Diablo 4's Creepy New Cannibal Enemies Are Fast And Hungry

Diablo IV is handling enemies a bit differently from before, sorting them into “family” groups that are divided by their feel, look, and combat style. The families will better flesh out the game’s open world, making it feel more cohesive. This is all explained in Blizzard’s new quarterly update for the game, which dives deep into a newly announced family of enemies–the Cannibals.

There are four members of the Cannibal family, all of which, true to their name, delight in eating people–if you spot dead bodies “riddled with bite marks” in-game, the Cannibals are likely nearby. Diablo IV is returning to the series’ dark roots, and the cannibals are certainly creepy. Each member has a unique weapon, as well as a “significantly different silhouette or stance” so that they can easily be told apart.

Two of them are fairly traditional melee enemies, one with a cleaver and the other with a lighter halberd. There’s also a tank-like bruiser with a spiked club that can potentially stun players, and smaller swarmer enemies that attack with incredible speed. The family has no ranged units, but will “spring at the player with supernatural swiftness”. They’re also able to jump over obstacles, including other enemies, which means that if you think you have a large group under control you need to be careful of them slipping through.

Diablo IV is still a while away yet, with no specific release date, but you can look forward to the Cannibals trying to strip the flesh from your bones when the game launches for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

The same update that revealed the Cannibal family also detailed Diablo IV’s UI changes and talked about controller support for the PC version of the game. There’s also, reportedly, a Diablo anime series in the works for Netflix.