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Finally played Diablo 2...thinking I'm starting to understand the love
Effect
Member UncommonPosts: 949
Strange. I've had Diablo 2 for some time now, several years, but I never really played it until now. For some reason I just never had the desire to do so after I bought it. I installed it a few hours ago and while I haven't gotten very far there is something oddly satisfying about it. Now I've played other games that have been similar. Sacred, Titan Quest, and Dungeon Siege are the more recent ones that I can remember. Yet Diablo 2 feels different. Not better mind you because I had a LOT of fun with Titan Quest just different.
Still not sure why people go crazy over it but I can see to a degree why they might. Though the graphics are clearly outdated and the resolution can't be increased it's presentation value seems well done. From the sound, to the sounds enemies make (seems like they lifted some of those into World of Warcraft when that was finally made), the voice work (was surprised this was even in the game). Getting weapons and armor isn't a problem from what I can tell or that important but that could clear change. I only did the first quest, the Den of Evil, so I'm clearly not far in the game. However once I fought my way there, killing demons left and right to get there did make me feel like my character was an actual hero there to help, and cleared out the cave to have the light shine done once it was clear was great and fun. Think I'm going to stick around and continue to play to see if it gets better.
Playing this has made me want to look into Diablo 3 more as the graphics are updated. However I do hope not all of Diablo 2 is filled with dark areas. I enjoy the varied landscape in Titan Quest a lot but perhaps I should not expect the same experience.
Comments
It's great to hear that, almost a decade after its release, someone can play D2 for the first time and still find it has merit. I agree with "oddly satisfying" then and now, something more games should capture, and I implore you to explore further down the items/gear rabbit hole of D2 (and make sure to play the lord of destruction expansion).
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
I still play Diablo 2 because i love creating different and odd builds. I also love the hunt for loot. There is something oddly satisfying killing the same bosses over and over just to see what they drop hoping one day you will be able to create one of the very sought after runewords. Diablo 2 probably has one of the best loot system i have ever experienced. Only thing that will top it is possibly Diablo 3.
I love the game so much i bought 3 legal copies of it often running all 3 at once.
Very sad diablo 3 won't be released in 2010. It's the only game I'm interested in these days.
OP, act 1 and 2 are quite interesting in getting you into the diablo lore, (sugest you read the story in diablo1) but it start to get interesting in act 3 then 4 (finish the game) then it gets exciting in act 5 (lord of destruction) and the final boss fight, exciting.
then you get to do it all over in hard mode (keeping your level stats and items) and then in ... damn cant remember what was the really hard mode.... gah!! nightmare?
/me thinks to himself
normal>nightmare>... hell AHA
got it
normal mode then you go to nightmare mode (keeping all your lvls stats and gear) and then you go in hell mode, (again keeping all your gear lvls (though the loot gets exponentially awesome, (and you can skip some quests since you will already have the ... hmm not spoiling it... the items...)
also, hint, when you do the cain quest, keep the all the wooden legs you find until you reach hard mode. (trust me it will be worth it)
Sounds like WoW
but I never played it, so dont know
Sounds like WoW
but I never played it, so dont know
Actually one of the biggest reason why I was so dissapointed with WoW (after being a Blizzard fan for many years) was that it didnt live up to the great things from Diablo 2... Sadly i think number 3 will be a big dissapointment but maybe it will be a positive surpise.
And to the OP, if you get the expansion you atleast can increase the resolution to 800x600 I think
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Sounds like WoW
but I never played it, so dont know
Actually one of the biggest reason why I was so dissapointed with WoW (after being a Blizzard fan for many years) was that it didnt live up to the great things from Diablo 2... Sadly i think number 3 will be a big dissapointment but maybe it will be a positive surpise.
And to the OP, if you get the expansion you atleast can increase the resolution to 800x600 I think
Whats so good about it?
I was thinking about getting D2 and SC2
Installed Diablo II with the expansion myself just a few days ago. Havnt played it in years. Its a really cool game and lots of fun. Skill trees are well thougth of and i like the fact that you can skip some skills and stack others. And that you have to spend your points carefully to build your template.
Why havnt they made a MMORPG from this IP yet?
Hauken Stormchaser
I want pre-CU back
Station.com : We got your game
Yeah?, Well i want it back!!!
Great memories in Diablo 2. I used to play online with this woman I know every night. Questing together was a blast. Very well made game.
Well before you get too far into, while the original version of the game is pretty good, consider installing this Median XL mod and restarting...its worth it!
WHAT IS MEDIAN XL?
Overview
Median XL is the most popular mod, or unofficial modification, for Diablo II Lord of Destruction. It modifies the game by replacing character skills, improving items and monsters, and adding new uberquests.
Features
o New skill trees with 30 brand new skills per class.
Bored with Blessed Hammer? Median XL offers brand new skill trees. Each class has 25 main skills, 3 uberskills and 2 challenge reward skills. If you ever wanted a crossbow necromancer or summoner amazon, here is your chance!
o Elite and heroic monsters.
If the normal monsters are tricky, the elites will have you run for your life. Featuring their own unique attacks and improved statistics, elite and heroic monsters are a match for the strongest heroes.
o 30 new uberquests for high level characters.
Forget Battle.net and 'Uber Tristram', Median XL has 22 more uberbosses and 8 special uberlevels for high level characters. Defeating them on the highest difficulty yields powerful unique charms.
o New base items. Six quality tiers.
