Is D2R the best ARPG in the last 10 years?

[hulkgor]

As much as i like D2 and really appreciate this remake, Path of Exile is vastly superior, albeit overly complex at this point with the stacking of systems on top of systems.

Hoping for a 'step back' to this overlapping madness with Path of Exile 2 release (even if highly delayed by now).

[Elbob]

Can you please cite literally anything remotely substantial that suggested that D3 was ever slated to have a 2nd expansion?

I've seen this claim a couple of times before, and when I ask people where they heard/saw it they proceed to go silent instead of posting any sort of source to support the claim. I have seen absolutely no evidence supporting the assertion that there ever was a 2nd expansion planned for D3, and nobody has been willing to even attempt to substantiate their claim. I do find it plausible that they would cancel a 2nd expansion, but I've seen no evidence ever provided that suggested a 2nd expansion was even planned for D3.

https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Diabl...g_in_the_North I'm not getting involved int he discussion about quality of game or w/e but there was a 2nd expansion planned at minimum.

[Azerate]

D3 RoS is my fav one. Absolutely love the seasonal gameplay, gear system, rifts etc. Will probably keep playing it (on and off) as long as they keep the servers up. I left the original D3 like 2 weeks after the release, but after all the patches it's up there among my fav games of all time.

Tried PoE but not enjoyed it at all. Just didn't feel good.

[Kalocy Jim]

D3 RoS is my fav one. Absolutely love the seasonal gameplay, gear system, rifts etc. Will probably keep playing it (on and off) as long as they keep the servers up. I left the original D3 like 2 weeks after the release, but after all the patches it's up there among my fav games of all time.

Tried PoE but not enjoyed it at all. Just didn't feel good.

Despite what people say, PoE is actual literal garbage. There is a reason the parent company is called "grinding gear games". The grind is endless in that game, and they borderline make you pay for stash tabs to get any actual progress in the game. You are at a huge disadvantage unless you spend real money on their cash shop.

Just my 2 cents.

[God Save The King]

Last 9 years? Maybe. Probably.

Last 10? Nah, D3 came out in May 2012.

[cozzri]

Even though its a remaster of a classic, i'd say its one of the best if not the best ARPG in the last 10 years or so.

Everything about the game is for lack of a better term, amazing.

I did not think i'd be playing as much D2R as I have. Really good investment for the money imho.

Blizzard and Vicarious Visions really outdid themselves on this one.

D2 has not aged well. They abandoned the game for over 10 years with no updates whatsoever. It COULD have been a great game this whole time, but the incompetent developer decided not to continue supporting the game or its fans.

Look at games like Grim Dawn and compare it to the Diablo franchise; the build diversity in Grim Dawn is absolutely insane in the sheer amount of item and skill combinations you can do to customize your character.

D2R is only the best ARPG in the last 10 years if the only games you play are made by Blizzard
Time to step out of that bubble and experience what the genre really has to offer. D2 hasn't been apex of gameplay for well over 15 years.

[Cracked]

The real issue is keeping you entertained. The story is usually dogshit in ARPGs (although D2 has alright story, it's just a bit short), so they rely on grinding - but D2R fails to offer adequate challenge once you beat Hell Baal, yes you can go for Ubers, but that really has less to do with your character progression and more with which character you chose on login screen. In short, there's 1) nothing to do and 2) no reason to do it.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

D2 was a great game when it came out, don't get me wrong, but of the last 10 years?

[Ajko]

Sure, as I say, some systems are outdated. I'm a purist, so I feel they shouldn't be changed, but they are outdated. However, I still remember being completely disappointed with D3. They did away with the power fantasy. They did away with ilvl areas, they did away with creativity (completely).

In D3 you're just chasing the set items of the current meta. I can't imagine anything more boring than that. In D2 you can make melee sorceresses, you can make crushing blow pallies, you can make an immortal sorceress, you can dual ele spec them, you can do whatever you want. In D3 there is only meta, which you can only get through rifts, which is literally your only endgame. It's absolutely pathetic.

purist or not, still your opinion. i grew up on diablo, then on diablo 2, then on diablo 3. for me it is diablo 3 > diablo 1 >>>> diablo 2. you are describing poor elements of diablo 3. well, ok, but infinity farming in diablo 2 for BIS and runes... is that more fun? lol no. i am glad they made a remaster of diablo 2 game (not speaking about bugs or graphics...), but when someone feel like a super special snowflake because they push up diablo 2 like some SS godtier game which it never was... no, sry

