To be honest, and I have the feeling I'll be crucified for this: I don't understand the love Diablo 2 has garnered over the years. The Diablo series managed to co-opt and narrow the term “ARPG” to mean an isometric, point-and-click game through its sheer popularity, and over twenty years later Diablo 2 is still considered the ARPG among many gamers. Blizzard gave Diablo 2 quite the tune up with Diablo II: Resurrected, but is the game still a “masterpiece” with a new paint job? TL;DR at end.
I got D2:R because I played Diablo IV's beta as a necromancer and enjoyed that a good bit. Necromancers are rarely offered as an option, so it felt fresh summoning an army out of recently-slain corpses. I figured D4's launch would suck (nailed it, though you don't have to be Nostradamus to know Blizzard has a failure streak to maintain) and I didn't want to pay $70 to wait for a game to be good. So I got D2:R (and 3, on sale as a combo) as I figured, “When people say “Diablo”, they mean Diablo 2. It's gotta be good.”
So, is it?
To sum up my thoughts: kind of, not really. Many games are important, defining moments of the medium and easily cement their place in history; the harder part is still remaining good – or even playable – years later. With the press of the 'G' key, the game immediately shifts over to the original audio/visuals and good lord, have things improved. More remasters need to offer this, if for nothing other than the five seconds you'll spend in the old graphics to know you were wise to buy the remaster.
I'd say Blizzard was able to breathe a lot of life into Diablo 2 thanks to hard work on the visuals, but it still plays like a very old game and I fail to see why this is considered one of the greats when most of it is a bland and repetitive snore. I'm pretty sure the only reason I had fun at all was because I played with a friend, but every game is improved with friends, so that's hardly a "pro" to me. Alone, D2:R is almost dreadful.
The story has excellently rendered cutscenes accompanying each of its five Acts, but you'll never care about what's going on. Diablo was an asshole but someone killed him, oh wait he's coming back to life, kill him again. That's the game. The world is a few varied landscapes depending on the Act but there's nothing to learn about it except through maybe “gossip” dialogue options of NPCs. That's fine for me: I don't need to know more, they already lost me and they're sure to lose you, too.
The visuals all look good with great textures and the animations clearly kept the “jerking” look of yore intentionally; all very solid. Again, you can go back and look at the old textures and sounds with one button press, then right back to the Resurrected look when you realize how awful that was.
The UI is pretty terrible and probably my least favorite part of the game's experience. Only two buttons are shown, your left and right mouse clicks, and you can look through a clunky menu or use the F-row of keys to swap between abilities. 'W' can be pressed to switch weapons instantly to a second set, which can have its own presets. I don't think there's any denying that this feels bizarrely limited and stiff to navigate. For some reason, the controller support is quite good, where they bump that number from two visible inputs to five, and you can hold a trigger down to see five more! This is huge!... but since I prefer playing on a mouse and keyboard, I'm stuck with the clunky shit, memorizing what each key from F1 through F8 does and whether its assigned to M1 or M2. Very disappointing. At least key remapping works well?
ARPGs, as now-defined by Diablo, never interested me much. I think they're pretty boring. Your abilities rarely change and while boss fights may be exciting changes of pace, the game is almost always going to be a grind. By design you're supposed to walk into a room and, through basically muscle memory, wipe the whole place out, probably without opening your eyes. You will then do this several hundred times with little to no variety. Because your inputs are so miserable, having to actually swap between abilities on the fly is a nuisance and the developers seem to know this, so it's walk in, slaughter, move on.
To overly simplify, as I see it, there's really only two styles of gameplay: direct and summoners. Barbarians, Amazons, etc. are direct: they'll attack each enemy directly with their melee or ranged weapon and aside from maybe your slave-- I mean “hired help”, you're doing all the damage on your own. Necromancers and druids are summoners: they spawn an army to do their bidding for them and are largely managerial, making sure their wolves or their skeletons are full in number. Occasionally, they chip in with melee or ranged attacks, too, but their power comes from their numbers.
Summoners are insanely strong. I played as a necromancer while my buddy played as a druid, and together we just ran through most of this game while our combined armies tore shit up. This made the game pretty boring, honestly. Only Diablo and his brother, Baal, forced us to actually try and play differently. Two boss fights across god knows how many hours, that's it. Most of this game played itself for us.
Direct fighters are laborious. I've played a few hours as an Amazon, and while it's nice to actually have a direct role in the death of my enemies, now it's all on me. Everything has slowed way down, and since I've beaten the game as a necromancer, I know exactly how much more I have to go and it seems like quite the painful endeavor without someone else there acting as a summoner. It's less “boring”, I suppose, but not in a very good way. I doubt I'll finish as my Amazon.
You ever have a friend recommend you a TV show with the addendum, “Oh, the first season sucks, you gotta get through it because the second is where it gets good!”? You're probably not watching that show, right? People do that with games, too, of course: “Final Fantasy XIII gets good twenty/thirty hours in.” Diablo 2 is the first time I've ever seen a game really start to get good only after you've beaten the entire thing and can go through again on Nightmare difficulty.
Once beaten, you can just start the whole thing over again immediately as your same character. You keep all your gear and whatever is in your storage box. In the starting zone for the second time, my buddy and I finally started getting good loot. Maybe it was because we didn't play as Ladder characters, but we rarely ever saw yellow gear on Normal, it was now on Nightmare that we finally got a bit more of a challenge (as summoners, mind you) and loot to accompany the added trouble.
I have the ball rolling on that slightly better Nightmare playthrough, but I'm not sure I'll finish. I feel comfortable reviewing the game here. Finishing that Amazon's playthrough is even less likely. How can I possibly recommend a game to someone when it takes an entire playthrough to start feeling something from it? Most of my first playthrough felt like I was atrophying and the game ran on autopilot.
Maybe the real Diablo was the sheer number of times we had to teleport back to base to sell all of our junk along the way.
TL;DR This game isn't very fun to me, regardless of your class's play style. I like the variety offered (necromancers, hell yeah), but really it boils down to just two styles and they both have issues. As far as “classics you need to try” go, this isn't one of them.
Also, it has been two years and yet if you don't cap your frame rate in the settings, D2:R will try to set your computer on fire. Why hasn't Blizzard patched this? Other than attempting to melt your hardware, this is a pretty good remaster of a boring game.
I got D2:R because I played Diablo IV's beta as a necromancer and enjoyed that a good bit. Necromancers are rarely offered as an option, so it felt fresh summoning an army out of recently-slain corpses. I figured D4's launch would suck (nailed it, though you don't have to be Nostradamus to know Blizzard has a failure streak to maintain) and I didn't want to pay $70 to wait for a game to be good. So I got D2:R (and 3, on sale as a combo) as I figured, “When people say “Diablo”, they mean Diablo 2. It's gotta be good.”
