Diablo II - Resurrected

Chris said:

I think it was a subtle tone, maybe just in the reflective textures. So with new graphics it's going to be much more substantial.

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I swapped between legacy and new graphics to compare them. I had to zoom in on legacy mode to even notice the color difference and it was barely noticeable. That probably why I never noticed it.

That's not really a fair comparison. Grim Dawn is an excellent game but has no multiplayer to speak of. Which is why it's just not very popular.

I really wanted to like Grim Dawn but that game was such a fucking slog.

Khane said:

That's not really a fair comparison. Grim Dawn is an excellent game but has no multiplayer to speak of. Which is why it's just not very popular.

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His point is still valid though. D2 is not a very good game by any kind of modern objective measure.

Base D2/remaster without any access to mods is gonna be a real rude awakening for a lot of people.

Still holding out some slim hope they actually let the PD2/PoD guys do their thing and get their respective mods working under the remaster.

ronne said:

His point is still valid though. D2 is not a very good game by any kind of modern objective measure.

Base D2/remaster without any access to mods is gonna be a real rude awakening for a lot of people.

Still holding out some slim hope they actually let the PD2/PoD guys do their thing and get their respective mods working under the remaster.

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Not going to happen. They can’t do a multiplayer mod due to Battlenet. Senpai (PD2) stated that on his stream. Plus if somehow they could do a multiplayer mod ActiBlizz will slap a cease and desist order on them. As much I’m enjoying D2R I would definitely play the PD2 version over it.

Khane said:

That's not really a fair comparison. Grim Dawn is an excellent game but has no multiplayer to speak of. Which is why it's just not very popular.

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You can coop with up to 4 ... Buddy and I just did the new expansion. There's always games online to join.

I could see myself playing a couple classes through the acts up through hell just for nostaliga and be done. Sure you can do boss runs and pray for gear to drop but why do you need that gear? You already beat the hardest part of the game and are already farming the bosses. I think the only reason I played original d2 for as long as I did was pvp, as that actually kept me around longer.

Cinge said:

I could see myself playing a couple classes through the acts up through hell just for nostaliga and be done. Sure you can do boss runs and pray for gear to drop but why do you need that gear? You already beat the hardest part of the game and are already farming the bosses. I think the only reason I played original d2 for as long as I did was pvp, as that actually kept me around longer.

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PvP in D2 Classic was actually decent. Looking back I think the expansion actually hurt the game more than helped it.

They give you the option to play classic, haven't played that way since the original so might be interesting not farming runewords. Wish I still had my toons from 2001.

Khane said:

That's not really a fair comparison. Grim Dawn is an excellent game but has no multiplayer to speak of. Which is why it's just not very popular.

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Grim Dawn is very popular and has great multiplayer.

Hope Blizzard burns to the ground. It isn't the same company anymore, only in name.

Captain Suave said:

I really wanted to like Grim Dawn but that game was such a fucking slog.

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Not a slog these days, maybe slightly on the first play through. Find a good starter build, there's lots of very good builds to start out that wreck pretty much everything until much later.

There's also special items that help with levelling you can find in the game.

dizzie said:

Not a slog these days, maybe slightly on the first play through. Find a good starter build, there's lots of very good builds to start out that wreck pretty much everything until much later.

There's also special items that help with levelling you can find in the game.

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It's still a slog. Your perspective is askew. I don't think PoE is a slog, but ask people new to the game. For both games, expansions have made it a massive slog.

In Grim Dawn I made it to the end of regular difficulty, through one expansion and part of way through another and ran out of steam, with an easy, fun, and accessible build I looked up. I then just decided to go to the next difficulty and start the regular campaign again but was already burned out.

I think in a lot of cases if you are invested in a game from the start you don't notice additional slog from expansions and added content because you immediately know what to skip, what is important, what is useless, etc. A player new to the game wants to, or thinks they have to, do it all. And they tend to burn out.

Yeah, you can watch tutorials and videos and what not but having to do that to get through a game just adds to the slog, you know?

It is a tough tightrope to walk to be sure.

Edit - Titan Quest has a similar problem. I played that game to the very end on base, then the expansion made the game BETTER but that extra act really added to the time and challenge at higher difficulties (Nightmare Hades was a bitch). Then they added a large expansion and when I went back to play through it again I got burned out 3/4 of the way through that new content and said fuck it. And they recently added another in Atlantis. I guess my conclusion here is that one expansion to improve on the base game and add a little more content seems like a natural limit, and more than that tends to push people away I think.

Couple of issues with the Remaster:

(1) Dungeons are too fucking dark. Even at the highest brightness they are oppressively dark. On the original, the higher brightness settings made it more bearable, not in the remaster.
(2) Dungeon textures are too reflective and shiny under higher lighting conditions - the stone tile-sets look wet/icy at all times.
(3) Minimap details are horrible and hard to see. I had to reload Halls of the Dead Level 1 because I could not find the exit to level 2. The pink/orange door icons are very difficult to see, and the exit stairs are not highlighted by torches or anything for the most part.

Pretty nitpicky stuff. Still keeping my interest from PoE at the moment, although not being able to go past Act 2 really disappointed me. The open beta has the same limit, so I am probably done until release.

lol and I bet you loved D3's aesthetics and dungeons too?

donomito said:

lol and I bet you loved D3's aesthetics and dungeons too?

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I despise D3. I mean, it looks okay and plays ok but it is boring and trite and formulaic to a fault. It has no SOUL.

I was one that refused to touch D3 at release, but some friends convinced me after RoS came out. It was a great time-waster for a few months, but it was about an inch deep. After I'd kinda mucked about with the sets I felt no real reason to ever touch it again. Maybe played a season here or there with some IRL friends, but mostly naw. I don't hate on the "story" as much as others, but the aesthetics turned me the fuck off though the art grew on me as I accepted it just isn't a real diablo game.

Also, I did appreciate how fucking smooth the control was overall.

Diablo 3 is indeed incredibly shallow. It's fun at the release of each season for a week or two and then adios. Everything about it is completely uninspired which is a shame because it feels great to play. If you took the systems and itemization of grim dawn and married it with the gameplay of D3 you'd have a new king of ARPGs.