Well, probably not, but personally I’m very, very excited for a reason to come back to this - newer/modern AARPG’s aren’t really doing it for me like they used to, including Diablo III, and thinking back on Diablo 2 I remember enjoying it for making me commit to a build and for the fun interactions with skills and equipment, so I’m hoping this also resurrects my enjoyment of the genre. We’ll see - it’s going to be opening up in it’s first of two technical Alpha (this first one is single player content only) on the 9th through the 12th.
Anyway, I thought we should have a dedicated thread for this, since there are several Diablo 2 threads but none seemed dedicated to that specific game.
My thought exactly. It seems to me that if I want to play Diablo 2, the best way to do it is with Reign of Terror, and not just because it means I don’t have to give Blizzard any money (though that’s a nice bonus).
Nah, good as Diablo 2 was, I have zero desire to go back now. As far as ARPG genre goes, things have moved on. Grim Dawn wins hands down for me, though having never played PoE, take that view accordingly. Character/skill development feels much more meaningful in Grim Dawn (not including the Reign of Terror mod) whereas Diablo 2 was rife with skills that were useless. Sure Diablo LoD 1.10 if I recall brought in the synergies, but the game was still dominated by Amazons who were either strafe or multi-shot focused (what happened to the Javelin skills…) or Sorceresses that were Frozen Orb/Blizzard focused with a dash of points thrown in to teleport. Diablo 2’s Act 3 was my least favourite act to run around because of the confusing jungle maze and what I’d call the little shits that run fast and hard to target. Or then there was the bug tunnels that were not quite wide enough at times with a party to navigate through.
I do want to maintain the boycott, but Diablo II holds a very special place in my life. I played it for years with my friends on hardcore, and after years of trying, we finally made it to Hell difficulty Act V, and then 3 of us died to Neilathak. So we never did beat Baal on Hell difficulty on hardcore. So, the truth is, if my friends get this and want to get back into it, I don’t think I can resist.
Why would anyone want to revisit a game they love? I don’t care about Diablo 2, but I replay old games quite a lot, even if I’m aware that design mechanics have “progressed” since the time they came out.
I know you’re far more of a “retro gamer” than I am, but I will say that while I totally understand the appeal of returning to a favorite, some games tolerate it a lot better than others. I don’t know where D2 falls on that spectrum because while I enjoyed it in its day it’s not a game I feel pulled back to.
That’s certainly true, of course, and I can’t speak to it in the specific case of D2, which I’ve only played a bit and never liked that much to begin with. (I didn’t really start enjoying action RPGs until later.)