[Cracked]

purist or not, still your opinion. i grew up on diablo, then on diablo 2, then on diablo 3. for me it is diablo 3 > diablo 1 >>>> diablo 2. you are describing poor elements of diablo 3. well, ok, but infinity farming in diablo 2 for BIS and runes... is that more fun? lol no. i am glad they made a remaster of diablo 2 game (not speaking about bugs or graphics...), but when someone feel like a super special snowflake because they push up diablo 2 like some SS godtier game which it never was... no, sry

There are quite a few versions of D3. The initial one was quite fun, server issues aside, but ultimately had the exact same problems as D2, in that the end game was just farming low level enemies for infinitesimal chances of upgrade (and the cash shop LOL). D3 RoS was an improvement on that, but unfortunately completely streamlined the gear progression to the point now where it's either wear a set, multiple sets or now a gimmick LoD if your build works with that.

There is no variety. Combined with the incremental increases to drop rates over the years, you can "finish" the game in about 12-15 hours of play time, because your next upgrades start being way too far out, and you get to repetitive Caldesann's Despair farming, which just sucks any fun out of the game IMO. You just get to the optimal state so fast that you hardly ever even have to consider wearing "bad" pieces or offset legendaries other than weapons. Once you get your guaranteed set, you aren't going to change much until you decide to upgrade to a better set, unless of course, your guaranteed set is already pretty much BiS, where you are just hunting better versions of the same items. Pass from me as it currently is, overall. Don't get me wrong, I definitely got my money's worth from D3, but it's a very flawed game and not one I would recommend to someone who would ask me for my opinion on it now.

[Vespian]

There are quite a few versions of D3. The initial one was quite fun, server issues aside, but ultimately had the exact same problems as D2, in that the end game was just farming low level enemies for infinitesimal chances of upgrade (and the cash shop LOL). D3 RoS was an improvement on that, but unfortunately completely streamlined the gear progression to the point now where it's either wear a set, multiple sets or now a gimmick LoD if your build works with that.

There is no variety. Combined with the incremental increases to drop rates over the years, you can "finish" the game in about 12-15 hours of play time, because your next upgrades start being way too far out, and you get to repetitive Caldesann's Despair farming, which just sucks any fun out of the game IMO. You just get to the optimal state so fast that you hardly ever even have to consider wearing "bad" pieces or offset legendaries other than weapons. Once you get your guaranteed set, you aren't going to change much until you decide to upgrade to a better set, unless of course, your guaranteed set is already pretty much BiS, where you are just hunting better versions of the same items. Pass from me as it currently is, overall. Don't get me wrong, I definitely got my money's worth from D3, but it's a very flawed game and not one I would recommend to someone who would ask me for my opinion on it now.

Pretty much all I have to say about D3.

No one is arguing that any of the ARPG genre aren't acquired taste. If you LOVE D2, you will likely not LOVE D3. I'm talking about 10K+ hours kind of love.

PoE is the same, in the fact that it is technically an ARPG, it relates heavily to D2 and like every other game in the genre, it's all inspired by D2, but with it's own twist, and the truth is that PoE is overly complex, it requires "GOOD BUILD", which you can see from the responses in this thread "you were just built wrong". Yeah, that was my point smartass. The stacking of systems sucks and the economy sucks. I have a PoE T-Shirt, from the founders pack, I have spent hundreds of dollars in PoE, but it simply isn't better than D2. It never was, to me. It was a different game, still is. It just became a worse game as time progressed.

PoE will go on to last in this genre, for at least as long as D2 has, and I'm sure many games will reference PoE as their inspiration, rather than D2, because it has innovated and it has an actual draw to the gameplay. There are reason for me, personally, why it simply can't topple D2.

People in this thread seem to forget that everything here, is opinion. They're responding like "that's your opinion". No shit sherlock. I may hope that whatever you think, is your opinion.

D2 is the classic that spawned all the other ones. D3 (obviously), PoE, Grim Dawn, etc etc. They're all offshoots of D2. The developers themselves have said so many times. None of them gave me, personally, the drive to play it as much as I have D2. People call D2's endgame boring, but then they want to implement the D3 end-game, which is even more mindless. Just mice in a wheel. At least PoE has actual endgame. PoE has a right to exist, but D3, D3 in my humble opinion should never have seen the light in this form. The only thing it does right is combat flow and that's mostly because they did away with many of the RPG elements in the ARPG. No more FHR for example. D2 is slow on purpose, by design. That's not dated, that's choice. Blizzard clearly made the wrong choice with D3.

