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Diablo 2: Resurrected remaster

Self-Ejected

Lim-Dûl

Self-Ejected
Joined
Apr 11, 2022
Messages
388
Diablo 1 and 2's sound design, music, combat, atmosphere, and visuals are timeless.
I suppose I got spoiled by many features of nowadays diablo-likes. Coming back to Diablo 2 Ressurection felt like coming back to a barren land with an occasional tree that used to feel like a forest. It's not for me anymore :(
That being said, I must also agree with you. If only for the fact we used to play the original for hundreds of hours and had lots of fun.
So which Diablo-like is actually good?
 

Peachcurl

Cipher
Joined
Jan 3, 2020
Messages
8,861
Location
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Diablo 1 and 2's sound design, music, combat, atmosphere, and visuals are timeless.
I suppose I got spoiled by many features of nowadays diablo-likes. Coming back to Diablo 2 Ressurection felt like coming back to a barren land with an occasional tree that used to feel like a forest. It's not for me anymore :(
That being said, I must also agree with you. If only for the fact we used to play the original for hundreds of hours and had lots of fun.
So which Diablo-like is actually good?

Path of Exile, Torchlight 2, and Grim Dawn are fun. To me, at least.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,407
So which Diablo-like is actually good?
If you absolutely want a real time hack and slash, Path of Exile is probably the best, though it suffers from a feature overgrowth at this point, imo.
I keep hearing Grim Dawn is good, personally, I spent too much time on Titan Quest and couldn't get into it, because it's basically the same mechanics.
It's worth checking out either if you haven't, TQ was a free giveway at some point.
Torchlight isn't bad, but I just can't get past the art design.

I've had a good run with Inquisitor: Martyr. Its main problem is poor rewards from the (way too lengthy) main storyline.
Other than this, it could use a bit more content and a bit more character customization, but does Wh40k and its gothic atmosphere pretty well.
The Chaos Spees Mariners kinda remind me of Diablo's Doom Knights.

Hades is not a 100% diablo clone, more of a straight up action game, I didn't mind the graphics, but I understand it could rub people the wrong way.
All in all, it's a well made game, and has some creative usage of Greek mythos. Something you don't see everyday.

On the other hand, I recommend getting into roguelikes for scratching that itch. They often have superior gameplay depth, and you can easily forget that they are turn based.
Jupiter Hell and ADOM are the two I keep getting back to, but there's plenty more to choose from.
 

Olinser

Savant
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
977
Location
Denial
So which Diablo-like is actually good?
If you absolutely want a real time hack and slash, Path of Exile is probably the best, though it suffers from a feature overgrowth at this point, imo.
I keep hearing Grim Dawn is good, personally, I spent too much time on Titan Quest and couldn't get into it, because it's basically the same mechanics.
It's worth checking out either if you haven't, TQ was a free giveway at some point.
Torchlight isn't bad, but I just can't get past the art design.

I've had a good run with Inquisitor: Martyr. Its main problem is poor rewards from the (way too lengthy) main storyline.
Other than this, it could use a bit more content and a bit more character customization, but does Wh40k and its gothic atmosphere pretty well.
The Chaos Spees Mariners kinda remind me of Diablo's Doom Knights.

Hades is not a 100% diablo clone, more of a straight up action game, I didn't mind the graphics, but I understand it could rub people the wrong way.
All in all, it's a well made game, and has some creative usage of Greek mythos. Something you don't see everyday.

On the other hand, I recommend getting into roguelikes for scratching that itch. They often have superior gameplay depth, and you can easily forget that they are turn based.
Jupiter Hell and ADOM are the two I keep getting back to, but there's plenty more to choose from.

Darkest Dungeon is also a pretty good roguelite.

Crying Suns was also a pretty good roguelike with an actually great story behind it, very similar in presentation to FTL.

Jupiter Hell is pretty great, although some of the combos are ludicrously OP and the game seems designed around abusing those combos.

I should get around to finishing the achievements for the challenge modes on Hard though. I did Angel of Confidence pretty easily, I should go back for Angel of Impatience.
 

Late Bloomer

Scholar
Joined
Apr 7, 2022
Messages
2,914
Installed Van Helsing the 1st one not the final cut and hoo boy is it shit. Super clunky controls on both KBM / Controller. I'm going to play a bit more today just to make sure

I keep hearing Grim Dawn is good, personally, I spent too much time on Titan Quest and couldn't get into it, because it's basically the same mechanics.

Maybe someday when its on sale you can give it a try. I think the two hour return window is cutting it close to get a feel for the game in Grim Dawns case. But its worth a try. Been playing this shit since Beserk and Gauntlet. Grim Dawn stacks up their with the best of them.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,407
Darkest Dungeon is also a pretty good roguelite.
The atmosphere is top notch, they really hit the jackpot with the narrator. Few VAs could deliver lines like:
"Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue."
Without sounding funny.
I wasn't mentioning it, because it's got very few parallels to Diablo. Also, I remember it was a bit of a slog to get throught to the end.

Installed Van Helsing the 1st one not the final cut and hoo boy is it shit. Super clunky controls on both KBM / Controller. I'm going to play a bit more today just to make sure
I think I played a demo of this one (I mean, a legit demo, like the one you'd get on a cover cd with a gaming rag) way back.
Had a bit of fun kiting shit with a shotgun, but it's gotten old really quickly, so yeah, don't get your hopes up.

Maybe someday when its on sale you can give it a try. I think the two hour return window is cutting it close to get a feel for the game in Grim Dawns case.
I did try it and I agree that 2hrs is barely enough the form an opinion on games like this. My problem with it is that it I played way too much titan quest, and now that I'm seeing it reuse the same mechanics,
skill structure, heck even the same basic animations, it triggers a... PTSD? of sorts. I acknowledge that it's more of a ME problem. A lot of folks swear by GD.

