But this time it wasn't tricky encounters murdering me-it was the creaky design and flaws that are so old they've become sacred. I want an isometric ARPG that can kick the shit out of me. That's also why I was excited about the remaster. There are plenty of challenges to be found, certainly, but Diablo 2 really wants to kill you, and that holds a certain appeal. Modern isometric ARPGs for the most part don't have an adversarial relationship with the player. There are still people playing the classic version today. I suspect hordes of former players are still going to love returning to Diablo 2. Diablo 3 might have a completely forgettable yarn, but it's one I have a lot more fun playing through in 2021. It's genuinely gripping, and that hasn't changed. This is all the fallout of a heroic act-your heroic act, if you played the first game. You're almost a side-character, following the chaos that the Dark Wanderer, Diablo's original hero, leaves in his wake. The narrative, too, is the best of any ARPG. Even in Legacy mode, which returns the game to its original form, it just has this air about it, an edge, that penetrates the ancient pixels. The atmosphere, the aesthetic, the music-these things are all still killer. Ladders gave Diablo 2 some structure, but won't be included in Resurrected until after launch. Crucially Diablo 3's endgame has proper structure and plenty of discrete challenges. Both are grindy as hell, but they're ARPGs-what do you expect? Diablo 3's Adventure Mode, seasons and rifts, however, are far superior to Diablo 2's boss farming and the grindy march to level 99.

But if it's consistent with the original, it's another place where, I've got to admit, Diablo 3 does it better. I've yet to see what Diablo 2: Resurrected does with its endgame, but honestly I won't be sticking around for that long. Again, though, this is something that's been brought over from Diablo 3, which just makes me wonder why I ever thought it was the inferior Diablo. Your inventory might be laughably small, but the stash is massive. They just have so much more utility, and they don't vanish once you've quaffed them down.ДЄt least we get a decent shared stash now. Path of Exile's system is far superior, where you've just got a handful of flasks, each with different attributes-much like the rest of your gear-and a number of charges. In the sequel, you mainly rely on health orbs, and maintaining your health is something you hardly need to consider at all. This is one area, however, where Diablo 3 doesn't have a much better solution. Places where it could obviously be streamlined crop up everywhere, and of course that's exactly what Diablo 3 ended up doing. Nothing stacks! So your inventory will be bursting with potions, taking up vital space until you make room for them in your hotbar. How potions work isn't especially egregious: you put them in your potion hotbar, use them once, and they're gone. Speaking of things that will kill you, potion management is a real headache. Even with a few unlocked abilities, micromanagement really becomes a pain in the arse, especially when a momentary interruption in your concentration can spell death. To not have the option of enabling a more modern 'press key, cast ability' input scheme seems like an oversight. Unfortunately, using those hotkeys doesn't actually fire off the ability instead it just changes what ability is mapped to the mouse buttons. That's incredibly inflexible, which Diablo 2 seems to realise, hence why you can map all of your abilities to F1-F8. See, abilities are mapped to the mouse buttons, and you can only have two active at a time. This brings us to how you actually use your abilities, back before Blizzard had refined its UI and hotbars. Ultimately, it's just more fun to fiddle around with, and the differences between builds are more dramatic, more meaningful. Every time you unlock a new ability or rune, you've got something that can fundamentally change how your character plays. See, while there are fewer abilities, all of them can be augmented with runes, dramatically changing them. This flexibility is borrowed from Diablo 3, however, which also makes me crave the other ways in which Diablo 3 improves experimenting with builds.

They might not all be viable for the endgame or PvP, but that is less of an issue now that you can easily reroll your character. You level up fast, and there are so many different ways to make whatever class you pick your own.

I should add that I don't think Diablo 2's character progression is bad. If you've been overcome with nostalgia and decided to chase the Wanderer again, take a look at our Diablo 2: Resurrected class guide to help you pick between the Amazon, Assassin, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Paladin or Sorceress.

Diablo 3 battle chest upcoming sale