Finding the Best ARPG Ever Made: Diablo 3

Diablo 3 might be the most controversial sequel an ARPG has ever received. From day one, there have been people debating whether or not D3 is actually good. And it probably isn't a good game, but it sure can be fun! (If you like the same gameplay forever). But, can fun factor give Diablo 3 the potential to be the Best ARPG of all time?
Thanks for watching! This series has been a lot of fun to produce and write for, and the good news is that there's literally, completely, no end in sight ever. So I hope you'll be here for the ride, and that you enjoy the deliberation over games no one has ever heard of. If you enjoyed, please Like, Share, Comment and Subscribe! Also why not give the bell a little love (by hitting it's face).
And as always, an ENORMOUS Thank You! to my Patrons! Your generosity warms my heart (and other parts of my body as well) ((the mind)) / seergames

[@bawfuls]

The best thing D3 did right is how good it looks/feels/sounds when you swing a big ass hammer or otherwise blow up hordes of monsters. Abilities have a powerful feel to them, it just gets eroded by the shallow gameplay loop.

[@Squintis]

This. No other game I played has the bad guy get whacked across the way, break through a bunch of barrels and crates that explode all over, and smack thud into a wall or something.

[@andreyshuster964]

@@Squintis What about PoE Ice Shot build or builds like CoC or Explosive Arrow or any other with spreading damage?

[@Squintis]

@@andreyshuster964 I love poe, but the physics in that aren’t as good as havoc. It’s still good, but once the bodies drop, they stay. And there’s not nearly as much as a destructible environment

[@bgggsht]

Opposite of D2 i guess, melee in that game feels rather weak + no ragdoll, but the arpg elements are there allright

[@hater2764]

Titan Quest did ragdoll enemy physics in 2006! Diablo III is not a Diablo game! It lack gothic horror atmosphere and is just a pathetic cartoonish power fantasy that look like shit some kid took after eating pack of crayons....

[@AlexanderHL1919]

I love Diablo 3. The name is misleading perhaps as it has little to nothing to do with the other games, but as a standalone dungeon-crawler speedrun(oxymoron?) simulator it simply excels like no other. Its quick and dirty mindless fun for when you need a break. Also, nothing hits quite like finding that perfectly rolled item for your build and getting your numbers that bit higher ^^ Its a weird form of nerd fun. Its nerdy, but still fun, unlike other number-centric games cough* Eve Online cough*.

[@sanderdavid8626]

My biggest pro (not mentioned): The monster designs. I love each one of them. Despite the not so fitting fantasy theme, something simple as a goat archer felt super creative. My biggest con (not mentioned): Every elite mob feels the same, cos the all share the same affixes. It get old very quickly, and the type of mob doesn't matter at all.

[@juxyper]

for the theme section, the d3 team *actually* managed to build really good themes and put them into adventure mode, but it came in too late, and those new areas aren't really necessary - you just go through them if you have new adventure quests. though some rifts inherit their design, which is cool i guess

[@seer6251]

You know, I didn't give a fair shake to any of the 'new' stuff in adventure mode. D3 is weird, it seemingly has very little to even analyze, but you can keep randomly finding new things to try out.

[@CalciumChief]

@@seer6251 It's kinda clear there were gonna be things planned for more expansions (yeah, there was some leak back in the day showing planned relase dates for at least two expansions). But then D3 launched like it did, with zero endgame, so they started by adding paragon, which was no doubt intended to drop with the first expansion.

[@juxyper]

forgot to mention my favorite new theme is the lord of envy one, with the hematic demons, lots of gothic architecture and gray stone carvings with high metal fences and lots of blood, mostly pouring out of fountains and into pools, extremely neat but also demonic and imposing

[@selfloathingweekly]

Adventure mode is the only and best way to play D3 tbh

[@voidling2632]

didn't knew about adventure mode. Played the campaign and was done for it.

[@fqrge6196]

Just finished a going through the campaign with my son for the first time. thought the game to be a good step forward into arpgs from mine craft dungeon… he’s eight and so far is loving his spiny pew pew demon hunter. He’s picking up the UI smoothly on Xbox. And we’ve had a drop or two that modify skills, he’s pretty excited by this concept of build diversity (but dosnt know what the word means… yet). Got him on to it as respecting isn’t a chore and he can experiment when he picks up on some of the concepts. I take time with him to read through hear stats etc and we talk through what it can do… but the biggest thing is we’re having fun, his mother has told us off a couple of times from yelling “loots” from drop explosions lol

[@NotUnymous]

...🤦‍♂️ Dude, this game is about torture and extrem violence. Keep your 8 years old away from it! Whats wrong with you

[@ROYBGP]

I played San Andreas when I was 11. I turned out fine.

[@wingodingo7247]

​@@NotUnymous it is a video game.

