Diablo 2: Resurrected remaster

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Anywya, made it to lvl 19 as my hardcore summon necro. had alot of fun, despite the battle.net shenannigans which was to be expected so.

all in all a fun launch and my god the game looks great and plays great

 

[ArchAngel]

Diablo 1/2 is two of few "classics" I've never played. Should I?

It depends on what you mean by "play" and "should". It will keep you entertained for a few hours no doubt, but making it your "primary" hack and slasher won't be a good time. There is a severe lack of endgame content. If you ask me, there is zero reason to play Diablo 2 when Grim Dawn exists.

I have not played Grim Dawn expansions but base game is worse than D2. It is still a fun game but not nearly as good to completely replace D2. Not even Path of Exile can replace D2.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Of course they can replace it, especially for people who did not play Diablo 1-2 on release and have no emotional attachment to it.

 

[Lacrymas]

I played Diablo 2 on my oldest brother's computer when I was young and I still don't recommend playing it now. You should get the expansions to GD, though, they are included in the definitive edition now too and it's very cheap. Cheaper than Diablo 2's remake which features less of a quarter the content.

 

[cvv]

I liked Grim Dawn the most of all the Diablo clones and I played it a bunch many years ago but never finished. Just couldn't hold my interest. The gameplay was ok, levelling and chardev very good but the art, vibe, music, writing and VO was just crushingly generic and bland. I suppose autists, numberfags and half-robots with zero artistic sense don't give a shit about all that "fluff" but I do, that's why I've always loved Diablo.

Same is true for PoE - this is the perfect game for autists. Zero artistic value, hilariously fussy, anal, overcooked chardev. If you think Pathfinder WotR character creation is bit too anemic and lacking in options this is the perfect aRPG for you.

As for the others - mechanics could be good but I couldn't stand Torchlight's wowized, cartoony art more than 2 minutes. I prefer demons, gore and an electric guitar to My Little Pony. Just a personal preference. Titan's Quest looks like Diablo made by poor people for poor people but maybe I haven't give it a proper shake, playing it only for 2 hours or so.

Not tried Victor Vran, Van Helsing or the Warhammer Diablo-like yet. Not too attracted to the last two but I think I'm gonna give Victor Vran a spin after I'm finished with Diablo. It's made by Haemimont, the devs responsible for Surviving Mars, one of my most favourite gaemz of the last decade.

 

[Storyfag]

Not tried (...) the Warhammer Diablo-like yet.

Avoid. Neither a good Diablo-like, nor a good Warhammer game.

Mindboggingly small enemy variety.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Play Gateway to Apshai on a coleco emulator since hardware crt tvs and finding carts can be a pain.

 

[d1r]

Play Gateway to Apshai on a coleco emulator since hardware crt tvs and finding carts can be a pain.

Yeah, let's not.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Nobody's mapped it all out. Same goes for Telengard.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

GD isn't bland per se, just uneven. The victorian zombie-post apocalypse with eldritch gods and cultists is p cool, but then you find yourself running around forests and swamps swatting mosquitoes and hunting mutated boars for long periods of time. Getting bored is par for the course with these games, at least it always was for me. They can be super fun in bursts, but if you're playing single they start to drag sooner rather than later. D1 is absolutely top tier when it comes to music, voice acting and atmosphere, but even as someone who played it in 1996 and was completely enchanted by it, it really isn't a game I want to get back to in current year (and I typically play shitload of games from the nineties). D2 can certainly still be a fun game, but there are definitely tiles that leave it in the dust when it comes to loot whoring and charbuilding and let's face it - this is what hns are about.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Not tried (...) the Warhammer Diablo-like yet.

Avoid. Neither a good Diablo-like, nor a good Warhammer game.

Mindboggingly small enemy variety.

there's two warhammer diablo-likes, a regular warhammer and a wh40k
the wh40k is OK, story was decent enough, combat was alright
the warhammer one seems to not be well liked

 

[Storyfag]

Not tried (...) the Warhammer Diablo-like yet.

Avoid. Neither a good Diablo-like, nor a good Warhammer game.

Mindboggingly small enemy variety.

there's two warhammer diablo-likes, a regular warhammer and a wh40k
the wh40k is OK, story was decent enough, combat was alright
the warhammer one seems to not be well liked

I was speaking of the Fantasy one. In my mind 40K is always called 40K, not Warhammer

 

[m_s0]

Not on Steam = not released.

It might appear on GOG, though. Just give it 40 years.

 

[markec]

I have never been a big fan of h&s but I played Diablo 1 a lot and i never really liked the second game. I admit that D2 is mechanically superior, and I understand why most people prefer it but first game had two things that made me love it more.

First was level design, I just find narrow corridors more interesting then wide open planes. There was always this sense of tension as you never knew what is behind next corner or door. Now there were moments like that in second game as we're open areas in first one but those were more exceptions to the rule. You were always waiting for something to jump at you from the dark, and monsters often did

Also atmosphere, the first game was a pure dungeon crawler where you slowly decent deeper and deeper. The story of the game is about descent to the Hell itself. It was very atmospheric to see world become more sinister as you go deeper and enemies become more dangerous and demonic.

Compare that with the sequel where you have grey plains where you kill everything from skeletons to demons, then you go to yellow plain where you kill giant bugs and swarms of flies that drop breastplates and green plain where you kill midgets.

In D1 from the first step you make in the first catacomb it feels like the game starts to build up for the last step you make before Diablo himself.

