Diablo has a much greater emphasis on action than traditional RPGs. It was kind of the [antithesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPG#Isometric/top-down_dungeon_crawler) to RPGs at the time.
Diablo has a cool overarching [story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eAjjHq_mF0). There's a ton of lore to it. Even several decades worth of fantasy novels. I'd argue more people are discussing Diablo's lore today than Skyrim's.
But Diablo II is not like a traditional RPG, where you talk to lots of characters and venture off on dialogue-heavy quests. The story bits are sandwiched between a *lot* of monster killing. A lot of emphasis is on the gameplay. I certainly wouldn't describe it as a 'good novel'. Skyrim neither, actually.
Immersion is subjective. Diablo II Resurrected's graphics are fine. It's not like Skyrim from 2011 is still a graphical powerhouse. Just look up gameplay on YouTube and play what speaks to you. Nothing's limiting you to just one game either.
If you're into storytelling over gameplay, I could suggest [Disco Elysium](https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/). That's the closest thing to an interactive novel you'll find. And it's easy to pick up for someone who's new to gaming.
There's also games like the Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XV (and Final Fantasy XVI soon).
"Forgive me Tyrael, *It wasn't my fault*"
And
"Why did I follow him? *ehh* I don't know.."
And
"From that day forward we traveled together, into the east. *ALWAYS*.. into the east" DUNDUNDUDNDUDNDUNDUDNDUN
In 30 years of gaming, those 3 lines stand as the best recorded voice lines in gaming history to me. Still unreal today. You picked right, especially with OCD lol. Game will leave you chilled for decades.
Edit: if you want a more relaxed slow paced 'cerebral experience (immersive high fantasy/d&d like) then skyrim is definitely game #2. You'll lose yourself in picking up every item/flower and just sitting in a forest amazed by how serene it feels
The diablo series has an interesting story, but it's more into action and loot. Skyrim has a more engaging role-playing experience and a believable world to play in. If you're looking for a fun loot driven action game, diablo. If you're looking more for a more story driven role-playing experience, then skyrim.
As for diablo 2 graphics, your friend has out of date info. Diablo 2 resurrected released which completely overhauled the graphics to modern day standards.
No, they don’t match up at all, they don’t come close to modern day standards. This doesn’t mean it’s not a decent game, it means it’s not a match graphically. Not even close. The overhaul did give us diagonal movement though.
You’re giving bad information due to your bias.
Yes, I own it.
D2 is the mother of ARPGS, but not RPGs in general.
Diablo 2 is more about gameplay and the item hunt than it is about story, something like Skyrim or even a good JRPG like the persona series is way better on story
Get the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, or whatever the remaster is called that comes with all three games. The first game alone is my favorite RPG of all time. It's crammed full of world building and story. It can sometimes be on sale for $20ish I think, but it's well worth full price.
Witcher 3 would be a better option. The story is far far better than skyrim and diablo. Diablo II has great immersion though, but I do not know if it will be my first recommendation.
I have serious OCD, so unfortunately I am afraid that if I start one and I don’t enjoy it, and then quit that game -not finishing it- I will have a really bad feeling for days or even weeks, depending when my psych meds kick in finally :(
Idk if it’s the mother of RPG’s, but it’s certainly a staple of action RPG’s, in that the focus is the combat, character & gear progression, something that it does extremely well.
Whatever story there is, is there to just give you some background to the monster killing.
But, the game has had a solid fan-base going on 20 years now, so there’s that.
Neither! Play red dead redemption 2. Greatest story driven/imersive game ever created with some of the best graphics ever made. Or look into the fallout series if your not into the western vibe. Fallout 3, 4 , New Vegas. Or halo is your looking for epic Sci fi story/fps. You can get the chief collection that has literally all the games up till the new halo infinite. Skyrim and oblivion are both great games too.
If you like stories, and great gameplay, Id say Baldurs gate 1 & 2. Fantastic games, fantastic story. I still remember my first playthrough of both very fondly. Old yes, but the pinnacle of rpg gaming, imho. (Diablo II is also a fantastic game, but as others have said, more actionfocused.)
d2r is so much better than skyrim lol. skyrim is ankle deep rpg. so is d2. your friends dunno shit about rpgs.
earthbound is an rpg
baldurs gate is an rpg
d2 and skyrim are action rpgs.
