...oh. well there's that. and i'm one of the weird ones who still
hasn't
played D2. despite owning it. backlog hell is where it's at. still, i understand the genre - it's got enough clones out there that i've played. here's a youtube review that might help clear things up.
alternatively - and this is a bit biased - someone who's a fan of the genre did post their thoughts on the game over on the dev's forum.
http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=437734
otherwise my short answers here go:
1) i'm not sure diablo's a good comparison to use for it. while the game is certainly linear, it's also extremely open ended. the action is better and more frequent than say, NWN, but it's also got a feel that's much closer to planescape than you'll find in most wrpgs due to the world, writing, lack of hand holding, and history. i've got a good backlog in this field and it's not my go-to genre either so i'm not the best to talk about it (NWN2 i completely forgot what i was doing, haven't played the ME games as i'm just waiting for the series to be released in a 'complete' form, need to get around to playing Risen, didn't like Morrowind...), though from what i've played it definitely lives up to more of a case of being like the older wrpgs in that it mixed things up. seeing how one of the devs loves Ultima 7, makes sense.
2, thankfully the game seems to be pretty much isolated. and yeah, it's got the expansions that Ego Draconis had in it too so it's an all in one deal there. everything you need to know about the game's inside the game. which is good considering nobody's played the first one. <_<;
3, the customization's pretty great, however the
use in combat
isn't so great, nor are the weapon
types
. there isn't much that changes your armor's appearance sadly, but if you're talking about abilities? you can pick any class tree's ability at any time and any skill in the game at any time. so for that, you're pretty good to go. you aren't gonna really find a game that allows you to play around with your character's abilities through the game that easily. physically though, 'meh.' nothing to really write home about sadly, though there's a ton of equip options.
--
The King Wang.
Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.