I have played the campaign of Diablo 4 - I did not have much expectation but I got bored fairly early in the game. With each new game, franchises are supposed to get better, but I am not sure that is the case with Diablo.

Here are all the points where I think D4 is actually worse than D1, even though it was released 27 years later

Variety of enemy in terms of gameplay

In D4, there are more or less 5 archetypes of enemies:

  • melee who runs fast and chase you but are weak
  • melee who walks slow and are more sturdy and hit harder
  • ranged who does nothing but shoot
  • ranged who circle strafes and shoots
  • enemy spawner that you must usually kill first

Enemies end up having different bodies of course, but in essence that’s really all they give and you update your gameplay based on which of them you face.

In D1, there are many more:

  • fallen ones who hit you then retreat when one of them dies
  • skeletons that are almost “typical” melee except that they hesitate and don’t engage instantly
  • bats that teleport to you when you hit them
  • goats (melee or archers) that try their best to surround you by circling you
  • scavengers and gargoyles that heal up (on carcass for scavengers) when you stop chasing them
  • mages that teleport around and flash you if you get close
  • balrogs that cast inferno, making it dangerous to escape (if you escape in the same direction as inferno you get a ton of damage) and tricky to beat
  • vipers that can rush toward you and double strike you

In D1 there are so many enemies to get to know, you really need to change your playstyle based on the enemy you face (unless you are high level enough of course) which makes it all the more thrilling and interesting to play the game. In D4 I just played the same way for each enemy really, more or less.

Variety of dungeon layout

That one is easy. In D1 you have no idea where the stairs can be. Or where rooms are. You can find anything anywhere. The labyrinth can take endless shapes (well, up to 32 bits anyway). You are always hyped to enter a new level because you don’t know exactly what shape it’s going to be or how enemy packs will be organized. Sometimes you get a really nasty selection of enemy and you get a hard time. Some other times it’s a breeze. The randomness of enemy selection further increases the thrill of getting there.

In D4 almost all dungeons are : do something on the left of the dungeon. Do something on the right of the dungeon. Press on to the boss area. It’s boring and I think that’s part of why I just stopped doing side quests after a while.

Oh, I did forget one other possible thing to do in a dungeon: “Look at all clues in a room”. I’m not sure it has a place in a game like Diablo where it’s supposed to be hack’n’slash ; not hack, look around, and slash.

Difficulty progression

In D1 you get a progression wall at each new zone. Church is fairly easy albeit with difficulty spikes on Butcher and Leoric. Catacombs is where players start to struggle with all the goat men, nasty dogs ; vicious monsters start to get introduced. Caves is another ramp up in difficulty as you are forced to fight in a mostly open area with little cover and tons of elemental damage. Hell is the ultimate test, you need to single out most enemies to beat them (until you get strong enough at least).

In D4 it’s all… the same? I never got the impression “Wow that content is harder now”. All acts have been more of the same in difficulty. The only exception is the Capstone dungeon because I tried it at clvl 46 (I was too eager to ramp up the difficulty, I could not set myself to wait to clvl 50).

Character progression

Again, in D1 you do have strong character power spikes. Like getting that first tier 2 armor (changing your look). Or getting a good weapon. Or getting that nice +40% fire resistance ring. Such drops allows you to kill monsters more easily, and you do feel the difference!

In D4 it’s “Oh cool I have +3% crit damage” and it’s unnoticeable. The only noticeable effects are from legendary items (I only speak of the items you get through the campaign) but it’s not like a big power spike neither, it’s more like a cool gimmick. Also, you never really say “I used to have trouble killing these monsters and now it’s easy” because it’s always easy.

I keep hoping that one day, there will be a game that surpasses Diablo 1. But so far, D1 remains the best experience I ever had in the genre.

  • Decoy321@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Have you actually played D1 recently? If not, you may be experiencing a serious case of “rose tinted glasses.” You’re remembering it far more fondly then it actually was.

    • potterman28wxcv@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I have! Many times. I am one of those who is not nostalgic with D1 simply because I did not finish it until late (the first time I seriously dived through it was 5 years ago).

      Could you point out things that I said that are inaccurate or incorrect?

      • Decoy321@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I wouldn’t dare say that the things you said are inaccurate or incorrect. Just that they’re more subjective opinions and perspectives than objective facts.

        I could easily say that many of your pros were cons for me. Some of the enemies were just needlessly annoying. The difficulty progression felt janky at times and often like a huge grind. And there are tons of small QoL additions over the last two decades that weren’t present in the original. I don’t have to worry about gold taking up inventory space, for one.

        But then again, I’m not asserting that Diablo 4 is objectively better. It’s a different game made for different hardware in a different time, by practically a different set of people, for a different audience. This isn’t '97, with 2 smaller companies making a novel pc game for the few of us fuckin nerds in a basement. It’s 2023, where gaming is far more mainstream, Blizzard is a freaking behemoth of a company catering to millions of people.

        I’m just saying, the contexts are too different for a comparison to be functionally useful.

        • d3Xt3r@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          There have been tons of QoL additions for Diablo 1 as well, in terms of mods such as DevilutionX, Belzebub, Tchernobog etc. If you liked the original Diablo 1, you should give one of these new mods a go.

        • half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Entertainment isn’t usually functionally useful. Same goes for criticism which usually comes down to taste.

          That being said, there are some options that are better than others. D1 is not better than D4. D4 isn’t excessively good compared to it’s contemporaries either. If lost ark wasn’t such a predatory pos is still be playing it over D4, for example.

    • lemming007@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Not OP, but I have recently played it and I agree with all of OP’s points

    • AnonymousLlama@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      We’ve had 20 years of improvements, thank God for that. It’s the little things that shit me about D2, like having to load potions on your belt… like refilling those slots isn’t fun or engaging.

    • dub@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ya didn’t d1 have like 10 abilities? And you could only use 1 or 2 at a time? It’s okay to move on. Not everything was better back when

    • Tak@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      But opening your inventory and chugging potions back is perfect. /s