 

[d1r]

I have never been a big fan of h&s but I played Diablo 1 a lot and i never really liked the second game. I admit that D2 is mechanically superior, and I understand why most people prefer it but first game had two things that made me love it more.

First was level design, I just find narrow corridors more interesting then wide open planes. There was always this sense of tension as you never knew what is behind next corner or door. Now there were moments like that in second game as we're open areas in first one but those were more exceptions to the rule. You were always waiting for something to jump at you from the dark, and monsters often did

Also atmosphere, the first game was a pure dungeon crawler where you slowly decent deeper and deeper. The story of the game is about descent to the Hell itself. It was very atmospheric to see world become more sinister as you go deeper and enemies become more dangerous and demonic.

Compare that with the sequel where you have grey plains where you kill everything from skeletons to demons, then you go to yellow plain where you kill giant bugs and swarms of flies that drop breastplates and green plain where you kill midgets.

In D1 from the first step you make in the first catacomb it feels like the game starts to build up for the last step you make before Diablo himself.

Diablo 1 is more a roguelike than a action game, tbh. That is why you and me like it more than Diablo 2.

 

[Storyfag]

I have never been a big fan of h&s but I played Diablo 1 a lot and i never really liked the second game. I admit that D2 is mechanically superior, and I understand why most people prefer it but first game had two things that made me love it more.

First was level design, I just find narrow corridors more interesting then wide open planes. There was always this sense of tension as you never knew what is behind next corner or door. Now there were moments like that in second game as we're open areas in first one but those were more exceptions to the rule. You were always waiting for something to jump at you from the dark, and monsters often did

Also atmosphere, the first game was a pure dungeon crawler where you slowly decent deeper and deeper. The story of the game is about descent to the Hell itself. It was very atmospheric to see world become more sinister as you go deeper and enemies become more dangerous and demonic.

Compare that with the sequel where you have grey plains where you kill everything from skeletons to demons, then you go to yellow plain where you kill giant bugs and swarms of flies that drop breastplates and green plain where you kill midgets.

In D1 from the first step you make in the first catacomb it feels like the game starts to build up for the last step you make before Diablo himself.

True, D2 has way, waaay to many open areas. Act 2 is the superior one in that regard, as it has quite a lot of actual dungeons. Still too many open areas, but more dungeons than Act 1 or 3. The game would hugely benefit if at least SOME of the open areas in each Act were replaced with dungeons.

 

[Lacrymas]

Like I've said in the past, Diablo 2 is Diablo: Super Mario Bros edition. Medieval world, desert world, swamp world, fire world, ice world.

 

[cvv]

Also atmosphere, the first game was a pure dungeon crawler where you slowly decent deeper and deeper. The story of the game is about descent to the Hell itself. It was very atmospheric to see world become more sinister as you go deeper and enemies become more dangerous and demonic.

Compare that with the sequel where you have grey plains where you kill everything from skeletons to demons, then you go to yellow plain where you kill giant bugs and swarms of flies that drop breastplates and green plain where you kill midgets.

100% agreed. Tbh I'd much prefer a D1 remake. It was tighter, more focused, more vibey, just like you say.

And also simpler. When it comes to hack'n'slashing and loot-fagging I prefer relative simplicity. D2 is not the most complex game out there but it's still full of neckbeard bullshit like runewords and synergies and all that crap. It's like the only genre where I prefer tightness and streamliness to complexity.

 

[Zlaja]

Titan's Quest looks like Diablo made by poor people for poor people but maybe I haven't give it a proper shake, playing it only for 2 hours or so

Bullshit, TQ is the only hack & slash, along side Diablo 1&2, with a solid and unique atmosphere. Game also has a great class/skill system that is actually better then D2. Some people whine that the combat is 'clunky', but those retards are just mistaking clunky for slow-paced. And no, not every game in the genre has to be a spaz fest.

 

[Lacrymas]

Titan quest also has 3 speed options, so it's in no way "slow" if you don't want it to be.

 

[ThewDev]

I told myself I wouldn't, but I was bored last night and ended up giving it a shot.

The art is great all around (minus a couple of faces). The GUI looks slick, which surprised me, because modern design doctrine dictates that they masturbate while removing, shrinking or otherwise obfuscating every UI element in the game. Good on them for resisting the temptation.

Other than the artistic coat-of-paint, this is just Diablo 2, for better or worse. It's still about playing the same experience three times in a row and watching numbers slowly increase. Though I did feel a pang of nostalgia, back to when Diablo (and the aRPG genre as a whole) was not a sport in the special olympics. I remember Diablo 2 being a ton of fun when it was first released, but there's no denying that it paved the way for the (mostly) obnoxious mechanics of modern action RPGs.

I think I'll keep playing it for a while, but what I'd really love to see is Diablo 1 getting this treatment. Or, even better, Diablo 4 being heavily inspired by the mechanics of early aRPGs...

 

[Hellion]

Random "before and after" screenshots.

Spoiler

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

It was nice of you to die for us to take that Duriel picture.

 

[Hellion]

I would have totally survived, but as I was taking that screenshot I misclicked and removed my Resist Cold aura so he pretty much obliterated me with one more hit

 

[Perkel]

IT is amazing that we reached a point where 3D graphics can actually look like 2D graphics. I am playing this and i constantly get this "wait a second this looks like 2D"

I am playing right now with friend and i have to say they improved massively online. D2 online was always laggy mess while now with D2R you hardly get any desync while hitting things is basically single player instant. Network code being better is welcome change.

I would love if they would implement lockstep mode for folks with better connection.