Published by Blizzard Entertainment & Blizzard North
Reviewed by Chariss on 7/14/00

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First Impressions:

Graphics:

Since I have two Voodoo3 3000 cards, I knew I would be seeing Diablo II in all of its accelerated glory. For the purposes of reviewing, however, I turned my card's acceleration off and used the game options to go as low-res as possible. D2 was still amazing to behold. The only time graphical texturing was obvious was when I was underground within caves or chambers, which rely on shadowing and tiling more. While the patchwork tiling was obvious among the shadows, it did not detract from the game itself. In normal resolution with acceleration turned off, the graphics were seamless and beautiful. With acceleration turned on, D2 takes on an otherworldly appearance. The subtleties of a flame, the ripples of rain falling into a pool, the fluttering of a banner, become a sight to behold. The small details are what make D2 stand out in all of its richness. Blizzard obviously spent a great deal of time working out the details so that every pixel is there for a reason and all work wonderfully.

Sound/Music:

The ordinal Diablo's music had the perfect blend of mystical, epic and scary all rolled into one. D2 takes ten leaps forward, with each piece of music truly furthering your quests along while building tension in the right areas of the game. And for once I have to say that I have not had the urge to turn it off after gaming for a few hours. It truly becomes a part of the background and would be sorely missed if turned off.

The NPCs have a much larger dialogue than ever before, with gossip being a small fraction of what you want to hear. Each interactive NPC helps further knowledge behind a quest in addition to their narratives. Many give you helpful advice when you need it the most.

Of course, the creatures each have their own death knells, along with the sound of how they died. The pitter patter of rain falling or the crash of thunder after lightning breaks help immerse you further into the game. You can even chase clucking chickens around the rogue's encampment. If you haven't chased a chicken yet do try...it is one of the more hilarious tiny details that Blizzard thankfully devoted its time to.

Gameplay:

The lands to explore are massive! If you were used to the constrained areas found in Diablo, you will be lost in Diablo II. The tab key (automap) has never been more a friend than it is now. Because of the size of maps, Blizzard listened to the gamers and put in the much needed run function. Running is now the only way to travel efficiently in the four lands. Though it is dependant on your stamina (which drains as you run), you never really have to worry that much since potions are always available to bring you back up to 100%. If you do not have a potion handy you can always stop and kick some demon arse while your stamina rejuvenates itself.

Gameplay is still relatively the same as Diablo, but with a few new touches. Instead of continually clicking on a monster hit, you can just click and hold. Your character will attack the creature until it dies, then you can move onto the next one. Both left and right mouse buttons are utilised now, allowing you to apply different actions to each one. Perfect for those times when finding those old hotkeys during the heat of battle means the difference between life and death. Also, the game options are more configurable than ever, with not only more robust sound and video configuration, but also the ability to configure your own hotkeys for any and all actions.

The interface is very similar to the old one, but there are a few additions. Besides having the new right and left action indicators and standard health and mana balls, you now have a stamina bar and an experience bar to monitor. The extended attributes of gameplay are now available through a mini panel within the interface, which allows you access to the character, inventory, party menu, quest log and skill tree screens plus automap, message log and game menu with the click of a button. For those who are used to using hotkeys, the old favourites are still there with the new features like the skill tree or party menu having new hotkeys you must learn. The potion belt has been revamped a bit with only four potions showing. Once one is used, if you have a belt that holds more than four, the potion above it will drop down into place giving a gamer only four keys to use for potions instead of the cumbersome eight we were previously forced to use.

Despite my original skepticism, the new classes are not just upgrades from those found in Diablo. Each class is distinct, with different skills available only to that particular class. Where once you had a warrior, sorcerer, and rogue who could pretty much use the same items and learn the same spells (just with varying degrees of skill) now you have the individually specialised skills of the barbarian, amazon, necromancer, paladin, and sorceress. Gone are the days where a warrior could use chain lightning (albeit a lower skilled variety than the rogue and sorcerer) to help him clear out one of the levels of hell. Now only the sorceress can summon chain lightning. There is so much to work with now that every player can truly create a uniquely specialised character. The time of reading every book as often as you can until you cannot read it anymore is gone. Now you must carefully weigh your decisions on which skill you wish to nurture and which you will drop by the wayside. Every level gained, once you have accumulated a certain amount of experience, not only gives you the old five points for either strength, dexterity, vitality or energy (once magic). Now you also gain one skill point to apply to any skill available to your class. Choosing where you will use that skill point becomes a major decision and one that can be kept for later contemplation. Saving skill points (by not using them immediately) can sometimes be a good move allowing you to use the points on higher-level skills not available to you until you reach the higher levels of experience.

The newest feature of D2 that brings it out of the dark ages is the trading option. Not only can you trade with the NPCs (non-playing characters), but trading with fellow gamers takes on a new meaning. Where once you took a chance by trading with someone and taking what they dropped on the ground (not knowing whether it was hacked or not), now you can trade directly with a character on a specialised inventory screen. Both gamers place items they want to trade in their respective screens (which allows the other to check out stats and what not), and neither gets the other's item(s) until both parties are satisfied. This can be done via finding gamers within the trading post on battle.net's chat or the game itself. Since all realm characters are kept on Blizzard's own servers instead of the gamer's hard drive, you can be assured now of receiving only legit items. The only drawback to the trading is when playing in the open format where hacking can, and more than likely will, happen. But at least open characters are marked as such, so there is little danger if one only trades with other realm gamers or those open gamers they truly trust from past experience.

