u/hmmmmwillthiswork

TLDR;

doom eternal is devil may cry

doom the dark ages is god of war

revelations is the lovechild of both

the dark ages was very close to matching eternal and i think each individual demon is, on average, more complex than eternal's demons but eternal has more complex combat as a whole

then comes revelations and the chain spear and it breaks open that final door. the combat flow changed significantly allowing the player to feel powerful up close and far away; something that eternal didn't have much of. stick around a demon for too long and you will be forced to move out of the way if not restart the entire encounter

i wanna touch on a few points and directly compare them to eternal. just for the sake of comparison. no shade or anything, i adore both of these games

1. meathook. i would say these two are even. the meathook in eternal was more precise but was only on one gun. the meathook in revelations is more floaty and slower but you now have your entire arsenal to use with it. in eternal, the meathook was used for 2 primary purposes. launching yourself and blasting something in the face. those two are still here in revelations but with the ability to use ANY gun, it opens up so many other strategies. and that's not even mentioning the lock on ability which is fucking incredible once you get the hang of it

2. the dash. i think revelations dash is a little better. not much to say here but revelations allows you to use 1 charge after consuming 2 whereas eternal makes you wait for both to recharge. very small point but it is worth mentioning. also, i could be wrong but i swear revelations' dash gives a tiny upward boost and eternals is directly forward

3. aerial combat. this one is tough but i think that revelations should take the win due to the existence of the shield. you can easily bounce between ground and aerial combat so quickly using the shield or spear in either scenario. fly up with the meathook, blast a cacodemon, slam with the spear, swap to shield and bash a group, melee a hell knight, fly back up with the meathook, dash between it's wall attacks, shield bash, throw the shield to stun the cacodemon, 2 melee strikes, shield bash, meathook, dash, stab, shield bash, dash, super shotgun to the face, shield bash back to the ground. etc. etc im just spitballing to give a visual

i just fucking love id software and if i were rich i'd buy the shit out of them. cheers to being treated so well by these folks. and microsoft: eat shit

TLDR; D3 is an out of town hookup. D2 is marriage material

i'm no veteran when it comes to diablo but i have played D3 many times over the years since it's release. really like the game and i always enjoyed playing it but i never went beyond torment 5ish or so and up until now, it is the only diablo game i've played

i picked up D2R the other day and i knew it would be different but...damn. way different. just gotta gush about it a bit cause D2 is what i always wanted D3 to be

so i started to pay attention to some stuff and compare it to diablo 3 and i can't help but feel like blizzard threw so much away in favor of automation when making diablo 3

attributes: i can spec my character in D2. to someone who has only played diablo 3, this felt weird. i never knew these games used to have stats that isn't automatic

basic attack: i still love diablo 3's basic attacks and i find a lot of fun mixing and matching skills but it always made weapons feel kinda pointless beyond the stats they give you. they're just...there. D2R makes me weigh my options when picking a different weapon. it's simple stuff like speed and range but i like it. it's classic. it feels like an action RPG whereas D3 feels like an action game

waypoints: D3 is basically on rails. there is some exploration here and there but it's mostly just "go forward" with a big marker telling you exactly where to go. now, D2 doesn't have some giant open world or anything but it does have one thing that D3 doesn't: the balls to expect the player to read the quest and find their own way which leads to finding extra dungeons or groups of enemies or loot and stuff

art style: an obvious point. D3 is disney-a-fied. i still like it but give me that dark fantasy style over D3's style any day of the week

enemies: D3 can be hard for sure and i think the core gameplay is still fairly similar but D2 is more deliberate in the same way that dark souls is when compared to skyrim. getting swarmed in D2 is far scarier than D3, especially considering the fact that death hurts much more in D2

limited respecs: another obvious point. D2 won't hold your hand if you completely fuck your build. i know there are ways around it but on the surface, D2 requires work and D3 just allows you to do whatever you want which to me, kills replayability

potions: D3's potion cooldown works fine but it feels artificial compared to D2. although, D2 showers you in potions (so far) so it's not like i'm saying D2 is a struggle when it comes to health/mana. i just prefer having actual consumables

dying: dying in D3 is like stubbing your toe. dying in D2 is like falling down a flight of stairs

classes: i love D3's and don't really have much to say since i'm more of a casual player but i do like D2's more. more variety and i prefer the class choice. feels like a truly classic setup for a fantasy RPG

endgame builds: i am early on in D2 so i can't speak on that part but D3 becomes a literal button masher and the endgame "melt a room in 4 seconds" gets old so fast for me. i have heard D2 doesn't go down that route unless you really force it

items: loot feels better in D2. i also like how you have to identify items so it always feels more exciting and engaging

followers: they actually die in D2

graphics: D2's graphics overhaul is truly outstanding and i love the darker artstyle. D3 is pretty for sure but i like how D2R looks. they didn't compromise the artstyle in favor of better textures. it looks amazing

content: idk if D3 has more content or if D2 does but D2 got new content after 25 years and that's just badass. the warlock class is FUN

and there's much more of course. i'm still early on in D2 (2nd act as a warlock) but i have been picking up on a lot of stuff. it's actually pretty insane how MUCH blizzard casualized for D3 and now i can really see what OG fans have been saying. again, i like D3 and even love some big parts of it but holy shit it's a completely different game in so many aspects that it will be very hard to go back to it after playing a bunch of D2

anyway, not a hate post or anything but diablo 2 has certainly lived up to the hype i had built up in my head over the last few years i've been wanting to play it