So, is it?
To sum up my thoughts: kind of, not really. Many games are important, defining moments of the medium and easily cement their place in history; the harder part is still remaining good – or even playable – years later. With the press of the 'G' key, the game immediately shifts over to the original audio/visuals and good lord, have things improved. More remasters need to offer this, if for nothing other than the five seconds you'll spend in the old graphics to know you were wise to buy the remaster.
I'd say Blizzard was able to breathe a lot of life into Diablo 2 thanks to hard work on the visuals, but it still plays like a very old game and I fail to see why this is considered one of the greats when most of it is a bland and repetitive snore. I'm pretty sure the only reason I had fun at all was because I played with a friend, but every game is improved with friends, so that's hardly a "pro" to me. Alone, D2:R is almost dreadful.
The story has excellently rendered cutscenes accompanying each of its five Acts, but you'll never care about what's going on. Diablo was an asshole but someone killed him, oh wait he's coming back to life, kill him again. That's the game. The world is a few varied landscapes depending on the Act but there's nothing to learn about it except through maybe “gossip” dialogue options of NPCs. That's fine for me: I don't need to know more, they already lost me and they're sure to lose you, too.
The visuals all look good with great textures and the animations clearly kept the “jerking” look of yore intentionally; all very solid. Again, you can go back and look at the old textures and sounds with one button press, then right back to the Resurrected look when you realize how awful that was.
The UI is pretty terrible and probably my least favorite part of the game's experience. Only two buttons are shown, your left and right mouse clicks, and you can look through a clunky menu or use the F-row of keys to swap between abilities. 'W' can be pressed to switch weapons instantly to a second set, which can have its own presets. I don't think there's any denying that this feels bizarrely limited and stiff to navigate. For some reason, the controller support is quite good, where they bump that number from two visible inputs to five, and you can hold a trigger down to see five more! This is huge!... but since I prefer playing on a mouse and keyboard, I'm stuck with the clunky shit, memorizing what each key from F1 through F8 does and whether its assigned to M1 or M2. Very disappointing. At least key remapping works well?
ARPGs, as now-defined by Diablo, never interested me much. I think they're pretty boring. Your abilities rarely change and while boss fights may be exciting changes of pace, the game is almost always going to be a grind. By design you're supposed to walk into a room and, through basically muscle memory, wipe the whole place out, probably without opening your eyes. You will then do this several hundred times with little to no variety. Because your inputs are so miserable, having to actually swap between abilities on the fly is a nuisance and the developers seem to know this, so it's walk in, slaughter, move on.
To overly simplify, as I see it, there's really only two styles of gameplay: direct and summoners. Barbarians, Amazons, etc. are direct: they'll attack each enemy directly with their melee or ranged weapon and aside from maybe your slave-- I mean “hired help”, you're doing all the damage on your own. Necromancers and druids are summoners: they spawn an army to do their bidding for them and are largely managerial, making sure their wolves or their skeletons are full in number. Occasionally, they chip in with melee or ranged attacks, too, but their power comes from their numbers.
Summoners are insanely strong. I played as a necromancer while my buddy played as a druid, and together we just ran through most of this game while our combined armies tore shit up. This made the game pretty boring, honestly. Only Diablo and his brother, Baal, forced us to actually try and play differently. Two boss fights across god knows how many hours, that's it. Most of this game played itself for us.
Direct fighters are laborious. I've played a few hours as an Amazon, and while it's nice to actually have a direct role in the death of my enemies, now it's all on me. Everything has slowed way down, and since I've beaten the game as a necromancer, I know exactly how much more I have to go and it seems like quite the painful endeavor without someone else there acting as a summoner. It's less “boring”, I suppose, but not in a very good way. I doubt I'll finish as my Amazon.
You ever have a friend recommend you a TV show with the addendum, “Oh, the first season sucks, you gotta get through it because the second is where it gets good!”? You're probably not watching that show, right? People do that with games, too, of course: “Final Fantasy XIII gets good twenty/thirty hours in.” Diablo 2 is the first time I've ever seen a game really start to get good only after you've beaten the entire thing and can go through again on Nightmare difficulty.
Once beaten, you can just start the whole thing over again immediately as your same character. You keep all your gear and whatever is in your storage box. In the starting zone for the second time, my buddy and I finally started getting good loot. Maybe it was because we didn't play as Ladder characters, but we rarely ever saw yellow gear on Normal, it was now on Nightmare that we finally got a bit more of a challenge (as summoners, mind you) and loot to accompany the added trouble.
I have the ball rolling on that slightly better Nightmare playthrough, but I'm not sure I'll finish. I feel comfortable reviewing the game here. Finishing that Amazon's playthrough is even less likely. How can I possibly recommend a game to someone when it takes an entire playthrough to start feeling something from it? Most of my first playthrough felt like I was atrophying and the game ran on autopilot.
Maybe the real Diablo was the sheer number of times we had to teleport back to base to sell all of our junk along the way.
TL;DR This game isn't very fun to me, regardless of your class's play style. I like the variety offered (necromancers, hell yeah), but really it boils down to just two styles and they both have issues. As far as “classics you need to try” go, this isn't one of them.
Also, it has been two years and yet if you don't cap your frame rate in the settings, D2:R will try to set your computer on fire. Why hasn't Blizzard patched this? Other than attempting to melt your hardware, this is a pretty good remaster of a boring game.
you knew it was all over when they cooked up a "loving tribute faithful remaster" and they made lightning blue puffs. a deliberate and black-hearted botch job.
A very faithful remake of a video game from the year 2000, dated gameplay and all.
For better or worse, Diablo 2: Resurrected is a pretty faithful remake of the original. Within a few minutes of starting the game, I was brought back to the same game I dropped a few hundreds hours on in middle school with my friends. But the more I spent time with it, the more I noticed all the missing improvements that newer games have brought to this genre in the last 20 years. I was literally just playing a game from the year 2000, but prettier.
I spent about 100 hours on Diablo 3 on console and I liked it quite a bit. I maxed every character and got the Plat. So going back to Diablo 2 was more of a shock than I imagined it would be. The inventory is tiny, spells and abilities don't pack as much of a punch, environments are sparse, enemies are uninteresting, the gameplay is slower, and controlling it on console was an absolute drag. Once the nostalgia wore off, I realized just how bored I was and how much I wished I was playing Diablo 3. Even though I've always had a bit of trouble going back to old games, I hoped a remake of one of my childhood favorites would've been different, but I couldn't even make it past Act 2.
