If your prime years for receiving fun Christmas presents are now behind you, and you've been demoted to socks, ties, and tasty chutneys in your adulthood, then you may want to check out Diablo 4's world of Sanctuary over the festive period. It's a world where inside every treasure chest, side-quest, and underpowered boss that you can pop open like a pinata, there is a pile of shiny gold, weapons, and armour ready to spill at your feet; in Sanctuary, it's Christmas every day.
If this cornucopia of shiny things and the dopamine hit of a massive loot drop sound appealing to you, then good news, because from now until January 3, you can play Diablo 4 for free on PC via Battle.net (and on PlayStation and Xbox, but we don't talk about those here).
During the trial period you'll also get to play as the Spiritborn. The popular new class, which is dominating the leaderboards, was originally only available to play for owners of the Vessel of Hatred expansion, but now you'll get to bop around the base game as a Spiritborn until January. Enjoy the Spiritborn while you can, says Blizzard, because it may be getting nerfed when Season 7 lands on January 21.
Diablo 4 has come along nicely since we reviewed (and liked) it last year. The Vessel of Hatred expansion was good stuff, and the devs have usually been quick to fix any updates that haven't gone down well with the community (even if fixing them usually entails reversing nerfs or making the game easier, which may frustrate those seeking more of a challenge).
With Path of Exile 2 out now and making waves, Diablo 4 has a tougher rival in the online mass-demon-murdering ARPG space, and it'll be interesting to see how the fight for the souls of grind-loving players progresses over the coming years. But while Path of Exile 2 is currently in the early stages of Early Access, subject to drastic balancing changes, and costs a pretty penny, Diablo 4's two-week free trial gives the compelling lootfest plenty of time to get its claws into you first.
