@@marlowencna In the Occident mentality of big short term semester number, for sure. Nintendo has a 98% retention. The same people that worked in OoT also worked in BotW and TotK.
D1 is the strongest of tone, and best depicts the horror of facing off against the forces of hell. it's simple, very focused, and puts the fear in you again and again. D2 is more complex and deep but if you want the strongest gothic horror vibes you cant do better than D1. As a sidenote too, being able to truly clear floors in D1 makes it feel like you are truly making a difference in a real place.
@@messire9837 nah, i'd say there are 4 key moments in D1 that outshine anything in D2 when it comes to gothic and horror. 1 - first time walking into the cathedral, the darkness, the shadowy figures walking outside of your field of visibility 2 - Butcher room obviously 3 - first time when the environment changes once you go past level 4 and you are thinking to yourself, maybe it was safer staying in 1-4 4 - first time entering hell and you realize that's where you are
Weird how people can't understand how some prefer other than the generally most beloved entry in the series. (Same with Fallout vs. Fallout 2, anything SMT before Persona 5 etc.)
I can never forget the sound of a magic ring or amulet dropping on the ground and waving the cursor all over the place trying to find that son of a bitch. That's peak nostalgia for me.
D1 multiplayer was legendary and terrifying. It created moments to remember for life. You had to play tactical because of friendly fire (mage panics and everyone is dead ;-)), going around every corner was a real thrill. Once you got killed you lost all your gear at the spot. Once we needed 4 hours to get back our gear back because the cave entrance was an insta death, (because someone lured a boss with perma stun right there) and we literally had to go through hell backwards into the caves with crap 2nd choice gear to get back our stuff we farmed for years... pure adrenalin...
Yes. Doing this with the lag of 56k dialup no less. Today’s generation might think this is bad gameplay but in the day this just made the struggle that much more epic and created memories you never forget.
I was Diablo superfan ever since 1 first came out. Didn't like 3 at all. Loved the story and darkness of 4 especially since you don't fight diablo again leading to a much more ominous return when he does. PoE is a better game
You should try the Diablo 1 mob Belzebub. It's harder, add 3 characters (barb, necro, assassin), lots of set items, over 200 more uniques, news quests and zones, crazy QoL changes, added torment difficulty, elite packs, new stats for gear to roll and much much more. Highly recommended for anyone that liked D1 and are looking for a challenge.
I know DMT prob never saw it, but the Blizzard North intro still gives me chills down my spine to this day. Theres a whole lot of emotions ties up in that 5 second graphic
Diablo 1 was so much fun back in the day. The old school battlenet with the clans and lobbies you could hang out in were awesome. So many good memories.
I played D1 as a kid and it's the only game I've been genuinely afraid while playing. And the Tristram music is the most haunting bar none. I liked The Ruins of Sescheron in D3 really well too. Music and environment.
D1 always my fav, d2 is the best all-around, and d3 is one of the many reasons i stopped buying blizard games. So i never gave 4 a chance because they as a company no longer interest me. No hate, i hope other people enjoy them, I just dont anymore.
D3 after RoS was released was ok... Combat was extremely fun at least. Never tried d4 as well, with how blizzards track record was going the last 8 years; ain't getting another penny from me.
I mean, D3 clearly sacrificed a lot, but at least gameplay was fun. Overall it was fine expirience. Nothing ground-breaking but fine thing to pass some time with. Not too much time tho.
D3 totally sucked but after the marketing hype that d4 was going to be more like d2 I dived right in. It was good but it soon after launch it lost its identity
Integrity with gameplay loop for example, purposefullness in terms of rewards, things you actually have to do to move from one cutscene and writing peice to another. Actually many things if you think about it.
People shit on the cutscenes when D4 came out because the campaign was a complete letdown. The “climax” of the story was so anti climactic. The story wasn’t horrible, but it basically foreplayed the Hell (heh) out of us and then gave us blue balls. This battle between Inarius and Lilith has been teased since D3. It finally came, and Inarius has like zero screen time then died like a little bitch immediately. Then Lilith died shortly after. So not memorable.
I think my problem with D4 is that when it's campaign and cutscenes are the best part, and then the game entirely pushes it's player base away from replaying them because the core gameplay loop is getting to the endgame as fast as possible. It's not that the campaign and cutscenes are bad but from the very beginning Blizzard themselves relegated it to being 1 time content. And when the strongest part of your game is the one time content then why will people come back season to season
The first cutscene in D2 with Marius telling his story is the best cutscene in all of video games. (I like the graphical update to it, but the important stuff - Frank Gorshin’s voice and the story and “East … always into the east” was all there to begin with.)
While I liked d1 and d2 best as a game, I've put in the most hours in d3, it's super casual it just plays so smoothly and is easy to go in and out every season. D3 went through a lot of phases over its lifetime whiich was fun in itself finding its identity. The AH, loot 2.0, expansion, rifts, bounties etc. The money spent is more than worrh it. D4 had a nice campaign but endgame doesn't work for me, it's so mid that it doesn't make me feel anything. Feel regret tp spend 70 euros on it. Maybe someday I might grow to like it, like an acquired taste.
To me D1 was a Dark Souls of its time in a sense while D2 felt like an Elden Ring level game with all the improvements, scale and added depth. I still remember disappointment with D3 which is the reason I waited for D4 to launch before pulling a trigger, luckily still didn't bought it and chances are looking like zero currently. Blessed be the Resurrected team!
i was actually very surprised on the improvements of d4 since release, i thought i would never like a Diablo game again after d2, but i have been thoroughly enjoying it.
TBH I agree with most of the takes you said here. I actually unironically think D3 has the best combat. D2's music is literally legendary to the point when I am grinding mmo's I listen to the soundtrack. D2's itemization is also by far the best D3's could have been better if they never went the route of 10000% damage. I think the reason why PoE is so good is that it has D2 itemization and a feel of D3's combat.
I don’t understand the D4 cutscene opinion. I thought i was tripping, so I scrolled through a video of all the cutscenes and, yeah, there’s basically the really good beginning and then 3 hours of nothing (unless you really love d4s dialogue).
D1 Had amazing lore telling, and had an amazingly good feel. The guy reading books gave me chills. The sound was amazing for its time. D2 This is the gold standard of arpgs! Greatstory telling, amazing depth. This is where Ive put most of my Diablo time. D3 Had... man. Its such a mixed bag. I fun with it, but it just wasnt sequel a lot of people wanted, and it wasnt the kind of fun i wanted after D2. Launch was like... you believe you're getting beer, you open your mouth to drink, only to find out it's an off-brand soda. I liked the difficulty at launch. Great expansion, but it didnt save the game for me. But I had TONS Of fun with it in coop mode though - even played it with my wife on our third date - but that was the only way I could enjoy it. D4 Feels like it launched with a "hey maybe we can save it" and they're kinda still there. Hope they save it. I like the rogue gameplay. I guess I just want D2 style loot again. The skilltrees, the runes, the items. It had the right amount of complexity to really keep people there, while remaining simple enough. But there was like, always something new to discover or think of. I think what really made it click was that it didn't have infinitely scaling items. Endgame should have an end, longevity should come from depth and how much you can vary your builds. Seasons can really make that come together.
Agreed. The itemization in d4 is the WORST out of all of the diablo games. The skill trees are bad, they somehow took the worst parts of both d2 and d3 to make d4 trees and it's just unintuitive. Runewords are said to be coming eventually but it'll still be based off current itemization which just isn't enjoyable. My all time favorite class among every class based game I've ever played is the d2 druid. It's what shaped my love for summoner class types in most games (yes I know original d2 summon druid was kinda cheeks). But the d2 druid has 3 actual different playstyles between all three trees, and you can mix and match between them, it's just a blissful experience. Then we have d4 druid. Competing among all the classes to just be the absolute worst available one. I haven't even tried to play any of the other classes since the beta testing weekends. How unfun the d2 druid is to play, as well as the character model are just egregious. I also hate the crafting system and legendary affix juggling you have to do in this game. They could completely scrap and rebuild the itemization and skill tree system (I know they wont) and probably ask a 13 year old for a better idea.
@@aryanmcdeid8424 Well said! I remember seeing alpha screenshots of D3 with a D2 style skilltree. That had me so excited. It could've been so amazingly good.
@TheMeeelting I don't know why devs are scared of a more simple, yet build defining skill tree system. Most games these days have skill trees where it doesn't really matter what skills you choose, they all get similar results with a different visual effect. If they did a d2 skill tree with ability augments like in d3 so the skill you use can be modified in a few different ways, that would've been the bee's knees. Not this cluster of 4 to 5 abilities which has two different nodes you can choose from where one gives you 15% more vulnerable damage when an enemy is mid tea break, or the other node grants you 1 extra arc of lightning. Like wtf. How did they actually think this skill system was even remotely fun. How did last epoch outshine D4 completely in their class, ability, and item system. It's unfortunate that last epoch's campaign was kinda meh, and endgame is just bridge between d3 and poe endgame. Absolutely loved last epoch for the month I played it (this was much before the official release)
@@aryanmcdeid8424 No way you think D4 has worse itemization than D3. Also, D4 has the best skill tree out of any Diablo game. Yes, there are other ARPG's that have better skill trees but they're not Diablo. D2's skill trees are not very good. Forcing the player to put points into skills they won't use just to progress down the tree feels bad.
As an OG D1 fan, and huge follower of all games, you just described my whole Diablo experience in 10 minutes. It's a testament of how the old Diablo games changed the gaming landscape (while we can agree they are totally a product of the past now), while current iterations are just soulless products meant to reach as many people as possible not caring about what fans of the genre actually like. It's become a game of numbers and give the reach Diablo as a franchise has, they can go with this every single time and still rake so much money it's insane. I can see how D4 is better now and can become even a good game but that's exactly what i hate about the whole thing - i'm not going to spend any more money to fuel this distrorted behaviour.
Wasn't enough cut scenes. Played through S4 with a friend, their first time in. We didn't realise we completed 3 acts! Nothing really stood out as the end of an Act. I assume an Act ended after we killed Andariel and Duriel, couldn't tell you.
D1 is goated. There are only 2 choices for best Diablo game and you picked one. The feel of those games is gone, because the incredibly creative people who made them are too.
Nah D4 bad. D3 was also bad, but at least true to itself after a while. D4 pretends to be better but is just a copy of D3 with gritty graphics. Also don't forget you can't even fight Diablo in D4 which makes even the title a lie. D4 truly bad .
Did you play d2 and d2's expansion? I played d2 as it came out as a kid and young adult because i went back to play it atleast 3 times. The expansion was like a completely new game almost although at first you could port old items over from your original account of d2 to expansion which you could not get anymore like dual leech rings. The main change added charms which you did not have in the original d2 and the runes and runeword items. I was a market master on d2 lol MF gear and i farmed stuff then traded it for what i needed if i didnt have it.
I just started playing D4S4 - didn't play any of the earlier seasons, but I gotta say I am really enjoying it so far. Got through the campaign and am running around the endgame now so maybe I'm about to get bored, but I had fun on the way.
sorcerer was hard at first, and then in the later levels it becomes way more powerful than the warrior, especially when you get mana shield and start having lots of mana
D1 stays special, even though it's technically less advanced than D2 onwards, b/c of how it feels to play. Tristram is your character's hometown. Fighting whatever's crawling out of the cathedral is personal. You're also an underdog. You have no idea why your king, Leoric, decided to hang half the town, nor why your archbishop, Lazarus, kidnapped the king's son. Everyone that tried to chase Lazarus into the bowels of the cathedral either came back maimed or didn't come back at all. You aren't any better equipped at the beginning than the regular townsfolk, so you can't expect to do more than them. And the game proves it. Floor 1? Kinda easy. Floor 2? Open the wrong door and a 10 foot tall beast with a guillotine blade for a kitchen knife storms out and kills you in 3 hits. You don't feel cheated by that, by the way. The game warns you before you enter Floor 1 that there's a Butcher somewhere underground that hacks men to bits. You just happened to find him. It's the price you pay for going where no mortal man has business being. That's what makes progression so insanely satisfying. Through daring to walk alone in dark, cramped corridors, you gain vital experience and gear that makes you an ever improving match for literal demons from hell. (That is until you get mobbed at the bottom of a staircase, die, drop all your gear, try to reclaim said gear, die again, and reload the game to undo the soft-lock without that gear. It's so soul-crushingly brutal it's addicting.) You feel that you are making a real difference for Tristram and the people the monsters killed. And then you shove Diablo's soul stone into your forehea- D2 stays at the top spot b/c it introduced much improved gameplay while also staying loyal to D1's tone. Yes, your new character comes from a faction that actually knows who Diablo is and has powers better suited to taking him out, yet you're forced to play catch-up to a villain that stays 2 steps ahead of you through 4 Acts. You're also painfully aware of just how unprepared the rest of the world is to the re-emergence of 3 Prime Evils on the mortal plane. The fate of humanity rests on your shoulders and you are losing. D3 says f*ck it to tone and says you're some bad*ss Nephilim that's stronger than angels or demons and Diablo's defeat is some foregone conclusion. It also builds your character for you, making you almost incapable of messing up. Cool. (Plus, your mercs won't SHUT THE HECK UP.) It's little wonder that D3 had to introduce a mechanic to skip its campaign entirely. That's why gameplay isn't the be-all-end-all of a game, as silly as that might sound. If you don't feel like you're the one causing change in the world, that there are no real stakes, or that the world just plain sucks, you're less likely to stick with it, even if the mechanics are solid. Hence the success of PoE. You're an underdog. You start the game with nothing more than some rags on your back and driftwood in your hand. You have no idea what's happening in Wraeclast - why are the dead getting back up again, why are monsters filled with these weird gems, and why does all the wildlife want you dead. As you press forward, you build your character into a machine of destruction powered by treasures you find along the way, and eventually overcome the forces that exiled you from your home. It's *chef's kiss*. So yeah, tone backed up by gameplay is super important and something the D3 devs forgot about. DMT says D4 remembered that lesson, so maybe I'll pick it up at some point.
D1 simply has the best atmosphere and vibes of All Diablos, there was something that felt truly cryptic about playing it. I also liked it's simplicity instead of being overwhelmed with lots of complex loot/fighting mechanics. D2 made the gameplay better and improved online mode, D2 was probably the best well-rounded Diablo of the series.
D3 is easy to understand and get into? I instantly understood D2 but to this day I have no idea what to make of the D3 skills, how much damage they deal, how to combo, what categories they're supposed to be in etc.
D1: By far the best game for me. The atmosphere is unmatched. D3: Enjoyed because of couch co-op on PS. D2: I stopped playing in the jungle. D4: I never played and never will. Im kinda excited about PoE 2's couch co-op but would need a second controller.
As a D2 Elitist, I agree. D2 has hooks that even the dirtiest drugs can't touch. I think that it's unfair to compare d1 across all categories. It was ahead of its time in everything, but it doesn't stand up in any of them. Me and my wife had the best time on D3 couch during lockdown and it was a lifesaver. I appreciate the time you've taken to compare the entire franchise, and I hope you come back to d2 because beating hell is just the beginning. I wouldn't do anything as insane as suggest you attempt a Holy grail, but the grind for items is insane and there is nothing like your first shako, your first soj, your first Enigma or cta. Your journey has just begun
Items would be number 1, if you do a SSF playthru hell. diablo 1 had it's "grail" items. King's sword/Axe of Haste on the proper base. Kings sword of Vampire/(mana leech version as well cant remember name) Godly Plate/Helm of the Whale on proper base as well ... there are others i cant quite remember
I think comparing D1 and 2 with 3 and 4 is like comparing apples to bananas. And not in the way people think. Its simply anachronic. D1 and 2 are all about the campaing, if an arpg launches like that today, with no real gameplay loop it will be criticized like crazy. Alsp, those games are harder with longer campaings cause they are made with rental mentality, taking longer so people rent it several times and they make more money. That mentality is really good for some games and made those 2 be really good games. Games nowadays consider other type of attention spam, need several activities and have a multiplayer mentality. What im saying is that even though all of them are ARPG 3 and 4 are basically another sub genre of ARPG. They are not game built for the story anymore, they need to consider way more things than 1 and 2, balance and itemization are fundamentally different with games with such different objectivies. So I really cant grasp direct comparisons between them. Comparing one and two is fine, 3 and four is fine, 2 and 4 makes no sense. Especially when you compare campaigns, of course d2 campaing is better, its the whole game lol D4 has a different gameplay loop, and to be a "fair" comparison all the loop would have to be included. And than its not a fair comparison at all.
I think something worth mentioning is that the d2 and d3 you played were modified by the expansions. - D3 campaign itself was better on launch (not amazing but solid) but ultimately got shitcanned by the expansion and never improved because no one wanted to play it anymore at that point (esp because back in the day you had to complete it 4 times). - D2 had a horrid item experience on launch, balance was complete shit and if they nerfed your build there was no choice but to make a new character (no respecs). All my friends and I dropped off it at launch until the expansion came out. When D2 launched it had limited good uniques (zero uniques/sets for the nm and hell item bases), sets were completely disposable, no runewords, and rares were just as bad if not worse as D4 launch, and gems were trash too until later recipes and such. My biggest complaint is that they learned nothing with D4 launch and had the EXACT same item problems. - D1 was simple even for the time. That's why people liked it. At the time you had these giant RPGs that people didn't have time to get into (eg BG2) and wanted a more action focused RPG. Diablo hit that on the head. It was an accessible RPG with great quality top to bottom. There was nothing like it on the market when it came out.
non expansion d2 was awesome in my opinion, using Rares to make your builds, getting lucky Imbuing the cube with perfect skulls to upgrade your Rares. Expansion was good too, at the time the enemies were not buffed yet making the items good enough as the monsters where easier to kill. The runewords were garbage until someone hacked the system in patch 1.08 with Ith swords, occy rings etc. In patch 1.09 they remade the runeword system and brought in the enigma, botds etc with adding synergies to your skills in patch 1.10, they also greatly buffed the monsters in the game, making them harder to kill, up till patch 1.12. At some point they brought in the Tokens and nothing was changed for years until D2R came out.
@@MysteryBusters69 to each their own. All I know is tons of friends and people in my online group quit pretty quick until the expansion. Having the end game be a rare chance at rare with good stats was rough imo.
voice acting in D3 was pretty epic because there was SOOOO much of it. Nothing can beat Farnham saying "can't a fellar drink in peace" or "stay a while and Listen" from D1 and D2 respectively. Audio i don't remember d1 but D2 audio was master class. Diablo 4 i don't remember anything other than gameplay but i'll have to replay the story, been waiting for xpac to experience it again.
"stay a while and Listen" >>> Pretty sure that's a Cain quote. No? Also have you heard of an alleged end known as Geglash the Fallen? Now that one deserves your attention. Go check him out. But Whatever you do, please avoid calling D3 epic, please. Except maybe when it comes to thar madlad paladin of madladness D3 follower. 🤣
D1 had intensely ominous music background in the dungeons, it wasnt loud or anything, it was just... idk how to explain it really, like, you know when you watch a horror movie and before a jump scare there is like a practically silent moment but its not really silent it just feels like everything just toned down a lot, that intense feeling is just always there throughout your gameplay, and ofc the iconic Tristram music
@@messire9837 I don't reply to youtube comments but D3 was epic. 5-6000 hours in it. Stay a while and Listen was Cain for 1 and 2. Can't a fellar drink in piece was from D1
I never really played Diablo1 more than an hour, maybe. I haven't tried Diablo 4 because in my opinion, Diablo 3 sucked. Diablo 2 end game, trade, dueling scene made for a great game to me. Yes, the music and campaign, the cinematics and the voice acting (Especially in french) were all great too, but that's not what made Diablo 2 for me. Nowadays, I get the same fun with Last Epoch and previously with Path of Exile. I can't wait for more content for LE. Path of Exile, despite me being a hardcore gamer who likes to think and theory craft, eventually lost me with its complexity (I still played 1k hours). I like to create my own builds and it's too time consuming in Path of Exile. I have made one "succesful" build at the time, and it took some help too. I feel like for avid players the sheer number of content is perfect, but if you play one league out of 3, it becomes bloated rapidly, or at least to me. I'll be playing this league though, and I'll try PoE2 for sure.
D2 is my favorite, but D1 is a really close second. The atmosphere of D1 is easily the best, and it’s a fun game to play. D1 definitely shows it’s age, but there’s still a lot of great stuff there. While I love being able to run in D2 and the later games. I think that the slow walk (when you’re not chasing goat archers and succubi around the level) can help add to the suspense of the game.
I'm not sure if any game will ever capture my excitement for playing D2 non-stop all summer with my friends at 12 years old or whatever I was. Such a complete incredible game for its time. Going back to D2R now in 2024 is unfortunately just not the same. It's definitely dated.
Why no ranking for build diversity? D2 would win hands-down but it should still be mentioned since that is a core tenet for aRPG's in my opinion since it helps longevity.
Gaming, entertainment industry is definitely getting less and less creative because a lot of ideas are already there and it is hard to find a really good ones lately.
Agree d2 has best items out of all the diablos. And you just scratched the surface! I absolutely recommend level up a character to beat Hell difficulty and getting end game gear. So great :)
Been D fan since the beginning. D3 was not satisfying and D4 has been disappointment after disappointment no matter how much I tried to give it a change. Now tried Poe for the first time few days ago after seeing new league videos. I regret didn't try it years ago, but tried to go with D
While I really like D3, sets were done very poorly and lazily in that game. Grim Dawn handles sets much better because they don't just give you 30000% damage to a specific skill.
Having loved D1 and D2, I was not able to force myself to play through D3 and didn’t even want to try D4, given all the controversy… I still play D2R and will stick with it until they’re able to deliver a real Diablo again and not just milk the IP.
Loving the older Diablo vids, seeing they are getting pretty decent views as well. Time for hell playthroughs and SOJ farming... : ). D2 is fun with buddies as well..
I found D3 such a massive step down in the things I like in a game that I could only play it once, for free and it was so bad I wont even try D4 until the investment suits stop dictating what Blizzard makes. They used to let something cook until it was "good" and I loved them for it, much like Valve does now.
D2 itemization while it’s the best, it’s the simplest except D1. The playing field is not level. The issue is 2 different itemizations projected onto the feel good 1-D scale, and using the 1-D scale to compare, which is unfortunately unfair to D3 and D4. D2 never balanced classes, it’s expected to play with friends, while D3 D4 aimed to play solo and can play with friends. These are already different games of slightly different genres but still under the vague umbrella of arpg.
D4 gameplay right now is far better than any of the others. D2 was way better adjusted for it’s time, and D3’s combat alone might be the best out of all ARPGs, but if you include progression and endgame activities in gameplay, D4 just gives you more fun stuff to do than D3 and gives you way smoother and more interesting combat than D2. D2’s items, music, and campaign replayability are better, but the moment-to-moment play is worse and that’s a big barrier to playing it.
I say it all the time but if you're playing D1 melee you need an offhand bow. It works well even with low dex. It makes the ranged enemies and runners 100% less frustrating to deal with. I agree with most points. I liked D3 other than the story, writing, and tone of the game, which all were terrible. The gameplay and classes were fun at launch but over time the speed of the game got too high for me and there was too much going on graphically.
I never beat diablo 1 as a kid... I really should go back and play it as an adult lol! D2R is why I got first gaming laptob..... 99% of my gaming over last 3 years gas been d2r. Played OG diablo 2 lod late 200s-2010s. Epic barb/sorc's back then with the best non ladder goodies
D1 had the best itemization because the lack of items doesn't make items matter less, it makes them matter more. D3 and D4 have terribles items, because items just spew out at you and they're all expendable, and due to item level scaling you're constantly churning through item upgrades. A good unique item in D1 is just good, period. D2 is arguably better because items still matter (at least until you start grinding for e.g. runewords in hell difficulty), and there's a lot more variety of items to work with. But it is where the loot grind stuff started to creep in. An ideal would be somewhere inbetween. I think fundamentally the biggest departures from the other games from D1 is that D1 didn't expect you to play the same character for 943049204 hours. The lack of an endgame grind made it so not everything needed to be optimized. You just made do with the best items you could get, in proper roguelike fashion.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, no, Ultima VIII did that. All of it. The H'n'S experience, I mean to say even if it did it... Poorly, and by mistake. That's how Diablo was born, you know? Out of a failed Ultima attempt. Mark Kern himself admitted as much.
The only reason Blizz is sandbagging D2R new seasons and totally stopping development is because if they added content...They would loose a shitload of people playing D4...
I am disappointed that your are correct. D2 was fantastic, I still install every once in a while. I think that after 25 years and two more games how is it not as good? They will still take my money for spirit born at some point
You should replay diablo 1 as a sorc or rogue it is much more fun in my opinion without having to chase the damn ranged guys all over the map. Also if you get some magic res it helps vs the huck tuah dogs. Sorc is my fav it is a slower and harder start but you are so damn strong late game with fireballs and chain lightning.
D1 and D2 were revolutionary when they came out, d3 and d4 are just good games. That's why the last 2 get crapped on so much in my opinion. We had greatness, we expect more greatness. Its not always possible to have massive leaps in game tech and mechanics. I also feel in today's gaming industry the content is throttled by the potential profit and the need to save something for later. Except for D1, the Diablo games always kind of hit their stride after the first expansion. D1 and D2 had a huge PvP scenes but today's arpgers seem a little soft and don't like to give up the ears.
You've played D1 and D2 once. Like replay D1 over and over for a couple months like you have with D4 and POE... then let us know if you still think it's better
D3 on launch deserved the hate. D3 got massively better after they changed some stuff and hit the xpac. There was a ton about the items in D1 though. So much so that, well, look up "Jarulf’s Guide to Diablo and Hellfire" if you ever get bored LOL
I really don't think gameplay ranking is controversial, D3 in many ways felt smoother cleaner and more impactful than D4. D1 imo is peak gameplay for ITS TIME, there are many issues with D1 gameplay such as the perma staggering or the hawk tua dogs making you to usually use door passageways for proper combat, it did what it could for its time but it was problamatic to be melee up until about dungeon 12+
They're hell bent on ruining or abandoning every worthwhile IP blizzard created. No starcraft, fucking up wow, even fucking up classic wow now not just the new wow, d4 sucks ass, d3 sucked ass even harder. These people need to quit developing and go play some fucking classic games.
Blizzard just owns the ip. The people that created Diablo are long gone.
Luckily some of them still keep in touch with the industry, just with different companies like GGG as an example.
It's safe to say every version was made by completely different teams. Progressively fewer and fewer original creators were involved.
This is expected and a reality
@@marlowencna In the Occident mentality of big short term semester number, for sure. Nintendo has a 98% retention. The same people that worked in OoT also worked in BotW and TotK.
@@imqqmi D1 and D2 were majority the same team. They left before D3
D1 is the strongest of tone, and best depicts the horror of facing off against the forces of hell. it's simple, very focused, and puts the fear in you again and again. D2 is more complex and deep but if you want the strongest gothic horror vibes you cant do better than D1. As a sidenote too, being able to truly clear floors in D1 makes it feel like you are truly making a difference in a real place.
D1 Gothic horror you say? lol. D2 Act 1 sisterhood Cathedral begs to differ. So does Pandemonium.
@@messire9837 nah, i'd say there are 4 key moments in D1 that outshine anything in D2 when it comes to gothic and horror.
1 - first time walking into the cathedral, the darkness, the shadowy figures walking outside of your field of visibility
2 - Butcher room obviously
3 - first time when the environment changes once you go past level 4 and you are thinking to yourself, maybe it was safer staying in 1-4
4 - first time entering hell and you realize that's where you are
that's why d2 is logic upgrade/evolution from d1, now d3 onwards pff
Weird how people can't understand how some prefer other than the generally most beloved entry in the series. (Same with Fallout vs. Fallout 2, anything SMT before Persona 5 etc.)
d1 is legendary but d2 clears it by every metric.
I can never forget the sound of a magic ring or amulet dropping on the ground and waving the cursor all over the place trying to find that son of a bitch. That's peak nostalgia for me.
On a mission to find that SoJ ring
That sound still turns my head 👌
the book reading narrator was amazing in D1
Paul Eiding, Colonel Campbell from Metal Gear.
Also in D2 (Tower quest). And yes, amazingly good.
"the armory of hell...."
D1 multiplayer was legendary and terrifying. It created moments to remember for life. You had to play tactical because of friendly fire (mage panics and everyone is dead ;-)), going around every corner was a real thrill. Once you got killed you lost all your gear at the spot. Once we needed 4 hours to get back our gear back because the cave entrance was an insta death, (because someone lured a boss with perma stun right there) and we literally had to go through hell backwards into the caves with crap 2nd choice gear to get back our stuff we farmed for years... pure adrenalin...
Yes. Doing this with the lag of 56k dialup no less. Today’s generation might think this is bad gameplay but in the day this just made the struggle that much more epic and created memories you never forget.
Diablo is just an skinsuit IP at this point. I’ll stick with D2R for the next couple decades
just play poe lol
@@15kalas15 I’ll check out POE2. Played through 1 and prefer D2R
I was Diablo superfan ever since 1 first came out. Didn't like 3 at all. Loved the story and darkness of 4 especially since you don't fight diablo again leading to a much more ominous return when he does. PoE is a better game
@@15kalas15 eagerly waiting for poe 2, poe is so bloated its impossible to get into
You should try the Diablo 1 mob Belzebub. It's harder, add 3 characters (barb, necro, assassin), lots of set items, over 200 more uniques, news quests and zones, crazy QoL changes, added torment difficulty, elite packs, new stats for gear to roll and much much more. Highly recommended for anyone that liked D1 and are looking for a challenge.
I know DMT prob never saw it, but the Blizzard North intro still gives me chills down my spine to this day. Theres a whole lot of emotions ties up in that 5 second graphic
D1 is the only game that literally made me jump a few times when my character got unexpectedly jumped in a pitch dark dungeon
d1 d2 were meant for crt monitors so wide screen makes u walk super fast sideways
Diablo 1 was so much fun back in the day. The old school battlenet with the clans and lobbies you could hang out in were awesome. So many good memories.
Ur judgement on D1 & D2 imo may not be precise due to only playing it now in 2024, the whole vibe and multiplayer back then was just insanity of fun
D1 campaign was so cool when it came out, the storytelling is so on point compared to other games that came at the same time
It sure made the game stand out. Voice acting and music were on another level
I played D1 as a kid and it's the only game I've been genuinely afraid while playing. And the Tristram music is the most haunting bar none.
I liked The Ruins of Sescheron in D3 really well too. Music and environment.
D2 also has the best skills/skill tree.
D1 was just gritty and made so much fun with quite easy mechanics. But the whole game was just perfect in itself.
One of my fav games of alltime🥰
D1 always my fav, d2 is the best all-around, and d3 is one of the many reasons i stopped buying blizard games. So i never gave 4 a chance because they as a company no longer interest me. No hate, i hope other people enjoy them, I just dont anymore.
D3 after RoS was released was ok... Combat was extremely fun at least. Never tried d4 as well, with how blizzards track record was going the last 8 years; ain't getting another penny from me.
I mean, D3 clearly sacrificed a lot, but at least gameplay was fun. Overall it was fine expirience. Nothing ground-breaking but fine thing to pass some time with. Not too much time tho.
Don't buy D4. There's really no need to purchase a ticket to the franchises funeral.
D3 totally sucked but after the marketing hype that d4 was going to be more like d2 I dived right in. It was good but it soon after launch it lost its identity
Blizzard is also never getting another dollar from me either. D2 being the best is clearly the only correct answer.
I'm confused when he says campaign as a separate thing from writing and cutscenes. What is the campaign then as a separate entity?
Integrity with gameplay loop for example, purposefullness in terms of rewards, things you actually have to do to move from one cutscene and writing peice to another. Actually many things if you think about it.
@sinner5452 ok. So kind of like, "I'm collecting 12 boar meats for a good reason here". I get it now. Thanks.
People shit on the cutscenes when D4 came out because the campaign was a complete letdown. The “climax” of the story was so anti climactic. The story wasn’t horrible, but it basically foreplayed the Hell (heh) out of us and then gave us blue balls. This battle between Inarius and Lilith has been teased since D3. It finally came, and Inarius has like zero screen time then died like a little bitch immediately. Then Lilith died shortly after. So not memorable.
I think my problem with D4 is that when it's campaign and cutscenes are the best part, and then the game entirely pushes it's player base away from replaying them because the core gameplay loop is getting to the endgame as fast as possible. It's not that the campaign and cutscenes are bad but from the very beginning Blizzard themselves relegated it to being 1 time content. And when the strongest part of your game is the one time content then why will people come back season to season
The day the LoD expansion came out, or maybe more a few days after when I brought it home, was one of the godliest gaming moments of all time.
Across all Diablo games, I feel only the cinematics/cutscenes have consistently been phenomenal. The other parts have been between God- to Midtier
The first cutscene in D2 with Marius telling his story is the best cutscene in all of video games. (I like the graphical update to it, but the important stuff - Frank Gorshin’s voice and the story and “East … always into the east” was all there to begin with.)
There are quests in Diablo 1 that change in different playthroughs. Poison Well / Ogden Tavern Sign / Garbad the Weak etc.
While I liked d1 and d2 best as a game, I've put in the most hours in d3, it's super casual it just plays so smoothly and is easy to go in and out every season. D3 went through a lot of phases over its lifetime whiich was fun in itself finding its identity. The AH, loot 2.0, expansion, rifts, bounties etc. The money spent is more than worrh it.
D4 had a nice campaign but endgame doesn't work for me, it's so mid that it doesn't make me feel anything. Feel regret tp spend 70 euros on it. Maybe someday I might grow to like it, like an acquired taste.
To me D1 was a Dark Souls of its time in a sense while D2 felt like an Elden Ring level game with all the improvements, scale and added depth. I still remember disappointment with D3 which is the reason I waited for D4 to launch before pulling a trigger, luckily still didn't bought it and chances are looking like zero currently. Blessed be the Resurrected team!
i was actually very surprised on the improvements of d4 since release, i thought i would never like a Diablo game again after d2, but i have been thoroughly enjoying it.
TBH I agree with most of the takes you said here. I actually unironically think D3 has the best combat. D2's music is literally legendary to the point when I am grinding mmo's I listen to the soundtrack. D2's itemization is also by far the best D3's could have been better if they never went the route of 10000% damage. I think the reason why PoE is so good is that it has D2 itemization and a feel of D3's combat.
I don’t understand the D4 cutscene opinion. I thought i was tripping, so I scrolled through a video of all the cutscenes and, yeah, there’s basically the really good beginning and then 3 hours of nothing (unless you really love d4s dialogue).
D1 Had amazing lore telling, and had an amazingly good feel. The guy reading books gave me chills. The sound was amazing for its time.
D2 This is the gold standard of arpgs! Greatstory telling, amazing depth. This is where Ive put most of my Diablo time.
D3 Had... man. Its such a mixed bag. I fun with it, but it just wasnt sequel a lot of people wanted, and it wasnt the kind of fun i wanted after D2. Launch was like... you believe you're getting beer, you open your mouth to drink, only to find out it's an off-brand soda. I liked the difficulty at launch. Great expansion, but it didnt save the game for me. But I had TONS Of fun with it in coop mode though - even played it with my wife on our third date - but that was the only way I could enjoy it.
D4 Feels like it launched with a "hey maybe we can save it" and they're kinda still there. Hope they save it. I like the rogue gameplay.
I guess I just want D2 style loot again. The skilltrees, the runes, the items. It had the right amount of complexity to really keep people there, while remaining simple enough. But there was like, always something new to discover or think of. I think what really made it click was that it didn't have infinitely scaling items. Endgame should have an end, longevity should come from depth and how much you can vary your builds. Seasons can really make that come together.
Agreed. The itemization in d4 is the WORST out of all of the diablo games. The skill trees are bad, they somehow took the worst parts of both d2 and d3 to make d4 trees and it's just unintuitive. Runewords are said to be coming eventually but it'll still be based off current itemization which just isn't enjoyable. My all time favorite class among every class based game I've ever played is the d2 druid. It's what shaped my love for summoner class types in most games (yes I know original d2 summon druid was kinda cheeks). But the d2 druid has 3 actual different playstyles between all three trees, and you can mix and match between them, it's just a blissful experience. Then we have d4 druid. Competing among all the classes to just be the absolute worst available one. I haven't even tried to play any of the other classes since the beta testing weekends. How unfun the d2 druid is to play, as well as the character model are just egregious. I also hate the crafting system and legendary affix juggling you have to do in this game. They could completely scrap and rebuild the itemization and skill tree system (I know they wont) and probably ask a 13 year old for a better idea.
@@aryanmcdeid8424 Well said! I remember seeing alpha screenshots of D3 with a D2 style skilltree. That had me so excited. It could've been so amazingly good.
@TheMeeelting I don't know why devs are scared of a more simple, yet build defining skill tree system. Most games these days have skill trees where it doesn't really matter what skills you choose, they all get similar results with a different visual effect. If they did a d2 skill tree with ability augments like in d3 so the skill you use can be modified in a few different ways, that would've been the bee's knees. Not this cluster of 4 to 5 abilities which has two different nodes you can choose from where one gives you 15% more vulnerable damage when an enemy is mid tea break, or the other node grants you 1 extra arc of lightning. Like wtf. How did they actually think this skill system was even remotely fun. How did last epoch outshine D4 completely in their class, ability, and item system. It's unfortunate that last epoch's campaign was kinda meh, and endgame is just bridge between d3 and poe endgame. Absolutely loved last epoch for the month I played it (this was much before the official release)
D2 is insanely outdated by modern ARPG standards.
It is far from the "gold standard". It has been surpassed tenfold.
@@aryanmcdeid8424 No way you think D4 has worse itemization than D3. Also, D4 has the best skill tree out of any Diablo game. Yes, there are other ARPG's that have better skill trees but they're not Diablo. D2's skill trees are not very good. Forcing the player to put points into skills they won't use just to progress down the tree feels bad.
As an OG D1 fan, and huge follower of all games, you just described my whole Diablo experience in 10 minutes. It's a testament of how the old Diablo games changed the gaming landscape (while we can agree they are totally a product of the past now), while current iterations are just soulless products meant to reach as many people as possible not caring about what fans of the genre actually like.
It's become a game of numbers and give the reach Diablo as a franchise has, they can go with this every single time and still rake so much money it's insane. I can see how D4 is better now and can become even a good game but that's exactly what i hate about the whole thing - i'm not going to spend any more money to fuel this distrorted behaviour.
Wasn't enough cut scenes. Played through S4 with a friend, their first time in. We didn't realise we completed 3 acts! Nothing really stood out as the end of an Act. I assume an Act ended after we killed Andariel and Duriel, couldn't tell you.
Can also only remember the start of the game and end. Most of it was pretty average.
D1 is goated. There are only 2 choices for best Diablo game and you picked one. The feel of those games is gone, because the incredibly creative people who made them are too.
Diablo 2 is the best. Diablo 3 is the worse but Diablo 4 is just a marginally better Diablo 3
Yup pretty much
Nah.
Nah D4 bad. D3 was also bad, but at least true to itself after a while. D4 pretends to be better but is just a copy of D3 with gritty graphics. Also don't forget you can't even fight Diablo in D4 which makes even the title a lie. D4 truly bad .
@@tobykenoby3502I feel you but your last two sentences about fighting Diablo makes you seem autistic
D1 is the best followed by d4 then d3 then d2
Did u draw what I think you drew with that arrow at 2 mins 53 seconds into the video I hope frosty sees this
PS you never did the D1 expansion
Did you play d2 and d2's expansion? I played d2 as it came out as a kid and young adult because i went back to play it atleast 3 times. The expansion was like a completely new game almost although at first you could port old items over from your original account of d2 to expansion which you could not get anymore like dual leech rings. The main change added charms which you did not have in the original d2 and the runes and runeword items. I was a market master on d2 lol MF gear and i farmed stuff then traded it for what i needed if i didnt have it.
I just started playing D4S4 - didn't play any of the earlier seasons, but I gotta say I am really enjoying it so far. Got through the campaign and am running around the endgame now so maybe I'm about to get bored, but I had fun on the way.
The D2 Boss mod took D2 to an even higher level. The mods were great!
Plz do one more play thru as the Sorcerer in D1, you need to see how hard it was, and I didn’t see you do much with the spells in you first play thru
sorcerer was hard at first, and then in the later levels it becomes way more powerful than the warrior, especially when you get mana shield and start having lots of mana
D1 stays special, even though it's technically less advanced than D2 onwards, b/c of how it feels to play.
Tristram is your character's hometown. Fighting whatever's crawling out of the cathedral is personal. You're also an underdog. You have no idea why your king, Leoric, decided to hang half the town, nor why your archbishop, Lazarus, kidnapped the king's son. Everyone that tried to chase Lazarus into the bowels of the cathedral either came back maimed or didn't come back at all. You aren't any better equipped at the beginning than the regular townsfolk, so you can't expect to do more than them.
And the game proves it. Floor 1? Kinda easy. Floor 2? Open the wrong door and a 10 foot tall beast with a guillotine blade for a kitchen knife storms out and kills you in 3 hits. You don't feel cheated by that, by the way. The game warns you before you enter Floor 1 that there's a Butcher somewhere underground that hacks men to bits. You just happened to find him. It's the price you pay for going where no mortal man has business being.
That's what makes progression so insanely satisfying. Through daring to walk alone in dark, cramped corridors, you gain vital experience and gear that makes you an ever improving match for literal demons from hell. (That is until you get mobbed at the bottom of a staircase, die, drop all your gear, try to reclaim said gear, die again, and reload the game to undo the soft-lock without that gear. It's so soul-crushingly brutal it's addicting.) You feel that you are making a real difference for Tristram and the people the monsters killed. And then you shove Diablo's soul stone into your forehea-
D2 stays at the top spot b/c it introduced much improved gameplay while also staying loyal to D1's tone. Yes, your new character comes from a faction that actually knows who Diablo is and has powers better suited to taking him out, yet you're forced to play catch-up to a villain that stays 2 steps ahead of you through 4 Acts. You're also painfully aware of just how unprepared the rest of the world is to the re-emergence of 3 Prime Evils on the mortal plane. The fate of humanity rests on your shoulders and you are losing.
D3 says f*ck it to tone and says you're some bad*ss Nephilim that's stronger than angels or demons and Diablo's defeat is some foregone conclusion. It also builds your character for you, making you almost incapable of messing up. Cool. (Plus, your mercs won't SHUT THE HECK UP.) It's little wonder that D3 had to introduce a mechanic to skip its campaign entirely.
That's why gameplay isn't the be-all-end-all of a game, as silly as that might sound. If you don't feel like you're the one causing change in the world, that there are no real stakes, or that the world just plain sucks, you're less likely to stick with it, even if the mechanics are solid.
Hence the success of PoE. You're an underdog. You start the game with nothing more than some rags on your back and driftwood in your hand. You have no idea what's happening in Wraeclast - why are the dead getting back up again, why are monsters filled with these weird gems, and why does all the wildlife want you dead. As you press forward, you build your character into a machine of destruction powered by treasures you find along the way, and eventually overcome the forces that exiled you from your home. It's *chef's kiss*.
So yeah, tone backed up by gameplay is super important and something the D3 devs forgot about. DMT says D4 remembered that lesson, so maybe I'll pick it up at some point.
D1 simply has the best atmosphere and vibes of All Diablos, there was something that felt truly cryptic about playing it. I also liked it's simplicity instead of being overwhelmed with lots of complex loot/fighting mechanics. D2 made the gameplay better and improved online mode, D2 was probably the best well-rounded Diablo of the series.
D3 is easy to understand and get into?
I instantly understood D2 but to this day I have no idea what to make of the D3 skills, how much damage they deal, how to combo, what categories they're supposed to be in etc.
I feel like the instruction manuals are often not mentioned for old games. Diablo 1 had so much awesome lore in the manual
I still have that old D1 manual with all the monsters and stuff, I used to really like reading through it
D1: By far the best game for me. The atmosphere is unmatched.
D3: Enjoyed because of couch co-op on PS.
D2: I stopped playing in the jungle.
D4: I never played and never will.
Im kinda excited about PoE 2's couch co-op but would need a second controller.
As a D2 Elitist, I agree. D2 has hooks that even the dirtiest drugs can't touch.
I think that it's unfair to compare d1 across all categories. It was ahead of its time in everything, but it doesn't stand up in any of them. Me and my wife had the best time on D3 couch during lockdown and it was a lifesaver. I appreciate the time you've taken to compare the entire franchise, and I hope you come back to d2 because beating hell is just the beginning. I wouldn't do anything as insane as suggest you attempt a Holy grail, but the grind for items is insane and there is nothing like your first shako, your first soj, your first Enigma or cta. Your journey has just begun
Items would be number 1, if you do a SSF playthru hell.
diablo 1 had it's "grail" items.
King's sword/Axe of Haste on the proper base. Kings sword of Vampire/(mana leech version as well cant remember name)
Godly Plate/Helm of the Whale on proper base as well ... there are others i cant quite remember
Now, throw D2 Resurrected in that list and you have it #1 all areas.
When you played d2, did you play d2 classic and then d2 lod or did you play d2 lod directly? D2 before lod was a different game.
D3 unicorn for it has to be at the top… right? Right?
I think comparing D1 and 2 with 3 and 4 is like comparing apples to bananas. And not in the way people think. Its simply anachronic. D1 and 2 are all about the campaing, if an arpg launches like that today, with no real gameplay loop it will be criticized like crazy. Alsp, those games are harder with longer campaings cause they are made with rental mentality, taking longer so people rent it several times and they make more money. That mentality is really good for some games and made those 2 be really good games. Games nowadays consider other type of attention spam, need several activities and have a multiplayer mentality. What im saying is that even though all of them are ARPG 3 and 4 are basically another sub genre of ARPG. They are not game built for the story anymore, they need to consider way more things than 1 and 2, balance and itemization are fundamentally different with games with such different objectivies. So I really cant grasp direct comparisons between them. Comparing one and two is fine, 3 and four is fine, 2 and 4 makes no sense. Especially when you compare campaigns, of course d2 campaing is better, its the whole game lol D4 has a different gameplay loop, and to be a "fair" comparison all the loop would have to be included. And than its not a fair comparison at all.
You're wrong, d4 is mainly built for the story , it's just they abandoned what made diablo games good in the first place, the loot/itemization
We need a D1 Remaster!
I think something worth mentioning is that the d2 and d3 you played were modified by the expansions.
- D3 campaign itself was better on launch (not amazing but solid) but ultimately got shitcanned by the expansion and never improved because no one wanted to play it anymore at that point (esp because back in the day you had to complete it 4 times).
- D2 had a horrid item experience on launch, balance was complete shit and if they nerfed your build there was no choice but to make a new character (no respecs). All my friends and I dropped off it at launch until the expansion came out. When D2 launched it had limited good uniques (zero uniques/sets for the nm and hell item bases), sets were completely disposable, no runewords, and rares were just as bad if not worse as D4 launch, and gems were trash too until later recipes and such. My biggest complaint is that they learned nothing with D4 launch and had the EXACT same item problems.
- D1 was simple even for the time. That's why people liked it. At the time you had these giant RPGs that people didn't have time to get into (eg BG2) and wanted a more action focused RPG. Diablo hit that on the head. It was an accessible RPG with great quality top to bottom. There was nothing like it on the market when it came out.
non expansion d2 was awesome in my opinion, using Rares to make your builds, getting lucky Imbuing the cube with perfect skulls to upgrade your Rares. Expansion was good too, at the time the enemies were not buffed yet making the items good enough as the monsters where easier to kill. The runewords were garbage until someone hacked the system in patch 1.08 with Ith swords, occy rings etc. In patch 1.09 they remade the runeword system and brought in the enigma, botds etc with adding synergies to your skills in patch 1.10, they also greatly buffed the monsters in the game, making them harder to kill, up till patch 1.12. At some point they brought in the Tokens and nothing was changed for years until D2R came out.
@@MysteryBusters69 to each their own. All I know is tons of friends and people in my online group quit pretty quick until the expansion. Having the end game be a rare chance at rare with good stats was rough imo.
voice acting in D3 was pretty epic because there was SOOOO much of it. Nothing can beat Farnham saying "can't a fellar drink in peace" or "stay a while and Listen" from D1 and D2 respectively. Audio i don't remember d1 but D2 audio was master class. Diablo 4 i don't remember anything other than gameplay but i'll have to replay the story, been waiting for xpac to experience it again.
the only thing i liked about d4 was the book of lorath videos on youtube that lorath voiced. that was epic, rest, meh.
"stay a while and Listen" >>> Pretty sure that's a Cain quote. No?
Also have you heard of an alleged end known as Geglash the Fallen? Now that one deserves your attention. Go check him out.
But Whatever you do, please avoid calling D3 epic, please. Except maybe when it comes to thar madlad paladin of madladness D3 follower. 🤣
D1 had intensely ominous music background in the dungeons, it wasnt loud or anything, it was just... idk how to explain it really, like, you know when you watch a horror movie and before a jump scare there is like a practically silent moment but its not really silent it just feels like everything just toned down a lot, that intense feeling is just always there throughout your gameplay, and ofc the iconic Tristram music
@@messire9837 I don't reply to youtube comments but D3 was epic. 5-6000 hours in it. Stay a while and Listen was Cain for 1 and 2. Can't a fellar drink in piece was from D1
I never really played Diablo1 more than an hour, maybe.
I haven't tried Diablo 4 because in my opinion, Diablo 3 sucked. Diablo 2 end game, trade, dueling scene made for a great game to me. Yes, the music and campaign, the cinematics and the voice acting (Especially in french) were all great too, but that's not what made Diablo 2 for me.
Nowadays, I get the same fun with Last Epoch and previously with Path of Exile. I can't wait for more content for LE. Path of Exile, despite me being a hardcore gamer who likes to think and theory craft, eventually lost me with its complexity (I still played 1k hours). I like to create my own builds and it's too time consuming in Path of Exile. I have made one "succesful" build at the time, and it took some help too. I feel like for avid players the sheer number of content is perfect, but if you play one league out of 3, it becomes bloated rapidly, or at least to me. I'll be playing this league though, and I'll try PoE2 for sure.
this league is BIG. I'm sure it's worth our time!
Tomorrow on the beach Exile~
And he still hasn't completed D2....
Man's gotta get through hell and try ubers.
D2 is my favorite, but D1 is a really close second. The atmosphere of D1 is easily the best, and it’s a fun game to play. D1 definitely shows it’s age, but there’s still a lot of great stuff there. While I love being able to run in D2 and the later games. I think that the slow walk (when you’re not chasing goat archers and succubi around the level) can help add to the suspense of the game.
BASED TAKE. Finally. Everybody talks Diablo 2. Game dev for 20 years, games journalist for 8. Diablo 1 is the best of all 4. Full stop.
