Diablo 5 senior game director says the game will tell 'three stories,' including the past, the present desolation of Diablo's takeover, and the future 'terror forming' of the Sanctuary | Tech Radar

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Diablo 5 senior game director says the game will tell 'three stories,' including the past, the present desolation of Diablo's takeover, and the future 'terror forming' of the Sanctuary

Biomes will look different depending on which Dread Commander is in charge

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Diablo 5 will tell stories of the past, present, and future, the latter of which Blizzard calls "terror forming"

Players can visit biomes that are taken over by Diablo's Dread Commanders

Narrative director Jennifer Hepler says these biomes can change depending on who's in charge, and "it's a whole new experience" every time you revisit them

Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 5 will tell stories involving the past, present, and future of Diablo's takeover of Sanctuary, which will visually affect explorable biomes.

The next installment in the isometric dungeon crawler series has been announced and will find players back in the mortal realm of Sanctuary. However, humanity has fallen into an apocalypse and the land has been conquered and reshaped by Diablo and his army.

Speaking to Tech Radar Gaming at Blizz Con after the game's reveal, senior game director Joe Shely shared how different Sanctuary will look to players and said they will travel across the Western continent, seeing all different biomes that have been overrun.

Shely said Diablo 5 has "three stories that we're telling" within this changed world: the stories of the past, the time when Diablo took over and when he and his Dread Commanders emerged into Sanctuary, and the "desolation" of the present.

"There are no people around," he said. "There are very few survivors. Occasionally, you may find a human to add to your caravan, and they can bring something to support you."

Diablo 5's Sanctuary has become 'an outpost of hell' where 'humanity has fallen into ruin' which paints an incredibly bleak picture that I can't wait for

Diablo 5 senior game director says 'the continued passion' is the reason Diablo 2: Resurrected exists and has allowed Blizzard to look at it for modern inspiration — 'Because it exists today alongside Diablo 4, we can look at it through today's lens'

Diablo 5 announced and fully embraces bleakness, defeat, darkness, and hopelessness for Sanctuary, as Blizzard also confirms Diablo 4 is coming to Switch 2

There's also the future, which is being actively turned into an outpost of hell by Dread Commanders, something that the team has dubbed "terror forming."

"We call it terror forming because these Dread Commanders will actually transform the environment, transform the biome into a version of hell that relates to personal powers and powers at station," Shely explained.

Players will be able to revisit these occupied areas, and if a different Dread Commander is stationed there, "it's going to look totally different."

"The procedural world gives us a lot of levers to pull for that," added narrative director Jennifer Hepler. "You can go to a place, and it is under the control of the Dread Commander of Undeath, and it's going to be full of zombies and things like that. And then later in the game, you could return there, and it's either been reclaimed by humanity or taken over by a different Dread Commander, and the environment will be totally different as a result of that.

"So each time you go somewhere, it's a whole new experience and just constant new discoveries."

Diablo 5 is in development and is slated to launch in Spring 2029.

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Demi is a freelance games journalist who helps cover gaming news at Tech Radar. She's been a games writer for five years and has written for outlets such as Game Spot, NME, and Games Radar, covering news, features, and reviews. Outside of writing, she plays a lot of RPGs and talks far too much about Star Wars on X.

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News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
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Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards