Does Diablo 2 hold up?
>>736727339Zoomers will try to tell you otherwise, but no, it actually doesn't.
It has excellent atmosphere/music (largely inseparable in its case), one of the best in vidya, and dare I say a compelling enough story. Heck, even the combat stands up pretty well, relatively speaking: the visuals and sound effects give strong and direct impact to your input (*thud* *thud* *crash* *boom* sort of thing), I would actually rate it above PoE1 for example in terms of overall combatfeel and responsiveness. If you run through the campaign once (or a couple of times with different classes) and have a tolerance to some degree of jank/friction (like the stamina meter) then you'll probably have a good time.But if you treat it as anything more than that, especially without mods like Path of Diablo or Project Diablo 2, ie. "endgame", then it's crap. And that's what it's actually known and remembered for, and which it implicitly mechanically incentivizes (that is, I think it sets itself up to be judged by this standard). Basically one of the worst Diablo2likes (or "ARPGs").
The atmosphere and game are ok to play through the class balancing is very bad. If we take LoD as a basis then any melee character is automatically bad because of the way the attack rating and defense ratings work. Instead of increasing or decreasing damage output they influence chance to miss attacks and the scaling is WAY off once you get to nightmare or hell. Melee characters also scale off of weapon damage which creates problems of trying to find enough attack rating while also balancing other stats. Spellcaster characters like hammerdin build or sorceress in general will focus on one ability and getting synergy spells to make it better. There doesnt really exist a lot of build variety in the game and a lot of the skills exist simply to make the damage of the skill you actually use better. Most anons here will tell you that they cleared the game with some off-meta build such as poison dagger necromancer or bash barbarian. While it is possible to do this it takes a lot of time and is comparable to playing World of Warcraft (the original 1-60) using nothing but white and grey items as a warrior or not using a weapon. Its possible to clear to max level or whatever but its very inefficient and seems like a waste of time. Another bad thing about diablo 2 is many of the builds people play don really become available until after level 30. This means you spend a while playing a character you dont actually want jut to start playing the real deal later. The game can be enjoyable for a playthrough now and then but a lot of games do what Diablo does but better.
>>736727339Diablo 2 was one of the few games that was actually ahead of it's time. playing it now doesn't feel like playing an old game but rather like playing a modern game with a retro graphics
>>736727339No if you are playing the first time and want to larp as a Barb. Yes if you create a Lightning sorceress to farm items for the character that you wanted.
yes except for melee, modded in splash damage makes those feel 10x better
>>73672733932 year old gamer here that never got into Diablo 2 on its initial craze because I was busy playing Brood War. I've played a good amount of ARPGs over my life, I would have never said I was proficient in them until I picked up Path of Exile 2, though competent. Anyway, I played Diablo 2 in like 2017 solo, and I didn't enjoy it much. Even then I realized that a lot of the fun in these games is the multiplayer aspects, that's what really got people addicted, and I can understand a lot better why people played Diablo 2 so much now that I've gotten into PoE2. But no, I don't think it holds up.
>>736730152I'd recommend you give project D2 a go this weekend, season starts tomorrow and the community is probably the best in the genre
>>736727339>hold upIt never held
>>736727339OP's pic has been murdered after the events of Diablo II, by the Assassin no less.
>>736727339I'd say it's worth a playthrough at least. Though be aware that you can't reset your character so if you fuck up your build then it stays fucked. Generally you want just enough strength and dexterity to use your equipment and then dump the rest into vitality or mana (If playing a magic class).
>>736727751I don't think you know what a "zoomer" is.
>>736730484>you can't reset your character This isn't true anymore, they introduced Tokens of Absolution.
>>736727339As long as you only play on 'Normal' difficulty and never bother with the endgame grind, then yeah.
>>736731486nigga you finish normal around level 25, the last abilities dont even unlock till 30
>>736727339It's not even a video game dude, it's just one of those soulless chore simulators normalfaggots obsess over
>>736727751ZDS unc
>>736731791You complete normal at 25 if you are a speedrun autist who has played the game a million times. If you clear every map from act 1 to act 5(like a new player would) you will likely be closer to 40.
>>736732086>clear every map>autist
>>736730793Akara let's you reset each difficulty once before that
>>736727928Corpse explosion and its sound alone in D2 mogs anything in any other ARPG ever made, so you're completely right there.
I think it does.
>>736731486This. I love it and I never bothered with multiplayer or hell runs, just going through normal and maybe hard once in a while, then start a new character or play something else.
>>736727339Yes, which is why it's still played by a number of people and why it got a remaster and extra content almost 25 years after release.>736727751>Zoomers will try to tell you otherwise>no, it actually doesn'tRetard.
>>736727339I'll hold her up all right
>>736727339I want to hold up her two diablos if you know what I mean
>>736727339alright how many of you sickos fantasized about Sorceress using the soulstone as a dildo? because I did.
