I question your ability to create an informed opinion on diablo 3. It's fine for you to not like it, that's your prerogative, but think its disingenous to present yourself as almost a sort of expert on d3 when you don't really play it.
I've put about 50 hours in over the years total, plus lots of watching streams. I know what I like and what I don't... its just my opinion, I personally feel that between the time I've put in, and what I've seen of other's gameplay, its not for me.
D2 was flawed because skill and stat points didnt actually create meaningful choice - they actually limited it. You try to hand wave this off as "well it doesn't bother me" but it is a legitimate flaw.
Well sure, but at least it was a "choice". D3 has no choice, if you want to take this line of reasoning. You've got all the tools in your toolbelt. Every game has a meta, they always will.
I don't buy your argument about graphics at all - its a nitpick.
Eh, I'm not "selling" anything. They look cartoony to me. Maybe not to you, but they do to me. All the blizz games since WC III look cartoony to me. Its their design aesthetic no doubt about it, doesn't appela to me. Fuck me I guess? /shrug?
Story-telling in d3 is stronger than it was in d2; Sit down and think about this objectively, d2 was honestly rather poor at conveying information - it was a "chase the bad guy" situation with no real meaningful direction to it, mostly just random fetch quests. Sure, d3 had issues with the talking heads of belial and azmodan, but overall the story was conveyed much more cohesively than d2 ever did.
Will have to agree to disagree here. I prefer the straight-forwardness of the D2 type "filler" quests. I like stuff like Dark Souls that leaves things nebulous.
Rifts are an adaptation to the MF / Exp runs of d2, and I honestly think they're far more successful in creating variety and a unique experience. You don't like the endless difficulty, I do - it keeps it engaging.
I can agree with you on the first part of this. The rift system isn't a terrible one. Much like Maps in PoE, it is a good way to mix up the variety and keep the endgame from becoming too stale. I dislike how D3 handles itemization though, and so for me, hunting for gear and items in general is a bore because you are just looking for a bit more primary stat. It is an endless gear check. You don't get to find cool items like in... pretty much any other ARPG, its extremely linear.
Barter trading of d2 was nonsense, people overvalued literal garbage and you could spend endless hours in chat rooms or looking through items on forums - I'd rather play the game than have to deal with people to get items to make my character at least passably competent. D3 improved dramatically by getting rid of trading (even though the AH had flaws and the community was still as riddled with bots and scams as it ever was in d2).
I don't play much D2 mutli anymore, but when I did play (on Slash) it is pretty straightforward economy based on runes. I do remember the early days of people throwing all their garbage in the barter window though. Still, I have a lot of fond memories from trading and deal-making. Much prefer to have it than to not.
What the hell does that even mean. You're just as beholden to questing in the story mode of d2 as ever, at least until you beat the quest once and never ever have to do it again ever (opting out of gameplay). Adventure mode's bounties are a great way of having you explore the game even after you're "done" with it.
Yea I'd probably enjoy that mode too if I could be bothered to push through and get to it, no real desire at this time to go for it though. Its just not the game for me, don't get a lot of fun out of it.
I understand you seem to like it quite a lot and I can see why other people do too, but its not terribly entertaining for me mate.