Which game should I start first ?

[MentalIlness]

Ok, I recently picked up Diablo II Battlechest, and Neverwinter Nights Diamond. Which of these two should I start first ?

I would much rather play through one before I would start the other since games like these can usually be confusing.

 

[Rhezuss]

Go with Diablo 2. NWN2 is meh...

 

[CitanUzuki]

I thought neverwinter nights 2 sucked balls. I enjoyed the first though.

 

[zebano]

NWN2 original campaign was not so good but the expansions were fine, play them. D2 doesn't have a lot of story, it's really just hack n slash and collect better items, it is really fun and once you play through once, you should play multiplayer on battlenet.

 

[MentalIlness]

I guess it would make since to get used to playing Diablo II. Since I plan on picking up Diablo III when it debuts.

Seems these types of games have an extensive learning curve

 

[Corporate Thug]

Go with Diablo 2. NWN2 is meh...

this

 

[WhipperSnapper]

NWN2 original campaign was not so good but the expansions were fine, play them. D2 doesn't have a lot of story, it's really just hack n slash and collect better items, it is really fun and once you play through once, you should play multiplayer on battlenet.

I know nothing about Diablo at all. What exactly do you do in the Multiplayer? Do you pvp other people and is that all it is? Do you join groups and pvp other groups?

 

[Zenoth]

I know nothing about Diablo at all. What exactly do you do in the Multiplayer? Do you pvp other people and is that all it is? Do you join groups and pvp other groups?

You're completely new to Diablo?

Hmmm... well, I'm not sure where to start. The single-player and the multi-player are both played in the exact same context, the "campaign" if you want to call it this way, it has five Acts (for Diablo II and its expansion pack, Lord of Destruction), and through those Acts you'll meet with a number of NPCs in each of those Acts' main town (from which you venture on in the "wild", I guess I can put it this way). Those NPCs offer specific services such as imbuing, gambling, selling specific types of items, repairing, socketing and recruiting mercenaries (limit of one mercenary by the way).

There's a story-line, it's brief, very basic, but interesting nonetheless, it's very well told and the cinematics are still potable to watch even after all those years, they help tremendously to understand the story, because otherwise any information concerning your goals and the context of the game comes in the form of short gossip-style discussions especially with one particular NPC (whom I won't name to avoid spoilers). But the ultimate way to understand the "story" but especially the actual lore behind the Diablo universe is to read the manuals if you got them, the manual for Diablo II is especially good at telling the story of each of the character classes you can chose and the back-story of their culture and origins.

Anyway... that's about the story, but the multi-player is played within that story, with the difference being that it's on-line and you can co-operate with others, up to 7 players, to complete the game or to just play around without specifically wanting to complete any missions, because even though the game has quests each "regions" outside of the main town of each Acts are sandbox-like (although very small, understandably, it's a decade-old game), so you can just get out of the town and just hack 'n slash to gain levels and find loot. The entire game - and I do mean it - is a giant gamble, each and every single foe you kill is a "risk" and a gamble, you can invest time, healing potions, gold and item durability to kill just one monster, but you may (and believe me it will happen often) not find a single item dropping from it, and this isn't a disadvantage, it's merely a game-play mechanic, it's the principle that I'm trying to point at, there's actual "gambling" per se via NPCs where you can buy tremendously expensive but disguised items (they are simply unidentified), and once you commit your gold to buying it you will then see it being identified, which often results in a crappy item (that's gamble it its purest form), but the entire game, the rest of it, is just a brilliantly masked gamble game, everything you do is a risk, and the only direct advantage you'll ever have is to gain experience, no items drops or not, but beware that if you die in either Nightmare or Hell difficulty setting you'll lose a specific amount of experience.

In multi-player you can do Player Vs. Player, yes, and a popular type of dueling is what is called "LLD", which stands for "Low-Level Duel", up to Level 30 or so, but usually much lower than that, at around Level 10, those types of duels are considered fun since your skills are extremely basic, the items aren't granting one-hit kills powers (most of them anyway) and the dueling generally lasts a bit longer than any types of duels you'll do at high Levels with epic gear where most hits kill you immediately or reduce your health by half. I myself never liked dueling in Diablo II, I tried a lot of it back in the days, it has changed considerably since then mostly due to the new items, runewords (type of items) and skills, synergies, etc., all of which (the new stuff I mean) was introduced via patches over time (I was dueling during the 1.06 days mostly, when I started playing the game).

I know I'm forgetting a lot of things, I could write a novel about this without even noticing (which is happening right now I just know it), I've played this game too much, yet I still play it to this day (thanks to a new Ladder Season, and a new patch). If you want more information I highly recommend you to take a look at the Arreat Summit web site, but beware of certain spoilers, if you start reading the description of certain enemies or characters you may lead yourself to story-related spoilers so just try to concentrate on the basics.

Here's the direct link: http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/?rhtml=y

 

[MentalIlness]

You're completely new to Diablo?

Hmmm... well, I'm not sure where to start. The single-player and the multi-player are both played in the exact same context, the "campaign" if you want to call it this way, it has five Acts (for Diablo II and its expansion pack, Lord of Destruction), and through those Acts you'll meet with a number of NPCs in each of those Acts' main town (from which you venture on in the "wild", I guess I can put it this way). Those NPCs offer specific services such as imbuing, gambling, selling specific types of items, repairing, socketing and recruiting mercenaries (limit of one mercenary by the way).

