It was about a similar experience as the first time playing the demo, the one that came with a magazine back back back in the days.

Almost insta death!
I actually do enjoy how Blizzard managed to keep the music and atmosphere in check with my memories from the first Diablo. A lot of publications mentioned that D2 was the main source of inspiration for this game but i'm only seeing 1 here, not that i played 2. I'm guessing 2 build its cornerstones on the foundation of the first game.
Maybe someone can enlighten me on that front?

I have no idea what the OP is talking about, and lots of video games have Butcher characters in them.

I had bought and played the main game on retail many years ago, and I do want to play it again, this time with its expansion, but I still consider it too expensive for its age. Only for its age. Its quality is unmatched.

Edit: I would guess he talks about Diablo 1.

Yes, it's Diablo 1. And yes, nothing really prepares you for your first meeting with the Butcher. I remember running away panicked the first time I accidentally opened the door to his den... I must have been 16 :P.

Diablo 1 was a lot more grim than 2, if you ask me. Both are fine, and arguably 2 has a lot of quality of life improvements over 1, but it also went a lot deeper into that "not really that atmospheric" aRPG territory. In Diablo 1 everything screams of eldritch horrors and demons hidden behind doors.

Turn off the music in D2 and clear out a dungeon :) I was 12.

What game?

Divination indicates Diablo 4 as the main suspect. The music in Diablo 1 doesn't have to be turned off :P. It's a symphony of strings and rusty door creaks.

Diablo 1 is a vastly superior game for me. The atmosphere is part of the reason (and I'm not even usually into that grimdark stuff). It's one of those games that are superb because of just how laser focused they are. In this case, it's just you, and 16 levels of an oppressive, hostile dungeon. Nothing distracts from that. Not a single action, quest, line of dialogue. The open world and diverse surroundings of Diablo 2 just water the whole thing down. To me it becomes a game about nothing, in terms of what the player experience is.

I love how you can feel old-school D&D in the first Diablo's DNA, despite it being almost entirely gone from the mechanics of the game. It comes straight from classic modules like the Tomb of Horrors, from a time when it really was all about meatgrinder dungeons and combat. The later games never offer anything in terms of actual role-playing in terms of interactions with the world or the narrative, so they essentially lost the best of a classic RPG, without bringing in anything from newer ones.

Of course maybe Diablo 4 actually gets the best of both worlds. I've no idea, I didn't follow any news about the game. I'm never spending a cent on a Blizzard game again.

Redacted

Well clearly not. Neither Diablo 2 nor Diablo 1 can be an inspiration for Diablo 1 lol.

The OP should really qualify what the heck he's talking about. I'll assume Diablo 4 for now... If it is Diablo 4, then I find the music severely lacking. I mean literally most of the time it feels like there's no music at all. It's way too subtle. It feels like the composer confused ambient noise with music. Diablo 1 had some very good and haunting music. Diablo 2 reused some of Diablo 1's music, but it was overall less haunting. Still very good though, especially the whole Lord of Destruction score.

In Diablo 4 there's nothing memorable at all, beyond the main theme I guess, which is also ridiculously subtle and most of it is just empty ambience.

So, it would be fair to say...you've seen the butcher?

And wailing babies. Still manages to creep me out after all this time.

I'm pretty sure it's Diablo 4. I came across some hype for the game talking about how they brought the Butcher back. Because "no one's ever really gone...." That's pretty standard nowadays. Memorable, well-developed musical scores have largely given way to bland ambient music (see also the System Shock remake). It's disappointing that it's happening more often in video games, though, as games had been a refuge for good music after film and TV producers largely annihilated classical scoring.

You need to play Bard's Tale 4. Not a perfect game by any stretch, but the music is absolutely amazing.

The Butcher is in the original, Diablo III, and now IV. Don't remember if he's in II. In IV, he shows up randomly and hasn't been easy to kill for me. Haven't killed him yet.