Diablo II

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.

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.

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.