Unfortunately Blizzard has a history of shutting down open source projects of implementations of their IP, I would be surprised if they don't go after this.
Blizzard's complaint with Stratagus was mostly with the original name, "Freecraft". When they took "Craft" out of the name, they were mostly left alone, and the project continued onwards.
>In June 2003, a cease and desist letter was received from Blizzard Entertainment, who thought the name Freecraft could cause confusion with the names StarCraft and Warcraft, and that some of the ideas within the engine were too similar to Warcraft II.[3] The project halted on June 20, 2003
My biggest recommendation to the OpenDiablo and other Diablo clones? Rename it as soon as you can... to OpenDemon or something. It at least gets you away from Blizzard feeling as if they need to defend their trademark, to ensure they can successfully defend their trademark in the future.
I think it "Clicked" when someone said 'none of the programmers that made Old_Game even work there anymore'
These companies are selling IP, not a sequel. When you buy modern Zelda, you don't get Majora's Mask, you get a 2015 action game skinned with Link.
Blizzard is a corporation that owns the characters and names. However you can play Diablo clones that are significantly better in 2020. You just need to be okay without Cain.
Nolstagia is a hella drug.
When I discovered libre games thanks to Linux/BSD and some source ports with total conversions, I was sold.
There was 2000 times better quality on a lot IF and now called "indies" than most games since 2002.
Nethack is a turn-based roguelike. Diablo is an action-oriented dungeon crawl (the original at least; I never played Diablo 2 or 3). To me they don't "feel" the same enough to compare which one is better.
I'm a fan of roguelikes too, by the way. If you want to try a somewhat different roguelike for Linux, I recommend Teleglitch (commercial, scifi, quirky graphics, real-time, brutal gameplay).
edit: and Duskers! How could I forget Duskers! For a really different scifi roguelike: http://duskers.misfits-attic.com/
If any, Flare RPG has anything the first Diablo offers with a longish campaign and a good set of skills.
I know the timing changes everything (and Nethack is more like a text adventure lore made into a top-down RPG), but the environment and tasks ingame aren't so that different both in Diablo and Moria.
I have a good list here. Nethack, DCSS, the old TOME 2.x releases, SCrap...
I avoid CDDA because I hate games with no clear ending or objectives ingame.
Teleglitch is punishingly difficult from the start, and pretty fast paced too, so maybe give that one a pass.
There are absolutely differences, some significant. But they have a lot in common.
I would be pretty surprised if, of those who played Nethack around the release of Diablo who also made a habit of purchasing Windows games, there wasn't a majority that also played Diablo.
> I still see no point in saying that Nethack is a better game since it appeals to totally different players.
I agree that the two are sufficiently different, and sufficiently well executed examples of their species, that personal preference between the two is likely to be dominated by the differences that cannot be reasonably labeled "quality".
FWIW, I loved both.
But there are (IMHO) at least two companies that still put out outstanding games.
1. Nintendo. I can't speak for the Zelda remasters that have come out. I never played the originals so had no nostalgia to draw me in. But Breath of the Wild... that was simply amazing. I bought a Switch just to play it and don't regret it at all; and
2. Rockstar. This one is a little more difficult for me because GTA3 and 4 blew me away at the time. Like they're actually satire. I think they lost that soul with GTA5, which people rave about for some reason. For me, it was a massive disappointment I never went back to after finishing the story missions. Sure it looked pretty but the writing was lazy, the characters were absolutely two-dimensional and off-putting (eg I almost stopped playing entirely when it came to Trevor) and all the humour/satire was just... gone. Plus it became less "slapstick". Like I drove a bus the wrong way down the ring road to see how far I could get before blowing up. I actually did a complete loop. There's no way that'd happen in GTA4. Your car would blow up long before then. In San Andreas you could cause massive car pileups that would chain explosion and I'd sometimes do that for giggles. I'd gotten >20 cars to blow up that way. I really do hope GTA6 finds its way back.
But Red Dead 2... that's both a massive technical achievement and a great game.
I'm also not opposed to reskins of old games. But they have to be right in exactly the way Warcraft III (Refunded) wasn't. It's too easy to lose the magic and the feel by carelessly updating graphics. Oh and Blizzard's IP grab on player maps (aka we're not going to let Dota 2 happen again) is downright disgusting.
But these franchises and companies are (unfortunately) exceptions. Too many games now fall into two buckets: player-generated content (ie PvP) or pay-to-win (ie mobile games). Neither particularly interest me.
Perhaps Obsidian is one studio/producer that keeps turning out outstanding experiences for so many years.
Just play Youtube clips of Bane from The Dark Night Rises. I swear he is voiced by Deckard Cain.
I'll never be able to un-hear this. •__•