And being an action arcade game makes it a bad game?
A lot of people prefer those over RPGs so I don’t think that’s an argument for it being a bad game. If anything, just for it not being a good sequel to D1/D2.
I always felt like the RPG elements in D2 were more in my way than adding to my fun. When it comes to RPGs, I like something that has a little more depth and slow paced (something like Neverwinter Nights or Ultima). When it comes to hack and slash fun, I don’t wanna spend too much time dealing with RPG elements. I care about the combat mechanics and playing the characters. D2 and other isometric ARPGs always struck me as an awkward middle ground.
Being an old guy, I played all three Diablo games while they were current, and D3: RoS (as it is today) is by far my favorite of the three.
D2: LoD was my favorite PC game for a long time. However, I tried to go back and play it several months ago when I was without Internet access, and I could only do so for maybe 30 minutes before I got totally bored with it. I don’t imagine that D1 would hold my attention for very long anymore, either.
Yeah… im not talking about enchantress games or p8 games, im strictly talking about solo play or playing among a small group a friends, ofc if you are wanting to skip part of the journy, stick to the most linear driven path such as trist till 12, tal rasha tombs till 20, etc etc… sure you can get up to hell mode really quick joining the right games, spamming night mare baal runs, hell baal runs in player 8 games. I would say some of those scenarios fall under being rushed, i’m not talking about being rushed.
Most of the p8 baal runs I’ve seen were mainly driven by 1-2 maybe 3 people who deserved to be there in terms of their killing potential… even despite all that, you aren’t gonna be hitting 85 ( and effectively killing hell minions ) sooner that someone can hit lvl 70 in diablo 3, get their sets and jump into t10 max legendaries… Kind of takes the thrill of the grind away to me, sure in d3 you get your BiS weapon ancient with good rolls and you can use a cube on it right away feels good but not nearly as good as hitting those power spikes in d2, just my thoughts. I mean yeah if my buddy hopped on with a fresh toon, I could p lvl him, hit the right spots, dump gear on him and within 1-2 hours hes pushing 80 and can do his own mf runs but again, different scenario then starting just fresh from scratch and mainly soloing.
Smart loot completely ruins the game. Legendaries being the only viable items means that smart loot would just make legendaries Generic Item Templates like in “Diablo” 3. Magic, Rare, Unique, Set, Crafted items, new types,… Every items needs to have a reason for existing.
Objectively speaking, youre talking about someone setting the world record and im talking about the the people within the bell curve… The scenario you are referencing is way out of the scope for the average person who gathers 1-2 buddies to trek through d2 not to mention, i’d argue that he had a bit of streamer privilege there no? Hes got people feeding him gold and from what I can tell, hes not even really killing stuff hes just using pure utility… This is way outside the scope of 99% of the population and requires a lot of dedicated people.
Even then, it’s still easier to get to lvl 70 on d3 with no rush… I mean its fairly easy to hit 70 in d3 and that was my argument initially. Really if anything the example mrllamasc is proving my example further, they acted like a well oil machine and had various jobs, pooling gold/resources to achieve their goals.
Those micro-adjustments are entirely necessary to A) maintain the Hexing Pants buff to damage and resource generation and B) maintain 100% DPS while evading enemy attacks.
The terrible itemization gave birth to “smart loot” because the only good stats were Primary, IAS, CHD, Crit… I’m not at all complaining about the drop rate. “Diablo” 3 needs a very high drop rate since there’s only a single viable item for each item slot and it has to roll ancient and have the right stats since Legendaries are just Generic Item Templates rather than unique. Generic Item Templates work for Magic and Rare items in D2. D2’s crafting is basically a Semi-Fixed Item Template where you, depending on chosen recipe, have 2-3 fixed stats and some generated ones.
The fact that “smart Loot” wasn’t even guaranteed only made the few times you found an off-class item particularly annoying as “Diablo” 3 is designed around not ever playing multiple classes (Smart Loot, One-time Season Rewards,…)
No it’s really just a lazy way for devs to try to make balancing easier but the game often just ends up less interesting (and often less balanced) because there’s always less choice. It’s basically what happened when game dev went from an art form (still is for some, talking generally) to mass-produced strealined junk…
The new generation of gamers has grown up with mtx, forced rotations and fixed roles being at the core of every game…
No, in fact, I mentioned before. I really enjoy the playstyle of games like Final Fantasy XIV and D3 where it’s all about developing the mechanics to keep your numbers going. Maximize your DPS efficiency. That kind of stuff.
While there are a couple of elements I like in D3, I GREATLY prefer D2.
I still play both D1 and D2 on a very regular basis, but I haven’t played D3 in a couple of years.
It was just by mere happenstance that I heard about D4 earlier this week, and I do have to say I am very interested to see how it turns out, but I do not have high hopes.
As much as I absolutely love D1 and D2, I do not expect D4 to have anywhere near the impact on me that those two games have had. I attribute that impact to David Brevik and the rest of the Blizzard North team, and we don’t have that anymore.
MrLlamaSC and others have done it but they’re obviously very experienced.