There's a story-line, it's brief, very basic, but interesting nonetheless, it's very well told and the cinematics are still potable to watch even after all those years, they help tremendously to understand the story, because otherwise any information concerning your goals and the context of the game comes in the form of short gossip-style discussions especially with one particular NPC (whom I won't name to avoid spoilers). But the ultimate way to understand the "story" but especially the actual lore behind the Diablo universe is to read the manuals if you got them, the manual for Diablo II is especially good at telling the story of each of the character classes you can chose and the back-story of their culture and origins.

Anyway... that's about the story, but the multi-player is played within that story, with the difference being that it's on-line and you can co-operate with others, up to 7 players, to complete the game or to just play around without specifically wanting to complete any missions, because even though the game has quests each "regions" outside of the main town of each Acts are sandbox-like (although very small, understandably, it's a decade-old game), so you can just get out of the town and just hack 'n slash to gain levels and find loot. The entire game - and I do mean it - is a giant gamble, each and every single foe you kill is a "risk" and a gamble, you can invest time, healing potions, gold and item durability to kill just one monster, but you may (and believe me it will happen often) not find a single item dropping from it, and this isn't a disadvantage, it's merely a game-play mechanic, it's the principle that I'm trying to point at, there's actual "gambling" per se via NPCs where you can buy tremendously expensive but disguised items (they are simply unidentified), and once you commit your gold to buying it you will then see it being identified, which often results in a crappy item (that's gamble it its purest form), but the entire game, the rest of it, is just a brilliantly masked gamble game, everything you do is a risk, and the only direct advantage you'll ever have is to gain experience, no items drops or not, but beware that if you die in either Nightmare or Hell difficulty setting you'll lose a specific amount of experience.

In multi-player you can do Player Vs. Player, yes, and a popular type of dueling is what is called "LLD", which stands for "Low-Level Duel", up to Level 30 or so, but usually much lower than that, at around Level 10, those types of duels are considered fun since your skills are extremely basic, the items aren't granting one-hit kills powers (most of them anyway) and the dueling generally lasts a bit longer than any types of duels you'll do at high Levels with epic gear where most hits kill you immediately or reduce your health by half. I myself never liked dueling in Diablo II, I tried a lot of it back in the days, it has changed considerably since then mostly due to the new items, runewords (type of items) and skills, synergies, etc., all of which (the new stuff I mean) was introduced via patches over time (I was dueling during the 1.06 days mostly, when I started playing the game).

I know I'm forgetting a lot of things, I could write a novel about this without even noticing (which is happening right now I just know it), I've played this game too much, yet I still play it to this day (thanks to a new Ladder Season, and a new patch). If you want more information I highly recommend you to take a look at the Arreat Summit web site, but beware of certain spoilers, if you start reading the description of certain enemies or characters you may lead yourself to story-related spoilers so just try to concentrate on the basics.

Here's the direct link: http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/?rhtml=y

The only winning move is "not to play" ! How about a nice game of chess ?

 

[MJinZ]

Ok, I recently picked up Diablo II Battlechest, and Neverwinter Nights Diamond. Which of these two should I start first ?

I would much rather play through one before I would start the other since games like these can usually be confusing.

You can't "play through" Diablo II because it's an online experience (that's the great part about the game, not the offline one).

You can, however go through NWN2 w/ MOTB. The game is enjoyable and will last you a few run throughs actually.

 

[MJinZ]

I guess it would make since to get used to playing Diablo II. Since I plan on picking up Diablo III when it debuts.

Seems these types of games have an extensive learning curve

There's a learning curve of about like 10 minutes...

 

[MentalIlness]

You can't "play through" Diablo II because it's an online experience (that's the great part about the game, not the offline one).

You can, however go through NWN2 w/ MOTB. The game is enjoyable and will last you a few run throughs actually.

But does Diablo II have a single player mode ? I have never been much for playing online as I have found myself to prefer single player. Don't know why though, just always have been that way.

I would "much" prefer single to multi. At least in a game like this. Now Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare would be a more of a multi game for me.

I plan on starting to play today, since the last few days has been hectic.

 

[MJinZ]

But does Diablo II have a single player mode ? I have never been much for playing online as I have found myself to prefer single player. Don't know why though, just always have been that way.

I would "much" prefer single to multi. At least in a game like this. Now Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare would be a more of a multi game for me.

I plan on starting to play today, since the last few days has been hectic.

Yes, but single player is just not as fun. You spend 5 times longer trying to kill or level or doing something instead of progressing through the game. Huge fun in item customization or character development is lost from the slowness.

 

[zebano]

The act bosses in particular are extremely difficult in single player unless you spend an inordinate amount of time farming/leveling.


I personally loved the thrill of playing hardcore* mode online.

*once you beat the game once (I think this restriction is removed with the latest patch). You can start a hardcore character. In hardcore mode death is permanent rather than a simple loss of XP. I can't begin to describe how I felt when my level 89 necromancer was killed.

 

[EvilComputer92]

There is no such thing as NWN 2 Diamond. Are you talking about NWN 1 Diamond or NWN 2.

How has no one noticed this yet.

Anyway NWN 1 is far better than NWN 2. So I would say get the Diamond edition.

 

[darkewaffle]

NWN is fantastic, I've probably logged more hours playing that than every other game I own added together. I never actually played the original campaign past act 1 but in it's heyday the multiplayer community behind it was phenomenal, and even now there's still some great servers to get involved with. Diablo is great fun, but it got old for me incredibly fast, whereas I've been playing NWN for the last decade nearly and still love it.

 

[MentalIlness]

Yes, Neverwinter Nights Diamond. No clue why a "2" ended up in there.

 

[Kromis]

Diablo 2 because you can run through it pretty quick.