Diablo 4 doesn’t share many similarities if at all with survival-horror games, being wholly engulfed in the dark fantasy ARPG genre. The kill-and-loot grind of Diablo games is tantalizing for fans with an ambition to constantly procure better gear and improve their stats, and fortunately Diablo 4 has a ton of endgame content to scratch that itch until its seasonal content drops arrive. Of course, there is an inherently macabre, gory, and dreadful nature about Diablo when considering its aesthetic and atmosphere, but nothing about Diablo has ever been outstandingly leaning into horror motifs. However, Diablo 4 makes an earnest effort to lean into horror through the lens it perceives dark fantasy, and one feature is truly terrifying in gameplay that players pray not to come across early in a playthrough.
Resident Evil has made a name for itself in multiple different gameplay restructurings, but at its roots it has always been a survival-horror franchise. It wasn’t until Resident Evil’s modern remakes, though, that it would introduce one of its most popular features with antagonists who could not be fully put down and had to be fled from. Most enemies that players encounter in Diablo 4 will occupy the screen in a swarming mob and fans will be entirely too used to spamming their key-bound abilities at them. Rather, Diablo 4’s Butcher is reprised from earlier installments with a new lease on direction, which inserts the demon into players’ games at random to relentlessly hunt them. The Butcher can be killed, but early into Diablo 4 he shares many characteristics with Resident Evil’s own pursuers.
Diablo 4’s Butcher is a Relentless Pursuer Like Resident Evil’s Mr. X and Nemesis
Resident Evil 2 had the ‘Mr. X’ Tyrant back in the original game, but he was nowhere near as insistent on pursuing the player as he is in the Resident Evil 2 remake. This antagonist is largely terrifying due to the fact that he is a massive, lumbering figure with clay-like skin who doesn’t speak and wears a fedora and trench coat.
Mr. X walks at a brisk enough pace that his footsteps thud intimidatingly behind the player, and players can also hear him approaching from corridors, floors, and rooms away. Players can waste ammunition to get Mr. X to take a knee, but this is only a momentary balm since he will soon get back up and continue his pursuit. Still, the Butcher is an easy comparison to Mr. X due to how it can be difficult to get away from this foe once they have appeared, and trying to meet them in combat is fruitless—at least in Diablo 4’s early game, or in Diablo 4’s permadeath Hardcore mode.
The Resident Evil 3 remake and Resident Evil Village would then go on to feature their own pursuer antagonists with Nemesis and Lady Dimitrescu respectively, but neither have the same impact that Mr. X did as the original pursuer in Capcom’s newfound remake continuity. There is nothing more alarming or disconcerting than devising a meticulous plan in Resident Evil 2 after assessing the RPD map and having that plan irreparably upended by Mr. X suddenly appearing in their path.
Likewise, players will be making their way through one of hundreds of dungeons and not think anything of the enemies they are carving through, when suddenly the Butcher can appear and cause mayhem. Deaths aren’t unforgiving in Diablo 4’s ordinary difficulty modes, but the Butcher becomes a run-ending nightmare on Hardcore mode and can prove much more threatening than Mr. X ever is for Leon or Claire.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
