Diablo II

aka: D2, Diablo II: The Calling
Moby ID: 1878

[ All ] [ Macintosh ] [ Windows ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 88% (based on 64 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 291 ratings with 19 reviews)

Mostly fun, strangely addictive

The Good
If you take the time to follow the story of the game, its fairly interesting, if for no other reason than to learn more about the lore of the world of Diablo. The real pleasure of the game comes from finding that new item that's better than what you had before. Item hunting is the name of the game for a lot of people, which isn't surprising, since it's really the only variable in the game that keeps it interesting. There's something oddly addictive about playing for just a little longer in hopes of finding an incredible item that transforms your character into an untouchable engine of instant death.

Player vs. player can be fun; there isn't much skill required and just deteriorates into a comparison of who has better equipment, but there is an element of fun hidden in destroying other people's characters.

The Bad
This isn't really a Role Playing Game technically. Not that every RPG has to be based on GURPS or AD&D or anything, but frankly, having an avatar with a few statistic choices and skill allocations an RPG does not make. There are 7 Classes now, and there are maybe 2 different types of characters within each class. If you're an amazon you either use a bow/cross-bow, or you use a javelin/spear. There's no such thing as an Amazon who uses swords and axes, or is a healer or anything like that. Minor complaint, but it's relevant nonetheless.

The first time you do all the acts, they're pretty challenging in that "click until they die" sort of way. After that they become a chore to endure in order get your character up to a higher level. After beating the game you are presented with the opportunity to beat it once more on a harder difficulty, and once you've completed that, do it again! Such fun has never before been had.

In all fairness to the game, Hardcore can truly add to the game, making it challenging in that your character is actually mortal, it dies, it's dead forever. It injects another level of strategy that is absent from normal play.

PvP, as I said before, it's an unskilled exercise in click-ology. It's fun to show off your character's stats/equipment, but nothing more.

The Bottom Line
Action Adventure game with light sprinkling of RPG elements. Play it once for fun, then play it again to find better items, play it again...and again...lose yourself in making your character better than anyone else's...then bring yourself back and go to work, you slob.

Windows · by MA17 (252) · 2001

More of the same, and that can be both good or bad...

The Good
Good Points:

1.A lot of game content: huge areas chock-full with monsters and items;

2.Cool, imaginative, well created and animated monsters, with great sounds;

  1. Incredible cinematics (the best in any game so far, and sure worthy of some kind of award...)

4.A whole lot of items, armors, weapons...

5.Skill system, which really adds a lot to character customization;



The Bad
Bad Points:

1.Average graphics;

2.Gameplay that is, with the exception of the skill systems and the added classes, identical to that of Diablo 1; and this is a double-edged sword, meaning that if you liked D1, you will love D2, but if you hated D1, you'll feel the same way about D2.

The Bottom Line
An improved, polished, and simply better Diablo. If you loved the first, you will certainly love the second. If you hated the first, well, don't buy this game. Personally, though, I had a hell of a lot of fun with it...

Windows · by Timotei Centea (5) · 2000

Simple Pleasures

The Good
The game picks right up where the last one left off and takes on a higher degree of depth. There's more to it than simply fighting your way deeper into the same dungeon. This time you chase Diablo through four Acts, each one with it's own flavor and setting, and its own set of quests that must be completed to proceed. Each Act is preceded by a cinematic scene that drives the story forward.

There is much more variety in this game than in the first game. There are five different character classes, each with its own skill tree uinique to that class. This gives each class its own playing style; different from the first game which had three classes not much different from each other. The game also introduces the concept of set items, a group of items which give the character special abilities when put together, and socketed items, which can have gems placed in them and allow the player to customize the item's abilities. There is also a greater variety of items overall.

The game's best attribute is probably its simple interface. The game can be run entirely with the mouse, though there are hotkeys for many functions. The result is a very clean, efficient interface

The Bad
There isn't a lot of variety to the game itself. It's pretty much just hack-and-slash the whole way through. It can get kind of tiring fighting through the same monsters all the time.

Act III is particularly tedious with waypoints spaced too far apart and lots of little annoying monsters.



The Bottom Line
Despite its lack of variety, the game is quite addictive. With so many items to collect and skill paths to follow, there is a lot of replayability. The simplicity of the game makes it easy for anyone to get into. Who doesn't enjoy fighting evil incarnate?

Windows · by Ghost (120) · 2001

Fight the addiction

The Good
Diablo II. The most schizophrenic relationship I've ever had with a video game. I played it when it was first released, got addicted, started hating it, removed it from my collection. Got it again later - same story. Waited some more time until I became a fan of action RPGs - and this time around I tried to understand what keeps beckoning me back after the inevitable "hate phase" kicks in.

For most purposes, Diablo II is an expanded variant of its dad, Diablo. Now, that game had a huge influence on the development of role-playing games in the West. For years I've been asking myself: why? With the varied and complex RPGs the West had been producing, how could this mindless hack-and-slash fest become so popular? The answer: precisely because it's neither varied nor complex. Before Diablo, brain-dead entertainment was firmly entrenched in the action culture. You turned to RPGs if you wanted deep, slow, meditative immersion. If you just wanted to have adrenaline-loaded fun, you turned to action games. The achievement of Diablo was that it transferred that kind of pleasure into the world of RPGs.

Diablo was a distillation of the most primeval RPG elements, and that was the secret of its success. It opened the doors to the more casual players, those who wanted to get into a game right away and immediately get sucked into a simplistic, yet devilishly addictive RPG system. Speed was the key: you were thrown right into action and didn't need to work on any skills of your own to vanquish enemies with a simple click. King's Field, released two years earlier, had a similar dungeon-crawling, purely action-based role-playing, and was much deeper, better designed, and more evolved than Diablo in every possible way - but it was slow. Guess which of the two games became more popular. In addition to the fact pace, the maniacal, obsessive collecting of random items would deprive people of essential daily routines. Ys, released almost a decade earlier, defined action role-playing with its ease of gameplay, but came nowhere close in satisfying our collector's instinct.

Diablo II is very similar to its predecessor in design philosophy, but overall it's a more varied game. Choosing a character class means little on its own: you'll have to build up your character, not just by gaining levels but by developing skills. Each class has three skill trees in three different disciplines. These disciplines are diverse as well and essentially provide an equivalent of additional classes.

To illustrate: the Necromancer class allows the player to summon monster minions to assist the naturally weak character. However, that's not the only way to develop a Necromancer, since another skill tree takes him into the direction of sabotaging enemies by inflicting status ailments of them, while the third one is more defensive, with treacherous bone skills that would provide the much-needed protection. Each of these Necromancers requires a very different approach not only when you have to decide which skill to invest points in, but also in the gameplay itself. Playing the summoning Necromancer, for example, feels more like controlling a commander in a real-time strategy game. A good, steady build will allow you to stand and watch how your skeletons viciously tear enemies apart.

In addition to this, Diablo II enhances and multiplies everything that made its predecessor addictive. There are many more types of monsters and an absolutely mind-boggling amount of items. The randomization of items works better than ever before since there are so many new kinds of equipment, leading to endless ways to outfit your character. Matching sets, gems that can be inserted into equipment for additional bonuses, runes, charms - you'll see no end to that when you emerge from your computer, pale from lack of sleep. No two builds will ever be alike, and you'll feel compelled to keep playing just to see what your character grows into. It's almost like raising a virtual pet, which is another trait Diablo games popularized (along with very low learning curve) that found its way into today's casual gaming.

No review of Diablo II would be complete without mentioning its cinematics. They are quite stunning, and I doubt there was a game at the time that could complete with them. The spectacular intro overwhelms you before you even begin playing the game. Those movies are impeccably directed and convey a captivating, almost haunting feeling. Somebody here should consider a film-making career.

The Bad
Now it's time to share the reasons which compelled me to get rid of this game more than once. I guess that would be easier, since those who don't like Diablo II would probably not hesitate to state the reason: repetitive gameplay.

Yes, experimenting with skills and building up a character can go in myriads of ways. But the other part of playing this game, what most people would consider the actual gameplay, consists of killing enemies and nothing else. Throughout the entire game you'll be slaying ridiculous amounts of monsters with next to no skill involved in the process itself. The game almost completely automatizes the action aspect, reducing it to an elementary point-and-click activity that requires no real effort or investment from the player. It's nearly on par with the old Ys games in its purely mechanical approach to combat.

The hyper-simplified battles would have been less of a problem if the game offered some other challenges. Unfortunately, while introducing several towns and open areas, the developers didn't find it necessary to populate them with anything but signpost NPCs and monsters. This creates an unpleasant dichotomy that was absent in the first game. Diablo was a dungeon crawler and didn't strive to be anything else. Diablo II, on the other hand, seems to promise more, but doesn't really deliver the promise.

This problem leads to lack of focus resulting in disenchantment. Once you realize that, despite the drastic change of scenery, you'll be treated to the same gameplay all the time, you begin to feel disillusioned and angry. The gameplay becomes tedious and tiresome, forcing you to stop a playing session simply because you've been doing too much of the same. Playing Diablo II is not unlike going to a buffet that offers just one kind of favorite food: you are exhilarated in the beginning but want to throw up in the end. Diablo II is irritating because it has absolutely no ambitions concerning the basic gameplay mechanics even though its size has been greatly increased. It may come across as an inflated, over-bloated variant of the first game.

Lack of imagination in gameplay design is probably a result of randomization. I never liked randomly generated environments, and, while I can see the logic behind the random items of Diablo II, I don't understand why it was necessary to randomize the playing area itself. It's true that the scenery is nice, but you can't shake off an uncomfortable sensation when exploring those plains and corridors that will have a different layout next time you start the game. Random locations means no attachment to them: you can't get attached to something that was designed by a soulless machine and won't be there during another playthrough. There can be no puzzles, because puzzles demand hand-made locations with actual design involved. Exploration loses its meaning, because you can't really explore an area that doesn't actually exist.

Absence of any life-like activity in friendly areas is depressing. Most dialogues are dry and humorless, and no NPC makes you care for him. There is something annoyingly calculating in the way Diablo II presents those characters, whose sole purpose appears to be feeding you boring, uninspired quests and selling you items. There is no feeling of cohesion in the game world, as those isolated towns are lost in the ocean of vast areas populated by nothing but hostile creatures. There aren't even any wandering salesmen or anything of the kind, making the world strangely artificial. There is really very little charm in Diablo II. It can impress and absorb you, but it cannot quite enchant you.

The gorgeous cinematics form a nice little story when viewed one after the other, but that story has next to nothing to do with what we accomplish in the game itself. The next movie simply continues where the first one left off. Without understanding the game's lore you'll even find it hard to connect between the events depicted in the intro and the entire first act, where you run around and kill monsters for money and meet none of those enigmatic characters introduced there. There is a rather jarring discrepancy in tone and presentation between the movies with their dramaticism and vivid characterization, and the game itself, which has none of that. The actual in-game story is close to non-existing and involves killing four or five big bosses in the most formulaic way possible.

Diablo II is bound to repel most people who value creativity and attention to detail, because it does its own thing only and mercilessly removes anything standing on its path. There are no memorable moments, no sweet little details, and very little human touch behind its cold, calculating facade.

The Bottom Line
While the constant stream of addictively simplified upgrading can - and will - suck you into the game, the sensation will only last until the sobering reality of soulless, randomized design and skill-less gameplay kicks in. Diablo II may entice you with its distilled RPG mechanics at first, but ultimately reveals itself as a shallow, highly superficial product.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181788) · 2016

A much-improved version of the hack n' slash classic that was Diablo.

The Good
Although the graphics are somewhat dated, you quickly forget the slight blockiness of your Barbarian when you dive into a horde of monsters. Diablo 2 is at its heart a character building game, and the skill system allows you to really experiment with different playing styles, even when only playing one class. For example, the Amazon can be played as a jabbing melee goddess or a mistress of missile weapon mayhem. The classes are well balanced, especially after you patch the game up to v1.06.

Although the graphics aren't the best, the cinematics, voice acting, and sound effect are awesome, especially in several sections of Act 2.

This is one of the few games that I have that I can come back to in six months and still enjoy, whether playing single or multiplayer.

The Bad
The one problem with the skill system is that it rewards you for specializing in high level skills at the expense of developing low level skills. Some classes even have a few throw away skills that are only useful as a means to get to the better skills. For example, the Necromancer's Skeleton Warriors never get very powerful, and so it is useless to build this skill up at all since the golems, revived creatures, and skeleton mages are so much better. If I really wanted to be a master of a skeleton warrior army, I should be able to do it and survive at high levels.

Another thing I don't like is that you are penalized too much when you fight monsters that are 10-20 levels higher than you are. In an attempt to balance the multiplayer game so that a high level character couldn't join a party of low level characters, kill everything for them, and have them advance quickly, you are penalized in xp per kill if you are way above OR BELOW the level of the monster. So if you manage, like I did, to finish the game at Nightmare difficulty when you are level 38 or so, there is no way you can survive or even gain any xp in Hell difficulty until you gain 15-20 levels! The game just slows down too much after level 30 or so.

The Bottom Line
A great hack and slash game no matter how you play it. Despite what Nethack fans may tell you, this is not just "Rogue with nice graphics and sound". It is a different, more entertaining, and much less frustrating and obtuse gaming experience than its text-based predecessors.

Windows · by Droog (460) · 2001

"click...click...click..." (in a good way)

The Good
Everything!!!!! well, everything except for the graphics...It's like Cinderella in a box...once you get past the graphics and looks, you'll be in LOVE...

The five classes are a complete improvement on the original, with each one doing different things, different spells, skills etc....further more, there is additional specialization within classes, especially in the spell casting classes, and paladin class...gives the game HUGE replayability...plus an enormous game world, definitely worth the price tag...

Multiplayer is much better...no hacking...no more people walking around with Fluffy's polka-dotted sword of the orangutan that can kill you in one hit...also includes cool clan halls that can be expanded, and a hardcore option...

New weapons...there are fresh interesting item sets, unique items, socket items...gems...makes the game very interesting...

An all new spell/skill system that rocks...instead of picking up books everywhere...you can choose which spells and skills you want and which you don't by adding skill points into desired skills...which gives you total control over your character...want a fire based sorceress instead of a lightning one? than just pump the points you get into fireball or warmth instead of lightning...want an axe wielding barbarian? then just increase your axe mastery, and leave that sword mastery alone...the possibilities are endless...

It's an improved Diablo...what more can you ask for???

The Bad
The graphics can be some up in one word...crap...although many people say that Act II has amazing graphics, I would like to voice my opinion that it is still crap...the graphics engine is the old diablo engine, but in some areas it looks even worse that Diablo I's...and minimal 3D acceleration...

Corpse retrieval...especially for necromancers and sorceresses...you'll probably die a few more times trying to get your friggin' body back, when you're weak, naked and some pissed off monsters are standing between you and your items...

AI pathfinding...when you are a necromancer, sometimes it will take all of you will power to keep yourself from going insane...sometimes your minions are stupid beyond belief, as they clog up in congested hallways, block you from escaping, walk into walls instead of around them...even more half-assed than the Dikatana AI, if you can believe that...however, it is only sometimes...so it is quite okay as long as you don't have too many in a cramped space...

Battle.net LLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAGGGGGG...although not as bad as before...sometimes the slowdown is annoying...

The Bottom Line
The Blizzard hack n' slash clickfest is back and better than before. With five classes, three difficulties and a huge game world, the replayability is endless, even more so with B.net...excellent gameplay that keeps you glued to your seat...The cutscenes are awesome...If you need your sleep or treasure the good condition that your mouse is in, you might want to pass...if you don't, it is your duty as a human lifeform (or otherwise) to pick up a copy of Diablo II..

Windows · by MadCat (53) · 2000

Quake in an RP nutshell...

