Diablo II

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.