I also have Last Epoch on my backlog, though I've had my fill of the genre for now. Anyone tried that?
 
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Nikanuur

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,517
Location
Ngranek
Diablo 1 and 2's sound design, music, combat, atmosphere, and visuals are timeless.
I suppose I got spoiled by many features of nowadays diablo-likes. Coming back to Diablo 2 Ressurection felt like coming back to a barren land with an occasional tree that used to feel like a forest. It's not for me anymore :(
That being said, I must also agree with you. If only for the fact we used to play the original for hundreds of hours and had lots of fun.
So which Diablo-like is actually good?
Any well-known Diablo-like made in the past 15 years or so, I reckon.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
13,310
Location
Eastern block
So which Diablo-like is actually good?

I played Path of Exile on and off over 2.5 years and the biggest issues for me were,
  • game is ugly
  • it has no style
  • it's not SP friendly
  • animation is stiff
  • enemy design is shit
Grim Dawn was the same, except that it was SP friendly.

Titan Quest I never played, but it always looked second rate to me.

Diablo III is dumbed down, geared towards online play and looks like WoW.

Lost Ark does some things right, but is a furry MMO.

Torchlight games are OK mechanically, but I can't stand the cartoony art direction.

Diablo IV got the art direction right, but is even more dumbed down than Diablo III.


In the end, like I said Diablo II is still the unsurpassed benchmark. Despite being 20 years old, this 2.5D game still feels incredibly crisp and boasts an intricate gothic horror atmosphere with a great attention to detail.
 
Self-Ejected

Lim-Dûl

Self-Ejected
Joined
Apr 11, 2022
Messages
388
Jupiter Hell looks good but it's too different from Diablo to be considered a Diablo-like. The other ones mentioned here can't compare to Diablo I and II in terms of atmosphere, satisfying gameplay, art direction, music, etc and so on. Path of Exile used to be decent originally but they added too much low quality content and dragged down the whole game.

Speaking of roguelikes what would be great is a Diablo 2 mod that is turn based or where time passes only when you're moving like WazHack. Or give the game Nox-like controls for a more tactile feel.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
1,642
Grim Dawn is very good actually.

It has good game mechanics for an ARPG but the SFX and VFX quality is miles away from D2.

Grim Dawn also has mechanics bloat, IMO. I can take a break from my Diablo 2 character for a month and jump right back in and understand how my character is geared and what needs improvement. In Grim's Dawn case between the 8 different resistances and each item having a stat list 2 pages long it becomes just too much to remember and digest, at least for me personally.
 

Saravan

Savant
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
926
Grim Dawn is very good actually.

It has good game mechanics for an ARPG but the SFX and VFX quality is miles away from D2.

Grim Dawn also has mechanics bloat, IMO. I can take a break from my Diablo 2 character for a month and jump right back in and understand how my character is geared and what needs improvement. In Grim's Dawn case between the 8 different resistances and each item having a stat list 2 pages long it becomes just too much to remember and digest, at least for me personally.

Indeed. To this date there is not a single ARPG on the market that has better SFX and VFX than D2. Blizzard North were and still are the absolute kings in this department.

Anyone who disagrees with me has shit taste in aesthetics and I'm very sorry you feel that way.
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,332
Yeah DII still looks very pleasing to my eyes, moreso than all newer games of that type. I do remember finding Titan Quest visuals to be quite good, too bad game itself is fucking tedious.
 
Last edited:

Sykar

Arcane
Joined
Dec 2, 2014
Messages
11,297
Location
Turn right after Alpha Centauri
Looks very pleasing:
480-01.jpg


Does not look pleasing:
iu


:hmmm:
 

Serus

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 16, 2005
Messages
6,699
Location
Small but great planet of Potatohole
In my diablo2-clones times i played 4 worth mentioning titles: Diablo 2, Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, PoE. Of those i like Grim Dawn the least. PoE was as good as Diablo 2 (better is some areas, worse in others) but that was long time ago, it is supposedly got too bloated now. Grim Dawn felt like worse Titan Quest (improved mechanically but worse in most other things).
So yeah, hard to beat Diablo 2 even today, especially if PoE really went to shit.
 

Comte_II

Guest
In my diablo2-clones times i played 4 worth mentioning titles: Diablo 2, Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, PoE. Of those i like Grim Dawn the least. PoE was as good as Diablo 2 (better is some areas, worse in others) but that was long time ago, it is supposedly got too bloated now. Grim Dawn felt like worse Titan Quest (improved mechanically but worse in most other things).
So yeah, hard to beat Diablo 2 even today, especially if PoE really went to shit.

Did you try the diablo 2 mod for grim dawn?
 

Cerulean

Cipher
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
787
Not that anybody cares, but after twenty two years, I did it. I finally fucking did it. Hardcore Fishymancer where I finally beat Baal on Hell and got that coveted Guardian title.

And now? All I want is to get a Monarch shield so I can make Spirit.

I'm wearing about 250% MF.
So I run the Bloody Foothills.
And the Ancient Tunnels.
And the Pit.
And the Worldstone Keep.
And the Durance of Hate.
And the Secret Cow Level.

Over and over and over and I can't get that fucking stupid Monarch to drop GAHDAMMIT!#$DSAFRQ#$

P.S. Fuck the level designer who had the bright idea to have Black Souls occasionally spawn near the WSK waypoint.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
1,642
I also heard Hell Masoleum is a good place to get Monarchs specifically, but I don't know, I generally just stick to Cows if I'm trying to get bases.
 

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