The Good
You're probably wondering 'what the hell does that mean?', so allow me to explain. Quake and Doom, both 1st person shooters, have little in the way of strategy to complete any objectives. Simply choose your weapon, keep your heart in your mouth and blast whatever may come between you and the blue/red/green/yellow with purple spots key and, of course, the exit. Now the same can be said for Diablo, though perhaps not exactly the same. There is a small level of strategy to the game (mainly in the way of building up your selected character, from the chosen classes, to what you think will be the strongest to taken on the dens of evil) but other then that, it's fairly easy to call it a point and click shooter, for that's what you'll do ... for the most part.

Now that's, in no way, an indication of whether the game is good or not, but more an observation. As it is, Diablo is addictive, easy to get into yet hard to master and, more importantly, it's fun. You won't see any Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights between the lines, but as Blizzard have done so often in the past, Diablo II is a successful creation of a dungeon hack and slah like the good old days.

The key to the game is the creation of a compelling story. It's the kind of imaginative tale I've come to expect from the Warcraft clan. In its day, the FMV sequences were top notch, the characters were detailed and beautiful to watch in action and the orchestral score beautiful. By today's standards, visually at least, it doesn't hold a candle to the modern RPG or action title, but don't hold that against it. You'll still find more to do here, both single and multiplayer, and much more to see thanks to the wonderful design.

The Bad
Let's face it, after a certain amount of time, hacking and slashing your way through level after level, you may start to wonder whether it's worth carrying on. There are areas where it seems just like the last level completed, despite different characters to defeat. It comes down to how compelled you are to work your way through the game, trying each of the character classes and/or competing against others online through Battle.net. The online service is, in many ways, the saving grace for this and Blizzard's back catalogue. Players the world over will be fighting along side and against each other long after the third or fourth sequels are released.

The Bottom Line
While we wait with interest to see whether Blizzard will ever return to the world of Diablo (and I wait to edit this review once again when it does), the second title in the franchise still has what it takes to captivate an audience. If you, of the minority, haven't yet dived into the Diablo world, hunt this one down and give this little gem a shot.

Windows · by Kartanym (12418) · 2006

Best Game To Appear In Years!

The Good
This is one of the greatest games ever made! Sound effects are great. Cinematics are outstanding. Very addictive. Easy to learn and play. Great spells. Huge variety of weapons, spells, armor, etc. Mutliplayer has an awesome concept involving a party to play the game together and for players to show off their characters. Multiplayer trading is very cool. The five main characters are unique with their strengths and weaknesses. This game almost has no limits!

The Bad
The game puts a big footprint of your hard drive at full install (1.8 GB). Multiplayer has some major problems involving lag, not being able to connect, being kicked of or losing connection for no apparent reason, and many other problems. Blizzard promises to fix this, but I'm still skeptical and pissed! Graphics are way dated. The AI of the enemies is pretty bad (they run to you for you to slaughter them). Gameplay can get old after a while.

The Bottom Line
Even with it's many flaws it makes it on my top 10 list and should be conidered an instant classic. This is the best game to appear in years!

Overall Rating: 95%

Windows · by MasterAbyss-ESB (11) · 2000

Don't buy it because you loved the original

The Good
New skill-system with new spells/skills. They kind of dumped the old "You are a sorceress, here are your spells" and instead allow you to pick what kind of sorceress you want to be (fire, ice, electric). Same with barbarians, necromancers, etc. Just the fact that they changed the classes was a good improvement.

Much of the game is above-ground. You get out of the dungeon often, and it's kind of nice to be able to roam about a sprawling land.

Interesting things to keep you looking (like sets of armor, socketed weapons and armor). Sometimes this gets annoying trying to figure out which belt works better or which sheild is better, but overall it's good.

The Bad
Graphics. What is this hard-coded 640x480 stuff in the post 20th century? It's technical requirements really were all that was required AND necessary. A better PC won't make the game much better visually. WarCraft 2 looks better on my 21" monitor than Diablo 2.

If you like story line, this is not your game. This is pure hack and slash. Your fingers will go numb after all the clicking.

I question the balance to this game. I felt like all the developers did was boost the HPs of everything towards the end of the game. I didn't see "ingenious" uses of the magic in the game, and sometimes I felt like the AI was cheating (like they all had one set of shared eyeballs). Other times they couldn't figure out how to walk around an obstacle.

The Bottom Line
Overall, it's still a good game, but I prefer the original to this one. It's probably worth the lower price it should be going for nowadays, and all the changes to the game should keep you playing for quite some time. Towards the end of the game you'll be more driven to "Finish the damn thing" than anything else.

I hear the multiplayer on-line is pretty good, too, but I don't have high speed internet, so... .

Windows · by Cyric (50) · 2001

This game is a masterpiece of hack and slash

The Good
High replayability, with five different classes, three difficulty levels and a roleplaying like character advancement (including experiance points and randomally generated items, making you always look for a better combination). Excellent sound and music, with wonderful special effects and a special background tone for each area. Powerful multiplayer option, allowing you to play through the Internet with secured characters and no cheats, with up to eight players in the same game, sharing experiance, gold and quests. Amazing movies, from the assembly lines of Blizzard, which add a new element to the game, and are a pleasure to behold again and again.

The Bad
The core of the game is the multiplay option through Battle.Net, and unless you have a fast connection to the Internet (ADSL and Cables spring into mind) your connection will be very laggy, and playing through the Internet will be almost impossible.

The Bottom Line
Of course it's just hack and slash, but it's an excellent hack and slash. Blizzard did marvelous work of their sequel, and deserve full credit for their job.