[@invalidopinion4954]

"It's interesting because it's fun while being bad." Lmao that slayed me. Great content dude, I love seeing someone producing so much top tier content on my favorite genre, ARPGs. May I ask your process for editing? Your vids are all super clean. Thanks and keep killing it.

[@ZombieJeff]

It took me a while to really pin down why Diablo 3 always felt so weird... and that is that they somehow managed to make an ARPG feel like play Gauntlet Legends instead.

[@jessiesewell4076]

That's what it felt like running certain Barb builds. Sucks Gauntlet is gone, Seven Sorrows almost had a loot system before it launched the and that remake sucks. Dark Legacy was the last good entry

[@ragfarok]

Dude, your videos are getting better and better! They're incredibly entertaining and you're one of the few channel for which I have activated that damn bell. Keep it up!

[@shadowphoenixxx]

Honestly, the D3 they started with had the right idea with a brutally difficult Inferno mode being the end game and the skill system was actually quite fun in that I was stuck on a boss multiple times and had to figure out a combination of skills that got me through it. The problem was that the balance was completely off and item drops sucked so that you had to interact with the real money AH. If that wasn't the case and it was actually balanced around people actually playing the game, it would have been super fun. I remember grinding pre-patch Inferno Belial as one of my fondest gaming moments. When the reaper of souls hit, they overhauled the entire system and in my opinion threw out the baby with the bathwater

[@seriousreport6743]

Yeah Reaper of Souls is by far the worst expansion Blizzard has ever put out imo

[@happyreaper11]

This hurt but your points are valid and I am very glad I stumbled across your content. Thank you!

[@dbldekr]

Diablo 3 is great. I play it for a couple weekends every other season and it scratches that itch perfectly. Get you build finished, push your greater rift as high as you can and once the infinite grind for 1% upgrades stars you quit

[@batter1846]

D3 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I think a major reason for that is that I didn’t play it like an ARPG or a combat game at all. I started playing when I was 6 or 7, with my mom, and at the time I had little to no grasp on combat in gaming at all. So what did I do? I essentially played it like a visual novel with combat elements and insane worldbuilding. I think that’s part of the reason why I enjoyed it a lot more than other people might have, because I never looked at what it was *intended* to be, I just went into it without any expectations. It’s been about 10-12 years since I first started playing D3 and I still play it on a weekly basis, for sure not as much as I used to, but I still enjoy the hell out of it. Sure the combat is more like a hack and slash than an actual RPG, but that’s what makes it FUN. You feel like an absolute GOD just running around and blasting laser beams everywhere or firing off dual crossbows like a machine gun of arrows. It was fun to me in elementary school, and I still love it as a college student.

[@alexandruana3476]

Seasons and on top of that season themes helped the game tremendously. It's become a tradition for me and a couple of friends to meet up on the day the season starts and get a lan party going, get some beers, been pretty fun to be honest.

[@selfloathingweekly]

I just wish characters weren't deleted after seasons end. Lost so many good rolls

[@alexandruana3476]

@@selfloathingweekly characters are only deleted if you rebirth them. I never do that, i create a new one each season. I only delete really old ones but lets be honest i never play non season anyway

[@selfloathingweekly]

@@alexandruana3476 that's odd because I've lost characters after seasons ended

[@Bonezone84]

​@@selfloathingweeklyyou need to move over to non season right after a season ends and grab all your grear from your mailbox.

[@selfloathingweekly]

@@Bonezone84 i haven't played season in a while so it doesn't matter now.

[@DankMemes-xq2xm]

One of my issues with D3 compared to D2 is that very early on you're attacking enemies with barrages of thousands of missiles and laser beams and blackholes and doing basically no damage per hit if you turn the difficulty up. There is no connection between the badass visuals of the abilities you use and their effectiveness. In D2, if you play Druid for example, you start out literally smacking enemies with a club and slowly killing them, but then later on you're summoning a fissure of fire and lava under hordes of demons and watching them instantly vaporize. You're letting loose rolling boulders of magma that run over and kill most enemies (at least in Normal and maybe Nightmare). In D3, you set the difficulty to Master or Expert (maybe Torment 1) and then you use like 30 universe destroying mega abilities in a row just to get the enemy to half health. Obviously in D2 you can fail to allocate enough points into your offensive abilities and wind up doing barely any damage to enemies on Hell, but at least the thing doing little damage is a fireball and not a fucking blackhole. Most of the difficulty in D2 Hell actually just comes from Immunities, if you're not fighting something that is immune to your damage, chances are you will kill it in one or two hits. It just feels so much more satisfying swinging a sword at an enemy with Holy Shock aura and watching the enemy die in one or two hits, versus summoning a giant wall of zombie bears and watching it take 10 seconds to kill a small enemy in D3.

[@JspoonG]

What? When played Diablo 3 first time, picked highest difficulty and... i was literally killing every enemy in 1-2s and used ONE potion whole game

[@AlexWhipple]

@@JspoonG that's likely on account of your massive phallus.

[@hater2764]

@@JspoonG It wasn't highest difficulty for sure!

