I have set a goal to play all Blizzard game installments in their story mode. So I started with the beginnings of the Diablo saga.
You had already played Diablo 2 and LoD around 2006. So I started with Diablo a month ago. Now I am gathering strength to play Hellfire and then enter Diablo 3 and its expansion.
Of the Three, Diablo 2 is by far my funniest installment, but I must say that Diablo has that mystical halo that we will already find in Diablo 2, as well as a very high difficulty if you do not know how to play in a more tactical way.
I played Diablo around somewhere before 2000. And then played Diablo II and LOD as soon as they are released. Finally, played Diablo III on PS3, around 2017. Now I’m playing it on PS4.
I think the first one was perfect. The atmosphere and presentation still gives me chills. Second one was a better “game” for sure, but the atmosphere took a hit with vibrantly colored monsters, the fact that you don’t really die (unless you’re playing hardcore) and respawning enemies when you “save & quit”. However, the tremendous replay value and lightning fast gameplay made it a super fun and enjoyable game.
The third one is still very good and has that same addictive flavour. It’s dumbed down for sure. Removing custom stat points is one thing, but doing the same for skill points was a bad idea. I also don’t like the ridiculous damage and health numbers.
So, which one is the best game? Overall, I should say Diablo II. But unfortunately sometimes video games age badly and in the end we may prefer the newest one just because of technical reasons. I don’t enjoy playing the first Diablo because you can’t even run and it doesn’t offer much replayability compared to the newer installments. I don’t play Diablo II because well… I played with all characters already. That’s why I play Diablo III now. And as I said, technically it’s the “best” one.