D4 Lack of Originality

General Discussion
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Imo, it’s still too ealry to talk about Diablo 4. But I definitely see one problem with it. This has probably been discussed before, but I want to write some of my opinion about it.

In my honest opinion, the biggest problem with this franchise as a whole, including Diablo 4, is the lack of originality.

Just what is original about Diablo 4? Imho nothing! Absolutely nothing! To me Diablo 4 feels like a step back, rather than pushing foreward.

Take for example the classes. All three classes revealed look and feel exactely like their modernised Diablo 2 counterparts.

Then there’s the world. Since Diablo 2 the lore and the world has been expanded a lot. However they seem to be using none of it, and keep to their old ways. Grass, than Desert, Jungle and Snow.

When I saw Scosglen, I thought it was a new oportunity, but after seeing it in action, I honestly think it’s an oportunity missed. They had a great oportunity to focus on Celtic mythos and monstrosities, and the whole Scotish vibe, but instead they’ve basically made it into a new New Tristram. I like the whole new drowned Ironborne stuff, but the zone seems to be 90% about the Khazra, Zombies and Skeletons. There even seems to be a new Skeleton King.

Then again there’s the Borderlands and Caldeum, filled with the Fallen, the Lacuni and the Coven uhm Cultists.

Imagine the oportunities they’ve missed. Imagine going to Xiansai with the whole East Asian vibe and fighting all kinds of Japanese, Chinese and Korean monstrosities. Or going to Skovos Iles with whole tropical the island breez things, with canibalistic tribes who conduct human sacrifices and all the tropical monstrosities etc… Or expand the eastern continent with some sub Saharan Africa…There were dozens of oportunities, and yet they went the same old way.

The old enemies are back Duriel, Andariel etc…Why didn’t they invent some new powerful Demon, that wanted to overthrow the evils and something like that?

Imo one of the reasons for D2 massive success was it’s originality. Back in the day it was new and original going to the Egyptian dessert and scouring their temples etc… or going to the Amazonian jungles, but that has changed. And D4 doesn’t seem to bring that kind of originality to the table.

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It’s diablo
The world doesn’t simply change to the point there there are pirates and samurai and vikings and cowboys running around throwing boomerangs at penguins

It’s still a genre and it doesn’t change because that’s what genres are for since the invention of genres

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They took the lazy way out, just like always, and copied/pasted the classes (and other trash as well) from the cancelled D2 remake.

And as much as I’d like to, I have no hope for the remaining classes. It will probably be the same boring stale trash from D2 like the Paladin and Amazon, severely reducing D4’s replayability.

Whenever people were burned out in D3 they would be told “try a new class”. And there was plenty of that. DH is a superior blend of both Amazon and Assassin, Crusader is an elite aka BETTER version of the Paladin, Monk is brand new, Wizard has a whole new concept, and WD was a jungle spin on the Necro.

But now look at the D4 stuff. Regressed back to the boring Sorceress throwing fireballs and ice bolts, and god knows how godawful the other copy/pastes are gonna be.

Druid I don’t mind because we only got him in an expansion, so I’m looking forward to that. And Barb - even though it’s a tired trope, it’s fun enough to play.

They keep taking the lazy way out, just like they did when they cancelled D2 remake. Just like when they outsourced WC3 to that crappy Malaysian studio - look how that one turned out.

And just like Bioware is doing to the first 3 Mass Effect games, so-called Legendary Edition being a glorified overpriced texture mod instead of properly remaking them (at least Mass Effect 1 which looks and plays ancient compared to ME2/3).

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There was no D2 remake ever.

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@Beefhammer

Did you play the Wizards of the Coast expansion pack for D1? D1 and certainly D2 had a far more compelling storyline than D3 (imo).

They could have hired a 3rd party to retell those first 2 iterations 10x over by now on an updated engine graphically. It’s sad that generations today, and even for nostalgia for us old-timers who have been plating this IP since Day1 will never be able to enjoy that experience (unless you want to play in 800x600 :slight_smile: ).

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What WotC expansion for D1?

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A step back from Diablo 2 or 3? What would you add or change to have it take a step forward?

That’s kind of the point. They brought back three of the old classes to show a bit of the Diablo 2 roots. That said, don’t expect them to play as they did in Diablo 2. Also there’s two more classes that have yet to be revealed; and I’d say there’s a chance that those two classes may be new to the franchise.

