I cannot even get in to the other games. POE was good for a while, then it got bloated. I never liked Torchlights artwork, D3 sucked, D4 sucks worse than anything, the last epoch looks like something d4ish. Someone make a good arpg please.
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You do have options, you just donât like change. I believe I have friends who like last Epoch and POE and soon theyâre coming out with POE2 no?
But the age of the basic game done right is over. Youâll never get the old Blizzard games back. Youâll never play SCBW, D2, WAR2, WAR3, WOW whatever it may be in the same way ever again. The mechanics that are in the newer games, are there to entice the largest amount of players and people to buy the game, no longer is it about making the best game possible. And even though Iâm not sure if those games are good or bad, youâll never have a company set out to make this same game again. Theyâre going to focus on the things that keep them in the big game market because that pays out the big bucks.
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Agreed. The golden age of gaming is dead⌠games made by gamers.
Now its all profits, DEI, and pandering
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Grim dawn is pretty good. It does have item bloat issues, though. A few years ago the developers added a loot filter 
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Iâve been playing LE on the side. There are plenty of d3 and beyond type of stuff that is a little hard to accept but I think overall it is a nice game for arpg fans. Itemization is a mix of d2/d3/poe.
Other than that, we will never see another game like d2/d2r especially if you are trying to avoid transmog and ig rmt stuff⌠the gameplay at the end of the day is niche, loved by those that want it that way but loathed by most everyone else.
Well this was by Brevick and hes retired now after marvel heroes so never.
This dude is trying to use Last Epochâs fall off as a gotcha moment for D4 haters lol. Heâs basically a Blizzard employee now. Either that or completely delusional.
All of these ARPG knock offs just end up proving how D2 is the greatest and most authentic ARPG in existence. Itâs gotten to the point that no one even knows what ARPG is supposed to be anymore. These 
s at Blizzard completely veered off course and have no idea what the hell theyâre even making now.
Then you have these modern ARPG players like Rax, Wujudo, and Darth Microtransaction that think flying through the screen with numbers flashing all over the place is ARPG, and even worse, they think thatâs what Diablo is supposed to be.
Blizzard is the one that created this mess. ARPG is actually the worst genre in gaming because of them.
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Iâm with you on this, and realize I may be an outlier in terms of what appeals to me within a game. Do I want a FIX of loot or challenges or in-game âgoalsâ to âunlockâ XYZ like iâm an A.D.D adolescent with zero attention span? NoâŚ
What am I? Iâm a âgamerâ who enjoys lore, story and theater within a game, but also action and shoot-em-up or hit-em-up growing up on Tekken and SF2. I dig visuals and soundtrack, but donât want a game trying to lay breadcrumbs or force a feeling like attempting to make it really dark and ironically making it the most vanilla in the process Coughs D4âŚ
I feel like the issue is the approach where they try to breakdown gamers and make a âproductâ to suit those consumers, then hire artists to glue it together and give it a âfeelâ that again would appeal to gamers. Itâs not that simple, and one day theyâll realize that itâs not a formula, itâs design and design and story have to be natural and take a risk like the characters within them.
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Iâm with you. D2 is my favorite, and I wish the ARPG genre had more Hack 'n Slash replacing the âAâ. Action just makes numbers flying on the screen type games, when I think of hack 'n slash I think D1 and D2.
If you havenât tried Grim Dawn, that one is an excellent game and actually makes you want to listen to the people you can talk to. Cool thing is you donât really have to. Also, even though itâs old, Titan Quest was great and what brought me into Grim Dawn. Very much looking forward to Titan Quest 2 and POE2.
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Money and investors control everything now, youâre not going to find the same game probably ever again. Way back Blizzard was small and the market wasnât looking at gaming companies, sure they might have been publicly traded, but what they had was people who wanted to make great games, and keep doing it. A normal sustaining business, not a mass profit generating machine. But blizzard was still big at that time, but youâll never find anyone big like that with the dedication to making quality again. Why? Because someone will buy them up if theyâre public or their best talent will be sniped by the bigger company causing them to fold and forcing them to sell their IP. The amount of companies swallowed by a bigger umbrella during the initial burst of gaming and then used continually to keep doing the same thing over and over is actually insane. And what theyâre done is eliminated most of all of the competition. There are COUNTLESS series of games that are now owned by the biggest companies that are either dead in the water because they want no competition or they make god awful remakes because that is most profitable. And they style of game is now dedicated to capture the largest amount of players rather than make the best game possible for those who enjoy that specific thing. Just look at the whole battle royal phase of gaming, and now ever company is taking half their budget to make sure there is a BR style game as part of their core, when some people just want a good basic PvP shooter.
Honestly in this world I donât see it ever going back to being the way it was. Youâd have to find the rare instance where a small studio wants to hold out and make it big and can still afford to do what they do or a Billionaire or maybe a rich streamer who wants to dedicate their time to making a great game, but that is unreliable.
People just hold on for dear life on D2 thatâs why they want all kind of sh*t happen to this game so they can enjoy it longer. But itâs an old and finished game. Everyone who canât enjoy it anymore should find a new purpose in life. I just play it and there, whenever I feel like I want to play it again.
One thing that kept the game alive so long is that the game wonât open all the doors even at slightest for the majority people.
As we got easy access to everything (jsp and whatnot blablabla) the game suddenly became boring for many and they donât even realise why.
At some point, a game will become boring, and tbh D2 is by far one of the game with the most longevity.
Everything has an end, only a sausage got two.
Newer games will never ever sell themself well if it has old designs with old mentality.
Money is King.