Windows · by El-ad Amir (116) · 2000

Fantastic sequel if you like the genre

The Good
Diablo II is the sequel to the sensation that was Diablo (obviously). The folks at Blizzard, staying true to their nature, have given the consumers a fantastic sequel to an already great game.

The basis of the game is this. At the end of the first game, your character defeats Diablo, and then stays in the town of Tristam. But after awhile, he leaves, and in his wake a onslaught of devastation occurs. It turns out that Diablo has come back - inhabiting the body of the adventurer from the first game. Your task is to defeat Diablo and his minions and set things right in the world again.

Graphically, the game is utterly beautiful. Even when all the special effects are turned off, there is enough eye-candy to make any jaw drop in astonishment. Spell effects, creature detail, the glow of the fire, all rendered in 800x600 glory. Even the cinematics rival those of the Final Fantasy Series (FF7 and up). The cinematics, although not required viewing to play, contain some of the coolest FMV I've seen in years. At the start of the game and inbetween the various acts, the story is progressed through the movies, and just enhance the game in itself.

The sound and music are excellent as well. Again, all the characters are figures with voice-overs and scrolling text (with the exception of the cinematics), and do well to further the plot. The technical quality of the voice acting is top-notch. The is no doubt in my mind that all the recording was done either at a professional studio or in-house (if they have the equipment for it). The music in the background is very sparse, but it kicks in at the appropriate time.

The controls haven't changed much since Diablo came out. With the exception of on-screen menus that pop-up when you right-click on specific icons, and the fact that you belt number are 1-4 instead of 1-8, the control is exactly like before. And it's good not to screw around with a formula that has worked before.

The automap, while not perfect, is good. Although I would have preferred and automap similar to Nox (with the automap tucked in a corner), Blizzard addressed the automap "clutter" and have different settings depending on your game-style. You can have it like the original (why you would, I have no clue), or you can have it fade out in the center. That way you can still see around you, but still be able to make out the automap to navigate.

The gameplay, after combining all the elements mentioned above, is awesome. The game mechanics are very natural after playing for just a little bit, so it's very easy to get into. The levels are humongous, and wandering around to scavenge everything is only half the fun. And for posterity, here's a small list of other things I found great with Diablo II:

1) The fact that there are only 2 type of Scrolls (Town Portal and Identify). Considering the massive number of scrolls in the first game, I find that this way is much more efficient.

2) The Waypoint system. I like the fact that the waypoints are listed ahead of time, and that while you are playing you can set a goal of how far ahead you what to accomplish. Makes for good strategic play as well. Especially in cases where you are low on potions and need to rush to find the next waypoint. Makes for some great "Evade and Find" gameplay.

The Bad
Although I love Diablo II, I do have a few things that I can't stand.

First, the save system. I like the fact in the first Diablo that you can save at any position and then start back up right where you left off. Especially while you are in the middle of a quest. No such luck in Diablo II. If you Save and Exit Game, your stats, equipment and money are saved, but your position is not. The only benefit from this is that when you start your game again, everything respawns - monsters and gold/chests,etc. But it's still real annoying.

Second, I've had glitches where I gotten stuck on a rock. I can't move and I haven't learn "Leap" yet, so I end up having to Save and Exit, and basically start the level over.

Third, The automap STILL bugs the crap outta me. I find playing with the automap is both a minus and a plus. A minus being if there is a lot going on onscreen, you can't make heads or tails out of anything. And it's a plus when you can see back to where you've been or ahead (somewhat) to where you need to go.

The Bottom Line
Even though it has it's faults, Blizzard did a top-notch job with this sequel. They are one of the few companies that will take a game and make sure it's right BEFORE going gold. A fantastic game. If you like the genre, it's a must have.

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2001

The mind suck master of computer addictiveness - just like its predecessor...

The Good
Diablo 2 is ridiculously compelling. The combination of scenery changes and character progression will keep your mouse finger clicking for months, if you let it. Multiplayer (with friends, not necessarily online) is great fun, as the various combinations of character type create havoc: Blizzard wisely made it very hard to do one-sided player kills, as the possibilities for (non) co-operation are extensive...

The Bad
Diablo 2 displays a very interesting characteristic: it's an almost completely skill-less game. All that's really involved in progressing are lots of playing hours and mouse clicking. Once you realise this (after several months), the enjoyment becomes a bit tortuous. As computer entertainment, Diablo 2 is a pinnacle of what the old folks tell you - it's just about the ultimate waste of time.

The Bottom Line
Diablo 2 is best enjoyed as a relaxing way to go adventuring with friends. It's extremely good at what it does, which is keeping the player hooked and excited at a low level of brain activity. The atmosphere is incredible, and as a halfway substitute for gaming and tv watching combined, Diablo 2 is in a class of its own.

Windows · by Colin Rowsell (43) · 2002

Some GREAT cinematics hint at a storyline that's absent throughout most of the Hack 'm Slash simplicity.

The Good
Let me start with the game's greatest single point: It's easy to play. Okay? Got that. The simple "click on an enemy to attack" style of play (for most classes) will ensure that this game is easy to pick up and go with...

From the opening introduction cinematics to wandering into dungeons to gaining new skills and fighting a swarm of zombies... the atmosphere of this game is heavy and hangs in the air throughout the game. Most levels are beautifully designed, which is all the more impressive when you realize that they're randomly generated when you begin them. The characters in each of the towns are fairly unique and have both serious and humorous dialog.

There's a lot of unique items to be found. Collector gamers should have a lot of fun here, especially when updating to the latest version makes even more unique and Set (as in "part of a set..") items available.

The Bad
My main complain about this game is that it's long and for your efforts... well, I did not feel it reached a satisfying conclusion. I don't like to put spoilers in a review, but let me just say that the final act of the game was disappointing to me in every way (to be fair, I think I did feel that same way regarding the final levels of the first Diablo title).

There's a LOT of story in the cinematics and the dialog with characters but unfortunately, that's the only place it is... and it seems much too short. Speaking of dialog, characters seem to have different things to say "right when you're assigned a quest" and "later on when you're working on your quest"... that means that if you happen to miss talking to a character, you can end up never hearing one of their pieces of dialog.

Your character updates their image when they put on different types of armor/helmet/shield... but there are really only a couple of graphics for each type. For a game with so many hard-coded items and many randomly generating ones... it seems a disappointment that so many of them look the same.

This game is hack n slash. That's all it is. If you're like me, sometime during the Third Act you'll realize "hey, that's all there is" and might start playing less. During the final level you won't even have much of a storyline to contend with... just a long, slow Boss Crawl to the final showdown...

The most disturbing moment of the game is Tristam IMO... if only because I knew some of the characters from Diablo1.

The Bottom Line
The cutscenes are pretty. The cutting down enemies is fun... until it gets repetitive.

Simple Hack N Slash. Play by yourself or team up over LAN/Internet to have a proper adventuring party. Cut down monsters. Collect and sell items... and... that's it.

The cutscenes are fantastic, but don't depend on them because each lasts only a short while and frequently what you just saw did not apply to the game.

Windows · by Shoddyan (15001) · 2003

The interest faded all too quickly.

The Good
There were a number of things to like about this game.

  • The number of items and skills was vast. With the random nature of the items, there were a seemingly endless number of ways to equip your character.

  • The different classes. Unlike the first Diablo, each class was quite different from the other classes. As well, Blizzard put enough time into this game to allow each class to have a wide range of different ways to develop.

  • The music and sound, overall, were of very high quality.

    The Bad
    Now to the bad part. In any game, after enough playing (say, a week or two of playing off and on), the merit of the game ultimately comes down to the basic gameplay elements. Does the gameplay intrigue you, and make you want to keep playing? In Diablo II, I found the answer was a definite no.

As even the game's champions say, the game is essentially clicking. With the vast range of skills, nearly all players eventually focus down on, at most, two or three skills that they use repeatedly. So, the combat becomes "Skill 1 Skill 1 Skill 1 Skill 2 Skill 3 Skill 1 Skill 1 Skill 3, etc, etc, etc....." This really did not keep me interested for long.

The other part of the gamplay, the "roleplaying", is where you decide how to best outfit your character. This kept me amused for a while, but eventually becomes tedious. After one gets a character to a fairly high level, there tend to be only one or two particular weapons or pieces of armor that one is looking for.

So, after a while, the game simply becomes, "Go out into this area, kill hundreds of little critters with repeated clicking, and hope you get the item you are looking for". Well, quite frankly, this did not sustain my interest.

The Bottom Line
As everyone says, it's a hack-and-slash game. So whether you like it or not comes down to what other hack-and-slash games you have played. Personally, I enjoyed the first Diablo; but that was before I started playing NetHack.

For those of you who don't know it, nethack is a hack-and-slash game with ASCII graphics. But it has such depth of gameplay that it keeps you interested. Unfortunately, three weeks after I started playing NetHack, I got Diablo II. Now, even though Diablo II was far better than the original Diablo, because I had played NetHack, and knew how good hack-and-slash gameplay could be, Diablo II was deathly boring by comparison.

So, if you played games like Nethack, ADOM, or Angband, don't bother with Diablo or Diablo II. If you haven't played these games, you'll probably enjoy Diablo II - until you see how good games like Nethack are.

Windows · by Geoff Cruttwell (7) · 2000

Diablo II Is Better Than Diablo, But That's Not Saying Much.

The Good
In 2000, Diablo II, the long awaited sequel to Diablo hit store shelves. Considering how bad Diablo was it is surprising it sold well enough to warrant a sequel. Fortunately Diablo II is a much better game.

In Diablo II, the lord of terror lives! After his defeat at the hands of a young warrior, Diablo is reborn using the very soul of the warrior that dealt him his deathblow! Now Diablo is heading east to awaken his brothers. You cannot let this come to pass, if the three prime evils walk the earth, the world will surely be doomed.

In Diablo II you can play as five different warriors. The Amazon, The Necromancer, The Barbarian, The Sorceress, and The Paladin. The characters are not identical and all play quite differently. The Paladin and Barbarian are the easier, while the Amazon, Necromancer, and Sorceress are for an extra challenge. My personal favorite was the Necromancer. If you play him right he can also be quite a capable fighter, and become a fighting Necromancer.

The plot unfolds during amazing looking cut scenes. But other than that the plot is pretty non-existent. There are four Acts, each Act contains six quests, so there are a total of 24 quests. So this game is quite long this is both a good and bad thing. More on the bad later. The game can be quite fun and it is always rewarding when your warrior levels up.

Unlike Diablo, which only contained four dungeons, Diablo II has too many dungeons to count. There is also more than one main hub. The town changes with every new Act. One of the coolest is the large desert town of Act II. One of the worst is the jungle of Act III, the design is interesting, but the area has some really annoying enemies.

