You know you’re in trouble when somebody like Blizzard plumps for ye olde British spelling of ‘grey’. Greyhollow is a great city, but not a functioning one – a crumbling imperial centrepiece with evil curses echoing about its empty halls. It’ll be bolted onto Sanctuary in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls’ next patch: 2.4.0.
If you’re intrigued by experiments in storytelling, try one of the best RPGs.
As a brand-new Adventure Mode zone, Greyhollow Island has been a test of Blizzard’s storytelling chops. They’ve had to rely on exploration rather than exposition – scattered journal entries and events – to tell the story of a place that didn’t feature in the Eternal Conflict of the game proper.
Blizzard say the island is also unusually low on humanoids.
“Greyhollow Island is about being alone in the woods at night,” says senior designer Joe Shely. “It’s an untamed island filled with natural and supernatural dangers.”
Greyhollow’s natural enemies have names like Primeval Hunter and Glowing Death. Less connected to the earth are the Hive Mother and Silverback.
Diablo 3 patch 2.4.0 went live on the public test realm in November, but hasn’t had a public release yet. It’ll incorporate new events, 16 new monsters and set dungeons. Think you’ll pop back in to level a little more once it arrives?