I feel exactly the same. There have been precious few games over the last 15 years that have really grabbed me and made me want to keep playing all night like TFC, Diablo 2, Deus Ex, etc did way back in the day, but this remaster has rekindled that fire. Is it because Diablo 2 truly is a masterpiece of game design, or is it just the nostalgia talking?
I don’t know, and I don’t care.
Not nostalgia. It is a perfect game.
Here’s hoping Blizzard releases a Diablo 1 DLC.
I mean, D2 was the best-selling PC game ever for an awfully long time. Imagine something has passed it up these days, especially depending on how you count F2P stuff in Asia, but it didn’t get popular because it sucks (like F2P stuff in Asia :D )
Pretty much.
I’m still irritated at dying so early yesterday as a sorceress, so I had to create another one.
This time I had a plan! Instead of going to Blood Raven, I would go down into the Cave in the Cold Plains, and get some extra experience in there, and maybe reach level 6, and then I’d have Static Field against Blood Raven!
I encountered an elite boss in The Cave right near the entrance, her and all her minions firing arrows at me. I was frantically drinking potions and firing my frozen bolt. Dead.
It’s amazing, the difference between a Barbarian and a Sorceress. I had every point spent into vitality except a couple into strength so I could wear some armor. I had a buckler with extra blocking. I had already found a nice low level amulet and ring already. I had every skill point spent, and yet it was suddenly caught in that trap.
I’m maybe thinkin’ you should go Barb for a while to kinda shake the stink off
I’d just like to say after finding a Burrito Cannon while playing as my Summoner necro, the build still works! At least up through Nightmare. It still works in Hell but it doesn’t one shot everything like it did. The Bowazon is a ton of fun to play, but takes some modifications to work well against Act bosses. Duriel is indeed a penis…
I just farm the cold plains waypoint until I’m at least 6, especially on a sorc, static field is everything for bosses. There is almost always an elite pack or two very close to the cold plains waypoint, so it makes for not only fast levels, but a chance at some loot as well.
Yeah, the more I play (and enjoy) Diablo 2 the more I realize I do still like ARPG’s, just not modern ones I guess. The skills and items tend to be a lot less interesting than they used to be maybe? I’m not sure I could really articulate what games like Grim Dawn or Path of Exile are lacking for me, but I still prefer Diablo 2 (and Titan Quest).
I’m slow and game time has been scattered so I just got my first character through Act 1…a Thorny Paladin. I have no idea if that’s a build and I’m pretty sure he sucks but I like to say Thorny Paladin. Thorns, prayer and a little bit of Bashing. I’m pretty sure I’ll respec into some kinda lightening or cold dealing Pally at some point but for now I’m pretty Thorny.
My guess (lemme see your brains!) is that you’ve never been in the mood to unpack all the systems you need to really get rolling, at least for GD. Unless it’s just a flavor thing; I dislike the GD flavor but the game’s good enough to make up for it.
There is a large cognitive burden to understanding how items, affixes, mods, skills, and constellations work in GD that is orders of magnitude above D2. D2 is extremely straightforward by modern ARPG terms; it’s just not that hard to figure out “big numbers, hit harder, more loot!” You basically don’t have damage channels to worry about, resistances are real damn obvious, skills are kinda right there.
I don’t mean this as a bad thing! I love D2 too, and I’m surprised at how much fun I’m having with D2R.
I just mean that I could see someone bouncing off the newer games in favor of D2R because the system is easy and comfortable, the same way I can sort of float along in the d20-ness of the Pathfinder games because I spent so much time in d20 land that the system is easy and comfortable for me in a way that the 5E in Solasta or whatever requires a lot more thought.
All that said! GD is the best ARPG ever made, and I highly recommend it to everyone in this thread.
You nailed why Grim Dawn doesn’t much work for me perfectly. I picked it up at the end of last year when I got a new computer and have only beaten the main campaign (I haven’t made it to Malmouth or set foot in Forgotten Kingdoms).
It seems like there must be twice as many resistances/forms of damage and I really haven’t a clue what to do in the constellations. My older brain just gets exhausted. With D2R I have all this prior knowledge (20 years worth lol) and access to resources (thank you Arreat Summit!).
I still want to give GD a shot though. At least beat and see the DLC stuff.
For me, getting over the hump in GD worked the same way as it did in Old World and Age of Wonders: Planetfall – just spending enough time with it to get enough baseline knowledge in place, accepting that I was playing suboptimally and my builds were poop, that I could engage with the higher-level mechanics and strategies without having to reason them out from first principles every time.
As an example: When you just know “oh I should throw a Silk Swatch on these shoulders, they’re good enough and I need the bleed resist for this big eldritch area I’m about to run into” – that’s a massively different experience than running into that big eldritch area, trying to figure out why you’re dying, going through your stash to see if anything has bleed resist, figuring out how to fit that into your kit without screwing anything else up, etc, etc.
GD rewards investment, but there’s a hill to climb to get there for sure.
I’m in the same boat. I think Grim Dawn is the pinnacle of ARPG’s, definitely my favorite. There is something to say about the more basic games like D2R. I have a poison javelin Amazon and about to take on Diablo in act 4 and I’m having a blast. I can see why people would prefer one over the other. Lucky for me I like both.
Same same!
I enjoyed Grim Dawn - it looks great and it plays great - but there is something about the UI that leaves me a bit cold. However, the biggest problem I have is just how fucking loooooooooong it is. My god. It feels like it takes 20 hours just to beat the base game, let alone the expansions. I think I’ve only tried the first expansion, I haven’t even delved into the second (and third? Is there more than two?).
The setting isn’t my favorite, either. I like it, but I’m more a fantasy guy - and like a lot of modern ARPG titles, I’m not super into all the classes - or even most of them. Some of that stems from not really clicking with or understanding a skill until I try it - the descriptions don’t really help me understand how to use them as well as I’d like - but that comes down to just putting in time and getting more familiar with the game mechanics, honestly. At this point, I do have 104 hours in Grim Dawn, just to be clear. It’s not like I don’t like it, it’s just that after 100 hours (like after hundreds of hours of Diablo 3), I’m kind of meh on it. Unlike Diablo 2, which I feel like over the last several decades I’ve always enjoyed and am currently STILL enjoying all over again.
Welp, guess my level 71 Druid journey ended at the start of Act 2 in Hell.
I go outside the city, there is a gangbang of 20 cats and scarabs, almost all immune to cold, so I just get killed unless I just run and run and run away…my 26 level bear gets killed too near instantly…
It was fun, but I will not have patience with this…
Maybe I should do some Nightmare runs and pray for better equipment, and use my last remaining respec to change skills?
That is one of the big reasons I could not get into grim dawn very much. The world is just bland and the only real differences in monsters seem to be the color theme. Reddish guys vs Greenish guys vs Orange guys, etc…
It totally lacks the distinction and beauty of Titian Quest.
