The only things i really enjoyed in Diablo II was pvp and items trading to be honest.
All other things are very fast repetitive. And you must play D II online to be really good. I played on a high pvp level with some of the best players in europe but then it was really fun and very difficicult as well. Well in pvm you can own really fast because diablo II is highly unbalanced but this is also what made pvp fun for me. And Titan Quest ? I played Titan Quest one time through and then deinstalled it just wasn't fun and you really need to play such a game online with others to be funny

The random world does make a difference on future playthroughs, I could run the first half of TQ with my eyes closed more or less. I did love the multi-classing aspect, it made for some good experimentation that gave it more replay value.

Yeah, he's very nearly unfair as a boss. I actually was playing co-op so it was a bit easier.
I think D2, Hellgate: London, and reputably (never played it) Loki, showed how worthless random areas are, especially when the gameplay doesn't hold up. Oh look, a stupid area with the exit right next to the entrance! Since most people did 1 of these 3 things 95% of the time random areas meant crap all, 1) raced to kill Mephisto, raced to kill Baal, or raced to kill Pindle.

As for looks, really? The D2 team openly admitted Act I looked like crap, and was "dull" (their exact words at one point, iirc), because it was the first area they created and they never went back to it, regardless of its later financial success. The game launched at a horrid resolution and the expac bumped it up to something just slightly less horrid (800x600, gee thanks Blizzard!).

No one, and I mean no one, plays through Act 3 with a new character, they all beg for a rush to the final area, because Act 3 is one huge slog through a neverending jungle, with annoying little shits that run away at half life.

Really, I do wonder about the nostalgia people have for this game. Like I said, I'm a big fan of the story, it's good, though if it wasn't for the original, D2 alone wouldn't have drawn me into the story.

In TQ you have so many more varied areas. There are plenty of static mob spawns, but they use their own equipment (so if they randomly spawn a Magic Mace of Pwnage, they will use it on you). I used to think random areas were the cat's meow for replayability, until I played a good game that didn't have them. Then I realized that I'd misread what was replayable about the game.

As i already mentioned diablo 2 is only awesome for pvp and item selection (best ever against any other game) forget the level design. The pvp is surely the best i have ever seen even though it is unbalanced but it is higly aggressive and only the very best players survive it. Surely not a place for newbies. I can remember when WoW came guess what ? The very first who stopped d 2 pvp were the ones who couldn't play it because of it's high difficulty. I played sometimes with the european master of quakeworld (one of the most aggressive multiplayer egoshooter) and then you will see REAL PVP not the poor joke of pvp like you can see in many other games.

Not to mention that "A tropical jungle! With evil gorillas!" is down near the bottom of the list of ideas that should have come up in a brainstorming session for the sequel to Diablo, let alone been included in the game.

Even more funny, the Torchlight folks (made by Runic, which includes a lot of the devs from D2) thought it would be a good idea to include them in Torchlight, lol!

i hate act 3 and that arcane sanctuary in act 2 :X

Oh God Act 3. That was the act that convinced me that the first game was better. The idea is decent, but the implementation... oh God. The enemies? There was a couple decent ones. Pity there were fucking a thousand times more of the annoying little fuckers. And the Council Members! Jesus Christ the Council Members! Fucking awful. Even with friends that level is a chore. I did like the unusual quest structure, at the beginning, but all the quests felt... uninspired. I do like playing with Khalim's body parts for the squishy sounds.

i remember my first play through on diablo 2 it was the worst ever i dont know why i like the game so much haha probably because of a awesome but simple multiplayer
here is how it went i was too young back then had no idea about any character builds, was on single player,did not use google, did not care about the outcome
i had chosen the pally and decided on zeal and thorns[lmao i thought it was cool]
1. act 1 went fine soloed andy with no death got some good set stuff was lv13
2. act 2 decided to turn off the music as it irritated a lot initial quests were ok got bored from arcane sanctuary ran thru the tomb using thorns[lol] killed duriel after 3 days anger the game had a glitch then the cd would take a huge time to load the level on my p2 system and as soon i entered duriel would kill me, on one lucky chance i blocked his first attack then i used potions till he killed himself on thorns lv15
3. act 3 hated the forest had decided to quit the game after reaching kurast forest after a week lv 22 , took around 20 deaths to kill mephisto
4.act 4 hated it even more those knights were impossible to kill and izual would never die quit the game, then after a week heard from a mate in school that he did 5 andy runs and got awesome stuff, i did it and got a sigons set items[they were awesome back then]
got to diablo he died again on thorns took around 2 hours and tons of potions
had to wait for a year to get the expansion cd
5. act5 was ok just ran thru many areas just completing character was over cooked to lv 40
had found tons of good items baal was a honest monster he has his weaknesses that is slow him down with cold attacks and he does nothing but move around, died easilly best ending for a game i had seen back than
never came back to diablo 2 until 2009 when i heard you can register the keys for the digital download my cds had some i/o read error

It looks like you had a lot of irritation playing the game if you can still remember all those things. I actually came to like it in the meanwhile.
as casual that is.
the only thing i hate now is the bloody small resolution.

of course that was the first time as i grew up i understood the diablo lore very well and as well as the mechanics of the game and hence still play it even now on battle net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V0l_AHwjmw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Here is some pvp from a hybrid assa player in pvp. I used to play with these guys and i even can remember him as an excellent player

hmm i loath pvp in diablo 2, according to me pvp died after the 1.09 patch was replaced i forever refuse to bot for runes and wear crappy runewords that makes a barb teleport
sets and unqiues forever \m/

Of course the runewords did not bring only good for sure. But the teleport made the pvp much more intense if you ask me. And well a sorc was not anylonger so overpowered against others then. Since if you played a sorc defensive before 1.09 then almost no other could really beat you except maybe a bowazone but still the teleport from the sorc just made you too mobile against any other pvp. This advantage was gone with engima.