I can't enjoy Diablo anymore.
Inb4 - Yes I know it's a me problem. I'm not the target demo. I've just been a fan of the franchise since I read The Sin War as a kid.
I'll play through a Diablo once. As a necromancer. Exclusively as a necromancer.
Everyone I know is a gatcha addict. All they care about is ever growing numbers. Bigger damage. Filling paragon boards. Torment levels.
I just wanna play through the story content. Once.
I'd honestly love to see them try a different take on Diablo. It won't happen since Blizzard is all about live service games these days, but I'd love to see a single-player, traditional RPG version of Diablo. Imagine if Larian got the rights to make a Diablo game.
I was talking with a dude last night about what I termed a "Diablo themed Skyrim"
Imagine going through Sancturary during one of these hell uprisings in first person. Would be wild.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm kinda surprised that there hasn't already been a Skyrim mod that does exactly this.
That would be awesome. It’s funny to think how somewhat similar Diablo is to Skyrim except Diablo is bird’s eye view and Skyrim is 1st person.
Path of exile is like a spiritual successor to d2:lod. Can play solo only, but requires online connection. Huge amount of content and complexity.
Have yet to play it but Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous does have some similar themes. If you haven't looked at it already give it a glance.
Blizzard make money extraction software now, not games. The lifecycle of their products starts with a complicated system of overlapping, interrelated components like events and currencies and battlepasses and sales and shops and services and items and subscriptions, and then they dress it up to look like a game.
That's how I feel about games like Borderlands. They're incredibly fun games with simple yet fun gameplay with decent stories and cool maps.
I can't get into the whole min/maxing, "proper" builds, or gear loadouts. I just wanna run through a wasteland blasting dudes in the face with cool guns and abilities.
Elden ring was my first souls game and I kept away from fan sites and youtube videos as much as possible until I beat the final boss. Didn't want to tempt finding a meta build.
If I needed help, I asked friends. It was a great experience!
I haven’t actually enjoyed a Diablo game since playing the original Diablo 2 as a teenager
I can recommend Grim Dawn if you haven't played it yet.
Can you "grinding for better gears" in Grim Dawn? Or the loot doesn't matter and you should just stick to the quests?
You can definitely grind. It's not necessary for beating the game, but it's helpful.
But I'm just halfway through my first run, so I'm not a expert. But it's definitely a good replacement for Diablo so far.
I have done several D2 playthroughs, but end up stopping part way through the barbarian tundra chapter, it's somewhat boring.
Now I listen to Diablo 2 soundtrack, when I miss the game, especially the wilderness music, it slaps!
Wilderness and tristram. My childhood.
That's actually same as me. I did play Diablo 2 tons of time. But that was just to finish the game with different characters and different skills combo.
Like one time with Amazon with bow skills, then next time with Amazon with Javelin skills. Also, since I couldn't afford many games back then, I would just re-install it every few months or year or so, and play through it once or twice.
Though, to be completely fair, I didn't even know you could keep playing after finishing the game. Thought it was some glitch that game restarted again 😀
So, not exactly same as you. I want to play with all the characters. At least once.
I did exactly that just a few weeks back. Played through D1 & D2R on Normal, once. Beat them, had a great time.
Started the next difficulty and gave up on the first quest. I know it’s not how they’re meant to be played, but I had fun.