Diablo IV Review

The best crossplay answer in its genre, sold with a commitment attached

Short verdict: if your group is scattered across PlayStation, Xbox and PC and wants one long shared game, Diablo IV is the strongest pick available. Full crossplay and cross-progression mean the platform question disappears entirely, and two-player split-screen on console is a genuine bonus almost no modern live-service game offers. Buy it if your crew plays regularly. If you play twice a year, buy Borderlands 3 instead and keep the difference.

Up to four players take one action-RPG world together: kill things, collect better things, repeat, with the loop tuned to about the highest standard in the business. That core is not in question. What decides whether it is right for your group is everything around it.

Crossplay and cross-progression are the reason to pick it

Crossplay means a PS5 player and an Xbox player and a PC player are in the same session. Cross-progression means the character you leveled on the console is the same character when you open the game on a laptop. Those are two different features and Diablo IV has both.

The second one is underrated in a group context. It removes the "I cannot play tonight, my character is on the other machine" conversation entirely, which is the quiet reason a lot of group RPG projects stall. For a crew that plays across devices - console in the evening, PC at the weekend - it changes what is possible.

Split-screen, which nobody expects

Two players can share one console, and that pair can then be part of a wider online group. That combination - couch plus online in the same session - is rare enough that we keep a whole page for it, and Diablo IV is one of the few live-service games on it. If your group is two people in one room and two people elsewhere, this is a much better fit than its marketing suggests. Our split-screen and online page covers the others.

The commitment, stated plainly

Diablo IV runs seasons. New mechanics, fresh characters, a reason to come back every few months - and, unavoidably, a group that has moved on if you did not. That structure is a gift for a crew that plays every week and an irritation for one that does not, because returning mid-season means everyone else is further along and the thing they are all talking about started without you.

It is also the most expensive game in this comparison, and the seasonal model means the purchase is the beginning rather than the whole cost. None of that is a criticism of the game. It is a description of what you are agreeing to.

How it plays with two, three and four

Four is the ceiling and the design target, but it scales down more gracefully than most co-op RPGs because enemy difficulty adjusts to the party. Two players get a slower, more readable version of the same game; four is chaotic in a way that is either the appeal or the problem depending on how much you like being able to see the floor.

Three works fine, though nothing here is built specifically around a trio - if that is your permanent group size, our three-player page lists games designed for it rather than tolerating it.

Who should not buy this

Groups that play irregularly. Covered above and worth repeating: the seasonal structure penalizes you for the exact pattern most adult friend groups have. Our drop-in drop-out guide has games built for changing attendance.

Anyone hoping for a short evening. A satisfying Diablo session is not twenty minutes. If your group has an hour after work, the short sessions guide is the more useful list.

Groups on a weak machine or a bad line. It is a current-generation game with current-generation requirements, so the friend on an old laptop is out - see low-end PC picks. On a poor connection it is more forgiving than a competitive shooter, because you are fighting the game rather than another person, and it appears on our bad internet list for that reason.

How it compares to the other co-op RPGs

Monster Hunter Wilds is the other crossplay option, and the deeper game - four hunters across PS5, Xbox and PC, with Link Parties keeping the same group together across quests. It asks considerably more of a newcomer, so it suits a group willing to learn systems rather than one that wants to start tonight.

Elden Ring Nightreign is the opposite trade: run-based, three players, genuinely difficult, and no crossplay, so a trio has to match platforms first - our Monster Hunter Wilds versus Elden Ring Nightreign comparison covers that pair directly. It is the pick for a group that wants a challenge rather than a chill evening, and it has no seasonal obligation at all.

Borderlands 3 is the value option and the honest recommendation for most groups, for the reasons in the skip note above.

Verdict

Diablo IV is the right answer to one specific question: "we are on different platforms, we play together most weeks, and we want something to keep going back to." For that group it is close to unbeatable, and the crossplay plus cross-progression combination genuinely removes the friction that ends most mixed-group projects.

For anyone else, the price and the seasonal structure make it the wrong first purchase. Check our co-op RPG roundup for the alternatives, or the crossplay hub if the mixed-platform problem is what brought you here in the first place.