Some familiar faces return to help you. Like Cain, who sounds suspiciously like Sean Connery. There are many new features in Diablo II. One of the most unique is the use of The Horadrum Cube. You gain this item about midway through the game. It is a magic cube that lets you make items. You just place the components in the cube, and it makes a new item. Unfortunately the game does not provide a master list of things you can create. You either have to experiment like the game makers intended or get the info of the Internet, like most people did. You can also power up a slotted weapon by adding a gem, these add various effects and are permanent. There is also a skill system that was sorely lacking in the original game. Each Warrior has there own skill set.

The videos and voiceovers are amazing. The production values are high here. As they should be considering how much money Blizzard has. The graphics overall are a bit dated. They were dated in 2000! There are very few bugs, which is rare indeed.

The Bad
This game has got to be the only schizophrenic game I have every played. One minute you are loving it, the next you feel bogged down by repetition. Sometimes you just want hurry things up, but the game refuses to yield. Act III sucks. The monsters here are a huge pain in the ass. How many nights I cursed the jungles of Diablo II. It is the single worst area of any game I can think of. Diablo II is also very light on the RPG elements. Whereas most PC RPGS are very customizable, Diablo II’s only customization is what your warrior wears and what skills they learn. Pretty lame. Why is Blizzard considered such a great game maker? Black Isle, Ion Storm, and Looking Glass are all defunct, while all of there games were great. Blizzard, only has one excellent game World of Warcraft, but they still get to make games.

The Bottom Line
Fans of Diablo will love this game. As it is much better. RPG fans would have more fun with games like, Planscape Torment, Return to Krondor, or Oblivion.

Windows · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006

Disappointing.

The Good
It seems that so little people actually take the time to rate these games after they review them here on Mobygames. This makes for some rather inaccurate scores (though at the time of writing it, the 3.9 seems pretty much what I'd give it). With so many reviews written, another review would probably just add to the pile and not be worth much, but due to the lack of people rating the games, I don't feel that would suffice as a good contribution. So, rather than making a lengthy review about this game, I'll just go down the list of things I liked and disliked about this game. It's another person's opinion on the game, but nothing more.

Now, for the good.

I'll start by saying I loved Diablo. I still love Diablo. At the time, before I grew up, it seemed like the greatest game ever made. Imagine...every time you begin a new game, every level of the dungeon is different. You'll never know what kind of weapons you'll find. The combinations seemed endless. You work a little harder with every level you visit, descending deeper and deeper into Diablo's dungeon, getting more powerful and battling more powerful enemies until you meet the big man himself.

Ever since I beat Diablo for the eleventh time, I've wanted a sequel. The ending of the first was odd, and who didn't like the idea that you weren't stuck in a single town?

Well, Diablo II came and a lot of our prayers were answered. This time you were not stuck in one single town, one long ever-deepening dungeon. This time, you faced off against monsters in the forests, the deserts, swamps, dungeons, prisons, abandoned temples...the list goes on. With more monsters than you can shake your staff at and more weapons than you'll know what to do with.

Along with the expanded game world (and oh is it expanded), you get more character classes to choose from, and each one has its own set of advantages, along with unique skills they can get.

Also, you won't have to worry about not being strong enough to fight the next area, because every time you exit the game, the monsters come back.

There's no more foul trickery by saving and loading in order to get an advantage over the enemy. No saving-then-scout-ahead-and-load-back-after-you-get-your-ass-kicked. The only saving you'll do is when you exit. Otherwise, you'll respawn back at a waypoint and will have to go retrieve your corpse. I felt this really added to the thrill of gameplay.

The game remained in 2D, which I particularly liked. I feel that 3D technology hasn't quite evolved enough to take the place over good ol' 2D RPGs. But there's this "perspective" psuedo-3D view style which...well, is odd. Some people, like me, dislike it, but other people -- most people enjoy it, so I'll list it in the "good".

The lighting effects are nice. The bosses can be entertaining and their deaths are usually dramatic and bloody.

Revisiting old friends from Diablo 1 was my favorite part of the game, even if it was sad outcome.

The cinematics rock! Some of the best I've ever seen.

Stamina plays a part in this game, which is good.



The Bad
Now for the bad.

Despite being in 2D, the graphics weren't that good. The water looked goofy in most areas, the monsters were often times indistinguishable and the running animation wasn't that good.

The game is repetetive. Of course, it's unfair to say that, because the gameplay hasn't changed at all since Diablo 1. But there was a huge difference between the two. In Diablo 1, you cleared out a dungeon and went down further. Clear out a dungeon, go down further. Diablo 1 wasn't an RPG - it was an arcade game with RPG elements. Diablo 2 isn't the same. Diablo 2 involves lots of "go allllll the way over here, killing everything in the way, kill this thing, then go allllllll the way over here, then allllllll the way over here, then come back and then you progress". It gets extremely old, extremely quick. I found myself forcing myself through many areas just so that I could hurry up and kill whatever it was I was sent to kill and go back to progress the story a bit.

In Diablo 1, you were an errand boy. If Cain or that blacksmith guy wanted you to do a task, you'd do it, because it was on your way and you'd get a reward and it was for the good of the town. But in Diablo 2, you're everybody's errand boy because they always want you to prove your worth. "Sure, I'll help you, if you go and do these things for me," they might as well say. And you have to do a number of errands for every town you go along on your way. Not for the good of the town, not to fight evil, but just to get people to tell you something.

