Diablo IV

[Zeriel]

What exactly did you like about GD; and what was missing from the other games in the genre you tried?

And no, D4 definitely is not better than GD in every conceivable way.

I liked the building of the charters, I liked that it had a story the 1st time you played and the little well written notes etc...I liked the world, I liked they kept adding stuff to it even now and balancing the game so that all types of builds are fun to try. I guess the character building, world, mood, items, pace, how combat 'felt'..

I tried Path of Exile a few times but never really liked it...
I did like Torchlight 2 enough to finish it actually, liked it better than Path of Exile
I played Titan Quest for 60 hours, so I did like it, but I never finished all of the expansions I don't think, I doubt I would go back to it unless they made a sequel..
I did like Diablo 2 back in the day..
Diablo 3 felt like it was on railroads, like no exploration or something and it was really easy, I only played like 15 hours.,..maybe it gets better? I stopped playing

Then there are a bunch of others I played for 10-30 hours but never really liked..a Warhammer 40k one I played way too much for how dumb it was...Victor Vran, and a similar one and they looked cool but when I actually played them they had a weird camera angle while playing that made it annoying to play. I was hoping Last Epoch was going to be good, played it for like 15 minutes and immediately refunded. There were a couple of others like that too...Lost Ark is one...

Anyway, maybe someday somebody will make one almost as good as Grim Dawn...I guess Path of Exile 2 is going to come out sometime soon, I suppose I will give that a shot..

If you like Grim Dawn's style of singleplayer focused Diablo clone I don't think D4 will cut it for you. Similar games... maybe Victor Vran? It seemed like it got some hate on release and went under the radar over time, but I found it quite fun at the time as a disposable experience.

Last Epoch is also an interesting experience. Mostly for the timetravel gimmick, the world maps are really cool and for the first dozen hours or so there is this feeling of "what's next?" that is really fun. It tapers off towards the end and has an awful non-story endgame.


They're all a little different. I don't think any of them are quite like GD. And I am myself waiting for a sequel.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Had fun with the latest season of D4. Got to level 100, but didn't fully complete my 'season journey' thing yet.
It's pretty cool to play with friends, but the solo content is a lot better this season than before.
Blood Harvest is pretty fun, which is a new helltide type event that switches between areas of the world map each hour. You go around killing vampires and stuff and participate in quick events, and get hunted and whatnot. It's one of the quicker ways to level up when you're lower level (below 70) but drops off quick after that.
The new endgame bosses are pretty neat, though the Ice one was kind of a pain just due to the length and 'invincibility times', and the way that the mats drop to summon them encourage exploring the different types of content to get the loot that you want to drop.
I wasn't too much of a fan of the max Ilvl gear dropping stuff like world bosses, mainly because I wasn't really expecting it based off of what the devs said during their livestreams and the patch notes, but it is what it is.
But overall the improvements made are pretty good, though there's still a lot to be done, which will be implemented later.

 

[Zeriel]

I agree it's "fun" but basically puts the nail in the coffin of the game as a real ARPG. You max out and reach the "nothing left to do" stage after a few days instead of a month or so. I suppose they're counting on the expansion to add a real endgame... or, more likely, getting the entire playerbase to cycle through all content in a few days and max out the premium battle pass before getting bored is their business model. PoE for the actual ARPG players, Diablo 4 for the masses who only have an hour to play after work.

 

[Cohesion]

I agree it's "fun" but basically puts the nail in the coffin of the game as a real ARPG. You max out and reach the "nothing left to do" stage after a few days instead of a month or so. I suppose they're counting on the expansion to add a real endgame... or, more likely, getting the entire playerbase to cycle through all content in a few days and max out the premium battle pass before getting bored is their business model. PoE for the actual ARPG players, Diablo 4 for the masses who only have an hour to play after work.

What about Last Epoch?

 

[Cyberarmy]

I agree it's "fun" but basically puts the nail in the coffin of the game as a real ARPG. You max out and reach the "nothing left to do" stage after a few days instead of a month or so. I suppose they're counting on the expansion to add a real endgame... or, more likely, getting the entire playerbase to cycle through all content in a few days and max out the premium battle pass before getting bored is their business model. PoE for the actual ARPG players, Diablo 4 for the masses who only have an hour to play after work.

What about Last Epoch?

It IS janky and not in a good way. Game has lots of builds and refreshingly most of them are viable somehow but it feels slogish to play.

 

[Lacrymas]

I agree it's "fun" but basically puts the nail in the coffin of the game as a real ARPG. You max out and reach the "nothing left to do" stage after a few days instead of a month or so. I suppose they're counting on the expansion to add a real endgame... or, more likely, getting the entire playerbase to cycle through all content in a few days and max out the premium battle pass before getting bored is their business model. PoE for the actual ARPG players, Diablo 4 for the masses who only have an hour to play after work.

What about Last Epoch?

