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[StreetsofBeige]

Out of the 3 Diablos, D3 for sure.

D3 looks the best (polish), sounds the best, is most accessible.

The one thing it doesn't have is D1's and D2's darker texture sets. D3 is like a rainbow, which isnt surprising as Activision now tries to make every game they make as average looking and colourful as possible.

D1 was cool at the time, but basically done after a playthrough. And unwieldly shit like picking up every coin, scroll and identify scroll and town portal. And I think archers had arrow limits. And the town was about 10x bigger than it should be as you walked at a snail's pace from one end to the other.

Biggest issue with D3 is it's too easy when you play through the first time, and then it's up to you to mess around with Torment levels to find your own comfortable difficulty level, whereas every other game out there can make progressive difficulty levels and work well enough.

Diablo 3 is like... here's 15 torment levels and go find your own that suits you.

 

[Dada55000]

Out of the 3 Diablos, D3 for sure.

D3 looks the best (polish), sounds the best, is most accessible.

The one thing it doesn't have is D1's and D2's darker texture sets. D3 is like a rainbow, which isnt surprisingly as Activision tries to make game they make as average looking and colourful as possible.

D1 was coo at the time, but basically done after a playthrough. And unwieldly shit like picking up every coin, scroll and identify scroll and town portal. And I think archers had arrow limits. And the town was about 10x bigger than it should be as you walked at a snail's pace from one end to the other.

It wasn't Activision chief. It was Blizzard proper's WoW castoffs that thought they owned the world moving onto other projects in chief roles and wowifying the shit out of them. It happened with SC2 to a lesser degree. They were arrogant and thought they knew better. Diablo got it especially bad, since it wasn't a real Blizzard game, it was made by Blizz North. Thus leading to it becoming arpg edgelord WoW.

 

[anthraticus]

This aRPG genre is actually better served playing with a pad.....Baldurs Gate : Dark Alliance style. Not clicking on a million different things in strictly real time with a mouse. And this is coming from a PC guy.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

This aRPG genre is actually better served playing with a pad.....Baldurs Gate : Dark Alliance style. Not clicking on a million different things in strictly real time with a mouse. And this is coming from a PC guy.

Yup.... assuming arpgs have accessible gameplay. As long as the game has streamlined controls, a gamepad works much better. Playing D3 on 360 years back vs the PC version I got as launch, I couldn't believe how much smoother it felt.

However, have fun trying to play an old clunky game like D1 and D2 picking up items one by one. M/KB much better for that.

 

[Belmonte]

This aRPG genre is actually better served playing with a pad.....Baldurs Gate : Dark Alliance style. Not clicking on a million different things in strictly real time with a mouse. And this is coming from a PC guy.

You will be excommunicated from the Codex, decline enabler!

I agree.

 

[Gargus]

Are there any GOOD scifi diablo like games?

 

[gatti-man]

D2 for me. I bought D3 entirely on D2 and boy what a waste of money that was. Hopefully D4 is a return to form.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Diablo 2 pre 1.10.

1.08 and 1.09. Made some bank back in the day. Enjoyed rushing for high runes and unided uniques/sets. Cooperative PlayersUSEast for life, till they destroyed the channel and to a lesser extent, rushing.

 

[Poordevil]

Scrolled through this entire thread and no mention of Divinity Original Sin? I have the first game on PS4 but never got past the first town. I had high hopes for it playing through the tutorial, but alas, it didn't hold my interest. I lot of cRPG players really like it though, and the second game is supposed to be even better.

 

[anthraticus]

Scrolled through this entire thread and no mention of Divinity Original Sin? I have the first game on PS4 but never got past the first town. I had high hopes for it playing through the tutorial, but alas, it didn't hold my interest. I lot of cRPG players really like it though, and the second game is supposed to be even better.

Wrong genre.

 

[Tesseract]

Are there any GOOD scifi diablo like games?

phantasy star online is still the best, i dunno if anything will ever come along to top it

i believe schtserv is still up

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

I liked the vid. Crazy how much talented genius stuff turns out to be fly by the seat of your pants luck.

To think that the composer of the legendary Tristam town music got hired not after being screened and standing out as the best, but he only got the job because he was annoying and persistent....that's just insane.

So much nostalgia for this game...a true classic.

 

[Lanrutcon]

D2 beating D3 on the poll? You are good people.

Except if you voted for D3.

Then you're a communist.

