Diablo 4 players were outraged when a level 91 hardcore character died during the loading screen after 172 hours of gameplay.
New Zealand based streamer Quin69 uploaded a video YouTube After Diablo 4 appeared to crash while teleporting his character to the town of Kyovashad after completing the dungeon, he remembered the moment he saw the dreaded Hall of Fallen Heroes message on the screen. The only option left for Quin69 is to click “Approve”.
“I finished the fucking keystone and portaled into town,” said Quinn-69, beginning to realize. “My character died on the loading screen I’m porting to town.”
What appears to have happened is that Quin69’s character, who was standing inside a protective bubble during the entrance to the city, somehow died from a harmless attack from a nearby floating device. Of course, that should not be the case. As Diablo 4 streamer Octavian ‘Kripparrian’ Morosan suggests in the video, the port-to-town loading may have left Quin69 vulnerable to attack in a stalemate.
Diablo 4 itself recorded the death as “murdered by the ‘environment'”. Whatever the reason, Quin69 has lost the character he spent more than a week building. It’s a brutal ending, but Quin69 isn’t the only Diablo 4 player to lose his character hardcore through no fault of his own.
IGN reported on the first Diablo 4 player to reach level 100 in Hardcore mode after having their character permanently lost after disconnecting.
Souaïb ‘carn’ Hanaf was live streaming Diablo 4 when the game disconnected. After logging back in, Khan finds that his Barbarian at max level Hardcore is gone, leaving him with no choice but to create another character and start over.
Diablo 4’s hardcore mode has permanent death, which means that when a character dies, it’s gone forever. A character death like this is a stark reminder of the dangers of always-online video games, and is sure to fuel more complaints about Blizzard’s decision to make Diablo 4 unplayable offline.
-172 hours 💀💀
Died on loading screen ported to town while in invincible zone.fix the game @Diablo pic.twitter.com/VnqNEpccKf— Quinn (@quinrex) June 14, 2023
Quin69’s friends are horrified by what happened to the streamers and can be heard saying they don’t care about hardcore mode. “At the end of the day, you’re going to die in a DC accident or a crash or whatever,” said one person. “That’s terrible,” said another.
Despite these issues, Diablo 4 is a critical and commercial success. IGN’s 9/10 review called Diablo 4 “an absolutely addictive sequel with near-perfect endgame and progression design.” Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 guide for tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your Hell Journey and how to use the interactive map to track your progress as you play.
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. Find @wyp100 on Twitter. You can reach Wesley at: wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially wyp100@proton.me.
