[Area_51]

I would say that TQ is the best D2 imitator yet. It's graphics are exceptional. It has tons of skills and items, numerous build options, multiple difficulty levels, online play, trading, you name it. But...

Why is it not addictive? Why is a 50 hours of TQ enough, and 500 hours of D2 a good start?

The first real difference I noticed when playing TQ was speed. It felt slow. I started with a Hunter. My character ran slowly. My character attacked slowly. My character leveled slowly. Game areas were large and took a long time to explore. My character faced hords of monsters and shot them, one at a time. I added skills and items that helped, but not that much. I finally got up to the shrapnel thingy that I hoped would be like an exploding arrow of some kind, and as far as I could tell it didn't do anything at all.

So i built a caster. Soothsayer she was. (Actually I lied. The first REAL difference I noticed between TQ and D2 was that there was only one choice for a female character, and she was as ugly as six miles of mud fence.) Anyway, as a character she was much better to play. She killed fast, and thanks to light armor, -100 to all resists, and my kamakazi playing style she died fast. She has over 500 deaths, but she can also kick Legandary Typhon's butt in less than ten seconds. Great.

So I started collecting items. Muling is a pain. Even with 2 PCs and 2 copies of the game it's still a pain. And now that I have a bunch of Legandary items I still can't find anything that makes me say, "Gee, I need to build a character to use this baby!"

So I tried a Warrior. Slow, walking, slow talking, slow whacking Warrior. Whirlwind is mildly interesting but takes to long to recharge. The other multi-hit skills only fire off occasionally. Even so I'm sure I can make a good one, especially with one of the dozen or so purple shields I have, but after my Leaping, Whirling, War Crying Barb he's as dull as an Oscar acceptance speach.

So I looked for something different to build, and couldn't find it. Whack 'em. Shoot 'em. Zap 'em. that's about it.

So here then is my list of reasons why every D2 imitator to date, including TQ, has fallen short:

1. Character variety: D2 gave you seven unique characters (5 + 2 in the Expansion). They look different. They play different. And for each one of the seven there are at least two and sometimes three or even four highly viable alternative build strategies. Bowazon vs. Javazon. Zealading vs. Hammerdin. Whirling vs. Warcry Barb. The thing that made this work was the fact that you actually had a very limited number of skill points to invest, which forced you to choose a particular path.

2. Item variety: Socketed, crafted, rune worded, etheral, rare, set, unique. Some were so hard to come buy that you would trade everything you had for one. Some builds were only worthwhile if you had the right one.

3. Speed: Questing is ok for the first dozen times through the game. After that you want to get on with the MF runs and leveling so you can try out new builds. Don't make trudge through miles of junk to do it. Gimme a portal and let's team up and do some Baal runs.

4. BNet: As bad as it gets it's still better than anything else around. Easy to chat, trade, and form up a party.

My $.02 worth.