I mean there’s not much else to add in the world of Sanctuary. I mean I guess they could have a hidden cloud city so you fight on clouds, or a volcanic civilization, where you walk on molten earth (although if Hell is one of our destination, might not be much point for a volcanic civilization), even let us fight on ships sailing across the sea and then traverse the sea floor. But, I honestly just think most of that would be unnecessary, especially considering we haven’t even saw the entirety of region.

You saw a fraction of Scosglen, the entire region is said to be much more vast than what they’ve shown us. So who knows how the environment acts towards us, or what kind of creatures dwell from within.

Well Diablo 3 lore established that such of thing would be incredibly difficult to do. Having Demons strong enough to contest with the great evils. The only exception to this would be if the demon went out of their way to consume Nephalems and steal their essence in order to augment their strength, just as Vidian had did in Diablo 3 RoS adventure mode, however even he still died to the player character of Diablo 3.

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With the Open World concept, I’m hoping I’ll be able to explore the area between Caldeum and Lut Gholein (both desert cities). According to one of the updates, it sounds like I’ll have to rescue some camps/?towns?/?settlements? along the way.

I’m actually amped about this new style of gaming (for Diablo)

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The isometric view of Diablo 4 will not change, my guess is it won’t change for future Diablo games either.

The chance at originality for Diablo 4 are in the storyline, the classes/skills, visuals, user interface, crafting, choices on how to play, perhaps some new surprise feature(s) and of course those sweet juicy cinematic cutscenes.

They’re still ironing out the basics right now, it’s really tough to judge a game before it’s finished.

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Yes, having to save towns/settlements from attacks in order to unlock them is definitely a welcomed addition imo. It’s a flavor of exploration that I can get behind; and hopefully there will be more in store for us.

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Are you referring to:

KEHJISTAN

Harrison: Finally, we have the zone of Kehjistan. So, Kehjistan was once a much larger Empire that encompassed the sort of forests and jungles surrounding this area; but over time, those borders have kinda shrunk back down to this region that we once called the Borderlands.

This is the last bastion of the Zakarum faith. Years of decadence and corruption have just caused them to sort of fall apart and lose the hearts and minds of the people who live in this region. They’ve been desperately trying to gain that faith back, but it’s just not going well.

In Diablo III, we’ve actually visited some places in Kehjistan. We went to Cal Diem — the jewel of the east, we visited Alcarnus — things were pretty bad in Diablo III for them. Guess what they’ve gotten worse since then. this is also the location of a lot of really important events from Diablo’s past.

So, the Sin War — a lot of that took place in Kehjistan. The Mage Clan Wars — all of that kind of thing took place in Kehjistan. There’s a lot of history buried in the sands under Kehjistan; and speaking of buried, we have these ancient Triune Cult ruins that radiate this dark power — sort of thrumming with dark energy; the triune who is responsible for helping Lilith return to Sanctuary, as you saw in our cinematic, they also worship the Prime Evils; and they are hastening their master’s return to Sanctuary.

The people who live in Kehjistan have just lost any hope of any kind of rescue. Demons are looking in the sands around them, Lilith’s agents wear the smiling faces of their friends and trusted family members. There’s this horrible paranoia and suspicion that beats down on the people who live in Kehjistan like the hot sun above them.

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That. (I forgot about that)

I’m looking forward to the ability to travel from New Tristram to Cal Diem by walking/riding mount instead of instantly jumping there because we took a merchant’s cart (after we burned the body of Cain).

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Please … NO! Diablo must stay gothic, not anime.

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Sorry not going to happen yet, New Tristram is not in the base D4 game.

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What about Steam Punk? (a la GoD set)

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Dang those D3 comparisons, idk if most ppl hold that opinion that you stated where D3’s chars are superior to D2’s. May i ask, did you grow up on diablo 3 instead of diablo 2, most likely? Usually that’s the case when someone thinks D3’s way was better.

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Desert and Jungle are not gothic, yet still Diablo.
I’d really like some medieval asian influenced region. Xiansai is just above Scosglen, that would be a good place to explore in an expansion.

No please no ^^ Steampunk doesn’t belong in the medieval world of Sanctuary.

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I grew up playing both games, in sequential order for many years, and I formed my educated opinion based on said personal playtime across many years for both.

And also it’s painfully obvious how bland vanilla LoD is, and it’s the MODS that extended its life expectancy.

Got a problem with people saying D2 stuff sucks, eh? Cash it ousside, howbowdah?

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Desert and Jungle are not gothic, yet still Diablo.

The less such things, the better. Diablo must stay nordic.

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i dont care about lack of originality, i only care about the game wont be have broken items/mechanics or lack of content/fun/things to do…