This. Even though you do end up fighting huge mobs in D1, gangbang is an ever present threat and you don't have the huge speed advantage in the form of sprint afterburner that allows you to disengage and GTFO if overwhelmed. At best you can get some minimal breather out of specific pathfinding quirks of various monsters.
Exactly.
Remember Chamber of Bone? That shit was terrifying because it was the moment where the game designers gave no fucks and just swarmed the player with skeletons until their fingers failed from clicking forever. If you didn't know how to door-choke, you were fucked as hordes of skeletons just pour out.
The Hell mod makes it even more terrifying because, if I remember right, its not just bog-standard skeletons there.
In D2, like you said, few normal monsters are real threats. Most are slow, die in a few hits and appear in giant 20-50 mobs that get casually destroyed. Meanwhile in D1, you can get shanked by shit like Hell Goats because you thought you are the shit and could fight a few more than you could really chew.
I like the idea of running itself (people run), its just too easy. Most monsters are way slower than the player, and any decently-leveled character has enough stamina to beat the São Silvestre race. Maybe if mechanics like armor weight became a thing it would work (and constantly increasing numbers go away), then a Warrior fully-decked in armor plate and running on ST/VIT build can only do short runs, while say, a Rogue clad only in a skimpy clothing and light leather armor running a DEX build can run circles around the monsters, but she's far less armored.
btw I would't mind the game getting away from the Armor Class system myself, I prefer Damage Resistance/Threhold systems, because when I wear heavy armor, I like to feel
Tanky, and when I wear light armor, I like to feel
Nimble.
The main advantage is that it relies on what you find. In D2 you can just plan your entire build because you develop by spending points. It's all deterministic.
D1 was less deterministic in all aspects than its successors, dungeon layouts and enemy composition included.
Makes sense.
Would a mix work? Class abilities are a thing, but so are tomes and such.
Act 2 could have worked if they as much as dropped all the derpy shit in the desert.
Desert in D2 >>> Those boring-ass green nondescript plains that went on FOOOOOOREVER in D2 Act I. But really, the desert becomes a lot cooler during the Eclipse, and I don't mean just the heat.
Desert would have been interesting if being in a desert meant something. Like bringing water (which would hog the potion space, lol) and increased stamina drain due to heat. D2 taught me that people can run entire marathons in the middle of the desert in metal plate. The tombs were pretty cool. Summoner's Sanctuary was also very interesting due to how bizarre that place is compared to everything else in the entire game, I could see a modern re-rendition being full of M.C Escher-like and Non-Euclidian malicious architecture.
Huh, now that I think about it - I don't think I ever remember a situation in Diablo games where the architecture is actively malicious and trying to kill you.
I'm surprised they went with semi-open jungles in Act 3, deep jungle can be very claustrophobic and dark.
Act 3 could have worked if they didn't necessarily make it the last act or Mesoamerican jungleswamp (temperate european swampy area could be worth it for example, so would the setting's equivalent of something near the Euphrate or Sud).
I actually think Act 3 was pretty well-executed in some parts, the real problem is all the end-less jungle. Cram that shit into something smaller, and then Kurast and Travincal, that would rock. Or make the jungle actually mean something, obstacle-like. Imagine both player and monsters being able to set the jungle afire. Make the player waddle through watery swamps and creeks, going slowly in a place full of corrupted hell piranhas and hellgators or something. Do more with the theme and have more aztec-style horrors. Maybe pull something from south american myth too - imagine
Corrupted Botos. Have an entire area set in a jungle burning with the fire of hell. Have monsters attacking from the top of trees before jumping on the player.
The thing is all those open spaces didn't add anything to the gameplay. A game like Diablo needs battlefield to be structured by all sorts of obstacles. Large featureless planes are boring.
Very much agreed. Those open spaces could diminish by like 80% and get fused with other areas, nothing would be lost.
Memory is thin, but if I remember right, the open spaces only worked in Harrogath. But there were plenty of obstacles and they did sell it pretty well that it wans't just another open space, but the site of a siege.
It also allowed you to forget that they fucking put setting's Vatican in fucking Mesoamerican jungle because reasons.
Seriously, don't pull this kind of shit if your setting runs on rough equivalence with medieval Europe and surroundings.
I liked Mesoamerican Vatican.