It IS janky and not in a good way. Game has lots of builds and refreshingly most of them are viable somehow but it feels slogish to play.

The builds are viable because the campaign is brain-dead easy. You'll see the same builds on the ladder constantly where it actually matters. There are specs where you will be severely ineffective if you don't use certain abilities. If you like Titan Quest/Grim Dawn-style hack and slashers, Last Epoch is not it. LE is made by people who like a very specific part of hack and slashers, namely the endgame grind for better and better gear, so everything else feels like an afterthought, at least for now.

 

[Zeriel]

I agree it's "fun" but basically puts the nail in the coffin of the game as a real ARPG. You max out and reach the "nothing left to do" stage after a few days instead of a month or so. I suppose they're counting on the expansion to add a real endgame... or, more likely, getting the entire playerbase to cycle through all content in a few days and max out the premium battle pass before getting bored is their business model. PoE for the actual ARPG players, Diablo 4 for the masses who only have an hour to play after work.

What about Last Epoch?

It IS janky and not in a good way. Game has lots of builds and refreshingly most of them are viable somehow but it feels slogish to play.

The builds are viable because the campaign is brain-dead easy. You'll see the same builds on the ladder constantly where it actually matters. There are specs where you will be severely ineffective if you don't use certain abilities. If you like Titan Quest/Grim Dawn-style hack and slashers, Last Epoch is not it. LE is made by people who like a very specific part of hack and slashers, namely the endgame grind for better and better gear, so everything else feels like an afterthought, at least for now.

I disagree with that. If anything I feel like the end game is really poor in LE. You may just be approaching the same issue from a different angle though. I think the cause of the endgame is not their design approach, but a lack of care towards it compared to the rest of the game.

 

[sebas]

Let's face it every arpg will have very little end game at launch. PoE is practically the WoW of arpgs nowadays with so much content that nothing else can come close. LE will get end game added post release.

 

[Zeriel]

It already has one, it just isn't very compelling, and that's somewhat structured into its design. It is a Diablo 3 "Rift style" endgame.

I think you're sort of right in the sense that PoE builds novelty into its endgame. You can't do the same thing over and over (i.e Rifts) and have fun, you need constant churn of new stuff which PoE does very well. On the other hand, the constant churn makes a lot of people get fed up with it too.

 

[sebas]

There's also that I can't play PoE anymore because I've missed so many leagues at this point I would need a week of intense study to get anywhere near it.

 

[Lacrymas]

I disagree with that. If anything I feel like the end game is really poor in LE. You may just be approaching the same issue from a different angle though. I think the cause of the endgame is not their design approach, but a lack of care towards it compared to the rest of the game.

Oh, I didn't comment on how good the endgame is, I was just saying that it looks like endgame is their focus and is going to be their focus since the campaign is ...of debatable quality and super easy.

 

[Zlaja]

MAKE CAMPAIGNS AND LEVELING GREAT TOLERABLE AGAIN!

 

[mediocrepoet]

MAKE CAMPAIGNS AND LEVELING GREAT TOLERABLE AGAIN!

MAKE GAMES FUN AGAIN!

 

[ferratilis]

Have you guys donated your blood already? Oh wait, gays can't donate blood.

 

[Zlaja]

Have you guys donated your blood already? Oh wait, gays can't donate blood.

At least that chick looks way better than an over-the-hill Megan Fox.

 

[Zeriel]

This sounds like it would be a joke. But nope. A literally bloodsucking corporation asking for your life essence in order to gift some random peasant a show-piece console that doesn't even work.

 

[abija]

but all these things give them esg brownie points

 

[mediocrepoet]

This sounds like it would be a joke. But nope. A literally bloodsucking corporation asking for your life essence in order to gift some random peasant a show-piece console that doesn't even work.

Like a sequel to Bloodnet or something.

 

[Elttharion]

Have you guys donated your blood already? Oh wait, gays can't donate blood.

I hate to say this but they changed the law, fags can donate blood now. At least in the US.

 

[Zlaja]

- It moved a little bit

 

[motherfucker]

Anyone got this shit on steam? Does it require installing the Blizz botnet or you run the entire thing from Steam? Played a bit since it's a free weekend and call me crazy, but this might actually be fun enough for a $50 price tag

 

[Lacrymas]

It's a trap. The bad part begins once you get to the endgame.

 

[Gamezor]

I am trying the free weekend. WTF is the deal with the zoom level? Do you ever get the ability to zoom out?

Edit: I actually was slightly zoomed in. The max zoom out is still too close but it's not as bad as I thought.

 

[Reever]

I am trying the free weekend. WTF is the deal with the zoom level? Do you ever get the ability to zoom out?

Edit: I actually was slightly zoomed in. The max zoom out is still too close but it's not as bad as I thought.

Somehow still feels better than PoE.

 

[motherfucker]

D4 is actually miles ahead of PoE because one runs fine on my tablet PC and the other doesn't
Also r8 my blood necro: