Ahead of and following the release of its remaster, I have been reading lots of pieces about Diablo II and most are negative.
The newer generation of gamers just seem to misunderstand by an extreme margin what makes Diablo II such a masterpiece. This largely is due to the obvious fact that few to none of them are willing to give it a fair chance beyond first impression.
In fact, they remind me very strikingly of my six year old daughter when it comes to new food that isn't some iteration of chicken or hot dog. All we ask is for her to merely try a bite. Not a crumb or a nibble and don't spit it out. We know that she would really enjoy some of these foods if she would just take a nice big bite, chew it up, and swallow it. But, like a typical six year old, that rarely happens.
The newer generation of gamers in this analogy are similarly spoiled by superficial features of modern ARPG's.
Look, quite frankly, if you put less than 50 hours into Diablo II or alternatively, you never defeated Baal on hell difficulty, your opinion or review on Diablo II is about as indicative of the games quality as my daughters opinion on baked beans.
One particular review (In the form of an article for PC Gamer), made the baseless claim that the game is full of your cliche "go to this place and kill everything there" quests, ending it with a jab about how they have cliche names like The Den of Evil followed by a "-no really". (Please note that The Den of Evil is the very first quest of the game).
There's one problem with that, Mr. PC Gamer journalist; that's the only quest in the entire game that is like that... NO, REALLY. Serious question, did this person not get past The Blood Raven (The second quest) before they decided to write a knee-jerk review?
This person then went on to say several other clueless things, like pining over the prospect of using the skill Holy Bolt, which is one of those useless skills so neglected that players forget it even exists. NO, REALLY. This guy is quite seriously the only person who bristles at the thought of using Holy Bolt, because he's bad and didn't actually play the game. This guy knows as much about Diablo II as my daughter knows about Filet Mignon.
He isn't the only one either. My media feeds deliver me this kind of award-winning cluelessness on an hourly basis. On top of that, my feed is equally ripe with bad advice.
Don't listen to these people. Diablo II is way more than the outdated clunky experience they insist it is. These are people who are hooked on superficial dopamine rushes and dumbed down modern games that prey on their need for instant gratification and relieve them of the need to exercise critical decision making skills.
Diablo II is an endless cerebral foray into infinite possibilities, tinkering, grind-funded economics, and if you're the PvP type, white-knuckle competition that never gets old. Of course the simple-minded think it's clunky, because what they think is clunky is actually where the charm is.
You see, these critics always try to put on a front like they aren't being biased by saying things that appear on the surface to be positive.
They keep suggesting that Diablo II's success stems from a "tried & true formula" that is present in all successful RPG's.
Well firstly, when Diablo II was made, that formula was NOT tried & true, because David Brevik and his Blizzard North team INVENTED that formula. So critics can go suck a fat veiny one for skirting that fact.
Secondly, Diablo II utilizes that formula far better than any game since. Diablo II isn't just some cookie-cutter ARPG as critics insinuate, it's the premier and supreme ARPG experience. It did it first and it still does it best. Suggesting that about it is like suggesting that Magic: The Gathering is a cliche cookie-cutter TCG, despite the fact that Magic' INVENTED the TCG and still reigns supreme as the top TCG.
Regardless, that isn't all I came to say this time. No, I'm here to lay out why Diablo II is so amazing in ways that have nothing to do with its basic ARPG formula.
Here are 5 reasons why Diablo II is amazing that have nothing to do with its ARPG design.
#1: ---Trading & Economy---
I've played many ARPG's, on console, on PC, and on mobile. NONE of them have an in-game economy like Diablo II. Path of Exile tries to emulate it but ultimately fails to because its developers thought they understood what makes it tick, but they didn't. In short, they took the concept too far and created too many forms of currency to create an economy that is simple and fun to engage in.
As for other modern ARPG's, nearly all of them nix the idea of trading items altogether and even if they don't, they're very restrictive about it.
The crux of this issue is that these games are far too concerned about game balance and deny or restrict trading in order to maintain it. In games that are predicated around PvP like Call of Duty or Overwatch, game balance is paramount, but ARPG developers are letting that approach carry over to ARPG's where it shouldn't be anything but a secondary priority.
The point is, people who really love Diablo II don't care that Hammerdins and Sorceress' are objectively better than the other classes in many areas. We don't care that Enigma, Grief, Spirit, Infinity, and Call to Arms are staples for all of the good builds while most other runewords are neglected. These things don't bother us, because the overall quality of Diablo II far exceeds the detriment these unbalances cause.
Trading and engaging in Diablo II's online economy is an entirely extra facet of the game to become enamored with and it is only made possible with the absolute unrestrictive freedom the game gives you with trading.
#2: ---The PvP---
Not everyone is into PvP when playing games, but I'd suggest that most people who aren't would still really like Diablo II's PvP if they gave it a chance. It isn't rigid and competitively unforgiving like in other games. In fact, it's very relaxed, but wild and unrestrictive. In fact, you could join a duel game just to spectate and chat.
It only gets intense if you want it to. Most PvP games within Diablo II are more like a lobby of people dicking around trying to kill each other on a whim than a bunch of neckbeards being overly serious and competitive.
Not to say there isn't a serious side of PvP, just that it's largely optional. The more serious PvP'ers tend to duel privately in organized groups. The tryhards you do encounter in public games tend to get outnumbered and jumped by the majority. If tryhards do ruin a good time, the easy solution is to just make or join a different duel game.
I personally enjoy the best of both worlds. I try to have the best gear (Within reasonable means) and I take my dueling seriously, but I'm also in it for a good time. I have no problem swapping to a lesser character so that other people in the duel game can have fun too. I also welcome challenges. Nothing gets me perky like a tryhard dunning-kruger talking like he won't be beat.
The Diablo II PvP experience really is a unique one.
Not to turn this into a Diablo III bashing, but alongside there being no trading, there also being no PvP is a huge part of why Diablo II veterans despise Diablo III and consider it an egregious deviation to the franchise. Without trading and PvP is it really a Diablo game or just a modern ARPG masquerading as one?
#3: ---Freedom, Glorious Freedom---
One of the less obvious factors in the Diablo II experience is how much freedom you have to do as you please. Even the original chat was unfiltered and unmoderated. You feel like you are immersed in an online world where there are no rules, no laws, and no restrictions of any kind. An anarchistic playground if you will.
That said, I believe plenty of Diablo II bashers are typically just people without skin thick enough to handle the anarchist playground. People who get worked up over mean words and baited by trolls. People salty about PK'ers (People who kill players outside of duel games). People who simply just don't hold up in "survival of the fittest" because they are weak minded and have no concept of effort and rising to a challenge among peers.
To people who do love trading, who do enjoy PvP, who are thick skinned and value the fruits of effort and labor, Diablo II online is pure joy. There is not another game that offers anything like the freedom Diablo II offers.
#4: ---A Game of Mental Prowess---
There is so much to learn about Diablo II, it is mind boggling. What items are best for what builds. What builds are best for what. How to utilize certain bugs. Magical item affixes & prefixes. Differences between softcore & hardcore, ladder & non-ladder, high level dueling and low level dueling, single-player and online, and so on. You could spend a decade dedicated to mastering just one of these facets and still have the others left open to explore.
Diablo II is a competition of who is most knowledgeable; who has dedicated themselves most to knowing this game inside out.
To the strong-willed and intelligent, Diablo II delivers a degree of validation. So it is no surprise that dunning-krugers, meatheads, and mentally soft cretins love to bash it as a dated clunky game. To them, they aren't weak-minded, the game just sucks.
#5 ---The Item System---
I read an eye-opening article awhile back detailing an interview with the God-Father of Diablo, David Brevik. He explained that, before making Diablo II, he realized he had stumbled onto something with a closer look at what made Diablo work so well.
That was that it had a slot-machine essence to it. That part of what made it so addicting was that killing a monster or opening a chest had the same psychological affect as pulling the lever of a slot-machine.
His idea going into the conception of Diablo II was to go all-in on that factor. This is why the drop tables and loot mechanics for Diablo II are so complex and on such a massive scale. No other game in the history of gaming has even come close to creating a loot system so massive and complex.
The newer generation of gamers just seem to misunderstand by an extreme margin what makes Diablo II such a masterpiece. This largely is due to the obvious fact that few to none of them are willing to give it a fair chance beyond first impression.
In fact, they remind me very strikingly of my six year old daughter when it comes to new food that isn't some iteration of chicken or hot dog. All we ask is for her to merely try a bite. Not a crumb or a nibble and don't spit it out. We know that she would really enjoy some of these foods if she would just take a nice big bite, chew it up, and swallow it. But, like a typical six year old, that rarely happens.
The newer generation of gamers in this analogy are similarly spoiled by superficial features of modern ARPG's.
Look, quite frankly, if you put less than 50 hours into Diablo II or alternatively, you never defeated Baal on hell difficulty, your opinion or review on Diablo II is about as indicative of the games quality as my daughters opinion on baked beans.
One particular review (In the form of an article for PC Gamer), made the baseless claim that the game is full of your cliche "go to this place and kill everything there" quests, ending it with a jab about how they have cliche names like The Den of Evil followed by a "-no really". (Please note that The Den of Evil is the very first quest of the game).
There's one problem with that, Mr. PC Gamer journalist; that's the only quest in the entire game that is like that... NO, REALLY. Serious question, did this person not get past The Blood Raven (The second quest) before they decided to write a knee-jerk review?
This person then went on to say several other clueless things, like pining over the prospect of using the skill Holy Bolt, which is one of those useless skills so neglected that players forget it even exists. NO, REALLY. This guy is quite seriously the only person who bristles at the thought of using Holy Bolt, because he's bad and didn't actually play the game. This guy knows as much about Diablo II as my daughter knows about Filet Mignon.
He isn't the only one either. My media feeds deliver me this kind of award-winning cluelessness on an hourly basis. On top of that, my feed is equally ripe with bad advice.
Don't listen to these people. Diablo II is way more than the outdated clunky experience they insist it is. These are people who are hooked on superficial dopamine rushes and dumbed down modern games that prey on their need for instant gratification and relieve them of the need to exercise critical decision making skills.
Diablo II is an endless cerebral foray into infinite possibilities, tinkering, grind-funded economics, and if you're the PvP type, white-knuckle competition that never gets old. Of course the simple-minded think it's clunky, because what they think is clunky is actually where the charm is.
You see, these critics always try to put on a front like they aren't being biased by saying things that appear on the surface to be positive.
They keep suggesting that Diablo II's success stems from a "tried & true formula" that is present in all successful RPG's.
Well firstly, when Diablo II was made, that formula was NOT tried & true, because David Brevik and his Blizzard North team INVENTED that formula. So critics can go suck a fat veiny one for skirting that fact.
Secondly, Diablo II utilizes that formula far better than any game since. Diablo II isn't just some cookie-cutter ARPG as critics insinuate, it's the premier and supreme ARPG experience. It did it first and it still does it best. Suggesting that about it is like suggesting that Magic: The Gathering is a cliche cookie-cutter TCG, despite the fact that Magic' INVENTED the TCG and still reigns supreme as the top TCG.
Regardless, that isn't all I came to say this time. No, I'm here to lay out why Diablo II is so amazing in ways that have nothing to do with its basic ARPG formula.
Here are 5 reasons why Diablo II is amazing that have nothing to do with its ARPG design.
#1: ---Trading & Economy---
I've played many ARPG's, on console, on PC, and on mobile. NONE of them have an in-game economy like Diablo II. Path of Exile tries to emulate it but ultimately fails to because its developers thought they understood what makes it tick, but they didn't. In short, they took the concept too far and created too many forms of currency to create an economy that is simple and fun to engage in.
As for other modern ARPG's, nearly all of them nix the idea of trading items altogether and even if they don't, they're very restrictive about it.
The crux of this issue is that these games are far too concerned about game balance and deny or restrict trading in order to maintain it. In games that are predicated around PvP like Call of Duty or Overwatch, game balance is paramount, but ARPG developers are letting that approach carry over to ARPG's where it shouldn't be anything but a secondary priority.
