II vs III

I completely agree with you. If I remember correctly, it took me a month (maybe longer) of playing Diablo 2 (for many hours a day) to even just get to the final act. In Diablo 3, it took just a week of casual play to beat it on Normal setting. Granted, Nightmare setting is a good deal tougher, but I'm almost to act 4 here too. I'm afraid the game is going to burn itself out much quicker than its predecessor. I enjoyed playing Diablo 2 on and off for years!


I liked the skill tree in Diablo 2 as well. You could play the same character a number of different times, choosing different skills and trying out new strategies. For example, the first mage I played in D2 was a fire based mage which I took up to level 50 or so. Then I made a completely new character, a cold spell mage (which I liked much better), and took that one up to almost level 70. I did the same thing with the Barbarian as well. Those characters kept me busy for well over a year alone! But the way the skills are set in D3, that's obviously not going to happen.

Actually come to think of it, I wish they could digitally remaster Diablo 2 (maybe changing a few things as well), so I could play it again using the same graphics they have for Diablo 3. I guess D2 comes with the collector edition, but I doubt they remastered it.














§ Humans! You're not worth the flesh you're printed on! §

The fourth act had a heap of stuff to do before diablo! The ghostly figures you walk past all turn into mini bosses, plus you fight Izual, Rakanoth and a few others I can't remember.

As for the buttons and customisation - that is entirely possible. Activate Elective mode in gameplay options. This allows you to put two defensive skills on your bar at once, or all 4 if you feel the need.

You can also rebind your skill buttons to whatever you want - I play a lot of HoN so my skill buttons are QWER and my potion button is T.

I played a heap of D2 before D3 came out to refresh myself on the story. Ended up at level 83 with an Amazon. I think I prefer D3's end game to D2's, because hell mode was fairly easy to beat solo once you were a high level, whereas D3 stops you at 60, forcing you to gear up and, more importantly, become more skilled at playing the game!

I'm currently trying to down Belial in inferno mode as a wizard, and i'm still enjoying the crap out of this game.

I don't really think that D2 was longer, it's think that it's a perception issue, though it's been a long time since I played D2.

D3:
Act 1 and 2 seem long because the main connecting areas are all wide open maps for the most part.

Act 3 is probably equally as long but much more linear.
You start out on top of the Keep, then you fight in the Keep, then you fight outside the Keep in an open area, then you go to the Crater.

Act 4 maybe be smaller but it is also completely linear with no "open" areas.

I really don't understand why you are complaining about the "limited" skill spots. That's part of the Diablo since Day 1.

In D1, you had 1 Attack and 8 Slots that were used for potions or scrolls.

In D2, you had 2 Attacks and 4 Slots for Potions.

In D3, you have 2 Attacks and 4 Defensives and 1 Potion slot.


Seems like there's a lot more options now, especially when you take into account Elective mode.


One of the things I love about D3 and hated about D2 was that you aren't locked into a "Build".
The skill tree sucked in D2 because you couldn't change it and I normally ended up running with some unspent skill points for fear of wasting them.


I starting playing D2 with a Necromancer that was Poison based.
Around the time I was close to beating Normal they completely changed the way that Poisons worked. I stopped playing him midway through Act 1 in Nightmare.

Blizzard completely changed the game mechanics and I was locked into a build tied to a play style I never set out to use.

Just made my way into Inferno about a week ago, I agree act 4 felt really rushed. On the other hand I felt Act3 in D2 was horribly long and monotonous. One thing I like more about D3 is the drop system, no more people stealing every single drop. Not sure if I like the frequency of drops or not, I've only found 3 Legendary items, only one of which was even useable at the time I found it. I have yet to see a set piece drop and my bow was so bad someone finally took pity and gave me one that actually puts a dent in an inferno enemy. I spent a lot of gold getting my blacksmith maxed out only to find he can't craft anything of any real use. Only thing I have been playing for lately was the 500K gold to make my hell staff of herding to start doing hell whimshire runs in hope of finding some much needed items to even get started in Act 2 Inferno. Not much different from the hours upon hours of cow/mephisto/diablo runs in D2 to get items and reach lvl 99, of which I did once and would hate to know how many days it took me. So I am happy it is much easier to reach the max lvl in D3, I am sure they'll raise that with upcoming patches. Not sure if I like buying space in my stash or not but I am glad that it at least has the potential to be a lot bigger than the D2 stash, I think I had 4 mules back in the day for my items. Which reminds me of how I liked creating a game with my name that I set the requirements on, with D3 you just hope everyone plays and they don't sit in town doing nothing but making the game harder for everyone playing.

I do find it funny that people playing Barb's are pretty much still the A holes that have to rush through and past all the enemies getting everyone else killed along the way.

I'd like to hear your thoughts:
Do you agree/disagree?
'Found the fast pace and escalation of the final act kind of refreshing; maybe I kind of wanted the game to be over with at that point. 'Was kind of disappointed that New Tristram didn't really resemble the old one in the slightest. Act II felt like a chore to me; preferred the nonstop carnage of the last two. The Diablo fight was definitely easy as shiz, especially since that was supposed to be all of the prime and secondary evils combined along with being the final battle.


Did you think it was fine the way it was?
Its an entertaining for a click n' kill hack n' slash, but it didn't really add anything new besides being a smooth ride.

What would you change?
Max Level up to 100 instead of this paragon mumbo jumbo.

What would you like to see in the game?
A battle with Imperius instead of him just getting smooshed. Adria's fate being addressed.

What things did you not like about D3?
1) Rushers 2) Hackers 3) Keyloggers 4) Art design(good, but just a preference thing) 5) High restrictions on what characters can and can't use as opposed to the other one 6) Predictable and not very satisfying story 7) Dull choice of characters in comparison to the last one.
8) Streamlined leveling takes away a lot of individuality and enforces grinding 9) Places we've seen before for most of the acts(kudos to the final act for changing it up. 10) Always online