[@hater2764]

There is 666 issues with Diablo III

[@JspoonG]

@@hater2764 Obviously it was

[@1njustice]

Love this series! Look forward to the next one.

[@blinkspacestudio8892]

1st time playing through a diablo game and RIPPING through d3 I feel like a freakin addict. This game is so much fun.

[@jedthefroggy]

Thanks for making this video, just got home from work and I'm excited to watch it, got my little drinky poo and everything! I don't play many ARPGs but I might start again soon :)

[@DannyInfect]

I was turning 13 when this game came out and I got a PC built just because of this. Diablo 1 and 2 weremy childhood games and I was hyped for the pvp system and a new diablo title. The game was a lot harder when it came out than it is now I remember. The biggest thing they ruined for this game was the Gothic feel, the colors in this game were too bright, The character building aspect wasn't there like in D2. D1 still scares the shit outta me, D2 still has me on the edge when entering Duriel's chamber or the nostalgia of the soundtrack and how it ties in well with D1. Big pineapple doesnt feel like D1 or D2. D3 is still better than the new late april fools joke Diablo they released.

[@Alxmir23]

they really made it piss easy. the original hell/inferno mode were so hard,you needed healers and buffers to survive and it took forever to kill one pack of elites. now you can kill 1 pack in mere seconds alone

[@hater2764]

Ex act cly!

[@Daniel_WR_Hart]

Drop rates are a lot easier now too compared to release. I remember by the 2nd week of the game, I breezed through everything then got hard stuck in Inferno Act 2, and I had never seen any orange or green items.

[@justargonaut5541]

Seer back out here releasing that sweet, sweet content. Awesome vid!

[@dundundada]

Okay but that screen wipe at 6:30 was amazing

[@hauntedoak]

dude, your description and jokes gained you a subscriber, I loved your video!

[@ruz54]

your best arpg series is really cool! hope u make another 4 or more :)

[@linnyfarokar8247]

Look forward to you doing your video on Diablo 1 Seer :) One of my favourite games of all time and still holds up today in my opinion, if you ignore the glaring QOL changes needed lmao.

[@nataliealphonse4634]

THE DREAM. I never comment before watching a video but I've been waiting for this for ages. Cheers Seers!

[@dalwand]

What is the outtro music in your videos from? (Or anyone else who knows?)

[@sjfsr]

You didn't play this when it came out, did you? I remember Belial being really REALLY hard. Also, there was an Auction House, which I admit I liked.

[@aftnareld]

Love this series, keep it up! (and why continue on the diablo immortal video and make a series of the "worst" ones as well) It would be interesting to hear what you think of Last Epoch, and the old BG: Dark Alliance games!

[@patstar3808]

Always fun to watch your videos

[@Still.No.Name.]

It’s always funny how you act in these videos versus your streams. Keep up the great work!

[@zat227]

To give you some extra context to what kind of people we're making Diablo 3, Seer doesn't mention it in the video. You had the D3 game director coming out calling David Brevik a loser. When that happened, it was pretty clear that D3 team had angry, bitter, envy people that were disrespecting their legacy and had no appreciation for the fact that David was responsible for them having a job. It made sense at the time why Diablo 3 was in a state that it was.

[@DungeonsAndDerps]

To be honest, something that helped me enjoy Diablo 3 a little bit more was to try and look at it as less of it as an ARPG, and more like a really elaborate Excel Spreadsheet.

[@cloudnine2330]

Darkstone would be a pretty good contender i think pretty old but exploring its dungeons still feels pretty good

[@slackergeek2007]

Now that's a game In haven't heard of in a loooong time. I probably still have my CDs packed away in a box somewhere

[@Rustyer266]

I really wonder what a darkstone 2 would have looked like

[@paatwo]

First time i had real fun in D3 was when they released Legacy of nightmares ring set, and you could actually somewhat make your own builds, needless to say noone got very far apart from a select few (bombardment crusader)

[@slimebuck]

Thank you for making your videos, I find them very enjoyable.

[@Bluesbrother75]

Love when I get a notification for a new seer video. Next video should be grim dawn. And if ya need someone to play Grim dawn with well what do you know I can help with that too lol

[@Farsightful]

"the place i'll return to someday"

[@Silentpoppy]

everyone said is true and yet I still really enjoy d3 and come back to it every few months.

[@n00f]

Honestly, I think the devs did a fantastic job maintaining it. There were some fantastic seasonal themes that added new mechanics (ethereal was balls out), some even stuck around (legacy of nightmares, followers and sets).

[@KingH3adcrab]

Have you heard of Path of Exile? Or are you sarcastic? This was supported to badly it's laughable.