+ Fantastic update to the older visuals
+ Faithful remake of the original
+ Good nostalgia
- Could've used with some modern updates to make it feel less dated
- Terrible to control on console (especially the menus)
For better or worse, Diablo 2: Resurrected is a pretty faithful remake of the original. Within a few minutes of starting the game, I was brought back to the same game I dropped a few hundreds hours on in middle school with my friends. But the more I spent time with it, the more I noticed all the missing improvements that newer games have brought to this genre in the last 20 years. I was literally just playing a game from the year 2000, but prettier.
I spent about 100 hours on Diablo 3 on console and I liked it quite a bit. I maxed every character and got the Plat. So going back to Diablo 2 was more of a shock than I imagined it would be. The inventory is tiny, spells and abilities don't pack as much of a punch, environments are sparse, enemies are uninteresting, the gameplay is slower, and controlling it on console was an absolute drag. Once the nostalgia wore off, I realized just how bored I was and how much I wished I was playing Diablo 3. Even though I've always had a bit of trouble going back to old games, I hoped a remake of one of my childhood favorites would've been different, but I couldn't even make it past Act 2.
+ Fantastic update to the older visuals
+ Faithful remake of the original
+ Good nostalgia
- Could've used with some modern updates to make it feel less dated
- Terrible to control on console (especially the menus)
This might be a very controversial opinion but I think Diablo II aged just a tiny bit better than the original, and I started to even hate the gameplay of it by the end.
Diablo II was the game that pretty much streamlined what an ARPG can be, and upgraded upon everything from the original. It has a wide class selection, big maps, many monsters and demons to slay, good loot and the list goes on.
However, every change was mostly good for it's own time, and today, the game itself is just tedious to play, starting from the very limited customization (you can build your character differently, but some builds just not worth it at all), the geniusly boring dungeon designs and the bosses that are just so damn powerful, that if you do not build your character in a certain way, they will kill you in seconds.
This results in a brutal frustration where the player tries to enjoy the gameplay loop, but the game constantly reminds the player of it's age, despite the remastered graphics, and becomes this nightmare to enjoy. The remaster is gorgeous, it looks really good, but it is literally the old game, with a new coat of paint.
This game needed a remake, not a remaster, as the foundations are great, and for it's time, it was a masterpiece, but you cannot enjoy it today without nostalgia goggles, and sadly, I do not have those when I need them the most.
Diablo II was the game that pretty much streamlined what an ARPG can be, and upgraded upon everything from the original. It has a wide class selection, big maps, many monsters and demons to slay, good loot and the list goes on.
However, every change was mostly good for it's own time, and today, the game itself is just tedious to play, starting from the very limited customization (you can build your character differently, but some builds just not worth it at all), the geniusly boring dungeon designs and the bosses that are just so damn powerful, that if you do not build your character in a certain way, they will kill you in seconds.
This results in a brutal frustration where the player tries to enjoy the gameplay loop, but the game constantly reminds the player of it's age, despite the remastered graphics, and becomes this nightmare to enjoy. The remaster is gorgeous, it looks really good, but it is literally the old game, with a new coat of paint.
This game needed a remake, not a remaster, as the foundations are great, and for it's time, it was a masterpiece, but you cannot enjoy it today without nostalgia goggles, and sadly, I do not have those when I need them the most.
Só tinha jogado o Diablo 3 até hoje, e mesmo assim nunca fui muito fundo nele, quanto mais joguei Diablo 2 mais senti semelhanças com o Dark Souls original, ambos são meio "travados" para os padrões de jogabilidade de hoje em dia e cheios de sistemas mal explicados pelo próprio jogo, mas ambos dão uma sensação de satisfação parecida ao matar bosses ou conseguir deixar o personagem do jeito que você queria.
Provavelmente a maior "descoberta de franquia antiga" que vou fazer em 2023
Provavelmente a maior "descoberta de franquia antiga" que vou fazer em 2023
I fell in love with Diablo 3 when I first played it on the PS3 and also played through it a second time with reaper of souls. Imagine my excitement when I found out this was going to be released on consoles and was ready for the old school rpg experience. What turned into a great experience with a few friends on coop became a grueling nightmare that sucked the joy and life out of me with the constant bullshit by the end of the 2nd Act. Tried playing through this with several different classes and all ending up with the same outcome constant burnout of me thinking I made a solid build to just get decimated by Duriel for the thousandth time which also made other friends quit the game in frustration. I would play on easy if it was an option, but maybe I'm just not cut out for this unreal hardcore experience. I have lost any interest by this point with it and I am sure Diablo 4 will be better (I hope). Maybe I will one day come back to it, but certainly no time soon.
holy shit this was so boring
At it’s core, Diablo 2 feels like an attempt to just give people more Diablo 1. More dungeons, more quests, more locations, but still the same mouse driven hack and slash gameplay. That’s pretty standard for a sequel, I think, but what’s weird about Diablo 2 is how much it fits in with games released today. Basically, in addition to more of Diablo 1, they’ve also tried to heighten the experiences Diablo 1 gave.
For one, Loot is lootier, more disposable and more greed-inducing. Rather than a secondary thing in the first one, not all that different to how loot is handled in other RPGs of the time, loot is the primary driver besides quests here. There’s tons of little dungeons scattered throughout the game, each with a locked chest of randomized loot waiting at the end.
Multiplayer is also more competitive, with a ladder (at least in Resurrected, not sure about the original release), but also just feels more global. What comes out of this in particular isn’t a live service game, but you can feel what would become GaaS forming around you, like an addictive husk. In a way I think you can blame much of the issues the game industry faces today on Diablo 2, but I think you’d be overeager to do that. You can see where the shockwaves come from though, the focus on what Melos Han-Tani once called [“the treatmill”](https://melodicambient.neocities.org/posts/2020-12-20-Treatmills, or, Hades, Roguelites, and Gacha Games.html).
Honestly, beyond that, it’s a great 2001 PC dungeon crawler. I’m still not convinced by the mouse-driven controls (so much so that I got this on switch lol), but the art is gorgeous, the plot is interesting if a bit simple, and the whole experience is really like a roguelite with an enormous budget, and no permadeath lol. It’s got some bits that are beholden to the less desireable qualities of fantasy aesthetics of the time, particularly in the jungle and desert regions, but even those have enough wild successes to not call them anywhere close to a failure.
Basically, you should probably pirate this game.
