I'm a Blizzard fanboy. In my eyes, they can do no wrong. Ever. No matter how shitty Starcraft: Ghost probably would have been, I would have eaten it up.

Of course, the two games I am most excited for -- out of any in the entire worlds -- are Diablo III and Starcraft 2. So much so that I had the uncontrollable urge to go through the hassle of hunting down my Diablo CD-key and installing it via Blizzard's oh-so-handy Download Service.

Installation complete. Oh shit... I'm prepared to waste the entire weekend rocking a game nearing a decade old.



A little back story however: I used to rock Diablo hard. I mean, harder than you want to rock my mom. My cousin and I once blew an entire summer back in our youth playing the game. Back in the days where 56k was considered adequate. I remember many an night that would roll into the morning. And then into the afternoon. I was all about my Paladin. Questing, PvP... I was nothing short of addicted. We played the game every single night. It was next to heaven. Diablo II/LoD easily ranks among my top ten games to ever exist.



So I've got Diablo reinstalled on my laptop. I've got a Battle.net account all set up. I've convinced one of my buddies to do the same. I roll a Necro, and he goes Barb.

We complete Act I, moving through Act II, rounding the corner to Act III and the bitch I remember Mephisto to be. Damn his soulstone.

And then it hits me: I'm not having fun. At all.



I'm just clicking. Wandering and clicking. Click click click. Ooh... hold <alt> to score some prime loots. This isn't the grand game my memory made me think it is. I'm incredibly bored.

Since this experience, I've began to worry. I can't pin down what it is that just didn't make me lovelove Diablo all over again.

Do I just not dig it this time around because I've already played it, already know where to go and how to skirt around the bitchier parts?

Or is it something much more worrying: Have I grown out of Diablo's style? I'm sure I'm safe to assume we've all had this experience. There are certain genres that, at one time or another we absolutely loved... but now can't stand, be it anything from a JRPG to a FPS.

I desperately hope it isn't that latter, as I truly want to love Diablo III. But after re-tapping Diablo II, I can't seem to ease this growing suspicion that I will be incredibly bored by the clickity-click nature of the Diablo universe?

As an aside: I've been playing a shit-tonne of Starcraft, and have none of the same qualms as I've expressed above.

So: Is it just Diablo II that I'm not feeling, or is it potentially the style of the Diablo series I'm not feeling?