has yet to announce.“You’re entering Diablo V with Sanctuary in an apocalypse,” says Joe Shely, senior game director, in an exclusive interview with Esquire. “Sanctuary is not a happy place in the best of times, but Diablo V takes it to another level. You’re living in a world that has been overrun by Diablo. He sits on the throne, humanity is destroyed, and players themselves are on the run.”“You’ve spent the last 30 years fending off the apocalypse,” adds Jennifer Helper, narrative director of Diablo V. “We were like, What if Diablo won and we scramble to claw back territory by our fingernails? We wanted to make a world that’s darker than ever but give you a reason to fight for it.”Ahead of the game’s reveal at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California, Esquire sat down with members of the game’s senior development team, who peeled back the curtain on players’ next adventure across Sanctuary as it has fallen under Diablo’s occupation. Next to Shely and Helper is John Mueller, Diablo V’s senior art director. Together they tell Esquire that the driving question behind the new project was “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?”Wouldn’t it be cool if … we brought back fan-favorite classes?Wouldn’t it be cool if … there was a single memorable space full of interesting people?Wouldn’t it be cool if … the story was centered entirely on the players’ characters?Wouldn’t it be cool if … Diablo won?These questions drove Blizzard to pursue a full-fledged entry in the mainline series. Usually a new game coming a few years after the previous installment isn’t so earth-shattering for a hit video game series. But Diablo is not an ordinary series. Since Diablo II was released in 2000, fans have spent literal decades waiting for just a glimpse of sequels like Diablo III (released in 2012) and Diablo IV (released in 2023). Waiting out epochs is routine for fans. But all their waiting and wondering for what’s next ends now. What’s next is a heated reunion with Diablo.Esquire has the first-ever exclusive look at Diablo V with its concept art below.Blizzard EntertainmentA new class that will debut in Diablo V is the Plague Knight, which Blizzard describes as a control-based archetype with a look inspired by medieval iron maidens.“We wanted to turn back to the title villain, who we haven’t seen in over ten years, since Diablo III,” says Shely. “He needs his own game. There are things we can do, in terms of innovations and how we tell the story, that give us a fresh slate.”Set a century after Diablo IV, Diablo V casts players as the runaway heir to the lost kingdom of Westmarch. They share a mysterious connection with Diablo, who has since evolved from a big, bad guy of fire and brimstone into a more calculated antagonist. “We wanted to give players a lot of agency in the story,” explains Helper, the main architect of Diablo V’s story. In contrast to how players spend time in Diablo IV forging connections with Lilith and Mephisto, Helper says they wanted players to feel their bonds “much faster” in Diablo V.“The story starts when you find you’re the only one who can go into Diablo’s terror realm and come back alive,” she says. “We wanted to give you that core identity we could build the story around. You’re not a wanderer in someone else’s story.”Helper adds: “In past games, Diablo was brutish. What did Diablo learn from watching Mephisto? Diablo has learned how to be subtle. He is the Lord of Terror; what does terror mean? What does someone whose entire existence is provoking or feeding on fear going to be like? We want to give you that bond with him from the beginning. Why is Diablo interested in you? How you define yourself in the shadow of, and in opposition to, Diablo is a big part of the game. He is trying to control you. What do you do to push back?”Helper clarifies that players still retain plenty of individual customization over their characters, like in their character classes. “You aren’t a fixed character. This is not Nathan Drake. This is still an ARPG. The Heir to Westmarch in your world is whatever gender and class you pick.”“You’ll shape who you are as a character, as the heir, more freely than you ever have before,” adds Joe Shely. “The idea of who you are as a person and what class you’re playing are independent in a way they’ve never been before. You can look and be whoever you want.”Speaking of classes, Shely says Diablo V “will launch with more classes than we ever had in a Diablo game before.” While the team cannot unpack each class in detail yet, it is revealing three in particular: the returning Monk and Demon Hunter, as well as the new Plague Knight.