[@SupachargedGaming]

@@KingH3adcrab PoE isn't for everyone. It's needlessly complicated and ultimately the gameplay is still just the same thing. *new player experience* Want to play a whirlwind melee guy? Good luck. Skills come from gems, so you'll have no idea how to get that. Pick the wrong build and get to a point that punishes you for it? Tough. Can't effectively change your talents, and again your skills are tied to gems that come from... ???? ... and after all that complexity you might finally get to the point where you are spinning around like you would in D3, cleaving down the mobs. Or a necro summoning mobs upon mobs. The talent tree is huuuuge, sure. But it ultimately becomes just "+10 stats, +10 stats, random missing gem thing that isn't explained until later. ability does x% more damage."

[@KingH3adcrab]

@@SupachargedGaming I somewhat agree with you. But have you played it yourself? It's not at all hard to do a complete repec. Gems are all available from one store and the talent tree is anything but just +10 this stat.

[@SupachargedGaming]

I definitely haven't reached any end game... mostly because I get to a point where I'm overwhelmed by systems, or I reach a point where I don't know what to do. I can't progress as the build I've been trying (even though it's still just story, not endgame) is suddenly getting stomped. I have POH but no real interest in learning that when I still barely understand the game, delves but I have no way to obtain more of the resources. Then there's all the league content that has been added and... left? Gems are all available from one store... Uhh, I guess yeah there are the vendors with gems... Is that all of them? Then there's the difficulty in actually trading for it. It's not just "This ones 10k, go grind 10k gold" its "this one costs 13 orb of transmutation which requires 10 identifying scrolls which you obtain by trading 19 of this which comes in fragments from mobs" (I'm using random numbers items, but hopefully it gets across the idea that the trading system is complex because... ??? ... complexity for the sake of complexity?)

[@SupachargedGaming]

@@KingH3adcrab as for "its not at all hard to do a complete respec" really? Because I've never seemed to have more than two or three "respec books" letting me change... two or three talents.

[@Sir_Maximus_Hardwood]

Also love the RuneScape music. I can hear that no matter how quiet.

[@klonoaguntz8309]

I really lighted up when you showed FATE. Regardless wether or not you actually like it, i would love to see you review it

[@geoDB.]

Are you going to cover the pathfinder crpg series? I've heard that the second game in the series, Wrath of the Righteous is going to be getting its final DLC and definitive edition August 11th

[@MrDuck-vn2fs]

most fun I had on Diablo 3 was a paladin who I got this ring on that let you keep your spectral knights around for way longer, the almost constant noise of their armor clanking helped me not feel bored.

[@NotUnymous]

I recently finished D2 again and went directly to D3 again and I have to admit, D3 is WAY better. The only thing it lacks in is artstyle I prefer of 2 (and 1 and 4 ;-)). The loot is smarter, tempting you to reskill. The story is waaaaaay better. It's much longer with way more interesting locations. It has better designed enemies. It has a very smart difficulty system and more diverse heroes. The skillsystem is debatable, but it growed at me and fits the lootsystem perfectly. It's strange, because I remember realy disliking it when it came out. Guess I got blinded by the strange artstyle and the hatetrain that hit it.

[@vnshngpnt]

It was really different game when it came out. Loot and progression was really bad and unbalanced. But world design, monsters, combat, sound effects IMO were ahead of its time. The game still plays fantastic nowadays.

[@Miki-hk6vy]

I hate myself for just playing this in the background since the editing really deserves to be watched. Amazing video again Seer

[@irritant623]

Love this haha. You're right about everything. Grinding feels pointless in d3 but hitting buttons is fun lol

[@Bonezone84]

What is the point to grinding in any arpg?

[@vnshngpnt]

Not more pointless than in any other ARPGs. If anything there are more goals to grind than in something like Grim Dawn or Last Epoch because they nailed progression and challenges with seasonal achievements and stuff.

[@bobac2816]

great vid, can you talk about sacred 1 next?

[@alexblades5218]

Loving this series!

[@rufur2]

Your After Effects skills really improved. How did you get this good so quickly?

[@Searibox]

Review of Dungeon Siege 1 would be nice. you start as a simple ordinary farmer with a rake and build up a fully contrtolable squad, good items a hard to come by and your characters die as if they are made of dust and paper - I love it

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

first thing I do in literally any game ever is check all gameplay settings carefully long before hitting new game.

[@HiDeguild]

I've never heard somebody put all the thoughts I've had about diablo 3 into words so succinctly.

[@geoffreylunt9299]

Honestly this game really clicked for me when I played it on console. I was like "Oh, it's Gauntlet."

[@stardog1337]

greate vid keep it up

[@Spec0psGrunt]

There was some Diablo 3 vanilla private server that was very interesting. It’s an entirely different game from current D3. Stats seem more important and having a shield is like a necessity

[@lardosmug]

I just discovered this! Looks awesome!

[@AC-hj9tv]

Nice

[@roymcdre9180]

1 of the loading screen on ps3 said elective mode and it changed everything i did lol it was really weird and i wished i seen it sooner

[@truepatriot6657]

Wow you are amazing subscribed 👍

[@seer6251]

Thank you!

