LONDON: The “Diablo” series is almost 30 years old and this latest incarnation, its first in a decade, sees developers Blizzard playing it safe with an edition that will please legacy fans as well as bring in new ones. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle For new players, the action role-playing game could appear a daunting world to dip your toes into, but the game’s supreme playability trumps complexity in what is an evolution rather than a revolution of previous games. The formula for the game’s addictiveness should come as no surprise considering that Blizzard are the brains behind the maddeningly time-consuming “Candy Crush Saga.” What “Diablo IV” does so successfully is reward gamers with plenty of customization and upgrade paths for one of five roles they choose — Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Druid — and then sets them off in a polished and beautifully presented world in search of treasure, upgrades and collectibles. Finely tuned combat is allied with a series of substantially different difficult levels in what is at its heart a dungeon-crawling game. Combat is intense and depends on the player’s preferred style as to whether they direct from afar or fight on the frontline. The overhead point-and-click approach combined with the ever-changing range of weapons, skills, spells, and enchantments make sense of what can appear to an uninformed observer like complete chaos. The storyline is considered, if not spectacular, setting out the eternal battle between heaven and hell with more subtlety than you would imagine. Slick cinematic cutscenes also give things more heft. Yet hardened “Diablo” players would agree that completing the main storyline is really only the beginning of the game rather than a discernible end. As with previous editions, there are expansion packs and new content to come, guaranteeing the possibility of even more hours of gameplay than you may initially imagine. The atmosphere within the “Diablo” world of Sanctuary is grim but engrossing and the scaling of enemies to the lead character ensures a genuinely non-linear approach to finding your way through the game. As ever with the large gaming areas, securing a horse is essential. A complex skill tree allows you to meet your style of play with the assets to do so, and the cooperative multiplayer mode brings a social dimension to the chaos. The search for “legendary” aspects, such as powerful weapons or clothes, is one of the sub-objectives that keep players playing. The game also encourages players to try new builds and experiment with approaches to success, giving what could fall into repetitive slaughter more nuanced options.