Broken Oath vs Diablo 4 — Depth vs Polish

Broken Oath (Steam app 5452900) is a Windows action RPG from Crater Studios, set in the Dwarven Realms universe. It is in public playtest through app 5461470, live since 30 October 2026, with access by request; Early Access is announced but undated, and the store estimates six to twelve months. The pitch is six classes, skill gems with support gems that change how a skill behaves, a passive tree with notables and keystones, and a Forge fed by rune stones found in each land. Runs happen in Ruptures: randomised maps with weather, time of day, eight danger bands and a Guardian at the end.

Diablo IV is a buy-to-play action RPG from Blizzard Entertainment, released on 5 June 2023 and sold on Battle.net, Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2. It is always online: an internet connection and a Battle.net account are required, including on Steam. The campaign can be played solo, but the game is a shared world with cross-play and cross-progression. Eight classes exist once both expansions are owned; the base game has five. Seasonal characters play on a Seasonal Realm and move to Eternal when a season ends.

Diablo IV's depth is layered and class-first. Each class has its own mechanic and a skill tree with variants; Lord of Hatred reworked the tree and named four flavours each for Paladin and Warlock. Paragon boards add a second progression layer, and Paragon level is shared across characters. Lord of Hatred adds Talisman set bonuses. Crafting runs through the Horadric Cube, Tempering and Masterworking at the Blacksmith, plus Runewords. You assemble a build from several menus, and the class fantasy is legible before you open a guide.

Broken Oath's depth is link-based. Skills are gems, and support gems change behaviour rather than only adding damage; the store's examples are a Cyclone that fires Ember Bolts while channelling, a burning legion, and arrows raining in a chosen element. A passive tree supplies notables and keystones, with Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence allocation. Blessings and Curses add a second layer: Vows for power, Woe on a pack, marking the strong for death. The Forge turns rune stones found per land into learned recipes with fixed stat results — Ox Brand for a Strength suffix, Emberward for Fire Resistance — paid for in named materials rather than random rolls.

The philosophies diverge at the point of entry. Diablo IV gives you a class and asks you to tune it across tree, Paragon, set bonuses and crafted gear. Broken Oath gives you a skill and asks what you attach to it. Neither is deeper by default: Diablo IV's system has years of patching behind it, while Broken Oath's is legible on paper and hard to verify from an alpha.

A Diablo IV week runs on two clocks. The seasonal clock decides what you chase: Season 15, Season of Hell's Legacy, has been live since 15 September 2026 with a seasonal questline and a free Battle Pass track; Blizzard has not published an end date. The session clock is the activity menu. War Plans chain the modes you want — Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, the Undercity, Infernal Hordes, Lair Bosses, The Pit — against modifiers, and Echoing Hatred adds an endless horde mode. Uniques and Mythic Uniques are the chase; the Horadric Cube and Masterworking are where gear gets finished, and The Tower carries leaderboards. The cost is structural: no offline mode, and the newest classes sit behind expansions. Five come with the base game; Spiritborn needs Vessel of Hatred, Paladin and Warlock need Lord of Hatred. The $69.99 Age of Hatred Collection is the full entry point.

A Broken Oath session is a Rupture. The observed panel shows a run timer, three lives, checkpoints, rares remaining and distance-marked objectives, with a Guardian at the end; the run reads as bounded rather than open-ended. Between runs the loop is loot and the Forge: magic, rare, red unique and Primal drops, rune stones by biome, recipes learned. The playtest separates online and offline characters — a 5 November rebuild reset online heroes and left offline untouched — which suggests offline play is meant to survive server work, though save handling is undocumented. Seasons, trade and co-op are unannounced, and the deeper endgame is promised for Early Access without detail. The time ask is unknown in the way that matters: nobody can say what a month of Broken Oath looks like.

Diablo IV sets a specific bar: a shipped game, eight classes, an endgame menu and a seasonal cadence that survives a long absence. Broken Oath does not have to match all of it. These are the open questions.

• Gem links past the campaign. Behaviour-changing supports are the whole pitch; alpha showcases are one-patch snapshots, so the question is whether links stay interesting once the campaign ends.
• The Forge at scale. Fixed stat crafts are legible and fair; whether the recipe tree holds as item pools and tiers grow is unproven.
• Endgame breadth. Ruptures and Guardians are one activity. Diablo IV's answer is a menu, and Broken Oath has promised depth without describing it.
• Offline durability. Offline characters survived one online reset, which is a good sign, not a guarantee.
• Controller and Deck. Controller support is in progress; full controller and Steam Deck support are promised for Early Access, not present.
• Price and release. Neither is announced, so value cannot be judged.

None of these are failures. They are questions an alpha has not answered, and the reason this page does not score either game.

Diablo IV is the finished product. Its advantages are concrete: eight classes with expansions, a broad activity menu, a seasonal cadence, cross-play and a level of presentation Broken Oath cannot be judged against yet. The costs are equally concrete: always online, no mods, expansion-gated classes and a seasonal reset.

Broken Oath is the open question. Gem links and a fixed-recipe Forge are a coherent pitch, and offline characters surviving a server rebuild is a meaningful detail. But the game is an undated playtest with no price, no announced seasons, trade or co-op, and one confirmed endgame loop.

If you want a polished ARPG to play tonight and you do not need offline mode, choose Diablo IV. If you specifically want Paragon boards, seasonal leaderboards and a full class roster, buy Diablo IV with Lord of Hatred. If offline single-player and deterministic crafting are the parts you care about, wait for Broken Oath's Early Access: request playtest access, treat it as a test bed, and do not commit until a price and date exist.