Hellfire

The Good
In order to appreciate Hellfire, you should spend some more time playing it. It is also highly recommended that you update the game to v1.01 - the patch can be found online.

Getting started is quick and easy - you don't even need to have Diablo installed. Just make sure the Diablo disk is in the CD drive and you are ready to go. You can use your old Diablo characters, but there is a catch - they will lose all items in their possession except the gold. They will enter the world of Hellfire completely "naked" so to speak.

Hellfire's main strong point is that it adds a new sideplot to the game (complete with new areas, quests, monsters and items), while at the same time updating the old familiar parts of Diablo with new content.

The first good thing about this expansion you will notice is that you now have access to Nightmare and Hell difficulty... in Single Player! In the original Diablo, it took me ages to raiuse a level 33 Warrior. In Hellfire, it took a little more than a week to create a level 38 Rogue. Having three difficulty levels adds significantly to the game's replayability.

If you explore Tristram, you will notice that two new interactive objects have appeared in it - a strange growth to the south and an ornate grave near the church. At first, it would appear that these don't do anything but you will discover their true purpose soon enough.

Hellfire's components are fully integrated into the game. The familiar old areas, monsters and items will be there as always. Once you reach the end of the expansion's plot, you can immediately get back to your original quest - slaying Diablo.

Of the new areas, the Demon Crypt is truly magnificent - it fits very well into the overall atmosphere of Diablo. It is as beautiful as it is creepy. Its levels are a good place for earning experience and finding good items. Spread throughout the Crypt are several journals too, which give you details on the backstory. Somewhere in this area is every Battle.net player's wet dream - the Cornerstone of the World, which acts as a device for transferring items between different characters.

In terms of items, Hellfire has a lot to offer. My personal favorite are the Oils - they work like potions, except the effect is applied to an item. Oils can repair items, improve their damage (weapons) or defense rating (armor), and increase an item's durability (or even make it indestructible).

Runes are small items that can be set as traps on the floor. Once a monster walks over one, it can get burned, zapped with lightning, or turned to stone.

Hellfire adds a bunch of new unique items - primarily jewelry, offering some interesting new options (such as doubling your gold-carrying capacity).

Of course, all of the new items can drop in the 16 original Diablo levels. Speaking of which, the old game areas have been updated with new shrines. Particularly interesting are the "Oily" shrine, whose effect depends on your character class, and the "Solar" shrine, whose effect depends on the time of the day (based on your system clock). There is even a "Murphy's Shrine", which always has a negative effect - stay away from that!

In terms of monsters, some of them look really good (and scary!) and some even use old artwork by Blizzard, which was intended for creatures that didn't make it into the final version of Diablo. Worth mentioning are the Reapers, the Liches, and the Satyr Lords. I enjoyed fighting them.

Most of the new spells are modifications of old ones. There are two uniques ones though - Berserk (makes monsters fight each other) and the very useful Search, which highlights items on the ground and on the map (in v1.01), making them easier to see and pick up.

There is a new character class - the Monk. I thought it was good to finally have a character focused on using staves. His other advantages is that he is pretty good at unarmed combat, can use light armor very well, and has Search as a native skill. He certainly offers a new and interesting gameplay experience.

Finally - "secret" content. Hellfire contains a hidden (and very silly) quest, which has something to do with the infamous "cow level" rumors back in the day. You may get this quest from a very bovine-looking person... and the quest reward is also pretty bovine in nature. I will say no more - this is something you should explore on your own.

The Bad
Hellfire suffers from two major setbacks.

First, it is VERY buggy. Hellfire is based on an older version of Diablo (1.04 if I'm not mistaken) and does not take advantage of bugfixes and improvements from patches released after this. Not only does Hellfire retain many of Diablo's old bugs, but it also introduces a few new ones of its own.

As I already mentioned in the previous part, it is highly recommended that you patch the game to v1.01 - this will fix most of the really nasty bugs. But not all of them. Therefore, be extra careful, save often, backup your characters, and be prepared for strange things to happen once in a while. In most cases, glitches can hopefully be fixed by restarting the game.

Second major setback - some of the new additions do not fit into the style of the Diablo universe at all. The Hive looks like something taken out of a low-budget sci-fi movie. Most of the monsters in it are alien in appearance and look more like the Zerg from StarCraft than evil Hell-spawned demons. Hellfire mixes genres in a way that speaks of poor taste. The story related to the Hive also doesn't fit very well into the overall Diablo plot - the nasty aliens are hungry and wish to consume the world and its inhabitants. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Last but not least - Hellfire has no multiplayer. It is completely disabled.

The Bottom Line
Despite its shortcomings, Hellfire still has some value to it and is worth trying.

Casual RPG players are not likely to enjoy this expansion.

True Diablo fans, however, should definitely give it a try. There is much to see and learn in Hellfire. Being patient is paramount if you wish to enjoy its good features.