I'm still a fan of Diablo 1. It's a pleasent hack-fest. I've just finished it again with the Rogue and have moved onto the Warrior again.
I was upset that when I started a new game after finishing it with my Rouge, all of the creatures went back to level 1 while I was level 25. I couldn't gain any experience off them! You'd think that the game would adjust the difficulty to start at whatever your character is.
Diablo 2 is a bit of a pain because the maps are too open. I like the size and non-linearity of them, but I don't like the fact that it's just open fields. I particularly liked the Jungle episode because it was more of a maze of paths (albeit a simple maze) than a big open square.
I think I would like Dungeon Seige as a hack-fest game, except for the party factor. The engine and graphics in that game was amazing, but there was far too little character development.
Divine Divinity is a great RPG. There is so much to customise. It has hack-fest and it has quests. You can play in a variety of manners. The only thing it lacked was response to your actions, aside from the occasional Reputation swing. RiftRunner will address this I believe.
I can see what Larian are doing, and I think it will bring great things. Larian expanded on the hack-fest RPG with Divine Divinity. They created a prototype for a new (or rather, reintroduced) type of RPG. Divine Divinity has many great aspects, yet many failings. But all of us have talked about the failings and Larian have listened.
RiftRunner will be version 2 of the new RPG. Character development will mean more, game balancing will be better, and many other flaws will be removed. Now that they've addressed Divine Divinity's failings, they can add somethings new: parties. And it is likely that the party aspect of RiftRunner will have a lot of problems. And we will talk about them and Larian will listen.
Divine Divinity 2 will be version 3. Game balance will be fixed. Parties will be fixed. Quests will be fixed. A large backgrounds and number of loose ends will be available to draw on. And now they can include multi-player!
By taking the game one step at a time, they can ensure that each one builds on the previous experience and creates a solid RPGing experience for us all to enjoy in a few years time. Games have crashed and burned because they tried too much too quickly and it didn't all mesh together. I'm looking forward to RiftRunner and Divine Divinity 2 not because they are sequals, but because I believe they will be better games.