 

[flacopol]

Overall D2 , D1 is great but the second is the same but much more , also you could run =)

Now PoE , but the Path of diablo mod for D2 is great , also remember when you buy a game and is a complete game , and the DLC is a new thing with new act , mechanic , items... :')

Now someone pay $7 for a fridge , and the fault is ours , we populate those game , the company only want money

 

[Poordevil]

Wrong genre.

Well that's a good reason! I went into it thinking it was a Diablo inspired arpg. Maybe that is why I didn't care much for it.

 

[Mochilador]

Diablo 1 is the best. The atmosphere is amazing.

 

[xpresstuning]

Out of the 3 Diablos, D3 for sure.

D3 looks the best (polish), sounds the best, is most accessible.

The one thing it doesn't have is D1's and D2's darker texture sets. D3 is like a rainbow, which isnt surprising as Activision now tries to make every game they make as average looking and colourful as possible.

D1 was cool at the time, but basically done after a playthrough. And unwieldly shit like picking up every coin, scroll and identify scroll and town portal. And I think archers had arrow limits. And the town was about 10x bigger than it should be as you walked at a snail's pace from one end to the other.

Biggest issue with D3 is it's too easy when you play through the first time, and then it's up to you to mess around with Torment levels to find your own comfortable difficulty level, whereas every other game out there can make progressive difficulty levels and work well enough.

Diablo 3 is like... here's 15 torment levels and go find your own that suits you.

I'm not a fan of Diablo, allthough i did play Diablo II and III to completion, i never had any motivation to play their multiplayer or to play them more then once. I think Path of Exile is far better than any of them at what they do ( fast-paced loot collectathons), so i'll sink my time into that.

The original Diablo though, was a memorable experience playing it for the first time last week, that i won't forget, and it's a game i'll probably replay very soon. The game is a not a fast-paced loot collectathon by any stretch of the imagination. As i've said in the original post, it's a completely different video game from the genre it sparked into creation, which is just remarkable to me. I think Diablo II had a much, much bigger influence, because everything has copied the design of that, rather than almost anything from the original Diablo.

It really depends whether or not you think it's worth the patience to adapt and learn, that applies to any video game really, new or old. I don't have a problem getting into anything, and i appreciate that greatly, because i have a seemingly infinite reserve of entertainment at my finger tips via the entire history of video games.

You will be excommunicated from the Codex, decline enabler!

I agree.

I was checking their list yesterday. Ever since i completed the original Diablo, i have this .. small itch to try and get into Dark Souls again via Dark Souls: Remastered. And, as if fate itself is telling me to do so, i see the game in their own top list as well. The original Diablo's atmosphere is very similar to Dark Souls. I'm no fan of the Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro handful of unyielding frustration, but i'll have to seriously consider Dark Souls: Remastered, as least, and go from there.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

Lost so many hours to Diablo & Diablo II in my youth.

Think I might have enjoyed Diablo more over Diablo II just because of how small the original game felt by comparison. Diablo II is a bit too long for its own good.

My computer wasn't up to the task when Diablo 3 released and I haven't played it. I keep hoping for a Switch sale for it but it's hit maybe $40 so far.

 

[Belmonte]

I was checking their list yesterday. Ever since i completed the original Diablo, i have this .. small itch to try and get into Dark Souls again via Dark Souls: Remastered. And, as if fate itself is telling me to do so, i see the game in their own top list as well. The original Diablo's atmosphere is very similar to Dark Souls. I'm no fan of the Souls/Bloodborne/Sekiro handful of unyielding frustration, but i'll have to seriously consider Dark Souls: Remastered, as least, and go from there.

You definitelly should. It speaks a lot when even the Codex, despite being biased against action games and controllers, put it so high in their list. It doesn't have a lot of C&C or lots of text, two things they love dearly, but they are prestigious enough to recognize how great Dark Souls is.

Take a look on guides about how to build your character and good armor /weapons for it if you are having a hard time. Dark Souls is very serious about the "action" part of ARPGs but, despite what some people say, the RPG part is not forgotten. If you build your character properly the game gets easier.

 

[WhiskeyDiver]

I loved Diablo 1 when it came out. I played the shit out of it for 10 years alonside Diablo 2 when that came out.

I tried playing last year, and it was fucking horrible. The outdated and clunky mechanics make it feel like I'm being held at gunpoint and being forced to play the game.

Despite that, I still fucking love Diablo 1 even though I don't want to play it ever again. It is forever 10/10 regardless of how terrible and outdated mechanics are compared to today's best dungeon crawlers.