[chiddie]

D2 has not aged well. They abandoned the game for over 10 years with no updates whatsoever. It COULD have been a great game this whole time, but the incompetent developer decided not to continue supporting the game or its fans.

Look at games like Grim Dawn and compare it to the Diablo franchise; the build diversity in Grim Dawn is absolutely insane in the sheer amount of item and skill combinations you can do to customize your character.

D2R is only the best ARPG in the last 10 years if the only games you play are made by Blizzard
Time to step out of that bubble and experience what the genre really has to offer. D2 hasn't been apex of gameplay for well over 15 years.

Yes, because you know, developing is free, why not supporting a game for 50 years investing time and money forever in a game that stops selling after 3-4 years max.

That’s why we still have Windows 98, right? Ah, no? Really?

[slime]

I enjoy Gauntlet in all of its different versions.

Let's not kid ourselves on who invented what.

[chiddie]

There are quite a few versions of D3. The initial one was quite fun, server issues aside, but ultimately had the exact same problems as D2, in that the end game was just farming low level enemies for infinitesimal chances of upgrade (and the cash shop LOL). D3 RoS was an improvement on that, but unfortunately completely streamlined the gear progression to the point now where it's either wear a set, multiple sets or now a gimmick LoD if your build works with that.

There is no variety. Combined with the incremental increases to drop rates over the years, you can "finish" the game in about 12-15 hours of play time, because your next upgrades start being way too far out, and you get to repetitive Caldesann's Despair farming, which just sucks any fun out of the game IMO. You just get to the optimal state so fast that you hardly ever even have to consider wearing "bad" pieces or offset legendaries other than weapons. Once you get your guaranteed set, you aren't going to change much until you decide to upgrade to a better set, unless of course, your guaranteed set is already pretty much BiS, where you are just hunting better versions of the same items. Pass from me as it currently is, overall. Don't get me wrong, I definitely got my money's worth from D3, but it's a very flawed game and not one I would recommend to someone who would ask me for my opinion on it now.

I don’t get how D3 has no variety. Every class has 5 green sets (not counting the common green sets from the blacksmith) and each set requires a proper build to work. That’s at least 5 different builds for each class. And every build has variants depending on which type of content you’re aiming at. For example gr solo speed builds are different from gr push builds and play differently.

End game content itself is not THAT various, I agree, but playstyle imho has more than enough variety.

[Zeta333]

Most of the players who bought D3 have never even played D2 or wont because it was too old and the graphics are terrible, D3 is just a better game overall than D2, D2 is just old gamer nostalgia.

not even close but ok. i doubt they will remaster d3 20 years after launch but hold your breath.

[Gaaz]

D2 and D2R are fine, even fun for a casual run on normal difficulty. Obviously taking age into account. The problem is endgame.
By today's standards though, they are completely blown out of the water by almost every ARPG released in the last decade, maybe more. Grim Dawn is vastly superior in all aspects. As is Sacred (1 and 2), Titan Quest, PoE and so on. It is like comparing a mobile title with an AAA title in those instances. Not to mention that Diablo 2 and 3 suffer from certain design defects that force gating into specific builds and configurations making a character either "I still need to grind for X to be relevant" or "that is it, I completed the game". Needless to say, the amount of time spent on a character that still has something to strive towards AND has the necessary gear/build is practically non existent, a problem that has been solved at least partially by many other games that came later.

[Lahis]

I don't think and old game like that should be called the best of past 10 years when it was a decade old when that timeframe began.

[mrgreenthump]

If you count Last Epoch early access, no it isn't. Granted if you want to play last Epoch, I'd wait till multiplayer is implemented.

[Vampyrr]

Not even close. There are so many better options now.

[Beastiel]

One thing about D2R is it really makes you think about D3's ludicrous art direction. The environments are gorgeous and dreary and despite knowing these maps are randomly generated they still constantly beg you to just stop and enjoy them now and again. D3's areas just feel like they lack so much detail and despite the support of top-notch sound design simply lack any immersion.

Compare d2 act 5's rugged, war-torn and blood-caked foothills and vistas to d3 act 3's bland, detailess, unremarkable generic snowplanes