For one, Loot is lootier, more disposable and more greed-inducing. Rather than a secondary thing in the first one, not all that different to how loot is handled in other RPGs of the time, loot is the primary driver besides quests here. There’s tons of little dungeons scattered throughout the game, each with a locked chest of randomized loot waiting at the end.
Multiplayer is also more competitive, with a ladder (at least in Resurrected, not sure about the original release), but also just feels more global. What comes out of this in particular isn’t a live service game, but you can feel what would become GaaS forming around you, like an addictive husk. In a way I think you can blame much of the issues the game industry faces today on Diablo 2, but I think you’d be overeager to do that. You can see where the shockwaves come from though, the focus on what Melos Han-Tani once called [“the treatmill”](https://melodicambient.neocities.org/posts/2020-12-20-Treatmills, or, Hades, Roguelites, and Gacha Games.html).
Honestly, beyond that, it’s a great 2001 PC dungeon crawler. I’m still not convinced by the mouse-driven controls (so much so that I got this on switch lol), but the art is gorgeous, the plot is interesting if a bit simple, and the whole experience is really like a roguelite with an enormous budget, and no permadeath lol. It’s got some bits that are beholden to the less desireable qualities of fantasy aesthetics of the time, particularly in the jungle and desert regions, but even those have enough wild successes to not call them anywhere close to a failure.
Basically, you should probably pirate this game.
Braindead game
i installed this hotnew 60 fps patch for PlugY but for some reason there was way less treasured BootY for me to admire&grab no matter how much i edited the droprates so i wouldnot recommend it..!
I am fully aware that this critical review is heavily influenced by my being spoiled by modern game mechanics and variety.
I never got around to playing Diablo 2 when I was younger and it still could at least be considered relatively modern. I remember briefly playing it at a friend's house and hating how you had to click everywhere to move. I grew up playing consoles so this seemed very cumbersome to me.
Anyway, I was very excited for Resurrected because Diablo 3 was a very fun co-op experience for my wife and me and now Diablo 2 is here with controller support. Let's goooo!
First issue: why did I have to buy two copies of this game to play it co-op? I don't believe that they couldn't have added local co-op if they wanted to. It's ok though because we got it when it was 50% off so we basically just paid full price for one copy. It all worked out.
But then we start playing and everything is just... blah. Act 1 is nothing but bland environments and getting swarmed by the same enemies over and over again with very little variance. The number of skills available to you is pretty lackluster and none of them are terribly exciting (for the two classes we chose at least). It's just a whole lot of "run forward and then stop and hold the A button".
The field areas are mostly just empty space and the dungeons are mostly just cluttered mazes. Some areas take upwards of 20 minutes to explore fully, and the fact that they are procedurally generated (and an always online connection while playing co-op) means that you can't stop to take a break when you need one unless you want to waste a bunch more time finding the dungeon that you needed to get to. There were multiple times that we were playing 30-60 minutes longer than we really wanted to because we had to get to the next waypoint or half of our current play session would have been wasted.
I like physical inventory systems, but since there is no way to expand your inventory, everything should have been smaller and you should have been able to rotate things like in Resident Evil 4. It's too easy to fill it up. What is the point of finding a crapload of loot if you don't want to pick up 90% of it because it'll just take up space?
Act 2 did at least make things a bit more exciting with the level and enemy design, but even that was just a step up.
We made it about halfway through Act 2 before we decided it wasn't worth our time. Couldn't imagine going through another 3 Acts of this monotonous gameplay. I definitely can understand that it was revolutionary when it came out, and I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy it, especially after likely D3 so much. I'm still looking forward to D4 and will definitely get that one.
I never got around to playing Diablo 2 when I was younger and it still could at least be considered relatively modern. I remember briefly playing it at a friend's house and hating how you had to click everywhere to move. I grew up playing consoles so this seemed very cumbersome to me.
Anyway, I was very excited for Resurrected because Diablo 3 was a very fun co-op experience for my wife and me and now Diablo 2 is here with controller support. Let's goooo!
First issue: why did I have to buy two copies of this game to play it co-op? I don't believe that they couldn't have added local co-op if they wanted to. It's ok though because we got it when it was 50% off so we basically just paid full price for one copy. It all worked out.
But then we start playing and everything is just... blah. Act 1 is nothing but bland environments and getting swarmed by the same enemies over and over again with very little variance. The number of skills available to you is pretty lackluster and none of them are terribly exciting (for the two classes we chose at least). It's just a whole lot of "run forward and then stop and hold the A button".
The field areas are mostly just empty space and the dungeons are mostly just cluttered mazes. Some areas take upwards of 20 minutes to explore fully, and the fact that they are procedurally generated (and an always online connection while playing co-op) means that you can't stop to take a break when you need one unless you want to waste a bunch more time finding the dungeon that you needed to get to. There were multiple times that we were playing 30-60 minutes longer than we really wanted to because we had to get to the next waypoint or half of our current play session would have been wasted.
I like physical inventory systems, but since there is no way to expand your inventory, everything should have been smaller and you should have been able to rotate things like in Resident Evil 4. It's too easy to fill it up. What is the point of finding a crapload of loot if you don't want to pick up 90% of it because it'll just take up space?
Act 2 did at least make things a bit more exciting with the level and enemy design, but even that was just a step up.
We made it about halfway through Act 2 before we decided it wasn't worth our time. Couldn't imagine going through another 3 Acts of this monotonous gameplay. I definitely can understand that it was revolutionary when it came out, and I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy it, especially after likely D3 so much. I'm still looking forward to D4 and will definitely get that one.
Fuck you for forcing me to make a goddamn Battle Net account on a separate device to be able to start the game.
Diablo 1 always gives me the experience of expeditions into the unknown. You slowly move through each floor of the ancient dungeon. You can open the door and there will be a sad skeleton king, or there will be a real treasure, nice piece of equipment. I feel that everything works correctly in Diablo 1.
Diablo 2 throw a village of goblins into your face. All of them are just meat, no potion is need to kill them. The player is a machine. Inventory gets full immediately so you have to jump into town every minute or just ignore all of this loot. And if you will jump into town to sell the loot, you can make 100k at the beginning of the game.
There is no danger, there is no fear. Just numbers.
Diablo 2 throw a village of goblins into your face. All of them are just meat, no potion is need to kill them. The player is a machine. Inventory gets full immediately so you have to jump into town every minute or just ignore all of this loot. And if you will jump into town to sell the loot, you can make 100k at the beginning of the game.
There is no danger, there is no fear. Just numbers.
The worst thing about nostalgia is that things usually aren't quite like we remember them. For Diablo 2, I didn't remember it as tedious, especially with inventory management. I never thought I'd say this but I do prefer Diablo 3 over 2.