[@TheKaMiKaZe997]

Stumbled upon this and looked thru a couple of your videos. I see you reviewed titan quest, but no grim dawn yet, so I'd say consider reviewing Grim Dawn, especially since it also has good dev and community support, most notably having the people make reign of terror - diablo 2 and 1 as a mod for the game.

[@O1NKery]

oh hey, i remember playing magic the gathering commander with you in card game simulacrum discord server like one or two years ago. good times.

[@Guitar-Dog]

This video is amazing. I long game analisys and bought D3 a couple months back. I got top 500 on HC Seasonal when I got to lvl 70, it's not hard to be a professional diablo player. I started playing Path of exile and have only managed to get to level 12 in HC with 10/12 hours play time. Diablo sickss Path of Exile is cool

[@flyingdutchman8093]

I played this recently on ps5, I was sick and just wanted to play something fun and somewhat mindless, it was mindless but in no way fun. Also what was the music that played during the section 1 into, it’s sounds soooooo familiar but I can’t place it.

[@leeburgers2444]

Ff9 I think the card came across the screen showing which exact song

[@DonCarmolo]

I played all diablos and liked them all for different reasons. After all these years I think I can describe Diablo 3 as a fighting and racing game.

[@KingCtm]

New seer video pog

[@orbit3596]

Honestly for the most part I love d3, even more then the previous diablo games. I do agree with a lot of the points he makes in the video, I think if the game was a little harder and had more emphasis on choice making and more end game along other things this could have been the best diablo. Here's to hoping D4 is the perfect middle ground between the games

[@heroicnerd6404]

Tbh for like 90hrs, you can have fun on a seasonal character, constantly switching up the Torment Difficulty when it gets too easy and getting more loot as a result, going through the campaign and then when you are finished go to adventure mode to complete the seasonal challenges and then repeat next season with a new class. Games just fun.

[@orbit3596]

@@heroicnerd6404 Game is really good, there's just a lot of things I felt they could have done better

[@beefbudd3494]

please make a vid on the fate games. those games introduced me the the arpg genre and into diablo.

[@enersha6979]

did u do champions return to arms yet?

[@mr.cynical2201]

D3 was fun right up until it started to feel like I was just holding a few buttons down, maybe click a few others, but the game was just playing itself. I spent most of the time feeling like if I tried every character I might find something worth doing. I decided my time was better spent playing nearly anything else.

[@Knights_of_the_Nine]

Definitely glad I waited 10 years to play this, lol. It's just plain fun.

[@nomercy8989]

It was ahead of it's time. Nowadays we are conditioned to play all these mindless pointless grindfests without a second thought.

[@adamlong585]

Seer, you're fucking awesome! Thank you for your work!!!

[@RegularBoots]

When you started this serie, I didn't even think there would be a video for D3. Obviously D3 couldn't be the best arpg ever xD

[@seer6251]

lol, I have to give everything a fair shake. Kinda related to that point, I don't want to talk about influence as being a major factor of any of these games, because then D1/D2 would just dump all over the competition.

[@sloth210983]

@@seer6251 Having said that .. d2 is gonna dump all over the competition right? ... right?

[@LongToad]

People shit on D3 a little too much. There is a LOT to hate about it (story, balance, lack of choice, etc) but there's some really good parts to it that I feel no other ARPG does better. The main thing I like is the combat is very polished, responsive, and fluid, it never seems to have many hitbox problems or lag no matter how much visual diarrhea is on screen. Pushing through a screen of really tough monsters and managing CC/cooldowns/shrines can be satisfying at times, so is finding a huge goblin pack. There's also some cool implementations of things like the armory and cosmetics/transmogs area. Is it the best ARPG? Def not but the boxes it does check it checks fairly well.

[@chrismoore1372]

@@LongToad Its a beautiful whore with nothing good inside. Basically agree... itemization was an AFTERTHOUGHT infinite paragon and infinite scaling shit is mad stoopid

[@sepheul]

D3 had more players than D2 and D1 combined by quite a metric... Not perfect but way more fun than D2 (for people that don't hate themselves)

[@stultusaur9540]

It is amusing how well you flow your scripts, but then also fuck them up. I am curious to know how many times you have to re-record lines :P

[@MrSteve0311]

Is Van Helsing anywhere on your list? Might be worth looking at.

[@SoyFelipeCTM]

There's an old video of a D3 developer interview and when asked if Herald of Zakarum would be back in the new game and he didn't knew what a HoZ was.

[@Hynotama]

You know how everyone compares Darksiders Genesis to Diablo? I never really understood how boring the gameplay loop for Diablo was, until I played Darksiders Genesis. Puzzles do wonders for breaking the monotony of the "wakl-fight-walk-fight" style of gameplay. Although, to be fair, I never considered Darksiders Genesis to be a Diablo clone. Thee only similarity is the isometric camera. If anything, Genesis is more similar to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. You got verticality and jumping, you got puzzles, you got twin stick shooting mechanics. Huh... probably shoulda posted this on a Darksiders Genesis video instead of a Diablo video, but I just wanted to highlight how much of an improvement some puzzles could bring to Diablo, even if you don't include the verticality I mentioned earlier.

