Why are blizzard games so bad now?

Multiplayer Discussion
41

That is debatable, and depends on what you consider the “good” (and “bad,” of course) of capitalism.

42

I’ve enjoyed going back and playing Half Life and even Doom. I think shooters lend themselves a bit more towards replay somehow. That and some platformers.

I dropped out of WoW about the same time. It just felt more like work than play. WoW Vanilla doesn’t appeal to me though, as I remember all to well how much of a pain it was running all the way to BFE just to find out the quest start was somewhere else because there wasn’t a minimap guide or anything. I spent so much time running around Dun Morag and Lakeshire… :slight_smile:

Relevant quote from the master (Tolkien): “There’s no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same.”

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43

One word “ACTIVISION”

44

I’ll be honest, I first played Diablo 2 when I was a teenager (around 8-10 years ago, maybe), and I did not care for it. The corpse runs were an irritating chore at best, the skill system was mediocre by modern standards (there are a lot of skills that are utterly useless at higher levels), and the controls were incredibly clunky (especially when it came to swapping between skills).

The only thing I actually liked about Diablo 2 compared to Diablo 3 was the fights themselves. Individual monsters feel like more of a threat, the pacing is slower and there’s more ebb and flow to any given fight. Diablo 3’s fights have some redeeming qualities, but I’ve always felt like the fights were over too quickly, and individual monsters were too weak.

I played through Diablo 2’s campaign once, and I haven’t touched it since.

45

I liked the 1.10 patch (which you would have had) skill system as you could usually get most builds to work through all but the final section (forgot name, where you fight every boss at once). Grimm Dawn is right now the only skill system that I think is better than D2s, but opinions vary obviously =p

Agree with you on D3’s fighting system. It is fun but the enemies never feel like they’re a threat unless they had crazy modifiers. Yes, you can die, etc. (I play HC in both) but the enemies just don’t feel scary in D3 by design whereas all the enemy units in Hell (Act IV) and Act I (Tristram) feel decent for their area and level in D2. Note: Act 2 was bad in both games in my opinion and Act 3 was annoying more than scary until Mephisto’s area where the units get back to being "ohh %$%#!)

46

Well, I think I had the 1.10 patch, but when I was playing a Summon Necromancer, it became apparent around Act 2 that my Skeletons were never going to be useful again; which made me sad, and frustrated because there didn’t seem to be any easy way to get those skill points back.

From my point of view, having played a lot of newer games where skill systems became much more refined and streamlined (WoW, etc.), Diablo 2’s skill system seemed outdated and clunky by comparison.

I actually really like the way that Diablo 3’s monsters are designed (there are many different varieties of monsters with lots of diverse combat roles, and many of those monsters have entirely unique abilities/behaviors), but the fights feel too fast-paced to really showcase the work that went into those monsters.

You either kill them all in a matter of seconds with AoE damage, or they corner you and kill you in a matter of seconds with insane burst damage.

47

I am suddenly really interested in how as a Necromancer Skeleton army is how I use to play the game primarily (only level 99 I ever had). Skeleton armies tend to do decently well

Agree on liking how they’re programmed/designed. As you say the fights are just too fast against the ‘trash mobs’ to make them feel like anything other than flies once you eclipse maybe level 20 or so.

48

Well, my skeleton warriors died in a matter of seconds in almost every encounter I had. Their health and damage didn’t look like it was going to scale well at all, so I mostly had to rely on other summons for my run.

Well, if you adjust your build correctly (balancing just right between offense and defense) and you select an appropriate difficulty, you can actually have encounters that feel properly paced. The monsters don’t one-shot you if they manage to close the distance, and you don’t instantly clear out entire rooms. But that requires effort and a fair amount of game knowledge.