DD sort of looks like Diablo II when you get started, what with some of the text, the look of the item description boxes, and a few other things. But that's really where the comparison ends. It is not a levelling treadmill, there is no powerlevelling, cow level, or anything like that. I haven't seen anything that resembles MF runs, like Mephisto or Pindleskin.
It's really story driven and many quests can be accomplished without combat. The nice thing is that there are experience points given for quest completions (something foreign in Diablo II).
Diablo II is really just a giant levelling-treadmill treasure hunt with just enough story line to give the hack and slash some kind of direction. DD is nothing like that.
You can easily despise Diablo II and love DD. Give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