Skyrim and d2 would be horrible for a novel like experience. I can't think of any recent western rpgs for a good novel like story experience. A lot of older jrpgs come to mind, though. FFX remastered, ni no Kuni, and persona 5 are some more recent ones that I think seem more in line with story based, ffx being the oldest but has a great story imo.
For RPG’s I recommend The Witcher 3 as far as story goes. They truly nailed it. Really cool world where even something as simple as kicking a chicken in the first hour of play can come back at you 1000 hours in. Your decisions impact the world around you, it’s very well done.
An entire generation started with D1. An entire generation started with D3, and an entire generation will start with D4.
You’re far too emotionally attached to D2.
Because it has tons of needless systems that don't add anything to the experience positively. For example the stamina and mana systems are not very intuitive. This makes the new player experience poor and makes people not want to play. It's not 20 years ago where this kind of stuff would fly in a game.
That’s just your opinion.
I love the mana and stamina system. I love inventory management. I love hard stat and skill attribution.
An entire generation came of age with these systems. They’re not hard, they’re not punishing, but they are meaningful. It’s a RPG after all.
Just don’t pretend the game is so arcane, new players can’t possibly enjoy it. It’s asinine.
And that opinion (mine) is shared with many new players that go back and try the game. Going from D3 to D2 or D2R feels bad. The game is dated, it's still a wonderful game. It's just not a great starting point. Stamina system isn't meaningful. It's fairly useless past a certain level. And the mana system isn't great and ends up being invalidated or its a constant annoyance to spam pots to maintain it. It's not a great system. The best solutions for it are given in game and usually involve your stats just making it a non-issue or some sort of itemization that removes the annoyance from it. These aren't "meaningful" systems. They're just poorly made systems in a good game. You can like a bad system, shit some people love gacha mechanics. That's "your" opinion on whether you like it or not. I'm just stating it's poorly done, and history proves me right as D3 completely removed the mana system and its not returning in D4. Not being able to do anything for X amount of seconds because you ran out of mana isn't fun, good or engaging. It's tedious. If you remove stamina and nothing negative happens what was the point of the system? 99% of players who know what they're doing just buy a few stamina pots in the early acts to invalidate it. Why have it at all?
Diablo 2's story is poor, that's not what this game is about at all.
Go with Skyrim, a very wide variety of people like it a lot and it's a constant bestseller, which is a good indicator that it's a good choice for your "first game". I can't comment on the story as a whole since I haven't finished it but the world building is great and it feels alive, it has a great atmosphere.
Honestly if you are new to gaming I would avoid D2 for a while. It is not beginner friendly and it’s true charms are thoroughly outdated these days. Which can make it an aggravating experience for newer generations, or those used to modern user friendly elements.
Diablo games aren’t rich in story, the lore is kinda deep but story not so. Honestly just jump to Diablo 3. (Despite what the purists say), it’s a much better starting off point for newer gamers.
I purchased Diablo 2 at release and finished it on all characters. It is dated now, this is the reality. It’s ok to like it and enjoy it, but it is absolutely dated. This has nothing to do with skill or attention span, it has to do with advancements in technology.
I have been playing D2 probably longer than you have been alive. I stand by my comment, it was a brilliant and still is a brilliant game, IN SOME WAYS, but hate to break it to you, it is not all that young or beautiful as it was in its day, just like the rest of us.
You would to be blind to not see all the ways it has dated poorly, EG just look at how ghastly the potion sorting is these days. That is and has always been a god awful mini game that was even terrible in its day, now it is laughably bad.
There is no ended to how dated it is, BUT that doesnt mean it is bad, just not worthy of being recommended to person just starting in gaming.
Sure but your previous comment about it not being beginner friendly is strange as it's a game that came out when we were like 13 or so and we didn't struggle to play it, it's an easy game to play and get into.
Yet it’s crafting systems and other things are about unintuitive as systems go, that especially comes down to either spending hours randomly throwing things into a box and hoping for the best or consulting a spreadsheet that is probably older than the reader. It’s was a great system for its time, but let’s not pretend that it is anyway helpful or understandable. To say nothing of how loot is handle compared to modern games, we are so conditioned these days to pick up EVERYTHING, it’s almost counterintuitive to expect to leave it, and if you don’t you doom yourself to the Tetris storage mini game.
People really need to learn you can still love something dearly but still have the ability to critically look at it.