I'm not sure if any game will ever capture my excitement for playing D2 non-stop all summer with my friends at 12 years old or whatever I was. Such a complete incredible game for its time. Going back to D2R now in 2024 is unfortunately just not the same. It's definitely dated.
Looks like you're going to be playing Diablo 1 every day from now on! Thank you
Why no ranking for build diversity? D2 would win hands-down but it should still be mentioned since that is a core tenet for aRPG's in my opinion since it helps longevity.
Exec summary: D2 is the GOAT
Gaming, entertainment industry is definitely getting less and less creative because a lot of ideas are already there and it is hard to find a really good ones lately.
Hoihoi DM, would you try Dungeon Siege 2, another great classic?
Thanks for the great comparison!
best part of D3 for me was finding a godly one hand crossbow to sell on real money AH for max
pay back for game and then some
Agree d2 has best items out of all the diablos. And you just scratched the surface! I absolutely recommend level up a character to beat Hell difficulty and getting end game gear. So great :)
Been D fan since the beginning. D3 was not satisfying and D4 has been disappointment after disappointment no matter how much I tried to give it a change. Now tried Poe for the first time few days ago after seeing new league videos. I regret didn't try it years ago, but tried to go with D
you should also try some of the diablo 1 source ports/mods belzebub and devilutionx
set items are great, its one the things I hate about d4 is the lack of sets
While I really like D3, sets were done very poorly and lazily in that game. Grim Dawn handles sets much better because they don't just give you 30000% damage to a specific skill.
DM did you play D2 on Nightmare and Hell? I don’t think you can get a true feel for the game unless you make it to act 4 on hell
Having loved D1 and D2, I was not able to force myself to play through D3 and didn’t even want to try D4, given all the controversy… I still play D2R and will stick with it until they’re able to deliver a real Diablo again and not just milk the IP.
Loving the older Diablo vids, seeing they are getting pretty decent views as well. Time for hell playthroughs and SOJ farming... : ). D2 is fun with buddies as well..
The real statement of fact is…
“Why D2:R/LoD is better than ALL of the other diablo games.”
THAT will bring about some good discussion!
I didn't even watch the video, and I agree.
D1 is the tutorial for D2
Where would you rate the diablo immortal
💩
D1 is clearly the best. Based take.
BAR music D1 reigns as king for me!
I love how we simply ignore Diablo Immoral
it doesn't exist, and never will, carry on.
D2
D1
D3
D4
This list may actually be factual
I found D3 such a massive step down in the things I like in a game that I could only play it once, for free and it was so bad I wont even try D4 until the investment suits stop dictating what Blizzard makes. They used to let something cook until it was "good" and I loved them for it, much like Valve does now.
D2 itemization while it’s the best, it’s the simplest except D1. The playing field is not level. The issue is 2 different itemizations projected onto the feel good 1-D scale, and using the 1-D scale to compare, which is unfortunately unfair to D3 and D4. D2 never balanced classes, it’s expected to play with friends, while D3 D4 aimed to play solo and can play with friends. These are already different games of slightly different genres but still under the vague umbrella of arpg.
D4 gameplay right now is far better than any of the others. D2 was way better adjusted for it’s time, and D3’s combat alone might be the best out of all ARPGs, but if you include progression and endgame activities in gameplay, D4 just gives you more fun stuff to do than D3 and gives you way smoother and more interesting combat than D2. D2’s items, music, and campaign replayability are better, but the moment-to-moment play is worse and that’s a big barrier to playing it.
Awesome vid
I say it all the time but if you're playing D1 melee you need an offhand bow. It works well even with low dex. It makes the ranged enemies and runners 100% less frustrating to deal with.
I agree with most points. I liked D3 other than the story, writing, and tone of the game, which all were terrible. The gameplay and classes were fun at launch but over time the speed of the game got too high for me and there was too much going on graphically.
I never beat diablo 1 as a kid... I really should go back and play it as an adult lol! D2R is why I got first gaming laptob..... 99% of my gaming over last 3 years gas been d2r. Played OG diablo 2 lod late 200s-2010s. Epic barb/sorc's back then with the best non ladder goodies
D2 music is GOATed!
D1 had the best itemization because the lack of items doesn't make items matter less, it makes them matter more. D3 and D4 have terribles items, because items just spew out at you and they're all expendable, and due to item level scaling you're constantly churning through item upgrades. A good unique item in D1 is just good, period. D2 is arguably better because items still matter (at least until you start grinding for e.g. runewords in hell difficulty), and there's a lot more variety of items to work with. But it is where the loot grind stuff started to creep in. An ideal would be somewhere inbetween.
I think fundamentally the biggest departures from the other games from D1 is that D1 didn't expect you to play the same character for 943049204 hours. The lack of an endgame grind made it so not everything needed to be optimized. You just made do with the best items you could get, in proper roguelike fashion.
Love the Diablo Series! I think it's one of the game series that has set so many standards for games over the last 20 years.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, no, Ultima VIII did that. All of it. The H'n'S experience, I mean to say even if it did it... Poorly, and by mistake. That's how Diablo was born, you know? Out of a failed Ultima attempt. Mark Kern himself admitted as much.
The only reason Blizz is sandbagging D2R new seasons and totally stopping development is because if they added content...They would loose a shitload of people playing D4...
I am disappointed that your are correct. D2 was fantastic, I still install every once in a while. I think that after 25 years and two more games how is it not as good? They will still take my money for spirit born at some point
You should replay diablo 1 as a sorc or rogue it is much more fun in my opinion without having to chase the damn ranged guys all over the map. Also if you get some magic res it helps vs the huck tuah dogs. Sorc is my fav it is a slower and harder start but you are so damn strong late game with fireballs and chain lightning.
D1 and D2 were revolutionary when they came out, d3 and d4 are just good games. That's why the last 2 get crapped on so much in my opinion. We had greatness, we expect more greatness. Its not always possible to have massive leaps in game tech and mechanics. I also feel in today's gaming industry the content is throttled by the potential profit and the need to save something for later. Except for D1, the Diablo games always kind of hit their stride after the first expansion. D1 and D2 had a huge PvP scenes but today's arpgers seem a little soft and don't like to give up the ears.
where's the diablo 3 video?
Look, I’m a Diablo 2 fanboy here but I agree, Diablo 3s combat is the best in the franchise.
You've played D1 and D2 once. Like replay D1 over and over for a couple months like you have with D4 and POE... then let us know if you still think it's better
It's so nice to see a based and correct take on youtube.
D3 on launch deserved the hate. D3 got massively better after they changed some stuff and hit the xpac. There was a ton about the items in D1 though. So much so that, well, look up "Jarulf’s Guide to Diablo and Hellfire" if you ever get bored LOL
100% agree, D1 best Diablo. I'll forget D2,D3 and D4, but I'll never forget D1.
I really don't think gameplay ranking is controversial, D3 in many ways felt smoother cleaner and more impactful than D4. D1 imo is peak gameplay for ITS TIME, there are many issues with D1 gameplay such as the perma staggering or the hawk tua dogs making you to usually use door passageways for proper combat, it did what it could for its time but it was problamatic to be melee up until about dungeon 12+
They're hell bent on ruining or abandoning every worthwhile IP blizzard created. No starcraft, fucking up wow, even fucking up classic wow now not just the new wow, d4 sucks ass, d3 sucked ass even harder. These people need to quit developing and go play some fucking classic games.
D1 beats D4 in story, because it actually has a Diablo in it.