There where a few quests in diablo 1 that didint have any direct combat related to them *however there where probibly random monsters in the area, the mushroom and arkains valor quests are examples* You see diablo was set totaly inside a dungeon, so even the non combat quests had the random monsters around to fight you. If they expanded diablo 1 they would naturaly have had non combat quests. You cant really expect to just wonder into a nice little empty area with 5 levels of dead monster corpses above you and 4 levels of hellspawn below you that just happens to have a nice little monster free quests.. that would break the game=P Basicly i define a non combat quest as a quest that dosnt require you to fight or kill anything to compleat. Diablo had these, but the whole game took place in a monster populated enviornmet.
But basicly, iv read alot about the world that diablo takes place in, iv taken the time to talk to all npcs in diablo 1 and 2. And im telling you that it is a rich and diverse game world, it just isnt shoved in your face, becaus your charicters to buisy saveing the world from evil to go fetch a farmer a new shovel so he can plant his corn and give you a gold pice as a reward and never contribute anything to the plot ever again. Those kind of pointless quests acualy offend me, make a game world then fill it with pointless-ness and call it an rpg simply becaus you can waste countless houres doing random tasks for NPCs? bah!
Diablo 2 is kinda screwy in the quest department. See they wanted to make sure that each act had 6 quests.. becaus of this there are several quests wich just shouldnt have even been listen as quests in the first place.
But basicly, what im trying to say is. Diablo (even d2 but i really feel kinda dirty trying to promote d2... i dont think its a worth wile game unless you where a d1 fan) is a solid world and could easily have been converted into a full story driven rpg if there was simply more to it. The thing to remember is that diablo has never tried to sell it for more than an action-rpg type thing. The differance is it acualy has a story, and when you play it, you acualy get a feeling that your doing something for more than just chopping off monster heads and getting items. Take a look a dungeon siege, that game is horrid, then compare it to diablo. If you have any sanity at all you should immdiatly notice the differance. Diablo is a hack and slash with amazeing rpg elements transposed over it. Dungeon siege is a poor rpg with a crappy hack and slash system transposed over it. Divinity is a hack and slash base with rpg-ness built up on it, like diablo. The only differance is divinity is not one really long dungeon, but isntead goes outwards and hence, has room for non dungeon-related things *wich would not have fit in diablo, your not gona run into a new town on level 3 of hell..*
So basicly.. my point is. If you dont like diablo, but clame to like divinity.. then you are eather totaly out of your mind, dont really like divinity all that much and dont really dislike diablo all that much, or just dont know what your talking about becaus you never took the time to really see what diablo was. (a classic game such as diablo demands a short perid of cult like obsession in order to be understood)
ahh well=P i still say that Xenogears was the best rpg of all time=P Just love that story
