Returning to Diablo... 2 or 3?

[Itisamuh]

I have a hard time understanding how anyone can prefer 2 without being heavily carried by nostalgia. The far more convenient inventory management alone makes 3 a much more pleasant experience for me.

[MoanaLisa]

Either. They are very different games and either one can be enjoyed for what it is. I like and play them both and think of them as completely separate ARPG's set in the same universe.

[klaps_05]

No matter which you pick, I recommend at least 1 playthrough in D2R til Hell completion, its an experience that has withstand the test of time.

[glowpipe]

Ive tried to get into that game several times but have never been able to keep playing it. I like the systems in place but leveling is atrocious

Never in the history of games, have game needed to copy something more than POE. They absolutely, 100% need to copy adventure mode from d3. Leveling in POE is the worst bullshit ever made. The same shitty campaign EVERY single season. Fuck that

[Azerox]

I have a hard time understanding how anyone can prefer 2 without being heavily carried by nostalgia. The far more convenient inventory management alone makes 3 a much more pleasant experience for me.

True, Diablo 2 in 2022 sucks ass.
Been there done that.
If you are looking for fun then D3 is more your game.

[deenman]

Have you tried grim dawn with mods?its proly the best arpg on the market right now and mods make it even better,d3 is also nice to play for a few weeks when a new season starts,and as d2 goes,its kinda aged poorly,even with the remaster

then you have poe,personaly i can never get in to it because i dont like the gear progression and skils system

or you can try all the other arpgs that came out in recent years like torchlight 3,wolcen,last epoch etc

or you can try some different kind of action rpg's like tales of arise or the remastered kingdoms of amalur

also titan quest has a new expansion

[ThrashMetalFtw]

I have a hard time understanding how anyone can prefer 2 without being heavily carried by nostalgia. The far more convenient inventory management alone makes 3 a much more pleasant experience for me.

There's a lot of people who never played D2, or people who only went back and played it AFTER they played D3. Diablo was just a game a lot of people who played WoW had heard about, but never played themself. The same was true for Starcraft before the release of SC2, it was just this old Blizzard game that a lot of WoW players had heard about, without actually knowing what it truly was.

Diablo 2 is a much deeper game with a lot more interlocking systems and stats that interact with eachother. Path of Exile was heavily based on the design of D2 and acts as its spiritual successor (assuming you have heard about that game).

The inventory management is the one part of D2 that truly feels outdated and just stupid. Everything else holds up surprisingly well. In the original D2, the character movement and using your spells was also very outdated, but they fixed that in D2:R by giving us D3 style "press button 1 to cast spell 1" keybinding for all spells.


In the end it just comes down to different game design philosophy.


For me, D3 is this game that I sometimes come back to at a fresh ladder reset, play it every waking hour for 2 weeks straight, then completely lose interest and don't touch it again for a year or two. The gearing is shallow, you gear up and get a massssssive powerspike once you get your set and build defining items, upgrades are just this never ending stream of tiny stat increases that add up over time. It's ufn for a while, but it's extremely grindy and you quickly lose interest.

D2 (and PoE) has way more replayability. I rarely go as hard on those games as I do once I actually decide to play D3 for a short while, but I always stay far longer, and I tend to come back to those games way more frequently. In those games, you have to level a new character if you want to try a new build, and that's part of the charm. In D3, even if can play any build on 1 character, your build is always decided by which set is currently the meta, and which skills that specific set wants you to run, which ironically enough makes your build choices more locked in when playing D3 than D2 The lvling in those games is also more a part of the actual game, as opposed to D3 where the lvling is just something you want to get out of the way before the game actuallys starts once you get to max level.

[starkey]

Love d2 to bits but the leveling at the start is the biggest turn off and it doesn't start to get interesting until level 30 where d3 from level 1 your off to a flying start, and saying that in D3 your given items left right and center and in D2 you have too run the same bosses over and over to build your character but the best part is finding high runes off random monsters is where the addictiveness comes in.

[Itisamuh]

-snip-

Yeah that kind of bums me out, even a little research has always shown D2 has much more depth, which is always a good thing. But since I played D3 first, going from that to a tiny inventory, gear that has to be unlocked with scrolls, having to carry scrolls for that that each take up a slot, having to carry potions that each take up a slot, etc is just a hideous experience. It might also be worth mentioning that I play on console, since I despise click to move, and D3 feels so much smoother than the D2 remake on that at least.