[@PoxikFrostbite]

D3 is Not an RPG: Change My Mind

[@sunorcio3901]

rpg stems from dungeons and dragons tabletop, the roleplaying game where everything is streamlined into deterministic systems shifting the focus from storytelling and acting to metagaming (aka big numbers), history has proven again and again that in games 'rpg' is and will always act as an ironic term to refer to everything not roleplaying. now from there i declare diablo 3 as the most arpg defining game of the saga even in its mediocrity, diablo 2 as a colossal chimera of horrible design and specific really cool things only enjoyable from nostalgia, and diablo 1 as a timeless and immersive piece of coding art.

[@jamesgrove6371]

Unless you want to redefine the meaning of "RPG", I suppose. Or if you imagine "RPG" stands for "Really Poopy Game".

[@sunorcio3901]

@@jamesgrove6371 Im saying that dungeons and dragons killed roleplaying, and the bulk of videogames called rpg are heavily influenced, derived and/or originated from d&d.

[@vnshngpnt]

Because it's *A*RPG and they evolved into their own genre not necessarily being RPGs in classic defiinition of it.

[@ehtfrail]

I am really curious what kind of stuff you will say about Sacred 1 and 2 in this series of analysis... They try things a bit differently, but still didn't quite get it right to hold the high praise needed to retain players. I do quite like the skill augment system that was used in the second one, and the way that you balance leveling up your skills with cooldown management in both of them... but it might not be something everyone enjoyed doing though.

[@Dextrome]

i totally forgot about sacred 2... I played it both on console and pc but only have vague memories of it

[@ehtfrail]

@@Dextrome it has some clunkiness to the combat, especially melee... But there is are things about it that I really enjoyed as well.

[@palpaladin315]

Its the game Blizzard North wanted to create for D3; but didn't become an MMO as Blizzard North planned for it to be. You're right, there is no point in dwelling on the release era game. D3 is a fantastic evolution of the series from RoS onwards.

[@giggitywoo9884]

i still enjoy playing it for a week whenever a new season hits to just try and play a new build and hit the leaderboards. however when you get pretty far into lategame and the only improovements you can get in terms of damage increase is to grind paragon into the thousands then at that point its enough for me.

[@markmccleary4026]

Wow look, it's Seer. My favorite Diablo 3 RMAH enjoyer

[@davidbiro1671]

My first videogame ever was Diablo II LoD, played it LAN together with my father. Since then I reached endgame with 4 classes. Then came Titan Quest, played trough legendary difficulty with many characters over the years. Finished Torchlight 2 with all four classes. Put a couple hundred hours into Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Diablo IV and most recently Last Epoch. After all of that, by far my most played and favourite ARPG is and will always be Diablo 3. The athmosphere, the itemisation, the progression, the builds the character design etc. were all exactly what I was looking for. I guess my point is even for a regular ARPG enjoyer, theres that one game which has it all and I am waay too biased to care about D3's shortcomings. Still really enjoyed your take tho.

[@oldschooldude8370]

I vividly enjoyed D1 & 2 but missed 3 because of WoW. I recently bought it for $20 for everything thanks to the Summer Deal & absolutely fell in love instantly. Necro is incredibly overpowered. I'm on Act II atm. It's just a fantastic game. It runs stellar on an i5 quad, 16gb & 9800gtx+

[@trashcangoblin420]

i do find the moment to moment combat of this game fun, but wow did you really sum up why the end-game of this game feels really really dull and empty after a while. excited for you to do grim dawn after your titanquest review

[@ungeosh]

I need to see your Grim Dawn opinion!

[@slimebuck]

do one on ULTIMA ONLINE! I Miss logging off while piloting a boat leaving my guest trapped

[@vnshngpnt]

1:05 Nonsense, D3 is one of the most classic ARPGs as they can get. They really polished whole experience and made it great to comeback to each season because *actually* every class plays very differently, there is always some new build to try and I wouldn't call seasonal challenges easy... Closing higher rifts or hardcore character will require proper planning and crafting of your build but you'll need to play a lot and learn the game before you can even get there. D3 difficulty system is actually one of the best in genre, you can both play casually, it's perfect first ARPG, but you also can grind end game builds until blue. And all that in top notch production quality cause actually graphics and sounds are universally agreed to be one of the best in genre. It's just always fun to kill hoards of demons and hear that *ding* when legendary drops. And that is what whole genre is about. I also don't agree about "not having soul" - D3 is actually one of the few ARPGs with proper lore, items having stories and connections to background plot, characters during campaign grow and have tons of dialogus, there are many random events that make each playthrough unique. But if you just rush throgh ofc you won't get attached. The only real problem with the game is always online but servers are being stable for years now.

