I’m currently playing Diablo IV (and having a blast with it) but finding one small gripe which I only think is going to get worse and probably stop me playing it completely in the long run.

My girlfriend is currently pregnant. This means in 6 months time we’ll have a newborn. With this in mind I’m expecting to only be able to grab a few minutes at a time to game and even when I think I’ll have longer I may end up jumping off at short notice. This means I’ll almost certainly come to rely on games which I can pause. Unfortunately this isn’t possible with Diablo IV since it requires an always online connection even though I’m essentially playing it as a single player game.

What are other people’s thoughts?

  • ahundredheys
    23·
    2 years ago

    If it’s single player game, having an always online component is straight up dumb. Fuck anybody who does this.

    • blindsight@beehaw.org
      10·
      2 years ago

      D4 is worse, imho. It forces you to play multiplayer at all times, completely destroying any immersion in the lore.

      Sucks, too, because they nailed Diablo’s atmosphere (from games 1 & 2, not the WoW-ified D3 aesthetic.)

      • bouds19
        1·
        2 years ago

        Is Diablo 2 still worth playing in 2023? I played D3 a few years back and thought it was just okay.

        • blindsight@beehaw.org
          3·
          2 years ago

          Absolutely… with mods!

          Granted, I haven’t had time to sink into it recently, so I’m a bit out of the loop, but Path of Diablo is very popular, and I know there’s another big one I don’t have time to hunt down rn.

          D2R is also an option.

          That said, I have the nostalgia and patience for D2’s idiosyncrasies from having played it for years; I’m not sure how well it holds up for someone completely new, coming from the more streamlined/polished UX from modern games.

          • bouds19
            1·
            2 years ago

            Sweet, thanks for the mod recommendations! Do you know how Diablo 2: Resurrected differs from the original version and if it’s worth the $30 extra?

            • 0xc0ba17
              2·
              2 years ago

              If you’ve never played the original, take the Resurrected. They’re the same game, but Resurrected is beautiful. Be warned though that mechanically, it’s an old game, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hasn’t played it back then.

        • noob_dragon@beehaw.org
          2·
          2 years ago

          Diablo 2 has aged fantastically. It is still pretty much the king of the genre despite being 23 years old. D2R did a lot to bring the visuals up to date. Unlike other ARPGs, you can actually beat the game pretty fast if you know what you are doing. It’s a very efficient and clean game design. The game is a blast to play casually.