Diablo 2's mechanics are still good. Adding the ability to run and the massive skill trees make for so many plays styles and replayability. But the #1 best thing in Diablo 2 by far is the ability to run. Nothing comes close. Running around is king. The second best thing is extremely close. JAH ITH BER. That right there made mephisto, Diablo and baal speed runs oh so super short and super sweet.

"How many mephisto runs you gonna do today?"

"Like 300."

"300? HOW? That's impossible?"

"Haha. foolsh child. JAH ITH BER"

"What does that mean?

"It's the words that haunt Mephisto's dreams every night. It makes Diablo piss his bed in terror. They see me standing over them countless time. They know I am coming, for I am JAH ITH BER, Speed Farmer of loots."

 

[Outrunner]

I feel so old...

 

[manfestival]

Holy cow I remember loving record of lodoss war on dreamcast! I also loved Nox. I think my favorite despite being all nostalgia at this point for me would be D2. However, I have become accustomed to diablo 3 now and playing something like... PoE isn't as interesting.

 

[pawel86ck]

I was very impressed with Diablo 4 trailer, so I have finally decided to play previous diablo games for the first time

Diablo 1
- I was really enjoying 80% of game, but the last 2 levels were a nightmare, I couldn't kill black knights with my weapons no matter what. I have tried all spells from my inventory but without luck. I had to use trainers in the end

Diablo 2
- death penalty in this game is really painfull. Not only you losse a big sum of money and experience, but you also have to buy new weapons and equipmenet (not to mention resurrect your mercenary because all his weapons and equipment will be lost) just to go and retrieve your previous equipment. It's not fun when you are stuck with boss fight and you have to do this all over again.
- I have collected a huge amount of money but I dont know what to do with it besides paying for my death penalties . I can only buy weak weapons and armor with it, so it almost looks like money is worthless in this game.
- gems and runes, game doesn't explain you how to combine them in order to create really usefull weapons or add sockets. Without recipes on the net I would never quessed that. Even then certain runes are extremely rare to find, so adding a new socket to your favorite weapon or armor is still not easy.
- you can build a character that kills easily everything in one level, just to be easily killed in the next level because different enemies require different type of armor resistance. For example my armor had low lightining resistance so scarab demons in the 2'nd act killed me frequently with their electrical energy. If I could buy a new armor with lightining resistance maybe then I would like this game mechanic, but unfortunately with money I can only buy standard equipment and armor, so it complicates everything. So again I was frustrated to the point I had to use trainers.

I have no idea how people were able to complete these diablo games without cheats / trainers. Without trainers I would literally had to spend months and experiment with everything in order finally find a perfect combination for each level and enemy type. These first two diablo games werent easy for me, I had some fun with them, but also frustration later on, so I dont know if I'm willing to try diablo 3 next, because maybe it will be even more frustrating .

 

[Helios]

Diablo 2
- death penalty in this game is really painfull. Not only you losse a big sum of money and experience, but you also have to buy new weapons and equipmenet (not to mention resurrect your mercenary because all his weapons and equipment will be lost) just to go and retrieve your previous equipment. It's not fun when you are stuck with boss fight and you have to do this all over again.
- I have collected a huge amount of money but I dont know what to do with it besides paying for my death penalties . I can only buy weak weapons and armor with it, so it almost looks like money is worthless in this game.
- gems and runes, game doesn't explain you how to combine them in order to create really usefull weapons or add sockets. Without recipes on the net I would never quessed that. Even then certain runes are extremely rare to find, so adding a new socket to your favorite weapon or armor is still not easy.
- you can build a character that kills easily everything in one level, just to be easily killed in the next level because different enemies require different type of armor resistance. For example my armor had low lightining resistance so scarab demons in the 2'nd act killed me frequently with their electrical energy. If I could buy a new armor with lightining resistance maybe then I would like this game mechanic, but unfortunately with money I can only buy standard equipment and armor, so it complicates everything. So again I was frustrated to the point I had to use trainers.

I have no idea how people were able to complete these diablo games without cheats / trainers. Without trainers I would literally had to spend months and experiment with everything in order finally find a perfect combination for each level and enemy type. These first two diablo games werent easy for me, I had some fun with them, but also frustration later on, so I dont know if I'm willing to try diablo 3 next, because maybe it will be even more frustrating .

You can consistently beat normal without anything special as long as your build is not terrible. Things might change on nightmare and especially hell.
For your 2nd and 4th problem you could've tried gambling (if you haven't already) since I assume you're playing in single-player and can't trade. Bear in mind that gems in shields also give res
As for Diablo 3. It's the easiest of them all. I recently played a crusader and steamrolled the campaign not dying once, while only using 2 skills and that horse move. I also put the game on hard since the first act. Didn't make much of a difference.

