rtcvb32: Well seeing as you can't access Nightmare normally, '
one difficulty less' doesn't work. Quite often Vanilla D2 is too easy, and you don't really have the options of strategy beyond the roles the classes have. D2 is closer to pre-MMO than Rouge-like.
I said Zy-El would be a lot closer since it's a
lot more difficult (
you're running from skeletons in the first act til you're like 30th level), but strategy is either kite or melee. It's very much hack&slash&loot. Hardcore is more a gloating status than anything else; At least that's my impression of it.
hedwards: Except that those things have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not something is a Roguelike game. I swear at least 3/4 of the people in this thread have never actually played Rogue.
Diablo is an aRPG, the franchise pretty much invented the category. If you compare Rogue with Diablo there's very, very little in common. In order to place them in the same category you have to render the category meaningless.
I never played Rogue. I try to avoid games with no save & permadeath. Like I avoided the max difficulty in Diablo because of no save & permadeath.