It’s alright, I guess. It just never grabbed me.
I just don’t find it’s gameplay loop that exciting. D1 is actually better, imo
I just don’t find it’s gameplay loop that exciting. D1 is actually better, imo
Boring game for people with erectile dysfunction
Perhaps I treated you too harshly......then again, maybe not.
This game never set right with me after the torment it had given me and I had thrown in the towel, but momma didn't raise no quitter and it's become a very bad habit of mine to let sleeping dogs lie. Once I started to sink my teeth into the great game that is Diablo 4 this damn game kept sinking into the back of my mind to remind me of the unfinished journey I had started quite a while ago. Needless to say, I had finally conquered the deadly Duriel and dove into the hellscape that laid before me in the coming acts all the way to the credits.
Honestly, I can't say much has changed from the judgments I made before and after acquiring the full experience, some of the same issues still stand. The grind is truly the worst I had experienced in a Diablo game. Once I hit level 20 every level after felt like it took centuries until I made it to the lord of Destruction where XP kind of got a much-needed boost. The environments, monsters, and pure aesthetic of this game are one to see for any fans of this style of game and the cutscenes were gorgeous! I loved these things about the game. Although playing as a solo assassin was tough, I was fortunate to make this nice build that carried me to the end. Although some end-game bosses were insanely tough including bullshit hellish dinosaurs toward the end that can stun-lock you. This game certainly has to have one of the worst systems when you die where you have to run all the way back to your body to get your gear back. The enemy AI is damn smart too and will camp your body until you get there just to beat your ass again. These demons got no mercy!!
Glad I stuck through it after failing constantly and came back and fought to an accomplishing finish to the game. Give it a shot if you enjoy the others, but be warned it's a relentless old-school hardcore beast to tame.
This game never set right with me after the torment it had given me and I had thrown in the towel, but momma didn't raise no quitter and it's become a very bad habit of mine to let sleeping dogs lie. Once I started to sink my teeth into the great game that is Diablo 4 this damn game kept sinking into the back of my mind to remind me of the unfinished journey I had started quite a while ago. Needless to say, I had finally conquered the deadly Duriel and dove into the hellscape that laid before me in the coming acts all the way to the credits.
Honestly, I can't say much has changed from the judgments I made before and after acquiring the full experience, some of the same issues still stand. The grind is truly the worst I had experienced in a Diablo game. Once I hit level 20 every level after felt like it took centuries until I made it to the lord of Destruction where XP kind of got a much-needed boost. The environments, monsters, and pure aesthetic of this game are one to see for any fans of this style of game and the cutscenes were gorgeous! I loved these things about the game. Although playing as a solo assassin was tough, I was fortunate to make this nice build that carried me to the end. Although some end-game bosses were insanely tough including bullshit hellish dinosaurs toward the end that can stun-lock you. This game certainly has to have one of the worst systems when you die where you have to run all the way back to your body to get your gear back. The enemy AI is damn smart too and will camp your body until you get there just to beat your ass again. These demons got no mercy!!
Glad I stuck through it after failing constantly and came back and fought to an accomplishing finish to the game. Give it a shot if you enjoy the others, but be warned it's a relentless old-school hardcore beast to tame.
idk, man, it's Diablo 2, what do you want from me. one of the greatest to ever do it. hang Diablo 2's jersey from the rafters. frame it and put it in the louvre. let it retire to a peaceful life in the countryside.
A few years ago I reinstalled Diablo 2 from my battlechest disks and tried playing it and, man, all the quality of life type stuff that all the other ARPGs of the last twenty years is really nice and having zero of that in Diablo 2 was kinda rough because I am a big baby. But also it turns out Act 1 on Normal also just kinda sucks (at least for the classes I tend to play). You level up pretty slowly and it takes so long to really get going. So back in the day that made me put the game down pretty quickly. But not this time! I persevered and also they added just enough nice little QoL things that I truly do not mind the ways in which the game didn't get "updated".
I played all the way through on the updated graphics and they are, largely, fine but they really make me glad there's a quick toggle to swap back to the old graphics because it's so easy to see how artistically inferior the new shit is. Yeah, sure, it's all 3d rendered and got nicer lighting and particle effects and whatever but the vibe is wildly different. The darkness isn't as consuming and oppressive. There is so much more gray and brown. If you are interested in Diablo 2 as a Game To Click On Things then it doesn't really matter much but if you care about Diablo 2 as Art then it extremely matters!!
It's kinda wild to me that they've made balance changes and even added new items and runewords and shit! Somewhere there are people hiding in a basement hoping that the bean counters don't find out about them and ask "wait, you're spending how much time on this? for a game with no battlepass? or microtransactions? from how many years ago?" and I love that for them. It's cool to see it get items with some new mechanics and also they fixed Summoner Druid to be Actually Viable and I appreciate that a lot because I love all my killer puppies and big bear friend and weird forest spirit tentacle creature.
Act 2 was always my favorite act as a stupid teenager. But oh my god duuuude the fucking Maggot Lair!! All-timer for Worst Dungeon. Gotta be one of the worst. Trying to just move around is bad enough but then having to fight shit, too?? And good fuckin' luck if you're a dope like me who likes to play summoning classes. The rest of it is pretty alright. Just gotta watch out for those stupid lightning beetles, y'know.
Diablo 2 Nightmare Difficulty is still the sweetest sweet spot. You've got solid gear and you've got quite a few skills leveled up. You can actually kill shit and not immediately fucking die. It feels so good to play. It's the best part of the game. And then you get to Hell Difficulty. And it is so aptly named. You really gotta do a lot of extra farming for more levels and more loot and it's so miserable. I am simply past my "spending all day farming stuff" days. I got better shit to do. Apologies to socketed items and runewords and high-tier set items, I am simply in a different part of my life now.
Act 3 isn't good and it was never good. Annoying-ass maps with annoying-ass enemies, fuck Durance of Hate, fuck Mephisto, fuck Act 3, all my homies hate Act 3.
Playing this with someone who played the game once many years ago (long enough that this was essentially a fresh experience) was an absolute treat because so much of this game is deeply burned into my brain. Hearing reactions to story beats that I basically didn't remember because I was a hardcore ladder girly who didn't care about the story was fun. The first time we hit some beetles in Act 2 and got wrecked by lightning, they made some noises that were somewhere between a shriek and squeal and it was a delight. I highly recommend this extremely specific experience of playing the game.
