Nah, Diablo 4 is much more fun when leveling from 1 to 70 or so. 70 - 100 is just doing the same things over and over with barely any rewards. It's the other way around there, leveling is fun, endgame is dogshit.

Usually "game starts at max level" is used for MMOs like WoW. Where all the leveling is seen as annoying bullshit fetch quests and at max level you do dungeons and raids.

This is not true for D4 unless you're trying to max level as fast as you can. I took my time and did most of the side quests, and I intend to go back and finish them all. The quests are interesting and engaging and voice acted all the way through.

D4 is quite a good leveling experience if you don't play it zoom-zoom.

Ironically what got me into Diablo was my then-girlfriend now-spouse insisting that I go back to Diablo 1 with her and experience it for the story, and damn if that didn't hook me quick. Endgame D2 and D3 are great and all, but what makes something great even greater is having any sort of emotional connection to the story the game takes place in.

Also hot damn the ambiance of D1 is just something else.

2 and especially 3 too, though