[@wiefdiwbofdbw]

Sacred gold is amazing :D I'm actually playing it right now, next to D2R for a change.

[@michaelbooser2316]

Look by all means try the first fate, but also try the Fate: the cursed king. I want to see how you feel about the series's evolution. I kinda grew up with that game. My parents saw that I liked d2 and said this looks about right.

[@naikyou]

It's pretty nice as a basic "plug and play" type experience for people who don't care about getting in depth in the genre or feel burned out quickly. Before deleting my bnet account, I occasionally just looked up a decent build for whatever class I wanted to play some time into a new season, farmed up to 70, got my core gear in order, pushed some greater rifts and quit again for 20-30 hours total playtime. Essentially the old hack&slash spam attack Gauntlet with mild RPG mechanics.

[@enderfall2000]

Fate was my first ARPG. After that I played D3 in middle school and a bit in highschool as well. It was perfect for me at the time. A great introduction to the genre. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and the build diversity and end game isn't great, but I have hundreds of hours on single characters in that game and I had a blast. Great memories of farming for items with friends over Skype (pre discord lol) and getting so excited when we would finally get the last set piece we needed. Even though D3 may not have a great reputation it'll always have a special place in my heart. Unlike D4. Wtf blizzard.

[@dextervepps8794]

Diablo 3 is, in essence, an introduction to ARPGs for people who have played Dynasty Warriors. You mow through giant crowds with the occasional, still easy to beat boss. Easy to understand skills that you get all of, and gear introducing set bonuses. Provides the same "endless" value as a Warriors game, but teases how much more you could get from other ARPGs.

[@christianjacobsen3049]

Really hope you include Nox in your list. Very unique arpg that could have been as great as diablo.

[@RickBomhof]

agreed on all points - great video

[@BH-vh3iu]

I was so excited about this game, then it felt nothing like Diablo, I didn't even bother finishing it the first time through, I reinstalled D2 instead and had a jolly good time with it. Unfortunately I couldn't convince my friend with what m I played D2 with since the early 2000s to quit D3 and join me, and that friendship died around that time...

[@voiddemon77]

I played this game at launch. Completed the campaign, but there wasn't really an end game at that time. It was just farm for stuff to use or sell on the real money auction house. So I quit. Then a few years later, some of my friends were playing D3 again. I looked at the game and said "What is this?" It was completely different from when it released. Oh and F Blizz for holding a class behind a pay wall.

[@raicoron3466]

People who think that D2 is a great arpg in 2012 without nostalgia but think that vanilla d3 was bad in 2012 are lost. People complain about not having the ability to choose stats in d3, but there is literally no interesting choice in d2. You get minimum str + dex (enough dex for block on shield builds, equip otherwise) then pump hundreds of points into vit on every class. You can use more than 6 skills at a time in d2 which is a strength, but the skill trees in d2 are garbage. You just pick a viable end-game skill and take all of the skills that support it. You get a few utility skills on each class, but barely any wiggle room here or you're not going to be in hell without amazing gear. Speaking of gear people hated on the AH, but it was blisteringly clear that D2JSP was used by almost all of the players that actually played D2 over a decade after it's release. One strength D2 had was the boss-specific loot tables which they didn't bring back for D3. Certain bosses had very slightly higher chances of dropping items relevant to them, but it wasn't a strict table. The end game in vanilla d3 and d2 are the same. You load into the game > go to a specific zone > kill specific mobs, loot specific chests, or clear the area > reset. Repeat until you're geared enough to do the next strategy available. At least modern D3 is a game that's fun for a week or so when a new season drops. You make a character and get all of the specific gear you need for it from farming. Then either you push a little bit more till you're done, or you just are done right there once you've finished the build. I usually get 1k paragon in a few days and quit, having a fun time. Modern d3 is not better than d2:r, but I'm far more excited for season 27 D3 than I was for D2;R's first season.

[@punishedbrak4255]

I can make a Greatsword wielding, fast running, low mana-high health Combat Necromancer who uses Bows to kite from a distance, who's tougher than a Paladin and doesn't use Summons at all, focusing on curses to debuff enemies. There's *nothing* approaching Variety in Diablo 3 in each individual class to that level. You can't even use different weapons. Each class is "locked" in how it operates. Your Barbarian/Demon Hunter/Anything and mine are the exact same aside from gear; the tiny returns from paragon levels make no difference and skill selection is entirely pointless. Diablo 3 was a trash fire when it first released; now, after many updates, it's a fun trash fire to hang out with your friends around; but a trash fire nonetheless.

