Diablo

When I was little, my dad got me Diablo for PC.

I was too scared to play it much, and I never finished it back then.

More than it just being scary, I had some kind of anxiety about running out of resources. Since enemies dont respawn, what if I encountered something I couldn't defeat, and I ran out of potions, and gold to buy more? You know, that kind of thinking. Totally doompilled even back then.

I didnt know that you can start a new game with your character carried over, so you could never really get truly stuck. Of course I also didnt know that even resorting to that just isn't necessary-- you're given more than enough gold in the game to never really be "stuck" if you're playing half-competently.

Back in the day, my friend showed me how to duplicate items, and he gave me those famous hacked items-- like the Archangel's Staff of Apocalypse, and the Godly Plate of the Whale. You know, all the good stuff. Yet I STILL never actually got to Diablo. I think my friend took me to the end, but I dont remember. I just know I didn't do it myself. A few years ago, I finished it, BUT, of course, I used the duplication glitch.

Today I finished the game for the first time legitimately. Without even having to heal against Diablo, and with enough gold to fill up every slot in my inventory. It was pretty fun--except for the last few levels with the almost exclusively ranged enemies against my pure-melee warrior. You know, those DUMB BITCHES lmao those STUPID WHORES who shoot bullshit at you and then run away. What a misery. At some point my brain switched on though, and I realized that magic resistance was a thing, so everyone got what they deserved.

I really wanted to write about how much more I enjoyed the game without cheating. And I just did. It's not that complicated, right? Diablo is basically just clicking on things. Even moreso than other games. So why would I deprive myself of the aspect of resource-management in this game by giving myself all the gold and potions I need? What's left then? Something less, that's what.

Sure, some of it's tedious. Or even a lot of it. Why does Adria's stupid shack have to be so far away? Agony. But I feel better having beaten the game as it was presented to me. I think there's value in "solving problems" with the rules that you're given.

Adria's stupid freaking shack was so far away from the other buildings, that trips to her became something that I thought about in advance. You know? If I had things to sell to her, I'd just leave them in town until I needed to visit her to stock up on town portals.

That "calculation" was fun. It added something in the game to think about, instead of taking away something to think about-- which cheating always did for me, without me realizing it.

But sure, if Adria's shack had been much closer to everyone else, then would the game have been worse? I don't think so. Would it have been BETTER? Maybe. Probably. But whatever, it'sA VIDEO GAME NONE OF THIS MATTERS all I'm ssssssaaaaaaying is that sometimes it's cool to solve problems instead of erasing them. Is that what I'm saying? It's what I'm saying I'm saying at least.

And it's not just cheating, either. It's been a while since I played Diablo 3, but I *think* I remembered it requiring you to go to town a lot less, so you spent more time just killing things. And that's nice, but isn't it neat to resupply at town? It gives you a reprieve and makes you feel like the world is more than just nonstop action-- idk, idk, WHATEVER. Idk. I really don't know what the golden formula of an enjoyable action role playing game is, all I'm saying is that I don't think "streamlining" things is always a good thing, whether it's cheating or game design.

There's all kinds of riveting discussions to be had about balancing difficulty and removing tedium in games, but wow i dont care

Diablo 2-- you know, I've actually never finished it by myself either! Basically the same story. I guess I should try to finish it. Then maybe I'll write about it. I'm not going to play the remake though. I saw what the characters look like and I almost vomited. Besides that I'm not -- I don't understand why people eat up remakes. Idk i NVM im gonna go. ill finish this page lllllllllllater. have a good one pls take care

Reminder to self-- being able to run is awesome and makes things less boring, but D2 is also way less scary-- coincidence?????????????????? hmmmmmmmmmmm

EDIT: I've since played Diablo 2 and killed Diablo again. I had to tap out @ the expansion though, because I spec'd my Necromancer poorly, already used my respec, and the grind was boring me to tears.

Diablo 2 kinda sucks, sry. The new focus on random loot and most of the areas being not only outdoors but so *open* just total kills the dungeon-crawling atmosphere the first game had.

Also yes, I'm salty that I poorly built my Necro and it was such a total slog getting through Hell and killing Diablo. I say "poorly built", but that's not even fair to myself since I was usually just walking through the entire game. It's the game's fault, not mine. You couldn't "mess up" your character in Diablo 1 unless you did it on purpose. Warrior? Strength. Rogue? Dex. Sorc? Magic. Ezpz. In Diablo 2, the character whose defining skill is the ability to raise an army of skeletons suddenly finds HIMSELF boned if he invested too much into raising skeletons. Trash.

Torchlight 1 is better than Diablo 2. That said, D2's story is often pretty cool. Tyrael is based as hell, and not yet raceswapped(faceless angel to black man), Baal is actually scary, the Barbarian fortress is awesome, and even though "the old heroes got corrupted lol" is kinda gay, it's at least a uh... actually nvm, I'm not going to say it's cool that the heroes from D1 are in the game. It *would be* if they hadn't become evil. Torchlight 2 does it better by only making *one* of the first game's heroes be corrupted. Also Torchlight 2 is better than Diablo 2 as well. It's also better than Diablo 3. But actually Diablo 3 might be better than Diablo 2 now that I'm looking back without my blood-tinted glasses. Well gameplay wise, definitely not story-wise. They all suck story-wise. The end.