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

Yea, not really a fan of that genre at all cause it bores me, but I would play a proper cRPG with the setting/atmosphere/music..... of Diablo 1 any day. Best aesthetics in that series by far.

Like Divine Divinity? That's very Diablo 1/2 style in a full rpg. Pretty solid game as well.

 

[Tesseract]

i still think about reinstalling d2 once or twice a year, it's just a near perfect experience all the way through

bnet botters have kinda poisoned the ladders tho, and i don't wanna role hardcore and get b0lted (props to you if you figure this reference) after 100 hour runs to the top

bit older now and don't really have the time to dedicate myself to it like i used to, otherwise i'd probably be knee deep in d3 right now to see how they've pushed things forward

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

Diablo 1 is one of my favorite games of all time. I didn't know shit about it when my best friend bought a copy of it. This was back in the days of cd keys not having DRM so of course we burnt multiple copies and played on a LAN - but everything changed when we decided to go on battle.net.

This was the first online co-op game that we ever played and it completely blew us away. The whole lobby system was incredible for it's time. I remember doing goofy shit like setting up lobbies where I would hide somewhere in town and tell the players if they could find me I would hook them up with the godly plate of whales or some other silly ass piece of equipment.

So many great memories of that game. D2 was great, but it never rekindled the magic of the original for me. D3 is great as well.

 

[Hinedorf]

Having played them all D3 in it's final form is a far superior product as a whole.

D1's music captured the essence/theme of what has kept the series going

D2's original online scene which went highly unregulated was the truest wild west online action rpg arena in it's prime. I was not personally into as my friend who was frequently listed in the Top 10's for best players.

D3 over regulated everything about the game in the hope of making money. The expansions fixed the early failures thanks to deserved fan-backlash.

If you put D1's music, D2's online battle system into D3., you'd have a game Blizzard could've actually monetized.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I was very impressed with Diablo 4 trailer, so I have finally decided to play previous diablo games for the first time

Diablo 1
- I was really enjoying 80% of game, but the last 2 levels were a nightmare, I couldn't kill black knights with my weapons no matter what. I have tried all spells from my inventory but without luck. I had to use trainers in the end

Diablo 2
- death penalty in this game is really painfull. Not only you losse a big sum of money and experience, but you also have to buy new weapons and equipmenet (not to mention resurrect your mercenary because all his weapons and equipment will be lost) just to go and retrieve your previous equipment. It's not fun when you are stuck with boss fight and you have to do this all over again.
- I have collected a huge amount of money but I dont know what to do with it besides paying for my death penalties . I can only buy weak weapons and armor with it, so it almost looks like money is worthless in this game.
- gems and runes, game doesn't explain you how to combine them in order to create really usefull weapons or add sockets. Without recipes on the net I would never quessed that. Even then certain runes are extremely rare to find, so adding a new socket to your favorite weapon or armor is still not easy.
- you can build a character that kills easily everything in one level, just to be easily killed in the next level because different enemies require different type of armor resistance. For example my armor had low lightining resistance so scarab demons in the 2'nd act killed me frequently with their electrical energy. If I could buy a new armor with lightining resistance maybe then I would like this game mechanic, but unfortunately with money I can only buy standard equipment and armor, so it complicates everything. So again I was frustrated to the point I had to use trainers.

I have no idea how people were able to complete these diablo games without cheats / trainers. Without trainers I would literally had to spend months and experiment with everything in order finally find a perfect combination for each level and enemy type. These first two diablo games werent easy for me, I had some fun with them, but also frustration later on, so I dont know if I'm willing to try diablo 3 next, because maybe it will be even more frustrating .

Diablo 3 has the easiest difficulty curve and the most forgiving loot system. I'd recommend trying it out.

 

[dust bunny]

PoE
I very much enjoy numbers, intricate meta-systems and coming up with builds and PoE is by far the best for that out of any game I've ever played, I think. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the other games as well, save for D3 which I never played.

 

[Griffon]

I recently played Diablo I for the first time too, and OP is absolute truth. DI is so good, I don't think they'll ever be able to make such a game ever again.

Today's arpgs are all about killing hundreds of monster at the speed of light, they completely lost the plot as to what made the original Diablo so great.

Thankfully we have the souls series which is a close cousin to DI with its slower methodical deliberate rythm and atmosphere of dread and mystery.

