So, Diablo 3

[Cerebus]

I wish it could be harder. And darker.

Oh, my! Longer, too?

Maybe I'll try it at some point, with a Trial or whatever. Just that it's a 10+GB game and I think our download limit is fairly small. I'll have to check that...
And then, I'll need to get a job back. When all's done, we'll see.

[Ben]

My reasoning was as such...

back in the day, shortly after D1 was released...the gore...the terror... when you got to the butcher (first boss) and he killed you right the **** away, after you set foot in a room caked wall to wall with blood and body parts on easy mode...i had to stop playing because i had never had the crap scared out of me like that ever...and that was the first boss in easy mode

And now...its like...no blood or gore really, except for some zombies eating dead bodies in the beginning. it was a let down.
The first boss in easy mode was easy and not scary at all. It felt like i was running a WOW dungeon...even when i was playing alone. I didnt compare anything to D2. I wanted it to at least feel like diablo though. It felt like a spooky blizzard circle jerk to me.

dont get me wrong. it was a good enough game, and ill play it...but the hype is groundless

[Cerebus]

I do wonder why they left behind the dark, grim theme.

I do have certain memories with the Butcher, too. This guy could siphon your life away in a matter of seconds, and with his famous quote... "Ah, fresh meat!" (though I had it in French (yeah, that's back when i couldn't really speak English and before I found out how bad French sounds in games)).
I loved this game. It was, as said, dark, gore, "scary" (to be honest, the ambiance never really scared me, but it did have a scary tone to it)...
However, now that I've played Diablo II, I have a hard time re-playing the first. Why? Man, couldn't that guy learn to walk a bit faster, seriously?

Anyway, I've heard and read everywhere that Diablo III wasn't as dark as previous titles and all that. A shame, really. it's one thing that had Diablo stand out from other hack and slash. But now... it seems like it's pretty much just another one amongst the mass. One that requires an Internet connection even when playing solo.

I still plan on trying it eventually, though. Just because it lost what made it different doesn't mean it's actually bad.

[Razor]

I have do disagree with you there, Diablo 3 gets pretty dark. Particularly Act 3, I guess.

But at the same time, your character never lets it get to them. They are a strong force to be reckoned with, never faltering, and a lot of the NPCs a relying on you. I like that feel.

[Prpl_Mage]

Not dark and grim enough? I don't get why people say this.  At the gates of new tristram there are disembowelled corpses everywhere. You enter the catacombs and you find people nailed to the walls with piked through them. The halls of agony is a torture chamber with people stuck in iron maidens, stretchening boards and other grim machines. There is death and blood all around. You find people begging to be killed before they turn, you have monsters that are bodies combined into a hulking beast. In Act two you loot corpses that explode and leaves loot instead of rocks and logs. There are legless people dragging themselves away from monsters only to be killed by them. Body parts are flying everywhere whenever something is killed, blood erupts from the smallest of enemies leaving behind heads you can play Shift+click-soccer with. The only light and happy part is the ending, the item icons and the secret level.

I think the problem is that we're so damn used to it that we don't even react to it anymore. Back in the days of diablo 1 we were scared to death by the intro movie and the guy outside the church when our hero said "your death will be avenged". It was frightening. But replaying that moment, nothing. It's like "oh hey, some corpses right there. Oh well, died again." It's like replaying a resident evil game, the only scary part is how bad the controls and camera angle is.

And diablo 2 wasn't that scary either. It might have been for the people who first encountered gore with that game. Just like we did with diablo 1, just like today kids will because of diablo 3.

[Archem]

My reasoning was as such...

back in the day, shortly after D1 was released...the gore...the terror... when you got to the butcher (first boss) and he killed you right the **** away, after you set foot in a room caked wall to wall with blood and body parts on easy mode...i had to stop playing because i had never had the crap scared out of me like that ever...and that was the first boss in easy mode

And now...its like...no blood or gore really, except for some zombies eating dead bodies in the beginning. it was a let down.
The first boss in easy mode was easy and not scary at all. It felt like i was running a WOW dungeon...even when i was playing alone. I didnt compare anything to D2. I wanted it to at least feel like diablo though. It felt like a spooky blizzard circle jerk to me.

dont get me wrong. it was a good enough game, and ill play it...but the hype is groundless

The man mirrors my feelings exactly.

And to hell with you, Prpl, I'm replaying DI as we speak. I'm getting my *** handed to me on floor 13 (first floor of Hell), and I've been in a terrified fit through the first half, no problem. The Diablo feeling is all about a few things: Darkness (which might be in DIII somewhere past what I've played, but I haven't seen anything about it), the Gothic elements (which are present, but a bit off somehow), and the fear (which seems to be totally absent). Here is why it doesn't evoke that feeling: The music (which just lacks that creepy element that made things scary in favor of a more epic sound), the feeling of power your character has, and (once more) the art style. It has the wrong color scheme to bring out that dark and foreboding atmosphere, the character models are unrealistic (suggesting a cartoon element, which kills the scary quite fast), and the monster designs, which lack that classical evil look in favor of a more contemporary one.

I loved the first game more than the second because of how scary it was. It was hard, too. The second was just hard, and I never felt afraid, so that whole "quest against evil itself" thing never felt like part of the game. I was just going out to kill another video game world-killer (and a couple of his siblings). It was damn good, and improved in nearly every way, but it lost that terror element (Lord of Terror? More like Lord of... Asses? This didn't work out well...), so it made less of an impression on me. Diablo III just doesn't have it. It's fun, and I want it, but it's more like a Diablo imitator. If I wanted a great Diablo imitation without the Diablo feeling, I would just play Torchlight.