[@plentyoflulu4694]

Someone said it. As someone who can't get behind d2, you put some of the stuff I get annoyed about it in to words! I still prefer diablo 1 over 3 but still

[@Lo-Kag]

When I begun to watch guides out of curiosity, my perception of D2s stats was ruined. What's the point if objectively best stats are always the same? As you said, at that point it's pointless even to give the choice. Alas, I dont care about peak performance and ladders and just fuck around, doing what feels good though it's difficult to go back when you've learned of it

[@raicoron3466]

@@punishedbrak4255 The only problem with this take is that you're living in a fantasy version of D2 that almost no one actually plays. Yes it's possible to do those things, but you won't be powerful and no one cares about your off-meta adventures except for yourself. The real D2 is 90% of the ladder being sorcs and paladins on season launch. Literally every game littered with them to an extreme degree. Yeah it's cool that D2 has the ability to make a barbarian, it's not cool that the barbarian just fucking sucks terribly. I'm glad for you that you have a bow necro, good for you. It doesn't make the game better from the perspective of someone that wants to participate in the metagame, but doesn't want to only play 2 classes for the past 20 years.

[@punishedbrak4255]

@@raicoron3466 How is playing the game with your friends "not real D2"...? You do understand how many have played Diablo 2 and never dealt with ladders at all, right? How many people on battlenet never paid any mind to it? You can call them casuals, but they've still been playing the game for 20 years. I myself find limiting factors, well, limiting. To each their own, but your version of "Real D2" is just as valid as mine or the millions of others who've played these games for years. I'd rather be able to play with any build variety for fun than play a handful of "Meta" builds because I *have* to in order to "compete". That's almost the same mindset as picking only "high tiers" in fighting games, and saying anyone not playing those tiers isn't "really" playing those games. But I digress, if you want to play your ultra optimized class with the exact same weapons and armor and skills as everyone else, with the exact same strats, and see which of you and your friends can spend more time with the game on, that's entirely capable of being just as fun for you and many others. I really don't even think there's anything wrong with wanting to make an optimized badass character; I think D3s way of doing it leads to the same characters all around, however. Again, to each their own.

[@Nolsie]

To me, the lack of soul is more pointed towards never having commitment on builds. Gems are cheap, re rolls are trivial, leveling another class can be done in an hour with a friend. I also never get to engage with the game or have dialogue decisions in regards to the story. It feels more like a old fashioned beat’em up than an rpg. It’s fun, but they failed miserably at the role playing aspect. It feels like it wasn’t made by diablo fans, but was designed by a skilled team nonetheless

[@daronofennell3474]

I get where you are coming from but being the same as everyone else would make it that much worse.... personally I really like diablo 3 and would hate for a new character to take more than it does because all the "fun" stuff is ALL in the end game

[@Knights_of_the_Nine]

I would slightly disagree with needing a set bonus. Set bonuses are DEFINITELY insane, but the most fun I've had was by making a custom build with Legacy of Dreams. But OMG set bonuses.

[@Bauermayers]

D3 is a prologue of what the company that used to be Blizzard became.

[@TheRotatingDuck]

I enjoyed D3 until i realized my build will always be whatever OP gear I found. It wasn't my build and it wasn't planned or thought about. Its fun but its not what it was supposed to be. A rollercoaster is fun but if it was supposed to be a theater or museum its not irrational to be upset.

[@Ubeogesh]

D2 is fun like making a fancy dinner from scratch and enjoying it D3 is just enjoyable like eating a bought candy

[@davidhowell1415]

I liked the old endgame design better than what they changed it to before they added in everything

[@stevengrajales8890]

Glad I enjoy this game fully(post launch)

[@Lo-Kag]

Diablo 3's local co-op is still one of the best games to couch co-op - even if its just because its one of the rare few AAA games that still have it. My biggest complaint is the insane clusterfuck of effects and running while blasting everything. I love early game ARPGs that feel meaty and significant - not just press all cooldowns and watch numbers go big lmao. I can't even comprehend rift runs with all the numbers and effects - it looks mindless and boring when enemies are made of paper. I'd wish games would go back from it. D3 consoles roll was a great addition

[@NuStiuFrate]

I was enjoying local co-op with my girlfriend until she found an item that gave her like 12k% extra damage with whatever. So she was one shotting everything and i couldn't go up a difficulty because i didn't get any good drops like that. Terrible balance.

[@fu102]

I need to strongly disagree with you, and call you out missing some pretty big items. The past 15 or so seasons have been great, and added a lot of variance to the game. Not to mention, those seasons also sometimes carry over the new modes or items into the regular game, when the season completes. Also, while yes, sets are a big deal, there's also an item that lets you make your own sets out of legendaries. So I'm not sure wtf you want from a game, D3 has like 6+ viable builds for each class, not to mention the slight variances within each of those that are also viable for endgame. Why is it always the D2 sweaty "hardcore" gamers that dump on D3? Is it fun? Yes. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it ballbusting? No thankfully. Is it a slow drip? No thankfully. Is it accessible? Yes and why is that bad? I've played damn near every ARPG ever made, and is my favorite genre. D3 is my number one go-to when I want to play a satisfying kill fest with lots of loot, classes, options, and activities.