Very late thoughts, but starting to appreciate the ingenuity of Diablo 2
I was never a fan of action games, but I remember that without any good RPG choices after the BG/Fallout/Torment crop I played single-player Diablo 2 with relish. I don't know if Blizzard had many new ideas later for Diablo 3, but the second game, I understand now, was not just addictive but brilliant. The fighting itself never did much for me, but the game had so many things: shrines of all kinds - gem shrines, summon monster shrines... It introduced golems made from different items, with their abilities... All those minibosses, too. Resurrecting Fallen shamans. Mercenaries to take along. Very very creative. Almost shamefully trapped in the action genre, asking for a real world to expand in.
There haven't been many games with such concentration of ideas since.
There haven't been many games with such concentration of ideas since.
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I am hoping that Diablo 2 gets a remaster like Starcraft, although I'm not holding my breath.
From what I have read, the remaster is definately on the cards, but it is a good idea to not hold your breath as it might take a while...
Torchlight 2 is good, but it's half-baked. Grim Dawn is very good, but plays too slow. Path of Exile is too focused on online trading as the primary focus of the game (Diablo 2 was in it's heyday as well but you never NEEDED to do it). They are all good games. None of them are as good as Diablo 2. Diablo 3 is a completely different animal, and is very good for what it is, but it also has no claim to the greatness of Diablo 2. I mean, D2 stands up there with Baldur's Gate 2, Half-Life, Doom, Portal, and Warcraft 3 as really seminal PC games.
The best thing regarding Diablo 2 is the feeling of character progression, most definitely. Too bad Blizzard doesn't care for this franchise anymore, because currently every Diablo game, while fun to play, will make me question "what's the point of me playing this?" sooner or later.
And while it has good replayability, only bring able to use a very small selection of your skills sucked.
Years later when I finally tried LoD..I reacted negatively to the massive abundance of magic find items. Is that just me?
I will always love Marius arc though.
Diablo 1 epilogue
First game is almost worth it, just for that scene^^
The think the coolest thing Diablo 2 did was incorporate the fates of the 3 class heroes in the original. The Rogue became Blood Raven, the Sorcerer became The Summoner, and the Warrior became the Dark Wanderer and vessel for Diablo.
I mean....Warcraft 1 and 2 were great for their time as well (despite being direct rip-offs of Dune 2), but they are basically demos compared to what Warcraft 3 introduced (and if we want to talk about influential games, Warcraft 3 reinvented the RTS, spawned the entire MOBA genre, and it's engine and lore was used for World of Warcraft). I'd say Blizzard hit 3 historically good home runs: Diablo 2, Starcraft, and Warcraft 3. I'd include WoW (at least through Wrath of the Lich King), but that game no longer exists as it once did.
I'd also be more charitable to Diablo 1 if you could still reasonably play it on modern systems as it was at the time. The HD mod works great but it changes the game in drastic ways. There are more enemies, 3 new classes, and reworked class skills. Getting the original to work is possible, but no guarantee.
And Warrior/Rogue usually had at least one attack spell, healing, teleport and maybe some other stuff.
While in D2 builds usually had 1-2 main actives and a little bit utility. I.e. Sorceress builds were often around one attack spell like Frozen Orb + Armor + Teleport + Static Field.
In addition, Diablo 1 was slower paced. Both character and enemies were slower, so I think it was more about positioning than D2. D1 also had more chokepoints.
D2 = fast reflexes, D1 = somewhat fast reflexes + a small bit of tactics.
If you like Diablo style games at all, I think it's worth it to get to and through Hades at least once so you can see it. I think it's a real masterpiece.
Old games woke us up, new games seek to put us to sleep.
P.S. How about Nox?
That said, I still play it and love it, although I still think Diablo 2 is better.
Anyway, Diablo 3 was meh, but it got better. The story is still bad but the adventure mode is pretty great.
Worst part about modern games is how severely dumbed down they are.
From 1997 to 2002 some seriously great stuff was put out: Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Fallout 1 & 2, Might and Magic VI and VII, Wizardry 8, Diablo 2, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Thief 1 & 2, Half-Life, Morrowind, and Age of Empires 2. Nothing is ever going to come remotely close to that again.
I pretty much always take Dream mastery, because it's so witheringly effective, and works well for both casters and melee characters. I've combined it with Storm and Defense, and I'm thinking about trying a Harbinger some time soon. (Dream plus Warrior).
In Diablo style rpg's, after a lot of years playing squishy casters, I've changed to where I prefer tougher characters who can go toe to toe in melee. Casters usually require a whole lot of kiting to be successful, because they can't take a hit, and if they get surrounded by a mob, they're usually dead. Doing all that kiting, even with trash mobs, makes my mouse hand get sore. I've gotten some casters into Asia who could pretty much just one click kill everything (like my Ternion Attack character with Spirit mastery), but they started to get into trouble in Hades.
Of course, in TQ, even melee characters usually can't go toe to toe with the big bosses, and have to kite and use charge attacks to dodge in and out. I guess that's true with Diablo 2 as well, although I haven't spent nearly as much time in D2 as I have in TQ.
Diablo 2 story fall short on it's integrity, while Diablo 3's fails at dialouges and presentation.