While I thought that, when you leave the game the monsters respawn was a neat idea, it's really only a neat idea if you're enjoying the game. For me, I couldn't play for more than twenty minutes before I'd get bored and leave. And whenever I'd come back, sure enough I'd have to hack my way through an army of bad guys. And what was an aggrivating cycle, is that, I would hack through a bunch of enemies to reach a point, then leave. When I came back, I'd have to hack through the army again, then get bored. The cycle went on, making my progress in the game verrrrry slow. But at least I was uber powerful by the time I got anywhere. Heh.

Since monsters can't follow you out of dungeons, they became pretty easy. Fight the monster, leave the dungeon, recharge, go back in, etc.

The weapon characteristics aren't nearly as interesting as they were in Diablo. In Diablo, sometimes you'd get a weapon WAY ahead of your level. It rocked, but it was rare. Maybe it's just as rare in Diablo 2, but I can't remember ever getting a weapon that wasn't just appropriate for my level unless I bought it myself.

Dungeon plunging is boring, since you'll never find anything worth keeping.

To summarize, Diablo II just was very boring and repetetive. If anything unique in the game came along (that is, something other than the massive hordes of enemies you'd spend an hour slaughtering before reaching somewhere), it came along far too late to keep me interested. The graphics were hardly an improvement over Diablo 1, and...well, frankly, it completely lost the feel of the classic original.

The Bottom Line
It has some good stuff in it. Big fans of the original should pick it up just to extend the story. The cinematics are probably the best feature of the game.

Otherwise...disappointing, repetetive, aggrivating, slow, boring.

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2002

very fun at first, boring after

The Good
Every now and then, you like to relax you brain with a "stupid" game. Kill everything, collect gold, get better equipment... that kind of stuff. Diablo II provides such a gameplay.
Graphics are not stunning, but more than decent
Sound effects and music are as spooky as they should
The pre-rendered movies are cool
The environment is random... which adds replayability (but only in the unlikely event you want to actually go through the game again)

The Bad
Diablo II is long, and that's good, but every part of the game is the same with different graphics. The gameplay is just too repetitive to entertain you until it ends. I gave up just before reaching the middle of the game.
Some character classes suck when they should be great. Take the necromancer : it sounds cool : command an army of squeletons and golems. Yeah, but either your "army" is too weak and will be of absolutely no use, or it is strong enough and then the game is just about walking and watching your squeletons kill the enemies, which is such a dull experience.
The environment is random, which means... that no-one puts any design in them. So some parts of the game will end up being too easy, while others will be frustratingly impossible to venture through.


The Bottom Line
Diablo II sounds fun, and at first, it is great fun.
But it fails to be an entertaining experience in the long run because of its repetitive gameplay and lack of balance.

Windows · by Xa4 (300) · 2001

Stagnant gameplay but wonderful cutscenes

The Good
Blizzard has demonstrated time and time again that they are a creatively-bankrupt publisher. The entire concept of their first popular game, Warcraft, was lifted wholesale from Westwood's groundbreaking Dune II. World of Warcraft is a shameless EverQuest clone. And while Diablo doesn't borrow from any one particular game, the gameplay is so dull, repetitive, and dreary that we should probably regard Blizzard more as a manufacturer of intro movies and cutscenes rather than a real gaming powerhouse.

Which of course brings me to the sole stand-out feature of Diablo II: the movies. The quality of the CG, the direction, the cinematography, the music, the horror of the demonic antagonists, these all tell me that Blizzard would do well to open a Hollywood studio and concentrate on film. One particular scene with the demon Baal fighting an archangel stands out in my mind as the best cutscene in the history of video games.

The Bad
This is a dull, tedious hack-and-slash affair. The gameplay is more suited to the 1980s when monotony was about all you could expect from a video game. Two years after BioWare released the deep, rich, and compelling Baldur's Gate, Diablo II is a sad reminder that some developers of marque titles really do not put a premium on innovation, as they by all accounts should.

The Bottom Line
With all that in mind, the production values of Diablo II are high, which no doubt explains why it was such a commercial, if not critical success. Still, the fact that we haven't seen a Diablo III speaks volumes: this style of gameplay is a relic of past.

Windows · by Chris Wright (85) · 2007

Bad game

The Good
Well, here's a vague attempt at making my former review more apetizing, but since I'm not feeling like writing an awful lot like last time let's just stick to the basics, ok?

What's good about the game?

It's fun....the first 5 minutes.

The action figure line rocks.

There is good variation between different character classes.

The game has amazing production values (good quality on almost everything).

Action is fast and furious, even with lots of critters onscreen.

The Bad
Gameplay is boring and repetitive beyond belief.

Storyline is predictable and has virtually no conection to your actions during the game (sense of reward=NONE).

Graphics are not so hot.

Rpg? being able to customize your slayer doesn't make it an rpg.

Too long, too annoying.

Way too over-hyped.

The Bottom Line
Anyway, if you like lots of repetitive gameplay with some flashy stuff added to it, go and get it. Otherwise there are cheaper and better means to entertain yourself.

Windows · by Zovni (10503) · 2001

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Foxhack, Wizo, Riamus, Tim Janssen, Flapco, Scaryfun, Crawly, Jeanne, vedder, COBRA-COBRETTI, jean-louis, Kabushi, Patrick Bregger, Juan Argañaraz, Xoleras, Alsy, Yearman, Sciere, Cantillon, ti00rki, chirinea, Emmanuel de Chezelles, FloodSpectre, Klaster_1.