 

[Tesseract]

i was a bit too young and poor for d1, tho i did rent and blast through the psx version with a friend

was absolutely joyous and sank its roots into me for all time

 

[MuleSkinner]

Played all diablo games, 1 and 2 are great games, 3 is mediocre.

Best ARPG is by far PoE, it's in a league of it's own IMO . The amount of content, depth of build creation and tons of other stuff make it the complete package for anyone looking to sink thousands of hours.

 

[ToughestSoul]

I still play through the original Diablo, like once a year. I also thought of the comparison to Dark Souls - actually more to Demon's Souls imo. They have a very similar atmosphere to me and gameplay 'feeling', it's kinda hard to describe. Maybe "philosophy" is the right word.

Anyway great game and still holds up.

 

[dopey]

There's a recent Diablo 2 open source reimplementation in the works: https://github.com/OpenDiablo2/OpenDiablo2

It's a young project as of yet but it seems to be developing at a fast pace.

 

[StormCell]

You can consistently beat normal without anything special as long as your build is not terrible. Things might change on nightmare and especially hell.
For your 2nd and 4th problem you could've tried gambling (if you haven't already) since I assume you're playing in single-player and can't trade. Bear in mind that gems in shields also give res
As for Diablo 3. It's the easiest of them all. I recently played a crusader and steamrolled the campaign not dying once, while only using 2 skills and that horse move. I also put the game on hard since the first act. Didn't make much of a difference.

I find Diablo 3 to be mindless to the point of boring me to sleep. For some reason, my wife loves when we play D3 together, and I just can't keep myself interested enough. It's just wave after wave of meaningless monsters. lol

Diablo 3 has the easiest difficulty curve and the most forgiving loot system. I'd recommend trying it out.

I can't recommend D3 to anyone who actually likes Diablo. It's just boring and dull.

I recently played Diablo I for the first time too, and OP is absolute truth. DI is so good, I don't think they'll ever be able to make such a game ever again.

Today's arpgs are all about killing hundreds of monster at the speed of light, they completely lost the plot as to what made the original Diablo so great.

Thankfully we have the souls series which is a close cousin to DI with its slower methodical deliberate rythm and atmosphere of dread and mystery.

Diablo 1 has always been where it's at for me. I missed out on D2, but having played D3 I can say that if D2 is remotely anythingg like D3 then I'm not at all interested. They have about as much in common with D1 as an online FPS has with Metroid Prime -- technically both are FPS but they have totally different emphasis in each.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I can't recommend D3 to anyone who actually likes Diablo. It's just boring and dull.

I've played Diablo since the start and I think D3 is the best one so far. To avoid expounding on my personal take, I'll just point you to the fan-thread I made.

The completely artificial and time-wasting loot/XP grind in D1 and D2 was never the crux of the franchise. It was about clicking. If you didn't realize Diablo was already a dumbed-down roguelike, then it isn't the franchise's fault you misunderstood it and fell in love with jank mechanics.

 

[StormCell]

I've played Diablo since the start and I think D3 is the best one so far. To avoid expounding on my personal take, I'll just point you to the fan-thread I made.

The completely artificial and time-wasting loot/XP grind in D1 and D2 was never the crux of the franchise. It was about clicking. If you didn't realize Diablo was already a dumbed-down roguelike, then it isn't the franchise's fault you misunderstood it and fell in love with jank mechanics.

I may have been a bit exaggerated to say I wouldn't recommend it, but I just can't stay awake while playing it. I continued to inch the difficulty higher without my wife knowing until we're maxed out. I've had fans advise me that the campaign is just the beginning and that the real game is after that. I don't know what to think of it, though, because for me the fun in D1 was winning my way down to the next level and learning the story. Contrast this with D3 where the real fun is apparently grinding through the campaign at higher difficulty levels that are locked until you complete the campaign. Is this right? If so, it's just not fun to me no matter how jank D1's mechanics were.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I may have been a bit exaggerated to say I wouldn't recommend it, but I just can't stay awake while playing it. I continued to inch the difficulty higher without my wife knowing until we're maxed out. I've had fans advise me that the campaign is just the beginning and that the real game is after that. I don't know what to think of it, though, because for me the fun in D1 was winning my way down to the next level and learning the story.

I don't think the story in D3 is all that good, but the story progression (i.e. how the quests were strung together) was okay.

Contrast this with D3 where the real fun is apparently grinding through the campaign at higher difficulty levels that are locked until you complete the campaign. Is this right? If so, it's just not fun to me no matter how jank D1's mechanics were.