[Razor]

I played through Diablo 1 and 2 before 3 was released. Diablo's soundtrack is wonderful - it's dark, it's discordant, it's disturbing. Look at that, all those Ds. That wasn't even intentional.
In Diablo 1 you feel so alone. No hirelings, no summons, no followers, just you and your sword (or whatever) slicing through thousands of evil monsters. It's enclosed, it's underground, it's claustrophobic.
And you will die. The first time you play, you are bound to die to the Butcher. He will kill you. Even when you've been playing for years and you make a new character, you have that twinge of fear and expecting  that you won't make it against him.

In my most recent playthrough I died a whole bunch. I think there's a big wall in the difficulty curve, too. When I first made it to Hell I didn't stand a chance. Killed by everything. So I made a new game, cut my way down (the first four floors wouldn't give me any experience though lol) and when I finally made it back to Hell I was only like 2 levels higher, but I managed to win. I was still dying a lot.

I think as they added new things over the games, death sort of went from being "I am not strong enough, all these monsters are powerful" to "this wasn't my fault, something has gone wrong here". When I started playing Diablo 2, I decided to make an Ice Sorceress. The whole thing was pretty easy, I did die a few times in certain places, most notably Duriel, who has always been a pain. I swear, he is Diablo 2's Butcher. He slows you down and hits you for massive damage and it's a real rapefest. Then there was Mephisto, who is just a powerful dude. I faired pretty well against Diablo, until red lightning. Then I made it up until the first cavernous system in act 5, where I met things that laughed off my super ice powers. Diablo 2 was really made for multiplayer, I guess.

Anyway, Diablo 3 is missing the hopelessness of Diablo 1, but then again Diablo 2 never really had it either. I don't see the complaint that the character models are unrealistic, unless you mean the demon models. All the humans look pretty alright to me, though Leoric's giant honking mace out of nowhere is very silly. I don't really think the WoW look is appropriate for Diablo, but it's all Blizzard knows anymore.

[Prpl_Mage]

I suppose it has something to do with Blizzard north not working on it anymore. Those guys did a great job.
Also, diablo 2 clone - path of exile. Looks just like it kinda.

And yes, Diablo 1 was more about struggling your way through a world that wanted you dead and did it so that you feared that death. It was great.
Diablo 2 was more about slaying tons of monsters that came at you. And of course struggling through tight corridors that in Diablo 2 pre expansion could be blocked by minions such as the necromancer's skeletons (looking at you maggot lair!). Also, making element immunities was a dick move by the developers. Nothing more annoying than playing a sorc on hell and 25% of the enemies are immune to your element.
Diablo 3 follows on the diablo 2 formula of killing tons of monsters, but this time making it look good. And not as easily spammable with mana pots. Also, no need for respeccs. First tiem playing diablo 2 you placed a few points on the things you thought were cool. But later on, you just took the neccessary skills and saved the rest of the points for later. I mean, who played a fire sorc and put a lot of points into firebolt? None, since it sucked. But you used it a whole lot until you got to the fireball level.

Also, best tactics against Duriel. Bone wall. It actually works against all enemies and all bosses in the game. Just make sure that you have ranged abilities. Bonewall that hydralisk and then add some more as insurance and start spamming bonespears or whatever you have as damage. For some reason he won't attack the bonewall 50% of the time because he's trying to charge you and getting nowhere.

[Cerebus]

And the Butcher. I think he's worth mentioning in every post.

If Diablo I characters could walk a little faster, I'd be more tempted to play it.
I did replay at some point, though. Also got the unofficial expansion... which's name I forgot. Didn't get very far into it, though.
But then... I think i got my PC formatted and never bothered getting it back.

And you know, Diablo II's Act I is my favourite. Why? because it looks closer to the first game's theme. I'm not really fond of the desert, jungle and mountains.
However, if I recall, I think Act IV is pretty cool, too. But II, III and V... meh.

[SaiKar]

Am I the only one that likes not dying 50 thousand times to enemies for no damn reason? Because, if I am, nuts to the rest of you.

[Cerebus]

Oh Hell no. I hate dying repeatedly. I never play on highest difficulties in games because I'm not looking for challenge, but for fun, and getting killed all the time isn't fun.

Diablo I's difficulty isn't what I enjoyed. It's the ambiance, graphics, etc. What I hated? Hero can't run.
Though to be honest, that never really was a problem before I played games with faster characters.

[Cerebus]

Yeah, it's not like in Diablo II where you can have 100 monsters attacking you and you can get out of the fight with only a scratch.

The main thing in Diablo I is how you stagger when you get hit. Like... that's actually what kills you against the Butcher. As soon as he gets to you, you can't leave because every attack on you will leave you stunned for a brief moment; moment long enough for him to land another strike and then another one until you're meat.
Most of the time, I'd die due to staggering. Other time was just not being properly equipped and/or being a little careless and having the Diablo II mentality of "Only 20 of them? Hah! That's no problem!".

[Razor]

I liked how on Diablo 1 even your health didn't regenerate.

Neither does your mana, which completely threw me when I played it again.

Diablo 1 keeps you on your toes and forces you to plan before rushing into a room.

I think you mean "and forces you to SAVE before rushing into a room."
Or, even more accurately "makes you swear after you realised you haven't saved since 2 levels ago."

[Archem]

Or you could use infravision and actually plan your attack.

[Prpl_Mage]

The planning before entering bit was completely gone in diablo 2. If you hadn't placed a point in a certain skill you couldn't use it. So you limited yourself all the time to max dat damage.
In diablo 3 I swap around some skills before facing bosses or when I know that melee skills are a bad idea. I never know what kind of diabolic pack of monster lurks behind the doors. Many times have I (in my diablo 2 manner) opened a door and run inside only to regret it. I get jailed by some champion and eaten by imps. Or a stream of arrows rain upon me killing me on the spot. And mortars.