“The Monk and Demon Hunter are really established fantasies for us,” says John Mueller, who oversees the art direction of Diablo V. “The last time players saw these was Diablo III. In 2012, technology was different. We have advanced through Diablo IV, so we want to give people the best versions of these in 2029.”Blizzard EntertainmentJohn Mueller uses Batman as an example of how they’re reimagining classes like the Monk (above) and the Demon Hunter. “If you’re playing as Batman, it might be a new Batman suit, but it’s still Batman. With the Demon Hunter and Monk, it’s important we make them amazing with the tools and technology we have now.”Blizzard EntertainmentThe Demon Hunter (above) is an agile character class that was last seen in Diablo III. It returns with the Monk in Diablo V.Shely lays out the Demon Hunter’s and Monk’s individual vibes, in case you weren’t around for Diablo III. “A Demon Hunter has light armor and twin crossbows. They’re extremely agile, pinning demons against walls. It’s a fantasy players are familiar with. And Monk, you know, who doesn’t like pulverizing demons with their fist? It’s an up-close melee class.”Then there’s the Plague Knight, a new control-based character built like a tank that spreads disease. “This is a heavily armored, ‘walking death’ character who will spread disease across the battlefield and consume that disease for power.” Artistically, the team designed the Plague Knight like a medieval iron maiden on two legs.As in any action RPG, players start the game with almost nothing. Over time, they meet new allies who join their nomadic caravan as it roves through a desolate Sanctuary. Blizzard says the caravan serves as the players’ main hub—the only “safe space” in a hellish world—and that it will physically evolve as players progress through the story.“We need there to be something you love about this world,” says Helper. “Gathering survivors is one of the mechanisms of the story. We’re going through lands where almost everybody is dead or surrendered to Diablo. Now and then we meet a person who has held out, and they become part of the caravan. Your vendors, your craftspeople, everyone who is part of your journey are survivors. These are the people you’re fighting to protect and the source of all your side content.”Helper reveals that the caravan will change over time as players find new survivors and level up. “Each wagon reflects their personality and background. The wagons upgrade as you go on, reflecting things you’ve done in the story. Trophies from victories appear at the campsite. It becomes a really dynamic place that tracks you in the game.”Adds Mueller, “You start this ragtag [operation]. It’s a shoddy situation. By the end, you’ve grown that into a very aspirational space you love going back to. We think that’s going to be a fun, dynamic way to experience the story.”Blizzard EntertainmentDiablo V will have players traverse Sanctuary as it’s been ravaged by time and Diablo’s centuries-long occupation.Blizzard Entertainment“Hell has broken through the Dread Commanders, basically humans who have been co-opted by Diablo,” says John Mueller. “They basically infect whatever area they’re in. It’s very dynamic in the sense that a space can change. If you go into one area, you can see what it looks like when hell breaks through.”If Diablo sounds darker than it’s ever been before, which says a lot for a series that’s long epitomized grim-dark video games, that’s by design. Blizzard intends Diablo V to feel bleak and hopeless, which can make every win shine brighter.“We’re doubling down on the darkness,” says Mueller. “Evil has infected everything. Civilization is devastated. The architecture is devastated. Even time has ravaged what’s been left behind. You have this apocalyptic vision of Sanctuary, and for a medieval dark fantasy, it is really compelling.”To that end, Diablo V is returning the franchise to a procedural dungeon system that’s been leveled up with modern software. There is a hundred years’ worth of horror that happened, which players will learn from the environment. “People will want to know what happened in the last hundred years as you’re exploring,” reveals Mueller. “The world is procedural; this is our third generation of procedural dungeon tech. People will get everything they got from the open world of Diablo IV in a dynamic way. You see stories of the past. Stories of survival and tragedy. This is where art is collaborating with narrative closer than ever.”Blizzard EntertainmentDiablo V will center on a moving caravan, which acts as a player’s main hub as it moves through Sanctuary.Shely says that the world generation occurs as players move their caravan through the fog of war, like a rickety wagon in a frontier western epic. “The caravan itself moves through the world. It’s not a town that exists in a space. You’re taking your ‘town’ with you through this dangerous place that’s been transformed by the Dread Commanders. You explore, go through the world, and then return to that area with your caravan, and it’s been totally transformed.”While players might think work on Diablo V has just begun, it’s actually been in development for years. There is still more to learn about the game. It won’t release until 2029, which affords anyone still playing through Diablo IV more time to enjoy new, forthcoming content (like Season of Hell’s Legacy, which launches on September 15 to mark the series’ 30th anniversary). When Diablo V eventually arrives, it’ll be about two years into the next console generation. When Esquire asks how Blizzard is developing Diablo V on upcoming platforms, the team keeps mum. “Generally speaking, Blizzard wants to bring our games to as many players as possible,” says Shely, “and so we seek to make Diablo available on many platforms. You can see that with Diablo IV. You should expect the same with Diablo V. We want everyone to take on the Lord of Terror.”For now, all fans should know is that Diablo V is real, and it’s happening sooner than they might have assumed. And waiting for all of them on the long road ahead is one more fight with Diablo.Now, isn’t that cool as hell?