What does D4 offer over D2?

General Discussion PC
1

it’s been over 20+ years since D2 released, and I was wondering in that time what “blizz” have come up with to think they have a game worth selling?

The loot is worse (convoluted with bad yellows, neutered legendaries)
The combat mechanics are worse
There is an algorithm used to “balance” the classes/difficulty, resulting in a homogenised feeling of “progress”
Skill trees worse
Graphics (apart from texture detail) are worse (too washed out, bland and not engaging)
No social aspect
No trading
Bad PVP
Boring story, boring annoying NPC’s
Camera too zoomed in
Mob packs too sparse and contained
UI looks weird, especially inventory/char screen

I am trying to figure out what D4 does better than D2 that I should invest time playing D4

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2

A bigger active playerbase, … oh, that’s it.

3

You forgot to add ‘Trash servers’ to the list and no Offline play, because Diablo 2 had offline play.

When it comes to servers, these servers are so bad it makes almost all other online games look good in terms of server stability.

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Oh, just to add so this is not all negative. I disagree with a lot of your points. The story in this game is great. The social aspect is currently very weak but I am sure it will grow with more content. Skilltrees are fine. Basically, the only things I agree with are the bad (currently) item system, therefore the trade system and the social aspect. Everything else is not better or worse. This game has so much potential and I remember diablo2 not being what is now when it launched. Things take time.

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First off, so clearly a lie - why even bother?

Secondly, what the heck are “engaging” graphics? Seriously?

You forgot horses.

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D4 has an ingame store. (so if you want to take that as a positive, which I personally don’t, you can take it as irony).
D4 has the more massive and better feeling in combat for melee fighters, but the more boring system for mages
D4 has the better atmo than D2, but not as strong as in D1, it’s way too fast for that
D4 has an open world^^
D4 has transmog and dye clothes
D4 has mounts(which I personally see as a mistake and not necessary anyway)
D4 has massive potential to expand the story back out massively incl. the world as a way and with a lot of story and quest chains for the classes and side quests, which lies in D2 all need. In D4 will be yes sometime in 2,3,4 Add Ons certainly then Diablo times as an Add On^^
D4 has profession systems to customize the stuff, disenchant the found things and resource extraction from items.

Diablo 4 but has a huge problem, it is created as an endgame game and therefore sick in core.

Also, today’s RPGs simply lack a certain flair and magic of growth.
So the best part of an RPG is very weak.
It starts with such things as having portals immediately. In a good RPG, everything is much more powerful, because you have to earn portal spells and the whole way there is connected with story and growing.
So it’s all much smaller at the start and even if one of the main NPCs gives you a task and then gives you a rare portal scroll to quickly return to him, that’s cool. Only later after 2 more long quest chains of the NPC, only the possibility arises to get a portal stone through a well-made turn in the game through adventure and exploration, but it always needs a recharge component, in the form of a power crystal, for example.

And that’s just a simple example of how to build RPGs slowly and strongly, creating the path as the goal in all things.

To do this you need massive amounts of such RPG-typical content, paths tied to lots of adventure, story, tasks, all done slowly and for that like an epic story, along the lines of Simbad the Sailor, Clash of the Titans the old movie.

And then linked with the RPG aspects such as skill branches, specializations in the late game to have further content, based on the game. Class and order houses with tasks and trainers for development that send you on class-specific missions… as I said, everything as an adventure and slowed down in the narrative… but highly motivating just because it is a huge big warm story in which you can fall.

Today that’s all gone because it’s all about endgame and numbers in an endless spiral…
That’s why all the games are so damn shallow and ineffective for us. It’s a grind and a sport… No RPG will ever be able to live up to that…

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7

:smiley: It’s you personal opinion honestly
Like you say what does D4 offer over D2?
for me? a lot of gameplay i like it more then D2 simply because this game is going to be updated constantly and we will get to the point where it’s even more fun then it is now…
But if you ask me for example what is better

I would say POE over any diablo :smiley:

1 Like
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All i’m seeing here is peoples personal opinions (both pos and neg) what D2 has better and/or worse than D4.

Should we do a propper list of D2 vs D4 pos and neg and lets see what we get? And to make it propper fair we should make is D2R, not D2.

I’ll start.

D2R Pros over D4:

  • Better itemization. People who says otherwise are lying to themself. D2R has one of the best itemization of any arpg and this game was made by Blizzard. So how they cannot continue that good tradition is baffling to me.

  • Trading/Economy. This goes hand in hand with a good itemization and makes seasons more interesting. Yes there is a problem with RMT but you need to think what is best for the customer and not for the company. The majority of people playing are not affected by RMT, but the majority are affected by a very locked/limited trading system.

