If a dev at blizz get a chance to read this, everyone is going to see the trailer for D4 and say: Looks dark, looks grim, looks… ‘Good so far.’ Expecting a D2 feel, that’s what everyone will say.
D2 had memorable soundtracks, story, and playthrough. But there was a unique difficulty. D3 introduced torments, which did work for me in the beginning, but became stale after your character became too strong. I know D2 won’t work today, everyone wants play-ability after they beat it and something different… but I just think the game should be hard. With crazy abilities and crisp mechanics now, if the enemies are going to be pretty simple, I think they should be really hard to beat. I remember the first few times I faced Andariel, Duriel, and Meph… They were really tough… and the unique side quests in between were too. So, my two cents is … the first play through is most unique. Players go back all the time for more play-throughs, and if the regular difficulty is hard, then it says “wow… this game is tough, I forgot how hard this game was.” Most players will have an idea what they’re doing, some will enjoy, some will try to ‘speed run’, so make it tough for all! What if gear was rather weak at first, so finding a gem of a weapon was amazing? D2 had that certain feeling… like you needed to really find an upgrade. Lots of greys/whites to sell, some rares, if you found a legendary it was like… gold mine! Always something decent. D3 missed that mark, lots of crappy legendaries. Have enemies hit back really hard too. I don’t know about the dodge mechanic… it will favor some players and some won’t like it… and ranged classes benefit more than melee … I just don’t know. But, if the enemies are dynamic, it shouldn’t be major. I would prefer it if the enemies had more abilities and mechanics, I want to feel like I’m really going through hell playing this game. For it’s time, D2 did accomplish that and D3 in the last 2 acts. Please consider city pvp and an online community server like there was for D2. That would engage a bigger audience, more sustainability.
I liked enemies in D2/D3 that had slow abilities that I had to avoid if I was on a tough difficulty. But if I could just farm them, it lost the lack luster, depending on if the game’s culture was in a mode of … farming or if I was just trying to enjoy the game itself.
I will add, to any haters of D3… go back and play act 4, act 5 … there’s a lot of depth, plenty of difficulty… I would look to act 4 and 5 of D3 for inspiration for D4, act 1 was memorable as well, except Leo’s mechanics were far too easy. Maybe add more phases and different abilities for the act bosses, fast abilities, so they’re harder to predict. A good difficulty is one where you lose to the last act boss, and it’s so damn tough that they laugh at you, you have to farm to go face him again, and maybe LOSE AGAIN! It differs for each player but that’s what I enjoy. Then when you grind the previous area for a new weapon or skill to beat him, it feels worth it… and adjust the next Act’s monsters to be really hard! like miniature bosses of the previous act. Act 2 was tough in D2! but in D3 it was a joke, and the game was easy until Acts 4/5.
Cheers.
