Torchlight 3 was a MASSIVE failure. Whahappan?
All 3 just aren't as good as Diablo II.
I don't know if I agree.
It's my first time playing Torchlight 2 and Diablo 2 this past day and a half. I have no nostalgia for either game, so that should mean I'm unbiased.
Diablo 2 movement just feels slower and more sluggish. Swinging weapons to hit enemies feels the same. Torchlight 2 has more energy in your movement and you feel like you're hitting stuff.
Inventory is way too small in D2 and you have to constantly drop stuff or portal back to town to sell. Torchlight 2 alleviates this with a larger inventory and a pet that you can send back to town to sell stuff with a cooldown. Convenient but balanced and keeps the game at a good pace.
D2 quest system is a little archaic. I never thought I'd say this, but I prefer the quest markers in TL2. If the game tells you exactly where you need to go, that means less time wandering aimlessly and more time cleaving your way through mobs and looting. Which is what you want to be doing more of in this kind of game, not less.
D2 is less suitable for pick up and play/mobile play. When you return to TL2 after some time away, even if you were mid-dungeon last time, you begin right where you left off with a simple quest marker telling you what direction you should start heading towards. But in D2 if you have to quit the game mid-dungeon, too bad. Your ass is getting sent back to town. And you've got to open your quest log to figure out where to go from there. It's just a lot slower to get going.
I think D2 is still a good game. I definitely like it's themes better. Cleansing the land of evil and all that, and the darker tone. And the music is a lot better. But gameplay wise TL2 is the better game. It's got the advantage of over a decade of hindsight and makes a lot of improvements that you can't really ignore. The devs knew what they were doing and I think they improved the formula in lots of ways.
Best game would be D2's graphic style and themes with TL2's gameplay improvements I think.