The end of Act 4 is so fucking funny, dude. Like, imagine getting Diablo 2 before the expansion and the game just fucking ends there. Modern games could never. Extremely funny.
There's a new thing with "Terrorized" zones and I have no idea what's going on there? Like, the affected area has all the enemies made to be your level +2, so you can use areas you wouldn't normally be revisiting to get level-appropriate XP and loot but I don't fully understand if that's better than just your classic Baal runs or whatever-the-fuck.
Act 5 sure is Some Shit, huh. This time around I really noticed the small changes in things here. How, even back in 2001 or whatever, they were iterating and pushing on what was possible in the game.
I still haven't ever gotten to level 99. Or fought an Uber Diablo. Or gotten and Annihilus or Hellfire Torch. And I probably never will. And that's okay! But if I ever somehow get that desire, then this is a very solid version of the game to do it in!
In an industry that is so obsessed with franchises and selling you the same shit over and over and loves to do "remakes" that fundamentally change important aspects of games, this is one of the absolute least egregious examples of modern remake-thinking.
A few years ago I reinstalled Diablo 2 from my battlechest disks and tried playing it and, man, all the quality of life type stuff that all the other ARPGs of the last twenty years is really nice and having zero of that in Diablo 2 was kinda rough because I am a big baby. But also it turns out Act 1 on Normal also just kinda sucks (at least for the classes I tend to play). You level up pretty slowly and it takes so long to really get going. So back in the day that made me put the game down pretty quickly. But not this time! I persevered and also they added just enough nice little QoL things that I truly do not mind the ways in which the game didn't get "updated".
I played all the way through on the updated graphics and they are, largely, fine but they really make me glad there's a quick toggle to swap back to the old graphics because it's so easy to see how artistically inferior the new shit is. Yeah, sure, it's all 3d rendered and got nicer lighting and particle effects and whatever but the vibe is wildly different. The darkness isn't as consuming and oppressive. There is so much more gray and brown. If you are interested in Diablo 2 as a Game To Click On Things then it doesn't really matter much but if you care about Diablo 2 as Art then it extremely matters!!
It's kinda wild to me that they've made balance changes and even added new items and runewords and shit! Somewhere there are people hiding in a basement hoping that the bean counters don't find out about them and ask "wait, you're spending how much time on this? for a game with no battlepass? or microtransactions? from how many years ago?" and I love that for them. It's cool to see it get items with some new mechanics and also they fixed Summoner Druid to be Actually Viable and I appreciate that a lot because I love all my killer puppies and big bear friend and weird forest spirit tentacle creature.
Act 2 was always my favorite act as a stupid teenager. But oh my god duuuude the fucking Maggot Lair!! All-timer for Worst Dungeon. Gotta be one of the worst. Trying to just move around is bad enough but then having to fight shit, too?? And good fuckin' luck if you're a dope like me who likes to play summoning classes. The rest of it is pretty alright. Just gotta watch out for those stupid lightning beetles, y'know.
Diablo 2 Nightmare Difficulty is still the sweetest sweet spot. You've got solid gear and you've got quite a few skills leveled up. You can actually kill shit and not immediately fucking die. It feels so good to play. It's the best part of the game. And then you get to Hell Difficulty. And it is so aptly named. You really gotta do a lot of extra farming for more levels and more loot and it's so miserable. I am simply past my "spending all day farming stuff" days. I got better shit to do. Apologies to socketed items and runewords and high-tier set items, I am simply in a different part of my life now.
Act 3 isn't good and it was never good. Annoying-ass maps with annoying-ass enemies, fuck Durance of Hate, fuck Mephisto, fuck Act 3, all my homies hate Act 3.
Playing this with someone who played the game once many years ago (long enough that this was essentially a fresh experience) was an absolute treat because so much of this game is deeply burned into my brain. Hearing reactions to story beats that I basically didn't remember because I was a hardcore ladder girly who didn't care about the story was fun. The first time we hit some beetles in Act 2 and got wrecked by lightning, they made some noises that were somewhere between a shriek and squeal and it was a delight. I highly recommend this extremely specific experience of playing the game.
The end of Act 4 is so fucking funny, dude. Like, imagine getting Diablo 2 before the expansion and the game just fucking ends there. Modern games could never. Extremely funny.
There's a new thing with "Terrorized" zones and I have no idea what's going on there? Like, the affected area has all the enemies made to be your level +2, so you can use areas you wouldn't normally be revisiting to get level-appropriate XP and loot but I don't fully understand if that's better than just your classic Baal runs or whatever-the-fuck.
Act 5 sure is Some Shit, huh. This time around I really noticed the small changes in things here. How, even back in 2001 or whatever, they were iterating and pushing on what was possible in the game.
I still haven't ever gotten to level 99. Or fought an Uber Diablo. Or gotten and Annihilus or Hellfire Torch. And I probably never will. And that's okay! But if I ever somehow get that desire, then this is a very solid version of the game to do it in!
In an industry that is so obsessed with franchises and selling you the same shit over and over and loves to do "remakes" that fundamentally change important aspects of games, this is one of the absolute least egregious examples of modern remake-thinking.
Беспощадная сингл-гриндилка. Нужно фармить, но геймплей интереса не вызвал. Очередная необходимость перепроходить данж приводит только к глубокой прострации. Игра своего времени. Сейчас не вижу в ней смысла при наличии более проработанных аналогов.
O senhor das trevas retorna!
Diablo II diferente de seu antecessor, se tornou um jogo de mundo aberto, com aspectos claro dos RPGs ocidentais, uma atmosfera sombria e com uma trilha sonora que gruda na cabeça.
Deixo claro que pra mim Diablo II não envelheceu bem no quesito de gameplay, afinal ao criar o personagem você é jogado no meio do nada e vai andando pra la e pra ca até saber com quem conversar. O jogo não explica nada tão útil, deixando tudo pra você descobrir.
Resurrected segue fielmente a obra original dos anos 2000, mantendo os elementos old school e desafiadores de seus jogos.
Mudanças que deviam ocorrer!
Pra ser mais agradável a novos jogadores, Resurrected deveria alterar algumas coisas do jogo original, como o sistema de XP, colocar mais atalhos pras skills, um espaço de inventário maior e explicações sobre o sistema.
Sei que é um remaster, mas se tivesse alterado essas pequenas coisas do original, confesso que ele seria muito mais agradável pra quem quer começar na saga Diablo e com toda certeza, teria uma gameplay mais satisfatória até pros antigos.
O tal do "Fator Replay"
O jogo não lhe da muitos incentivos para zerar com as demais classes dele, mas se você quiser tomar a liberdade de fazer as run com classes que nunca jogou, você pode, e eu diria até que deve.
