During the Diablo segment of BlizzCon’s 2026 opening ceremony, a celebration of 30 years of Diablo was shown. Along with it, the next season for Diablo IV was revealed: Season of Hell’s Legacy. Deckard Cain has returned from the dead to tell the story of the greatest conflicts in Sanctuary’s past. Diving into it during BlizzCon, this season feels immediately like an excellent celebration that’s as dark and humorous as the games have always been.
The preview dropped us right into this new history-exploring dungeon at level 40 on Hard difficulty. I was able to run it twice: once on PC as a necromancer and once on the Nintendo Switch 2 as a Paladin. Between both, there was very little differences, even when playing handheld.
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Diablo IV runs quite well on Nintendo Switch 2.
For all intents and purposes, the Switch 2 runs Diablo IV quite well. Including when lots of enemies are on screen. So diving right into the anniversary event on a new platform will be a great time for lapsed players or those on the go to dive in and not miss a thing.
For the experience itself, the preview showed several scenarios that flowed from one to the next without any breaks. First off, the event began within the Burning of Tristram and right into the Imperial Palace from Diablo III to fight Belial. His fight has been changed some for Diablo IV and involves some minions and lots of dodging.
Next, we moved to the Durane of Hate from Diablo 2 to take down Mephisto. Again, even as a fight from a quite old game, it’s been recreated very well for the Diablo IV engine. Even with a more modern gameplay take, Mephisto doesn’t feel like we’re beating up a Diablo 2 boss with faster combat or more on-screen effects.
Season of Hell’s Legacy translates old Diablo boss fights into the Diablo IV engine.
Then, we were taken to the Worldstone Chamber, also from Diablo II, to fight Baal. Finally, we were taken to Hell from Diablo 1 to fight the big bad himself, Diablo. The biggest surprise was after taking out all these different modern forms of these bosses. The final level of the preview segment was the notorious Cow Level, with a final fight against the hilariously adapted Mephisto encounter against… Moophisto.
Honestly, no better way to end the celebration preview than with one of Diablo’s oldest memes that has been around since Diablo II, with regular appearances in the sequels. Again, this all plays quite well in the Diablo IV engine, with all bosses looking great (and sinister) and feeling great to beat up. The difficulty on both the PC and Switch 2 was pretty equal. There wasn’t a reduction in quality on any front when playing on an objectively weaker platform.
The Diablo team knocked it out of the park, celebrating all of the series’ history within Diablo IV.
What will be interesting is how these fights are incorporated throughout the season. Based on the latest Diablo IV Deep Dive panel, we know that the different Prime Evils will have their own separate encounters, with each rewarding a special power through splinters. Also, these encounters will be spread out through Capstone dungeons as well as one-room encounters throughout the open world. But the better question is: Will the cow level and Moophisto be one of these encounters, or a super hidden dungeon like it was in Diablo III?
The Diablo team knocked it out of the park, celebrating all of the series’ history within Diablo IV. Each boss was recreated well enough to feel like a modern fight. They are still just as challenging as before. And with them now living within Diablo IV, and with the promise of lots of new powers from beating them up over and over again, it’s going to be good to beat them up on every class and wherever you play.
Diablo IV: Season of Hell’s Legacy launches September 15th on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2.