Another difference is that now every NPC that trades regenerates new items each time you leave the town core and venture out into the wilds of whatever land yo are in. Alas, gone are the days when Griswold had the same items in his stock unless you started a new game, so saving up for that Godly Plate of Whale Gris might have had is no longer an option. But the chances of finding what you want are better than they ever were before due to the amount of NPCs that do trade items. Also, some NPCs now have a gamble option that allows you to buy unidentified items for a price. You take the gamble on whether that item turns out to be the goldmine you wanted or the dud you should have never spent 12,000 gold on.

Items themselves are still available in their regular, magical, and unique formats along with three new attributes: socketed, set and rare items. They are designated by the name colours grey, green, and yellow. Set items are unique and part of a whole, each piece having attributes unique to it. When combined with the rest of the set, however, these items bring even more magical attributes to your character. Rare items are more powerful than magical items and are thus more highly prized. Socketed items allow you place gems (a new addition to the gameplay) in the sockets, giving a common item magical abilities denoted by the gem. Gems can be found on monsters or gem shrines and run in the five varieties: chipped, flawed, normal, flawless, and perfect. The higher quality gem, the greater magical attributes it will apply to your item. This addition gave this gamer a headache when trying to decide whether to use a socketed item or not and which gems to use with which item.

So, once you have a perfect set of armour and weapons for later use at a higher level, what do you do with it? Why, you store it in your stash chest! One of the more welcomed aspects of D2, the stash chest, allows a player to hold even more than they could before. Of course it is never enough, but the chest allows you to hold as many items as will fit a 5x5 area, along with 100,000 pieces of gold. So for those pack rats out there, you no longer have to drop your items in town when you go hunting for even better items. Just cache it before leaving town! Horadrim's cube in Act II adds even more storage space to your inventory.

As for the quests? They are no longer a minor part of gaming within Diablo's realm but are now the major focus. Moving through the lands is not possible unless all the quests are accomplished, and each quest is seamlessly sown into the fabric of the game. Whether you are finding pieces of a Horadrim's staff or taking on one of the Three Sins themselves, each quest must be completed and is an achievement in itself. Gone are the days when you just did a quick trip into Hell to kill some time in between chatting.

Enjoyment:

Beyond the nail biting, heart thumping and crying cause you have just lost 9736 gold pieces when you died, D2 is truly an enjoyable game to play. Really. Yes, some of the quests are extremely difficult. Yes, sometimes the lag on battle.net can drive a gamer nuts. Yes, it is a boy's world that this gal is playing in. Yet in spite of those small issues, I highly recommend this game because I enjoy playing it so much. And not just because I was a fan of the first Diablo but because I am a fan of second. This is one game that has lived up to the hype and is as much fun to play as any game I have ever found. Besides that, it is more addictive than caffeine and cigarettes combined. If a gamer can lose 6 hours playing Diablo II and not even notice, that has got to mean something. If you don't believe me, I personally know of about 40 or so gamers who will back me up on this fact.

Multiplayer:

Blizzard was the first major game developer to support free online gaming for their products. Battle.net has had its drawbacks (lag due to the overwhelming amount of people gaming and chatting at one time) and its triumphs. Many of its triumphs are still available along with a few new drawbacks. Chatting has taken on a new look in D2. Each gamer is now represented by what their character looks like in the game at the bottom of the chatting screen. This can be fun to see at first, as there is such an assortment of items to mix and match, but can become very tiring after a while when you have to scroll through the bulky characters to find the person you want instead of the streamlined names you used to scroll through.

Another improvement that will make many people happy is the ability to take your single player character and play it on battle.net in the open format. If the servers are too laggy just play in single until everyone goes to bed. Then jump on battle.net and game with insomniacs like yourself. If you don't want to do multi you can always take your open character and play in the single format. Hence a gamer doesn't have to rely on Blizzard's servers anymore if you want to just play when you want without any problems. Of course, you can't use your character in the realm format but many don't want to be bound by a realm anyway and are happier being open.

The major upgrade, and disappointment for some, is the realm format. Though playing in a realm is now the safest way to game (due to hacking being next to impossible...though I never say never), you are restricted to that realm. This can create problems for gaming buddies from around the world. Unless you develop a character within each realm, there will be friends you will not be able to play with unless they have developed a character in the same realm as you. This gives a lot of gamers twice, sometimes three times, the amount of work developing characters so as to be able to play with their friends. Many have embraced the open format for this reason alone.

Overall Impression:

As I said before, I was a Diablo addict. Now that I have played D2 for a week, I can truly say my addiction has been transfered to Diablo II. It has given a hack-and-slash game lover like me countless hours of fun and will more than likely continue to give me the same enjoyment for years to come. Don't scoff. I played Diablo up to the day D2 came out, and this by far exceeds Diablo in all aspects. Whether it is the superior gameplay, the new challenges or just the fact that it's Diablo - bigger and better, I can't say. What I can say is that for those of you who like to RPG yet don't want to be bogged down with massive character development along the lines of pencil and paper RPGing, Diablo II is the game for you!

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

Now remember, this is a genre that has been marketed towards boys and men for decades. That being said, I can honestly say Blizzard did take steps towards acknowledging woman gamers in that the two female characters are as well rounded as their male counterparts. Where the rogue was just the middle ground, between the sorcerer and warrior, the amazon and sorceress are respectable characters in their own rights. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses to cultivate and discard, same as their male counterparts. The NPCs are a good mix of male and female with many of the 'blacksmiths' being female rather than the stereotypical male. Bravo! I say on that front. All in all I truly believe it depends on what type of gamer you are. Whether you are male or female it doesn't matter. It is more about whether you like RPGs or not, and Blizzard has catered to the RPGer in all of us.