  • Progression leveling. This is not so much that D2R has a much better feeling of leveling up but more of how bad it is in D4. There is no feeling of getting stronger in D4 whatever it is through leveling or finding new gear. It’s extremely limited because of a very bad system (we all know which one) that was choosen to be used in D4. Therefor D2R is better in this even thou it’s not very good there either.

  • Servers/Offline mode. Ye… this one is a short one. D2R is better in this.

  • Social. This is just insane that D2R has a better social aspect against a modern game. And my personal feeling to this is that the D4 Devs has this in the works but didn’t manage to add it into the game as they “needed” to release the game sooner than later.

D4 Pros over D2R:

  • Graphics. D4 has better graphics even with D2R’s graphic update. The graphics in D4 is not perfect as it’s sometimes hard to see with very bland colors where you are in all the mess. But the graphics are better nonetheless.

  • Character creation. Another graphic aspect. Yes D4 does this better, but does it add alot to the game itself to be considered a better game for it? Not really.

  • Open world. This is a good thing added. Makes the game feel bigger and more free as to where you can go and what you can do. But it feels like that they could have gone further with this one and made the world feel more alive.

Thats basically what i can think of as of now. I’m sure there is alot more things that could be compared. But these ones for me are the very obvious ones that can be compared.

I hope people can continue the list but please be unbiased, otherwise it will just be another post with poeple arguing their own opinions against eachother.

[EDIT] Spelling

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You can try to make an objective assessment but obviously a comparison will always be a personal opinion.

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Personal opinions :smiley:
and BTW if you know what D2R has to offer over D4
why the hell people not play D2R? like you clearly have your personal preference already figure out so you should play what is best for you right?
I think poe is better then D2R or even D4 do i want blizzard to make it so they will take good stuff from poE?
no this is a standlone game with it’s own features
and the best part is that they will update this game regularly

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Is it really?

Thats like saying “a banana is yellow” and calling it a personal opinion.
Sometimes things are just… true.
But then again, we live in a world right now that alot of men are women in the eyes of the law.

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Banana is yellow that is a fact but banana can be green and black also
banana can have SEEDS in it
so do you understand now?
D2R itemization is your personal opinion or even BETTER your personal preference :smiley:

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I don’t agree to this.
This way anything can be a fact when it fits the person who is throwing the facts out.
So then again you are using your own personal opinion to consider whats a fact and whats an opinion.

In the end it’s the majority that decides whats true and whats not even if it doesn’t fit your personal opinion or feeling to it.

So if you ask a majority of people what color a banana has what do you think would be the answer?
So again… if most people got a vote on which game has the better itemization between D2R and D4 (and to add to that, you must have played both games to be allowed that opinion).
Which one do you think the people would choose?

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Combat
Gameplay
Character design
Voice acting
Scale
Story
Cinematics

So, apart from (in its current “just came out state”) itemisation is lacking for now.

Happy to help.

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At the moment?
Less build diversity, better graphics (not counting Resurrected)

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Well I am actually in between playing one of them. And before Diablo 4 launched I would have never though I would still think about Diablo 2…

Economy and itemization is 100 times better in Diablo 2.

But Diablo 4 has a fresh feeling and I really like the open world mmo type of consept.

I give Diablo 4 some time to adjust, but loot needs to be 100 better in future with tons of uniques and no trading problem needs to be solved.

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cool open world multiplayer events that the game acutally does not make use of at all

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rather nothing. i finished quest line as druid near lv 50. i tried playing some lategame but it’s’ extremally boring and pointless. This game is also so boring i don’t even want to check other classes. I just read skill descriptions and yawned. I’m gonna take a break right now, i will maybe check how devs want to repair diablo4 mechanics in season 1 or 2. If they dont change anything i wont come back probably. Even playing D2R after 20 years after release is better right now. And it’s not my opinion, i think i am very average diablo player

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19

I will explain it.

D4 graphics are “muted” in atmosphere, there is no contrast between your character and the environment, meaning there is less engagement/feeling of your character as an entity in its own as it traverses through the world.

They tried to fix this with the highlight option, but it doesn’t work because the contrast between char/enviro is not there, there is no “pop” so the feedback stimuli is low.

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Except with banana being yellow no one is going to argue, because it is hard fact unless you have some form of colour blindness.
Actually, thinking about it: about which stage of banana life are we talking? Because if we are talking about whole life span then we need to consider green, black, yellow,
“brown spotty yellow”, brown and black…and I have not even mentioned banana afterlife :grinning:
Edit: apparently, according to SNL skit and John Cena, there is also “round orange banana”… you learn something everyday :laughing:

Man is man, woman is woman. Do not care what media says.

1 Like