Zerar com outras classes é muito divertido e traz realmente a sensação de que você ta "debulhando" do jogo por completo. Cada classe é diferente e se adapta ao estilo de jogo de cada um, não tenho nem o que reclamar nesse ponto aqui já que eu me diverti muito fazendo as runs com classes que eu não havia jogado. Inclusive ainda to na jornada de zerar com todas elas!
A história sombria e atraente
Diablo II traz uma continuação direta de Diablo I. Não vou entrar tanto em detalhes pra não da spoilers. Mas só tenho a dizer que a narrativa é muito boa e as cutscenes estão muito bem trabalhadas, não posso definir que ela é de fácil entendimento. Apenas se torna fácil de entender se você já jogou o Diablo I, se jogar apenas o 2 é possível que você fique meio perdido ali na estrada.
É o melhor pra começar?
Não. Ele é um jogo antigo com sistemas que envelheceram mal, se for ligar apenas para gameplay esse é um dos jogos que você não deve jogar de início, indico fortemente iniciar pelo Diablo 3.
Mas se for ligar por ordem cronológica, inicie pelo 1 e adiante.
Porém fique avisado que os sistemas do Diablo II já tão capenga, e tu vai sofrer pra se acostumar se não for uma pessoa que gosta muito de jogo retro e da velha guarda.
Diablo II diferente de seu antecessor, se tornou um jogo de mundo aberto, com aspectos claro dos RPGs ocidentais, uma atmosfera sombria e com uma trilha sonora que gruda na cabeça.
Deixo claro que pra mim Diablo II não envelheceu bem no quesito de gameplay, afinal ao criar o personagem você é jogado no meio do nada e vai andando pra la e pra ca até saber com quem conversar. O jogo não explica nada tão útil, deixando tudo pra você descobrir.
Resurrected segue fielmente a obra original dos anos 2000, mantendo os elementos old school e desafiadores de seus jogos.
Mudanças que deviam ocorrer!
Pra ser mais agradável a novos jogadores, Resurrected deveria alterar algumas coisas do jogo original, como o sistema de XP, colocar mais atalhos pras skills, um espaço de inventário maior e explicações sobre o sistema.
Sei que é um remaster, mas se tivesse alterado essas pequenas coisas do original, confesso que ele seria muito mais agradável pra quem quer começar na saga Diablo e com toda certeza, teria uma gameplay mais satisfatória até pros antigos.
O tal do "Fator Replay"
O jogo não lhe da muitos incentivos para zerar com as demais classes dele, mas se você quiser tomar a liberdade de fazer as run com classes que nunca jogou, você pode, e eu diria até que deve.
Zerar com outras classes é muito divertido e traz realmente a sensação de que você ta "debulhando" do jogo por completo. Cada classe é diferente e se adapta ao estilo de jogo de cada um, não tenho nem o que reclamar nesse ponto aqui já que eu me diverti muito fazendo as runs com classes que eu não havia jogado. Inclusive ainda to na jornada de zerar com todas elas!
A história sombria e atraente
Diablo II traz uma continuação direta de Diablo I. Não vou entrar tanto em detalhes pra não da spoilers. Mas só tenho a dizer que a narrativa é muito boa e as cutscenes estão muito bem trabalhadas, não posso definir que ela é de fácil entendimento. Apenas se torna fácil de entender se você já jogou o Diablo I, se jogar apenas o 2 é possível que você fique meio perdido ali na estrada.
É o melhor pra começar?
Não. Ele é um jogo antigo com sistemas que envelheceram mal, se for ligar apenas para gameplay esse é um dos jogos que você não deve jogar de início, indico fortemente iniciar pelo Diablo 3.
Mas se for ligar por ordem cronológica, inicie pelo 1 e adiante.
Porém fique avisado que os sistemas do Diablo II já tão capenga, e tu vai sofrer pra se acostumar se não for uma pessoa que gosta muito de jogo retro e da velha guarda.
I mean it was cheap with the Diablo bundle on switch, so
I still hate having to hunt for all my equipment after a death! Really glad that twenty fuckin years later that still made it in the mix. That alone, knowing how unfun this feature is and knowing you got rid of it in III and putting it back in anyway with willful malice, I'm afraid I can't award anything more than two stars for that.
I'm also really glad we grew out of "stamina" as a society. Just let me run all the time, please. ABR, always be running. And runes are still as unintuitive as ever. If you go on this websight and complain about certain games that you can't beat without a guide, you have no right to think the runes are good.
But I did notice that Akara has an option to reset all your skill tree and character points, so that's nice. That brings it back up to three I guess
Edit: Nevermind, Akara can only reset your points once. Two and a half stars. Goddam-ass bullshit
I still hate having to hunt for all my equipment after a death! Really glad that twenty fuckin years later that still made it in the mix. That alone, knowing how unfun this feature is and knowing you got rid of it in III and putting it back in anyway with willful malice, I'm afraid I can't award anything more than two stars for that.
I'm also really glad we grew out of "stamina" as a society. Just let me run all the time, please. ABR, always be running. And runes are still as unintuitive as ever. If you go on this websight and complain about certain games that you can't beat without a guide, you have no right to think the runes are good.
But I did notice that Akara has an option to reset all your skill tree and character points, so that's nice. That brings it back up to three I guess
Edit: Nevermind, Akara can only reset your points once. Two and a half stars. Goddam-ass bullshit
Haven't played this and have no desire to, but there is not a single chance in hell people are actually giving fucking Blizzard, a company that fucking abuses women to the point one commited suicide their money.
thank god due to an error in transactions i got overwatch for free back then so i didn't give them a single buck
thank god due to an error in transactions i got overwatch for free back then so i didn't give them a single buck
DNF
gonna play diablo 3, or at least give it a shot, since it was included in the bundle, and i've heard it's more accessible. this wasn't really even bad, per se, but i've realized i was basically forcing myself to play it every time, without finding it terribly engaging; wanting to finish it just to finish it and check it off the list. should maybe give myself more permission to not finish things? especially with the insane amount of games i wanna play? sorry diablo 2.
gonna play diablo 3, or at least give it a shot, since it was included in the bundle, and i've heard it's more accessible. this wasn't really even bad, per se, but i've realized i was basically forcing myself to play it every time, without finding it terribly engaging; wanting to finish it just to finish it and check it off the list. should maybe give myself more permission to not finish things? especially with the insane amount of games i wanna play? sorry diablo 2.
eu matei o diabo com fogo
A very nice visual upgrade compared to the original. Gameplay wise this is exactly the og game and I wish they offered an optional improved way to play and optional QoL features. It is still rather fun to play but it is quite stiff and restrictive compared to its sequel or other newer games of the genre. Biggest highlight for me were the music (incredible soundtrack), atmosphere and rather interesting but simple story. It is worth it but do not buy at full price.
