This is a question and a suggestion at the same time, regarding many aspects of Diablo 1.
Diablo 1 in my opinion feature some unique elements that were never seen inother hack and slash I tis an old game nadit has many flaws ok, but it had some unique elements
_ The christian lore: demons looked like demons you would imagine in christian books. It took place under a cathedral. There were a lot of things that referred to christian culture, and this part of Diablo progressively disappeared in next episodes, for marketting reasons i assume(being mor euniversal).
_Claustrophobic/closed environment. In many video games, open world or semi-open world is the smart trend nowadays. This applies to rpgs, fps,tps and hack and slash as well. Very few modern HnS take place in closed labyritnhs or a single big dungeon.
Those are the two main things i miss from Diablo, and i would like to state this isnt a “driven only by nostalgia thread”. It is about somethingi havent really been able to find in other HnS for some reason, and its hard for me to fingerpoint exactly the issue. I enjoyed what GrimDawn has to offer, but i made this thread to tell devs what i try to find with no result(this is as hard as finding a 2D beat them up that would surpass streets of rage 2)
just for the sake of chitchatting (cause I don’t think there can be made much of a suggestion out of this) :
I loved the strong claustrophobic element in Diablo and it’s my favorite of the series by far, mostly for that reason.
But I also love Grim Dawn for bringing me back to that with its amazingly well detailed, dark, claustrophobic and gorey dungeon interiors. I think they even got a former Diablo team member to work on those interiors.
(I am the biggest Sega Mega Drive fan around, and I love Streets of Rage 2, and have lots of nostalgia for it since I had it as a kid too, but… even though it’s great, you can find many other great/better beatemups in the huge arcade library. Mega Drive didn’t have as big of a beatemup choice as it should’ve. Sorry for the offtopic )
I feel the key thing D1 did that hasn’t really been done well since, is feeling like truly descending into hell. The dungeon levels got more demonic, more ‘red’ etc with the monsters evolving appropriately.
Mostly now I find it feels like “I’m above ground” <-> “I’m in a dungeon.”
I keep seeing efforts to ‘make dungeons gruesome’ but it’s not designed to be a transition.
GD - although only two levels to the Log fight- does this a little with the tentacles appearing and the red whirlpools etc, but as only two levels it doesn’t create the full immersion of descending as such.
That’s the crux…these items become more valuable as time goes by and copies are even less available. Thankfully…I kept mine along with several other classics.
Diablo 1 I don’t believe was built around the concept of farming.
They would have to put in multiple waypoints throughout(not a big issue in my opinion) to appease most people.
D1 was “save and return” functional. IE: You didn’t have to reclear everything or walk back to a point unless you got rid of your TP.
A large majority of people expect multiple diverse environments/multiple acts.
D1 “pacing” was “slower”…most characters didn’t move all that quick and there was elements such as “block lock” if you got surrounded etc. Games nowadays tend to be less punishing/focus on TONS of cannon fodder mob density/lightning fast player movement.
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