[Fullmetal89]

I have been playing D3 again recently and the game still holds up. Seasons, while not always great, do bring some newness to a decade old game. Monk is especially good this season. Managed to get my season journey done in just two days with Inna's set. As for D2R, like others have said, it's the same old game with a fresh new coat. It just doesn't really hold up to other ARPGs in this day and age. Everything feels too slow and punishing. The one thing it has over D3 is the incredible story, music and atmosphere that was kinda lost in D3.

I hope D4 merges the gameplay of D3 with the quality in storytelling and atmosphere of D2.

[afishman]

2 but not the 2022

[Gaidax]

D2 is just too old of a game. The fresh coat of paint can't hide the rotten and crumbling foundation. It's just a nostalgia trip for those who care and little else.

D3 though... it's just a weak game by modern hack and slash standards.

IMO, it's like choosing between 2 subpar options there.

[Ealyssa]

Just play 3
II is only worth with super heavy rose tinted glasses and if you need to ask you’re clearly not the target.

[Jastall]

2 arguably has better systems, but IMO it plays badly. The early game in particular is just miserable. Get PoE and have broadly similar systems and gameplay, except better. Diablo II is a landmark game but I don't think it lends itself well to new players at all, much like say Starcraft I.

3 has a really strange power curve and is comparatively simplified but it's quite a bit of fun to actually play. So I'll recommend this one in between the two.

[PenguinChan]

2 arguably has better systems, but IMO it plays badly. The early game in particular is just miserable. Get PoE and have broadly similar systems and gameplay, except better. Diablo II is a landmark game but I don't think it lends itself well to new players at all, much like say Starcraft I.

3 has a really strange power curve and is comparatively simplified but it's quite a bit of fun to actually play. So I'll recommend this one in between the two.

Picking up PoE as a new player right now is worse than D2, not that D2 is bad. The experience is atrocious with the new league and changes to the campaign — the devs even complain they aren’t retaining new player lol.

on-topic: D2 is more brooding and immersive, but D3 isn’t a bad experience either, it’s just a different art style. Either one is decent for lore, but 2 definitely wins out there and music as well. The depth goes to 2, but 3 is way more convenient and modernized. 3 also plays way better on controller, but that obviously requires a console. Either option is a good experience, but one is old and shows its age - even if it holds up in many respects. Old jank is still jank no matter what.

[Jastall]

Picking up PoE as a new player right now is worse than D2, not that D2 is bad. The experience is atrocious with the new league and changes to the campaign — the devs even complain they aren’t retaining new player lol.

on-topic: D2 is more brooding and immersive, but D3 isn’t a bad experience either, it’s just a different art style. Either one is decent for lore, but 2 definitely wins out there and music as well. The depth goes to 2, but 3 is way more convenient and modernized. 3 also plays way better on controller, but that obviously requires a console. Either option is a good experience, but one is old and shows its age - even if it holds up in many respects. Old jank is still jank no matter what.

Well PoE allows non-League play and it's how a new player should do it, just blaze through the campaign. But I do agree it's still not great, I've never liked PoE's gameplay either myself but at least the early game isn't awful tier like in D2.

[Nymrohd]

Just play 3
II is only worth with super heavy rose tinted glasses and if you need to ask you’re clearly not the target.

I did enjoy cheating my way through some offline D2R play.

[Battlebeard]

Diablo 3 is amazing, cannot recommend it enough.

I think Diablo 2 was decent back in 2000 but it has aged like milk, not good.

It has extremely stiff controls/movement compared to D3 and slow paced combat that really feels like a 90s game. It also lacks so many modern conviniences, and you have to actually buy potions, teleports scrolls, indentify scrolls, arrows/bolts, keys etc etc (or loot em ofc), meaning you can run out. When you die you have to run back to your corpse which also sucks and speaking of running, it has a freaking stamina bar that might drive you insane.

On top of that D2 has a overly complicated skill/ability system compared to D3 and you actually have to specc what you wanna play, which is a nightmare for new players who don't know the meta nor has checked guides. Even at the easiest difficulty, if you specced wrong and don't have good enough gear with resistance etc, you might get hardstuck on a boss. AND forget looting, the inventory system is GARBAGE, and items take enormous space and you will have even less cause you eventually fill it up with runes that empower you.

D2 was good, now it's a terrible game.

[Aucald]

"Help Me Choose" type threads don't tend to create much in the way of constructive discussion or debate. Closing this.