I’m not a Diablo expert but I did spend some (read: too much) time with Diablo IV this past weekend. My goal was to get a sense of whether I’d want to purchase and play the full title when it releases. I’m more interested in the final game now but it doesn’t feel like a release day purchase to me, especially given its spot between Tears of the Kingdom and Final Fantasy XVI.

That aside, after taking Druid and Necromancer to the beta level cap (25) and dabbling with Rogue, I can say one thing with certainty: Diablo IV‘s moment-to-moment gameplay is solid. And that’s especially true if you’re playing with a friend. I can see it being a good option for folks who want to chat while playing something together that doesn’t require intense focus.

I didn’t labor over buildcraft minutiae and pursuing the rarest loot but what I saw there seemed promising enough. If anything became obvious the longer I played was the lack of class balance at level 25. For example, Druid started out fun and became an ineffective slog as I neared the cap and Necromancer was juiced from the start, becoming so powerful halfway through that encounters became trivial. This makes sense—classes are balanced for max level—but it did discourage me from engaging with loot and builds more deeply.

There’s plenty of critical YouTube deep dives from people who know the ins and outs of the franchise and genre at large. They have concerns that aren’t influenced by the level cap, from the procedural dungeons and their mechanics to the way gear and builds work in concert. I didn’t notice most of those rough edges and I think that was deliberate. Blizzard built their history on making genres accessible (I still can’t believe they got so many people to play World of Warcraft) and it’s reasonable to assume they want Diablo IV to be as appealing and enjoyable to as wide an audience as possible. At this point, I’m most interested in where that balance between sating hardcore fans and welcoming new players will net out when it releases in a couple of months.