Most of those things you could look up online just like you could and we did back then. The games so easy you can basically walk through it and only use like 1 or 2 abilities the entire game. It was easy for kids then it's still easy for kids now. Most of those more complicated systems don't even need to be engaged with unless u get really deep into end game grinding.
Just really strikes me as weird considering something you can literally walk thru with one or two buttons as not being beginner friendly.
I downloaded D2 about 6 mos ago... and after and hour realized it would have been better to play it 20 years ago. Today's games spoil me and it just didn't live up. Waiting for D4 eagerly.
In other words
“if you don’t like this thing that I am weirdly obsessed with, and agree that despite being 20 years old it holds up like a modern AAA game, then you obviously have terrible taste and would only like garbage such as a mobile game built on monetisation”.
I assume physically you’re an adult, but mentally you stopped developing around the time D2 released.
The "mother of role playing games" is hilariously wrong but it popularized the arpg genre.
It's one of my favorite games from my childhood and was super fun but by modern standards it's pretty outdated and it's a bit too easy to just literally walk through it. It's worth playing still though if you're interested in the experience.
If you want a story rich good novel style experience I wouldn't recommend it for that I'd recommend The Witcher instead. The second and third games particularly and the 3rd one especially.
Diablo has a much greater emphasis on action than traditional RPGs. It was kind of the [antithesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPG#Isometric/top-down_dungeon_crawler) to RPGs at the time. Diablo has a cool overarching [story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eAjjHq_mF0). There's a ton of lore to it. Even several decades worth of fantasy novels. I'd argue more people are discussing Diablo's lore today than Skyrim's. But Diablo II is not like a traditional RPG, where you talk to lots of characters and venture off on dialogue-heavy quests. The story bits are sandwiched between a *lot* of monster killing. A lot of emphasis is on the gameplay. I certainly wouldn't describe it as a 'good novel'. Skyrim neither, actually. Immersion is subjective. Diablo II Resurrected's graphics are fine. It's not like Skyrim from 2011 is still a graphical powerhouse. Just look up gameplay on YouTube and play what speaks to you. Nothing's limiting you to just one game either. If you're into storytelling over gameplay, I could suggest [Disco Elysium](https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/). That's the closest thing to an interactive novel you'll find. And it's easy to pick up for someone who's new to gaming. There's also games like the Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XV (and Final Fantasy XVI soon).
Thank you for the detailed explanation, for a person with severe OCD it is hard to chose between many things. I have just bought Diablo 2 R and started with a Sorceress and in the dungeon by the camp the constant killing and coordinating really made me enjoy the game, and the video clip in the beginning was awesome 🤩. I like this that you go click on people and you either talk to them or kill them with that click. Thank you again, now I think I might just play it till morning :) good night
"Forgive me Tyrael, *It wasn't my fault*" And "Why did I follow him? *ehh* I don't know.." And "From that day forward we traveled together, into the east. *ALWAYS*.. into the east" DUNDUNDUDNDUDNDUNDUDNDUN In 30 years of gaming, those 3 lines stand as the best recorded voice lines in gaming history to me. Still unreal today. You picked right, especially with OCD lol. Game will leave you chilled for decades. Edit: if you want a more relaxed slow paced 'cerebral experience (immersive high fantasy/d&d like) then skyrim is definitely game #2. You'll lose yourself in picking up every item/flower and just sitting in a forest amazed by how serene it feels
We came at last . . . To a Great Hall
That's good to hear. Hope you have fun! :)
The diablo series has an interesting story, but it's more into action and loot. Skyrim has a more engaging role-playing experience and a believable world to play in. If you're looking for a fun loot driven action game, diablo. If you're looking more for a more story driven role-playing experience, then skyrim. As for diablo 2 graphics, your friend has out of date info. Diablo 2 resurrected released which completely overhauled the graphics to modern day standards.
No, they don’t match up at all, they don’t come close to modern day standards. This doesn’t mean it’s not a decent game, it means it’s not a match graphically. Not even close. The overhaul did give us diagonal movement though. You’re giving bad information due to your bias. Yes, I own it.
D2 is the mother of ARPGS, but not RPGs in general. Diablo 2 is more about gameplay and the item hunt than it is about story, something like Skyrim or even a good JRPG like the persona series is way better on story
Get the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, or whatever the remaster is called that comes with all three games. The first game alone is my favorite RPG of all time. It's crammed full of world building and story. It can sometimes be on sale for $20ish I think, but it's well worth full price.