This game goes so hard, I’ve never played D2, but this was a treat I will continue to play this for days to come. You all know the formula I don’t have to go over the gameplay loop.
Diablo II: Resurrected foi a minha porta de entrada para a franquia, acho que o grande problema desse jogo e possivelmente o fato dele não ter uma nota mais alta nesse meu review é por causa que ele é datado, jogo com mecânicas antigas e no console acaba sendo bem chato de ficar mexendo no seu inventário e fazer outras funções. Porém o jogo tem muitos pontos positivos, cenários diversos, inimigos bem trabalhados e o leque de classes diferentes disponíveis são alguns deles. Na reta final do jogo eu precisei fazer um bom grind para derrotar o chefe final, no geral me diverti jogando mas não sei se foi o jogo certo para começar na franquia.
This is not going to be a full review really as I only played Diablo 2: Resurrected for a few hours. I played the first Diablo a good few years ago and I think I remember just getting bored of it. I was hoping that the next game would feature some progression, which it does, just not enough to overcome how easily I got bored with it. The game’s remaster makes the game look brand new and fresh. I love the art style, animations and atmosphere. For me though, the game boils down to: click, click, click, click (to move), click, click, click (to fight) and the same thing over and over again. You do slowly upgrade your weapons and get stronger but the game is very repetitive to me. I never really felt involved in the battles, unless I was doing it wrong, all I was doing was clicking on enemies and hoping for the best. I have previous experience with world of Warcraft so certain elements of the game including how the HUD worked felt very familiar to me.
There’s something about a procedurally generated environment I just don’t like. In my opinion a good video game map is one that has been tailor made and crafted for the player’s experience. One that all people share the experience and you can look up online if you ever get stuck.
If I could change things to make the game better for me it would be: Free movement rather than point and click, save states or auto save, larger inventory, different moves assigned to different button, to name a few.
I threw in the towel after being defeated for the umpteenth time and having to make my way back to my body. When getting overcrowded in battles I couldn’t think fast enough to defend myself or run away, my life depleted away so quickly. I’m more of a fan of the type of levelling system that automatically increases your stats. As a first time player, having to manually decide which stats to increase felt like too much. I do own Diablo 3 and 4 that has just been released, if they are pretty much the same as 1 & 2 where you need to click for your character to move rather than free controls then it could be a good while before I try them out.
There’s something about a procedurally generated environment I just don’t like. In my opinion a good video game map is one that has been tailor made and crafted for the player’s experience. One that all people share the experience and you can look up online if you ever get stuck.
If I could change things to make the game better for me it would be: Free movement rather than point and click, save states or auto save, larger inventory, different moves assigned to different button, to name a few.
I threw in the towel after being defeated for the umpteenth time and having to make my way back to my body. When getting overcrowded in battles I couldn’t think fast enough to defend myself or run away, my life depleted away so quickly. I’m more of a fan of the type of levelling system that automatically increases your stats. As a first time player, having to manually decide which stats to increase felt like too much. I do own Diablo 3 and 4 that has just been released, if they are pretty much the same as 1 & 2 where you need to click for your character to move rather than free controls then it could be a good while before I try them out.
Well, I expected resurrected to be a remake, not a remaster. So I was pretty much disappointed with how old the game felt. Anyway there are a couple of wonderful great old games out there, but diablo II is just unhinged. Fuck that god forsaken hellish cube.
That said, it was pretty fun to play it on co-op. I was a necromancer and my friend Bolt was a Paladin. The last act was solid, the GC scenes were cool and I can see how the game was GREAT for when it launched, but it is pretty bad nowadays.
Lord of Destruction was the best part! Wayyy better than the base game. Gave it an extra half star just ‘cause of the DLC.
That said, it was pretty fun to play it on co-op. I was a necromancer and my friend Bolt was a Paladin. The last act was solid, the GC scenes were cool and I can see how the game was GREAT for when it launched, but it is pretty bad nowadays.
Lord of Destruction was the best part! Wayyy better than the base game. Gave it an extra half star just ‘cause of the DLC.
The only good thing about this is to relive some nostalgia, so if you never played Diablo 2 during its release years don't bother in 2023 because this is a 2000 game with a fresh coat of paint, it's gameplay aged horribly as nearly all loot-based games that came after Diablo 2 have significantly improved it's formula. I honestly feel fucking stupid for completing this game. I tried it with my gf, got to the tail end of Act II and we dropped it because Diablo 2's gameplay loop is just so boring, I eventually came back and finished Act IV before being done with it, Diablo is dead, I don't fucking care about the rest of the story, I actually super regret picking it back up and playing through the rest. You get swarmed by mobs 24/7 and spend 5-10 minutes killing each group of enemies (which consists of you holding left click with the occasional spell cast in-between), the main draw to Diablo 2 was always building your character, finding better gear etc. etc. Except that at normal difficulty (the one you always start on) you will change your gear once maybe 3-5 hours of play. I literally had the same gear for around 8 hours in Act I because the game refused to drop me some better gear from the 30-ish bosses, special and rare monsters that we fucking killed in that time. Every single health bar of nearly anything you go against is so bloated, you will be whacking at a boss for a solid 15 minutes at a time even if he does no damage to you, this can extend to upwards of 30 minutes if he is actually a threat and you need to portal out, restock on potions and such. The gameplay is also super sluggish, sometimes your character drinks a potion 1-2 seconds after your button press, sometimes he doesn't cast his abilities even tho im pressing the button to cast that ability, bosses and strong mobs can get stuck on stuff or stop responding to you being around which results in them getting mauled or shot to death (which still takes 10 minutes flat, with the boss not even fucking moving, amazing). All of the dungeons, environments, and maps are bland and empty of any meaningful life. This game is literally the only RPG looter hack and slash where I skipped every single optional area because I knew the loot from it WILL be garbage and there's no joy to be had from the game's extremely simple combat. At that point you have to ask yourself, does this game have anything else going for it? Well, the different classes and their skill trees are cool I guess, the cinematics look super dope and are fairly entertaining. The part that confuses me is that people say that Diablo 2 has a great plot. It fucking doesn't you liars, the plot is 'kill the demons because they are evil', it's almost as simple as it can get, the presentation is great, character designs and key locations look cool, but they all deliver very predictable, run-of-the-mill dialogue and story.