“I want to go to a wrecking room,” I proclaimed last weekend. You know, one of those rooms where you’re given, say, a sledgehammer, and are left to your own devices to destroy boxes and old electrical equipment for half an hour. I had a lot of rage I needed to release, and smashing up stuff seemed like the only way to go.
Alas, it turns out that Yorkshire isn’t very well equipped with wrecking rooms. Maybe we northerners aren’t seen as the angry sort. Not sure. But if you’re looking for a business opportunity, maybe that could be it. Anyway, I digress. I was left with my rage and no real outlet to let it out (other than screaming into a pillow which, with a bit of a sore throat, didn’t seem like a great idea). The solution, it turns out, was Diablo 4.
It’s a bit obvious, really. Diablo 4 is a game all about killing demons, hundreds and hundreds of demons, with weapons, spells, necromancy and other weird and wonderful ways. It might not be all that stress-relieving early on, when you’ve got basic gear and your regular common-garden variety goatmen take a good dozen or so hits before they go down. But when you’re on World Tier 4, doing dozens of thousands of damage with each hit, and monsters are dying all around you, left, right and centre? It turns out it really does help.
Every hundred or so beasts I saw laid to my Rogue’s daggers and crossbow, I felt just a little more of my stress ever-so-slightly ease away. It might not quite be the same as physically holding a sledgehammer in your hand, sure, but it has a similar effect. Causing so much destruction, even if it’s only digitally in a made-up fantasy land, is just as stress-relieving.
Diablo 4 is also the type of game that you can completely switch your mind off while you play. It allows you to forget about your worries for a few hours as you get completely wrapped up in the joys of flailing your weapons or unleashing your most powerful spells. Sometimes, that’s exactly what you need. It’s not exactly the most relaxing game – you’re fighting against beasts from hell, after all – but its simple yet hugely satisfying gameplay loop of endless and destruction is, sometimes, just what the doctor ordered.
Give it a try yourself. If you’ve got any stress that leaves you feeling like you need to pummel things with a sledgehammer or scream into a pillow, don’t waste your precious energy. Simply take yourself on a trip to Sanctuary, slay some demons, and feel your stress ebb away. Oh, and you can pet dogs. That helps too.
More Diablo 4
- Diablo 4 Character Classes, Ranked
- The Treasure Goblins in Diablo 4 Need to Be More Exciting
- Being a Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4 is Disappointingly Dull