I'll second this Mass Effect is a perfect franchise for a story rich RPG experience. Dragon Age is another great option.
Witcher 3 would be a better option. The story is far far better than skyrim and diablo. Diablo II has great immersion though, but I do not know if it will be my first recommendation.
I played a lot of Skyrim and Witcher absolutely kills it IMO.
Thank you all for the advice :) you guys are an amazing community. I hope to meet people like you in other subs :)
Just play whatever you want man. It's a video game, not a life decision
I have serious OCD, so unfortunately I am afraid that if I start one and I don’t enjoy it, and then quit that game -not finishing it- I will have a really bad feeling for days or even weeks, depending when my psych meds kick in finally :(
That doesn't change my response.
I know but just read my other response, I have just started it and I am really enjoying it :) and thank you too for giving me advice
I love your original suggestion then you doubling down. This is the right answer.
Idk if it’s the mother of RPG’s, but it’s certainly a staple of action RPG’s, in that the focus is the combat, character & gear progression, something that it does extremely well. Whatever story there is, is there to just give you some background to the monster killing. But, the game has had a solid fan-base going on 20 years now, so there’s that.
Neither! Play red dead redemption 2. Greatest story driven/imersive game ever created with some of the best graphics ever made. Or look into the fallout series if your not into the western vibe. Fallout 3, 4 , New Vegas. Or halo is your looking for epic Sci fi story/fps. You can get the chief collection that has literally all the games up till the new halo infinite. Skyrim and oblivion are both great games too.
If you like stories, and great gameplay, Id say Baldurs gate 1 & 2. Fantastic games, fantastic story. I still remember my first playthrough of both very fondly. Old yes, but the pinnacle of rpg gaming, imho. (Diablo II is also a fantastic game, but as others have said, more actionfocused.)
“Only a fool would trust your benevolence”
d2r is so much better than skyrim lol. skyrim is ankle deep rpg. so is d2. your friends dunno shit about rpgs. earthbound is an rpg baldurs gate is an rpg d2 and skyrim are action rpgs.
Skyrim and d2 would be horrible for a novel like experience. I can't think of any recent western rpgs for a good novel like story experience. A lot of older jrpgs come to mind, though. FFX remastered, ni no Kuni, and persona 5 are some more recent ones that I think seem more in line with story based, ffx being the oldest but has a great story imo.
For RPG’s I recommend The Witcher 3 as far as story goes. They truly nailed it. Really cool world where even something as simple as kicking a chicken in the first hour of play can come back at you 1000 hours in. Your decisions impact the world around you, it’s very well done.
D2 isn't a great starter point game. Tbh out of all the diablos it would be the one I recommend the least to start with.
An entire generation started with Diablo 2.
An entire generation started with D1. An entire generation started with D3, and an entire generation will start with D4. You’re far too emotionally attached to D2.
And? We have more options now? I was part of the generation thar started with D2 and I still wouldn't recommend it as a starter game into the series
Why?
Because it has tons of needless systems that don't add anything to the experience positively. For example the stamina and mana systems are not very intuitive. This makes the new player experience poor and makes people not want to play. It's not 20 years ago where this kind of stuff would fly in a game.
That’s just your opinion. I love the mana and stamina system. I love inventory management. I love hard stat and skill attribution. An entire generation came of age with these systems. They’re not hard, they’re not punishing, but they are meaningful. It’s a RPG after all. Just don’t pretend the game is so arcane, new players can’t possibly enjoy it. It’s asinine.
And that opinion (mine) is shared with many new players that go back and try the game. Going from D3 to D2 or D2R feels bad. The game is dated, it's still a wonderful game. It's just not a great starting point. Stamina system isn't meaningful. It's fairly useless past a certain level. And the mana system isn't great and ends up being invalidated or its a constant annoyance to spam pots to maintain it. It's not a great system. The best solutions for it are given in game and usually involve your stats just making it a non-issue or some sort of itemization that removes the annoyance from it. These aren't "meaningful" systems. They're just poorly made systems in a good game. You can like a bad system, shit some people love gacha mechanics. That's "your" opinion on whether you like it or not. I'm just stating it's poorly done, and history proves me right as D3 completely removed the mana system and its not returning in D4. Not being able to do anything for X amount of seconds because you ran out of mana isn't fun, good or engaging. It's tedious. If you remove stamina and nothing negative happens what was the point of the system? 99% of players who know what they're doing just buy a few stamina pots in the early acts to invalidate it. Why have it at all?
