[twillight]

Finaly a worthy Diablo 2 clone.
Well, the aesthetics are more like World of Warcraft, or whatever, so more modern, I don't mind that, it's a mostly random generated maps, mountain of monsters and loot. Just what I was after. Suck it, Warhammer!

There are only 4 classes, but that's fine. The skill-system is a bit unusual, but you get used to it. Weird, that you can only have 2 active skills, which do NOT get to the numbered skillslots, which are mixed with consumable-slots. Those places can be filled with spells learnt from scrolls. Well, there are good passive skills anyway.

You also get a pet. While they offer nothing special, I'd uggest avoiding the jumping crab thing as it's movement is sub-par, the panda seems more passive than the others, and the dragon-chicken blends in with the enemy. The alpakka is great though. But your pick.
On the note: the pets seem invulnerable, so who knows what those statbuffs and resistances do to them from their equipment - those bonuses definitely not buff you. Maybe they come to play when they are transformed by eating fish.
You should do fishing, not because transforming the animals is so great, but because you might find equipment. Oh, to successfully fish, wait until the glow entirely fades away, leaving only the brown circle.

So, how are the classes?
The Engineer is Diablo's big hammer barbarian. Technicaly it could use other stuff (like cannons), but that option is clearly effective. The big advantage here is the healing bot. It is immortal like the pets, and sticks around until you sap map by teleporting. Just walking on the field will not banish it just because you entered an area with name.

The Berserker is another melee character. It gains healing by stealing health when hitting the enemy, so a bit more problematic. Also, whatever class you use, wear some +lot HP equipment, that'll help.
The mage is Diablo 2's mage. Distant spellcaster and whatnot. I think I saw a skill that might be able to heal or whatever, but definitely not its strong point. Note: its wands ARE ranged weapons themselves, though you probably will use skills with this one. Obstacles in the way, and elevation difference WILL be a problem though.
The Outcast, or whatever uses either two pistols (low range), or shotguns (they are devastating, at least during the early game). Something feels fishy though, as the third tab os skills are about glaives and such throwing weapons, which indicates this got a last minute redesign which was half-finished to avoid copyright claims - seems this was an amazon-clone.

Skill resets exists, but you can only re-do the last 3 points you spent (or would that completely remove that skill?), which gets more costly by progress.

I also have like no idea how to farm exp and gold in the game, as it seems the monsters do not respawn. Maybe they do if you perish?
I'd welcome a manual.

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Beware, when you hit "sell all" on the pet's inventory (wether in the town at the shop, or sending the creature to sell your stuff, teleporting to twon is a rare occasion, and entirely unavailabhle when in a boss-arena), it sells EVERYTHING. Not just the tab you had open, but ALL tabs, meaning your fishes too to start with.

When you at the brink of going to Act 2 (meaning a new hub city), you'll be ca. lvl 23. So you can plan ahead. I'm trying to do a hardcore run on casual diff with a dual pistol outlander. It's not easy.

Btw, collecting sets while fun and possible, Ghastly and such low level stuff will become soon obsolate even if you manage to collect them, so keep that in mind.

Also, seems while the game was planned you only visit each area once, eventualy monsters in dungeons do respawn, probably for some memory-issue. They don't seem to scale in level though, but still. If you are out of ideas, especialy if you are doing hardcore, that's an option.
I was checking for more robot parts. I should also check if the guardians throw at you quest rewards. I'm not entirely sure about that one.

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So, got to Act 3. What I think now?
Well, I have almost no idea about the story, but I wanned whacking monsters, and I do that. With hardcore tagged in, after playing what turned out like half of Act 1 with all 4 characters, Casual is the right difficulty to try that.
1HKO is a threat like in the genre, but the game is not obnoxcious like the Diablo-frnachise with it, so you learn what to do: hoard items with +HP on them, then add elemental resists and "armor" (seems the same as elemental resists, only for physical damage). Also rise your dmg to the roof as you can, but surviving is first for me.

Seems the pet COULD die, but it levelscales and whatnot, so that's not that big of a threat, and I bet it'd just respawn after the same time as goig to the town. There seems to be 2 permanent changes somewhat attractive: the spider and whatever, I guess ok to go for it on higher difficulty or something.

There are a ton of features to empty your stash, try those, eventualy in the town itself you'll get enchanters, socketers, mercs who destroy your item to get out the socketed stuff, or destroy the socketed stuff and preserve the item, or even make higher quality items, and the shops even sell set pieces occasionaly... I should figure out their refres rate maybe.
In act 3 they even sold a spell, and those are funky if you find the right ones, like healing. Healing is cool. Or summonning. Make your pet summon you an army of minions to help you out!
You'll need healing, ton of it, but for Casual the game is generous with potions, fortunately, because from the 2nd half of Act 2 you'll chuck them, the bosses starting to become ridiculously spongy, and hoard-spawner stuff become a thing, so crowd damage would be pretty welcomed... Btw, I don't find big badda cannons, so I'd skip that build no matter what. Twohanded melee seems ok though. No idea on mages stuff.
the game makes things more interresting from 2nd hald of act2 with traps and mechanics built into the floor, and the phase gates are always interresting gimmick to behold (only the first 3 is "defeat things fast").

Skill requirement goes through the roof, meaning you won't be able to pick a new skill level just because you gained a level, resulting in accumlating skill points, darn, whatever. The gear you find though will eventualy lead you to spend your statpoints, so there1s that, unlocking nice high level equipment to use is great (and necessary).

So, yeah, if you don't want innovation and hours upon hours cinematics, just hack&slashing monsters, this is seemingly perfect.


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Note: do not entirely believe the level-requirement of dungeons. Like the nether-realm portals are always easy. There is a dungeon on the other hand filled with robots, and giant mechanical traps built into the floor, which is super hard. bosses which keep summonning infinite hordes are the thoughest, while giant strong but mostly solo bosses are way easier. For one of the dragons though, I think it was Vortex, the hard part is the "first statge", where hordes rush to you, and the dragon is not even targetable, but keeps on bombarding you with fire damage, which hits insane.
Coming to elemental damage, I'm playing on casual, and 3-4K HP is necessary, as well as 50-100 in all elemental resistances. You want poison resist 100 to manage the damage over time (you'll use potions to mitigate it), and 100 electric resists as when that type becomes an issue, it immediately hits hard. You can get away with only 50 cold resists though, and fire too until the late Act 3, where suddeny you'll crave for fire resists, I've put up 200 and still had to look for what I am doing. ON CASUAL DIFFICULTY.
Act 4 is just a single dungeon, very much like Diablo 1: one boss at the halfway point, and the final boss at the very end (this time some Cthulhu-monster). You'll reach this ca. lvl 50-51, not counting the Three Sisters quest, which I'd leave last, because you'll have to fight 3 boss monsters (not champion, but boss!) the same time, and that does not sound funny. I'd risk you might want to grind for levels, or advanace some in Act 4 before trying your luck there, especialy on higher difficulties.