Diablo II

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?