The point is, people who really love Diablo II don't care that Hammerdins and Sorceress' are objectively better than the other classes in many areas. We don't care that Enigma, Grief, Spirit, Infinity, and Call to Arms are staples for all of the good builds while most other runewords are neglected. These things don't bother us, because the overall quality of Diablo II far exceeds the detriment these unbalances cause.
Trading and engaging in Diablo II's online economy is an entirely extra facet of the game to become enamored with and it is only made possible with the absolute unrestrictive freedom the game gives you with trading.
#2: ---The PvP---
Not everyone is into PvP when playing games, but I'd suggest that most people who aren't would still really like Diablo II's PvP if they gave it a chance. It isn't rigid and competitively unforgiving like in other games. In fact, it's very relaxed, but wild and unrestrictive. In fact, you could join a duel game just to spectate and chat.
It only gets intense if you want it to. Most PvP games within Diablo II are more like a lobby of people dicking around trying to kill each other on a whim than a bunch of neckbeards being overly serious and competitive.
Not to say there isn't a serious side of PvP, just that it's largely optional. The more serious PvP'ers tend to duel privately in organized groups. The tryhards you do encounter in public games tend to get outnumbered and jumped by the majority. If tryhards do ruin a good time, the easy solution is to just make or join a different duel game.
I personally enjoy the best of both worlds. I try to have the best gear (Within reasonable means) and I take my dueling seriously, but I'm also in it for a good time. I have no problem swapping to a lesser character so that other people in the duel game can have fun too. I also welcome challenges. Nothing gets me perky like a tryhard dunning-kruger talking like he won't be beat.
The Diablo II PvP experience really is a unique one.
Not to turn this into a Diablo III bashing, but alongside there being no trading, there also being no PvP is a huge part of why Diablo II veterans despise Diablo III and consider it an egregious deviation to the franchise. Without trading and PvP is it really a Diablo game or just a modern ARPG masquerading as one?
#3: ---Freedom, Glorious Freedom---
One of the less obvious factors in the Diablo II experience is how much freedom you have to do as you please. Even the original chat was unfiltered and unmoderated. You feel like you are immersed in an online world where there are no rules, no laws, and no restrictions of any kind. An anarchistic playground if you will.
That said, I believe plenty of Diablo II bashers are typically just people without skin thick enough to handle the anarchist playground. People who get worked up over mean words and baited by trolls. People salty about PK'ers (People who kill players outside of duel games). People who simply just don't hold up in "survival of the fittest" because they are weak minded and have no concept of effort and rising to a challenge among peers.
To people who do love trading, who do enjoy PvP, who are thick skinned and value the fruits of effort and labor, Diablo II online is pure joy. There is not another game that offers anything like the freedom Diablo II offers.
#4: ---A Game of Mental Prowess---
There is so much to learn about Diablo II, it is mind boggling. What items are best for what builds. What builds are best for what. How to utilize certain bugs. Magical item affixes & prefixes. Differences between softcore & hardcore, ladder & non-ladder, high level dueling and low level dueling, single-player and online, and so on. You could spend a decade dedicated to mastering just one of these facets and still have the others left open to explore.
Diablo II is a competition of who is most knowledgeable; who has dedicated themselves most to knowing this game inside out.
To the strong-willed and intelligent, Diablo II delivers a degree of validation. So it is no surprise that dunning-krugers, meatheads, and mentally soft cretins love to bash it as a dated clunky game. To them, they aren't weak-minded, the game just sucks.
#5 ---The Item System---
I read an eye-opening article awhile back detailing an interview with the God-Father of Diablo, David Brevik. He explained that, before making Diablo II, he realized he had stumbled onto something with a closer look at what made Diablo work so well.
That was that it had a slot-machine essence to it. That part of what made it so addicting was that killing a monster or opening a chest had the same psychological affect as pulling the lever of a slot-machine.
His idea going into the conception of Diablo II was to go all-in on that factor. This is why the drop tables and loot mechanics for Diablo II are so complex and on such a massive scale. No other game in the history of gaming has even come close to creating a loot system so massive and complex.
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