Author: Mike Dorn

The cavern walls begin to shake, boulders rain down, but fortunately none strike my barbarian friend or myself in the violent twitching. We approach the causeway beyond the newly deceased worm named Duriel and are met by Archangel Tyriel.

A little like a fantasy novel, isn’t it? Welcome to the world of Diablo II - richer and more filling than its wildly popular predecessor. Despite my little literary snippet, Diablo II still doesn’t qualify as a role-playing game. It features a more coherent and wonderfully sketched storyline than the original Diablo - but the story is extremely linear and tightly scripted. Does that detract from the experience? Actually, it doesn’t - because Diablo II is about hacking, slashing, spelling and shooting. It is about discovering a wealth of unique, rare, magical and set items, all of which offer a host of tweaks to the character. It is about gamers who can sculpt their characters however they choose within each of the classes, which brings a host of choices in how they play their specific character.

Let me take a moment and sketch the few flaws of Diablo II. A significant drawback in the third and fourth acts is the paucity of waypoints. Waypoints are both the means to travel to different locations within each Act, and the means of triggering saving the current status of the game’s progression. Once the player exits the game, the areas the player has vanquished are replenished with monsters. When the player returns, his character will appear at the last waypoint he has reached, which can result in some frustration from having to overcome dangers again to find the elusive next waypoint. Another continuing source of frustration, which is finally lessening, is the congestion on the official multi-player game servers. Blizzard continues to improve the realm servers, where the Battle.net server stores all the character information. Initially, it was nigh impossible to play on the realm servers, due mostly to underestimation of how much capacity would be needed and the immense server load this crush was causing. At present, there are still some occasional frustrations at peak times (8 PM or so - in the server’s time zone), but they are much more stable and accessible than they were. Open Battle.net (which is structured the same as the original Diablo’s multi-player), can be a very hit-and-miss affair, which is disappointing given that this system was very solid by the time all the original problems with Diablo were solved. Players can also host their own multi-player games via TCP/IP and LAN.

The cinematic moments are excellent and add depth to the game’s atmosphere.	Blood Raven meets her shimmering fate.

The screen resolution is restricted to 640x480 and that is bound to disappoint some gamers who are used to higher resolutions. I found the resolution slightly problematic, but not enough that I would consider it a significant drawback. The length of Diablo II’s development shows in its adherence to this screen resolution. The entire first act is less well done than the three that follow. The drab presentation is because it was finished quite a while before the other acts. A slight annoyance is the transparent overlay map needed to navigate many of the areas. It can be difficult to discern one’s location at times - mostly due to blending with the screen backgrounds. These few items sum the flaws - now let’s discuss the many aspects and features that were done well in Diablo II.

Diablo II features an engaging storyline that edges gamers onward through the use of linear quests. There are four acts involved in completing the "Normal" difficulty level of the game. Once players complete the Normal level, they may move on to the tougher Nightmare and Hell levels of play. The original was criticized for its shortness and the lack of true involvement with the Non-player characters living in Tristam. Despite this, it was immensely popular, due to the "cool" items and the draw of completing game after game of approximately the same areas, just to see if that one ultra-rare item was down there. Blizzard certainly realized this was a significant attraction and has tremendously improved this aspect. Item classes are now broken down into regular, magical, rare, unique and set item categories. The best items can only be found by reaching the Nightmare and Hell levels; better and better items are a continual reward for playing onward. Even among the so-called regular items, you will find categories of exceptional types that may only be found when progressing to the Nightmare level of play.

Shortness and size are not a concern this time. Some single dungeon levels are almost as large as the entire hell area (four levels) was in the original Diablo. Much of the play is outside this time too, in the desert and jungle. Many of the quests are multi-parted, and involve a significant amount of time to complete. Act One, as mentioned previously, should not be viewed in the same light as the other acts. It looks dated and seems dreary compared to the acts that follow. I know several gamers who viewed the first act and were disillusioned. My only comment would be: tough it out! Once I reached the second act, I found a significant improvement in the quality and variety of locales and monster types. The second act takes players to the desert port of Lut Gholein, with a host of proper trappings to immerse the gamer (and also my favorite area, the Arcane Sanctuary). In the third act, players travel to Kurast, which features the dreaded flayer jungle and a lost city. Finally, the last act takes player to Hell itself to vanquish Diablo and make the world safe (until Diablo III).

Go to the next page

© 2008, The Wargamer, LLC, a TM Interactive Publishing company. All Rights Reserved. Protected under copyright and international treaties. No portion of this web site or the files contained therein may be obtained for other than personal non-commercial use nor may they be reproduced or otherwise redistributed. Violations will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law and may result in severe civil and criminal penalties. All other copyrights and products mentioned on The Wargamer are the property of their respective companies.