Even though Diablo and its sequels paved the way for the ARPG looter genre, playing the original can feel slow and slugish nowadays in comparison to the state of the art. But it's good to remember where the origins of this game lay: it was supposed to be originally a Rogue clone, with turn based movement and combat -some of that can be still noted on the clunky grid based movement of the final game- and that's where it lays more comfortably. You have to play it as a Rogue-like, not as an ARPG. Don't "save scum", don't dupe items, just play the Single Player mode with mobs and fixed NPC stores. If you hit a wall, so be it, time to start a new character. The Butcher massacred your level 2 character? Such is life, time to start a new character. That way, the game doesn't have anything to envy of the hundreds of roguelikes that plague Steam.
Engrossing turn-based combat (without grids, yay!) is the basis of this representation of the 3.5 ruleset, making for a shallow roleplaying experience (gotta fill the holes with your imagination) but a deep squad-based tactical game, probably the best at that as far as D&D games go. Much better than Neverwinter Nights in that regard, it's a game that is not for everyone - it's not perfect by any means and many of the downsides that don't bother me as much will probably make others ask for a refund immediately. But there must be some deep reasons for loving so much a game that corrupted my saves (it was my fault for save scumming probably), kicked me in the teeth and reduced my sleep hours to the bare minimum: It's just that creating different builds and party combinations and launching into combat against the unforgivable difficulty curve of the game (hits you like a brick until your spellcasters become too OP, just like in 3.5). I loved the game at first sight even with it's severe bugs back in the day, but you don't need to suffer the same pains I did then. There are community patches that are a must, google will help you with that. Among other things, you can unlock the level 10 cap of the original game up to level 20 (clerics will become degenerate gods by then), and even a couple of new campaigns for your party of adventurers. I really miss Troika Games. No other dev has hit such a streak of janky masterpieces as they did.
