Diablo 4 Season 3's New Vaults And Companion Are Leaving Many Players Underwhelmed
Diablo 4 Season 3 recently launched, but it hasn't taken long for some players to already grow tired of the game's newest additions, with some calling its traps "annoying" and its new companion "underwhelming."
Vaults are a new activity in Diablo 4 Season 3, one where the focus is on avoiding various traps to earn better rewards. Through a new seasonal mechanic, players are encouraged to reach the end of the Vault without being damaged by traps in order to earn better rewards. In theory, it incentivizes players to slow down and play more cautiously, something that Diablo players, who are accustomed to zooming through dungeons while killing a million monsters a minute, aren't exactly thrilled about.
A glance at the Diablo 4 subreddit reveals thread after thread of complaints in regards to traps. More than a few players point out how the idea of Vaults is very similar to the much-maligned Labyrinths previously seen in another popular ARPG, Path of Exile. Others remark that they feel like Vaults were designed for a game other than Diablo 4.
"It doesn't belong in a Diablo game," user Moogy writes on Reddit. "There's a reason PoE made all the changes they did to Labyrinth because people don't like doing that sort of thing."
As for the Vaults themselves, many players are not only annoyed at the traps, but also the fact that Vaults are essentially still Nightmare dungeons, only with traps and less loot for those who can't reach the end of the dungeon relatively unscathed. Even those who do make it to the end without being hit have been disappointed with the rewards.
"What is their obsession with making players do everything except kill more monsters?" user juicyjvoice asks. "I can't understand how they keep doing this…It seems like they're just inflating time spent in dungeons which would be fine if it was to kill more enemies and do the normal ARPG loop, but they inflate the time with these stupid gimmicks. I just don't get it."
Unfortunately, Season 3's other major addition, the Seneschal Construct companion, doesn't seem to have many fans either. Players on Reddit are calling the robot "underwhelming," "useless," and "trivial," with many remarking that they can't even tell that the companion is around. The construct can be equipped with two abilities that can be further modified, but it seems many players haven't noticed their companion having much of an impact.
"It might be performing surgery or solving world peace, but if it is I can barely tell…I'm not seeing a whole lot of 'woah great job robofriend' happening right now," pwellzorvt writes.
Another user, DamnImAwesome, writes that the companion is "severely underwhelming."
"Trivial damage and healing," they write. "It's nice having something to take aggro off me and I get minor buffs but it really feels weak for it to be the focal point of the season."
Blizzard is, at least, aware of player complaints. Diablo community development director Adam Fletcher in a post on X (formerly Twitter) states the team is "tracking feedback" about the season and will be discussing it internally, with updates to come once the team has had time to process it.
The question is how quickly those changes will arrive and if they will bring back players who are already stating they are quitting out of boredom. As user TheCreamiestYeet writes, "So far, this is the Season of Disappointment."