Again, I could be mistaken but I believe 'Adventure mode' is unlocked from the start. Playing through Adventure mode (bounties or random dungeon-diving) and rifts is a much faster way to grind.

But if you aren't having fun, then you aren't having fun. I hated the grind in D1 and D2 and I was happy that D3 lets you get to end-game character building rather quickly. D3 de-emphasizes the loot grind and emphasizes experimentation with each class' suite of abilities and passives. I prefer that. I understand if others do not.

 

[StormCell]

I don't think the story in D3 is all that good, but the story progression (i.e. how the quests were strung together) was okay.


Again, I could be mistaken but I believe 'Adventure mode' is unlocked from the start. Playing through Adventure mode (bounties or random dungeon-diving) and rifts is a much faster way to grind.

But if you aren't having fun, then you aren't having fun. I hated the grind in D1 and D2 and I was happy that D3 lets you get to end-game character building rather quickly. D3 de-emphasizes the loot grind and emphasizes experimentation with each class' suite of abilities and passives. I prefer that. I understand if others do not.

I don't recall having to grind terribly much in D1 except that I did have to be careful and couldn't just bulldoze forward. I did find myself opening a portal back to town fairly frequently due to injuries sustained while attempting to adventure forward. Is this what you didn't like about D1 & 2?

The emphasis on experimentation in D3 sounds little like they've removed the difficulty to the point that you can focus on building your character until you're happy with how much it kills alongside your friends. I do a lot of ranged attacks with crossbows and have had that dialed in well, and my wife thinks I ought to mix it up with a build that puts me in close range combat, but it doesn't change the fact that the bad guys are all pretty weak with the rare occasional summoner or spell caster who makes things difficult until, or unless, you can get to him and kill him.

Just color me a little surprised to learn that that's more your style, DunDun. S'fine. I also have games that I like that practically play themselves so long as I keep a button pressed.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I don't recall having to grind terribly much in D1 except that I did have to be careful and couldn't just bulldoze forward. I did find myself opening a portal back to town fairly frequently due to injuries sustained while attempting to adventure forward. Is this what you didn't like about D1 & 2?

The emphasis on experimentation in D3 sounds little like they've removed the difficulty to the point that you can focus on building your character until you're happy with how much it kills alongside your friends. I do a lot of ranged attacks with crossbows and have had that dialed in well, and my wife thinks I ought to mix it up with a build that puts me in close range combat, but it doesn't change the fact that the bad guys are all pretty weak with the rare occasional summoner or spell caster who makes things difficult until, or unless, you can get to him and kill him.

Just color me a little surprised to learn that that's more your style, DunDun. S'fine. I also have games that I like that practically play themselves so long as I keep a button pressed.

Heh heh well I played D3 in two waves: the initial Vanilla pre-Loot 2.0 version, and the modern version (which is much better). Playing on higher difficulties will affect the sort of enemies you encounter. i.e if you are on higher Torments or in a high-level rift then you are getting swarmed by massive game-chugging crowds of enemies with several groups of Elites mixed in. That's where the game really shines, when you're only a moment or two away from death.

This intensity is almost completely absent from the lower (read: lower Torment ranks and below) difficulties. The nice thing about D3 is you can easily level a character up in order to tackle higher difficulties. I prefer to skip the early/midgame grind if possible and D3 offers the shortest shortcuts.

EDIT: also, it's not that I "didn't like" D1 or D2. I loved those games, but I'm glad that D3 shed a lot of the weight in favor of a more action-oriented title. Myself, I've played crusty ol' roguelikes before Diablo, so the series has always been about streamlining/simplifying that genre into something more action-oriented.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

The original Diablo is still probably my favorite from an atmosphere point of view and also via the sheer force of nostalgia. It came out during a magical time for PC gaming when things were changing rapidly. I couldn't run the game on my home PC at first, but I was able to play it a lot with other people at a nearby LAN center, along with other amazing games like Quake and Warcraft II. I absolutely loved the setting of the original and how it was just one town and one dungeon with a thick gothic fantasy vibe. I later got it on PlayStation and despite it being technically inferior, I had a ton of fun playing through that version, too, before we finally got a decent PC and a 3DFX graphics card at home. I even went back and played through the GOG version earlier this year and while it's hard to say it holds up at all, I still had a good time.

Still, I voted for Diablo II, because it was just a much better game overall and I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing together with my friends. No other ARPG has come close to Diablo II for me.