Median XL features many new class-specific items. Additionally, item stats have been rebalanced and there are now six tiers of item quality, each with better stats than the last. Rumours persist of even stronger Sacred items...
o New and improved gems and runes.
More gems, more runes and the existing gems and runes have been improved. Plentiful random sockets on items offer a powerful way to customise your items.
o Enhanced magic and rare items.
Between the improved affix pool and the addition of powerful new affixes including percentage based attribute bonuses, rares are a much improved game option.
o An assortment of new uniques and sets.
Median XL features 475 new uniques and 28 new sets. Many of the uniques and all of the sets can only drop in special difficult areas.
o An assortment of new runewords.
There are exactly 310 brand new runewords, each requiring only a single rune. You can fill the other sockets with jewels for your convenience.
o New and improved cube recipes.
Median XL offers many powerful new cube recipes including a revolutionary crafting system.
o Honorific items.
Create blank items and enchant them yourself. Ever wanted to make your very own uniques? Now you can.
o Special challenges for expert players.
Beating the game is only half the fun! Reach certain milestones in the game to obtain a special reward.
o Rebalanced drop rates to make good items more common.
You may actually see a Zod now.
o And much more...
There were parts from Diablo that I wish they would have brought into WoW, part of which was the sockets and cube. They eventually did add something like this, but it wasn't very significant. I just hope they don't wowify Diablo 3. I see this posted so frequently that blizzard has to see that the community does not want another WoW. WoW is fine, I had lots of fun with it but we just don't need another one.
and if your looking for a diablo 2 like game check out Torchlight, part of the devs that made it also developed diablo.
Sounds like WoW
but I never played it, so dont know
The big difference between loot in D2 and loot in WoW is in WoW the loot table on bosses are limited by a set loot table. You always know it can be one or two of 10 to 20 different loot drops. In Diablo 2 it is completely randomized. A boss can drop everything in the game with the only restriction being item level in contrast to that bosses level. Bosses have a much higher chance of dropping the best items than an ordinary mob however which is why people keep doing what's called Boss runs in the game.
This is why i love the system. You have ultra rare items that may have 1 out of 100.000 chances to drop or higher you could get lucky to get during play. The loot table is huge. It's based on luck/time spent and not how powerful your characters are.
It does have some flaws. Everything drops on the ground so if you play random games online it becomes a clickfest to see who will loot the fastest which discourages you from playing with people you don't know. I hear Diablo 3 will have a better system kind of like Hellgate London where everybody will get their own drops others won't see or be able to pick up. That would effectivly eliminate ninja looting and make multiplay desirable again.
The game looks like a turd today though with only supporting 800x600 resolution but it also shows at least to me that graphics is not what makes a game great.
I second this. Not as deep as Diablo II, but updated graphics are nice if you have a hard time looking at Diablo II's 800x600 resolution now like I do. It's on sale on Steam for $9.99 currently. It's only available in digital download, so don't bother looking in the stores for it.
It's single player only, but it's still a nice game for the price.
Never fear there are indoor and outdoor areas. The 2nd act is mostly made up of jungle.
You might want to check out resolution mods that allow you to play in resolutions higher than 800x600 too. I haven't tried them and I've seen mixed reviews on how good they work, but it's worth a shot.
D2 is one og the greatest games ever created. Addictingly fun that keeps you coming back for more. I played it on and off for 5 years before I broke the habit. We are all hoping for an awesome Diablo 3. Also as mentioned, if you loved D2 then you will love Torchlight.
I tried the below mod to increase the resolution higher than 800x600 last night and it works great, however there are a few things to consider when using it. First of all you can't use it with Battle.net because it doesn't recognize the client, so you can only use this mod for single player play. Second of all, although the resolution is higher and the graphics actually look pretty good, the game mechanics work the same as always which has a few consequences. For instance depending on how high of resolution you choose, the graphics get really small which makes it tough to click on certain things like items on the ground or mobs and also makes your character sheet and inventory really tiny. In addition when you are in dark areas you can only see a certain distance around your toon, anything beyond that distance is completely black. When I was running thru the caves in the first act, 75% of the screen was completely black. When you are outside your view distance is considerably further and in fact this would probably be considered a cheat by Blizzard which is probably why they haven't implemented it in the game. I actually decreased the resolution a bit because the user interface was so small. I found that I think it was 1280x768 or something like that was a good resolution to play at as 1600x900 was too small.
I really liked using the mod and I actually played through about 75% of the first act last night. The additional view distance makes it much easier to see what is around you. I was playing as a hunter and was shooting things that would have been well off the screen at 800x600. You could have done this before, but you would be shooting blindly rather than being able to see what you're shooting at which makes a huge difference. It also makes it much easier to spot things like chests on the ground, shrines, waypoints, entrances to caves, etc. so that you don't have to run around looking for things which is really nice. All in all I think it actually improved the gameplay for me. Not just that the graphics don't look so blocky, but that it's actually a more enjoyeable game at higher resolutions. You don't feel quite so boxed in except of course when you are in a cave or something and can only see a few feet in front of you and then you get this uneasy feeling which is exactly how it should be. It's kind of a shame that Blizzard doesn't go ahead and make this part of the game because it would really be useful for multiplayer play in my opinion. Not only would you be able to see the area around your own toon, but you would be able to see the area around members of your party as well. That would be a big improvement in my opinion. It also makes things like the monastery look better because you can see a much larger portion of it at once. You really get a better feel for the level of detail in the game this way, I wish I would have taken a couple screenshots to give you an idea.
http://www.moddb.com/games/diablo-2/downloads/d2multires-version-102