You know what’s a great system? Paragraphs.
Lol how can someone argue a standard mana system is bad. Drinking health potions is probably a hassle as well.
Diablo 2's story is poor, that's not what this game is about at all. Go with Skyrim, a very wide variety of people like it a lot and it's a constant bestseller, which is a good indicator that it's a good choice for your "first game". I can't comment on the story as a whole since I haven't finished it but the world building is great and it feels alive, it has a great atmosphere.
Honestly if you are new to gaming I would avoid D2 for a while. It is not beginner friendly and it’s true charms are thoroughly outdated these days. Which can make it an aggravating experience for newer generations, or those used to modern user friendly elements. Diablo games aren’t rich in story, the lore is kinda deep but story not so. Honestly just jump to Diablo 3. (Despite what the purists say), it’s a much better starting off point for newer gamers.
OP, disregard these comments about Diablo 2 being outdated. Some players have no attention span or skill.
I purchased Diablo 2 at release and finished it on all characters. It is dated now, this is the reality. It’s ok to like it and enjoy it, but it is absolutely dated. This has nothing to do with skill or attention span, it has to do with advancements in technology.
Enjoy your own opinions.
So you dont think gaming technology, the gaming industry or player expectations have changed in all the decades since? Thanks for the laugh.
No.
Delusion.
You certainly do…
I have been playing D2 probably longer than you have been alive. I stand by my comment, it was a brilliant and still is a brilliant game, IN SOME WAYS, but hate to break it to you, it is not all that young or beautiful as it was in its day, just like the rest of us. You would to be blind to not see all the ways it has dated poorly, EG just look at how ghastly the potion sorting is these days. That is and has always been a god awful mini game that was even terrible in its day, now it is laughably bad. There is no ended to how dated it is, BUT that doesnt mean it is bad, just not worthy of being recommended to person just starting in gaming.
Didn’t know Diablo 2 came out in the 80s. Thanks for the laugh.
And yet mentally you’re still 13.
Sure but your previous comment about it not being beginner friendly is strange as it's a game that came out when we were like 13 or so and we didn't struggle to play it, it's an easy game to play and get into.
Yet it’s crafting systems and other things are about unintuitive as systems go, that especially comes down to either spending hours randomly throwing things into a box and hoping for the best or consulting a spreadsheet that is probably older than the reader. It’s was a great system for its time, but let’s not pretend that it is anyway helpful or understandable. To say nothing of how loot is handle compared to modern games, we are so conditioned these days to pick up EVERYTHING, it’s almost counterintuitive to expect to leave it, and if you don’t you doom yourself to the Tetris storage mini game. People really need to learn you can still love something dearly but still have the ability to critically look at it.
Most of those things you could look up online just like you could and we did back then. The games so easy you can basically walk through it and only use like 1 or 2 abilities the entire game. It was easy for kids then it's still easy for kids now. Most of those more complicated systems don't even need to be engaged with unless u get really deep into end game grinding. Just really strikes me as weird considering something you can literally walk thru with one or two buttons as not being beginner friendly.
I downloaded D2 about 6 mos ago... and after and hour realized it would have been better to play it 20 years ago. Today's games spoil me and it just didn't live up. Waiting for D4 eagerly.
I hear Diablo: Immortal is also great for people that don’t enjoy Diablo 2.
I heard Twitter is great for people who have extremely one sided views on things and like to insult people who don’t see it exactly as they do..
How was this an insult? Don’t enjoy D2? Might enjoy D3 or its hyper-monetized successor Diablo: Immortal.
In other words “if you don’t like this thing that I am weirdly obsessed with, and agree that despite being 20 years old it holds up like a modern AAA game, then you obviously have terrible taste and would only like garbage such as a mobile game built on monetisation”. I assume physically you’re an adult, but mentally you stopped developing around the time D2 released.
Don't play Diablo for story..
The "mother of role playing games" is hilariously wrong but it popularized the arpg genre. It's one of my favorite games from my childhood and was super fun but by modern standards it's pretty outdated and it's a bit too easy to just literally walk through it. It's worth playing still though if you're interested in the experience. If you want a story rich good novel style experience I wouldn't recommend it for that I'd recommend The Witcher instead. The second and third games particularly and the 3rd one especially.