One thing that I haven’t been able to understand about Blizzard is their blatant disregard for utilizing the blueprint that was Diablo 2. Now, hear me out. Diablo 2 wasn’t perfect, but ask any or most Diablo fans, and they will tell you that those were our most fond days as Diablo players.
- Diablo 2’s lobby.
When Diablo 3 was announced and finally released, I was shocked to see that there was no lobby where you could see everyone’s characters, chat with one another, browse and create games with customized names, level restrictions, and descriptions, as well as leaderboards.
With Diablo 4, they had a chance to make this a reality but chose not to utilize this beloved tool. Why? Beats me.
- Itemization.
In my opinion (and this may be biased due to my knowledge of Diablo 2’s item catalog), Diablo 2 has one of, if not the best, itemization of any ARPG I’ve played. When an item drops in Diablo 2, not only are rares actually rare, but uniques and set items are VERY rare (good ones anyway). When an Occulus, Shako, Arreat’s Face, Grandfather, Windforce, Ring, Amulet, etc. would drop, you got excited because you knew what you were potentially getting and how much value this item would have in trade rooms to work for the gear you wanted.
- Trading.
Blizzard inherently has this notion that things are just bad and that you don’t want them. Says who? Where? Why did we not want trading? We do. Diablo 2 players are not unfamiliar with trading; we embrace it. The act of trading is actually kind of fun, involving communication, bargaining, negotiating, etc. You never knew what you might get from a trade, and it was kind of like a scavenger hunt (just like itemization).
- Bosses meant something.
When you fought a boss in Diablo 2, you might eventually get them on farm, and it may not be such a big deal. But soloing Duriel as a barbarian? Do you know how many times people have died to that chill effect? On top of him being a one speedy demon hitting like a truck. Those were the good old days. Hell, just about every boss was a nightmare for a barb, honestly. In Diablo 4, however, these bosses don’t feel like, well, bosses. This can be fixed, but they need to address it.
- INFINITE NUMBERS.
Logically, eventually you can identify any number as high or low, for example, hitting for 150million could be big, but so could hitting for 15k. Numbers essentially don’t matter, but eventually it becomes a bit ridiculous, or at least it feels that way for me. It’s easier to keep track of the true meaning behind how much you hit for. Right now, you can clear most content by hitting for around 300-500k. Anything above that for the majority of the game just feels like overkill. Just scale the numbers back. There’s nothing wrong with starting people out hitting for 1-4 damage, then 13-48, 300-700, 1,500-2,500, capping out at maybe 10-15k. Blizzard is trigger-happy with the big numbers, and it just becomes ridiculous to see these huge numbers where you can’t even keep track of them anymore and having no sense of what they really mean.
- Monster level scaling.
Everyone has already mentioned this, but I was looking forward to potentially going back to lower-level areas for revenge or fun while progressing through the Fractured Peaks. That was until I realized that level scaling was a thing and that it wouldn’t happen the way I was thinking. I can still go back to World Tier 1, sure, but it’s not quite the same as being in Nightmare at level 46 and going back to Normal to farm Mephisto, Diablo, or Baal a few times before continuing your Nightmare difficulty playthrough. I’m not sure how Blizzard could recreate the replay value of D2 difficulties in D4, but there has to be a way.
- Skill Tree and power progression.
Maxing out skills to 20 points felt good. When you finally maxed out an ability, you could feel the difference. Every point made you stronger, and that normally reflected in your gameplay as well as being able to see the exact amount of damage you did in the character stat menu. As people have stated, in Diablo 4, you just feel weaker as you progress, which does happen in Diablo 2 as well, but not until you reach Nightmare/Hell difficulties, where you obviously face a significant skill and gear check.
I wrote this very abruptly on a work break, but these are just some quick thoughts I’ve had about the glory days of Diablo 2 compared to Diablo 4 today. I love the Diablo IP and want to see it do well, but it’s tough seeing not only all the criticism of the game, but the reality that a lot of it is true.
Also, these are just my opinions and I’m curious to see if people generally agree or think that some of these designs in Diablo 2 were crap and I’m insane.