02-18-2005, 05:04 AM
>1) Game should NOT be an MMOG!
Amen to that. I'd like to see a return to what made D1 great, at least in my eyes.
- Great gothic atmosphere.
- It can be played in 5 minutes or 5 hours.
- Variety of items\affixes. Having 100 shades of bland affixes like +1 to mana doesn't mean variety. The rock paper scissor model is enough of a variety to satisfy me, done well enough.
- Player freedom within context. Bypass all the content you want, no mandatory quests, at least the types that tend to piss me off. eg: Fedex quests, search the mcguffin, the ones that are cute the first time around but gets very grating very fast, ala Khalims bits.
- I'd personally like to see a switch to non-class based character system, but D1 did the archetype system fairly well. (I still think the Warrior got shafted on the missing blocking bonus, but at this point there's nothing to be done about that :)
If I remember right Bliz said D2\Lod was their last sprite based game, but I'd like them to get that D1 art style back. (iirc they used a 3d program to create the models, then converted it to sprites, but I'm not talking about the technical details, just the look of it.) The D1 Rogue is attractive but in a classy way. And a redhead to boot! The Warrior looks like someone who knows his way around a weapon, and the Sorceror doesn't look too much like a cheap Vegas Merlin. ;)
And the D1 monster designs and color choices are all appropriate imo, no neon candy apple green with plaid stripes. They look like something out of big book of dark fairy tales that was hidden in the attic, because you screamed too much when your grandfather read it to you as a child. Or something like that. To be fair D2's Diablo was great, I actually prefer the D2's version of Big Red than D1's. But the rest of D2 monsters left me feeling, meh. These guys don't look that scary.
So finishing my rambling, I'd be happy if they can re-capture that claustrophobic feeling that D1 had, that feeling that you are not quite alone (even when you bring in three other friends) in a crumbling dark labyrinth.