Pros: Multiplayer, replay value, graphics, game play!
Cons: None that I can see at this moment!
The Bottom Line: With the replay value and the multiplayer featured this is a must. Even if you are not into these style of games this could be one you decide to play.
Pandemonium's Full Review: Diablo 2 - Bestseller Series for Windows
First off, there will not be many references between Diablo II and the original game. I have not played the original game as of yet, only read the strategy guide to understand what is in the game. Playing Diablo II I have found it unnecessary to play the original version. Diablo II is just to damn good. One warning, it can be very addicting!
I had the opportunity in playing this game, house sitting for my brother for a couple of days. He purchased this game for his son so I had to try it while I was over there. I was extremely hooked until I finished the game. Even though I had finished the game, I am still hooked because of the replay value which I will explain a bit later. One warning about the game though, you need to have a quick mind and fast fingers. The game will require, at some points, quick thinking and fast fingers to hit the appropriate keys at the right times. To put it mildly, the game can be overwhelming at times.
Those that remember Dungeons & Dragon will understand this game with ease. Diablo II takes the same style. You build your character up level by level while casting spells, fighting monsters from skeletons to demons, finding hundreds and hundreds of items to use along your quests, and speaking with others along the way. You're out to defeat the Diablo, one of the prime evils, and Lord Of Terror. You of course must defeat other prime evils and other forces before getting to Diablo. The story is rather complex and might trouble some people letting kids play this game. That is of course if they read the story line in the strategy guide. Even I would think twice about letting a child watch a couple of the cut scenes in this game. The story line while playing the game should be no trouble for younger players as they don't go into too much detail but, just a warning to the very religious readers of this Epinion. If you did know what Dungeon & Dragons were all about then this will not be any different in your mind. The game comes with three separate CD's. The game disk, install disk, and the cinematic disk.
Game Play The game play can be very complex at times and easy as pie others. You can be walking around the world looking for something or somewhere and have absolutely nothing going on around you or you can find yourself in the middle of 20 creatures looking to dismantle you in a matter of a second. The game is set up in four acts with six quests in each act. Some of the quests have more than one thing that you need accomplish. Each act has its' own terrain in which you walk around with its' own unique monsters to contend with. One thing I find that I really like is, when you save and exit the game all the monsters you have killed while you were playing will be back when you play the game again. This is where the jump points you can find throughout each act come into play. These will zip you around the act without having to fight your way through everywhere you wish to go.
As you go through these quests and acts you will fight different type of monsters that are in each act. Some of these monsters are called champions and are randomly thrown in at you. These giving the game a feel of realism not always fighting the same monsters in the same places (besides the unique monsters). These monsters will become tougher and tougher throughout the acts you go through.
You will find thousands of different types of weapons, armor, rings, jewels, and amulets to help you throughout the game. There is standard, magical, and rare weapons and armor you will find. Each magical and rare item you find will have its' own random special effects. You will not know what these will do until you identify the item. Since they are randomly created you never know what you are going to get. This making the game have a nice replay value.
A great feature that this game has is what is called the auto map. You can have the auto map displayed at all times so you never get lost. This is something I found incredibly annoying in other games of this type. This makes the game more enjoyable as you find your way around. Every time you come back to the game you will still see where you have been on the map. Even though the monsters will be back you wont have to find everything again.
Graphics The graphics are excellent. From the detail of each character and monster, to the many unique spells that you and the monsters cast, to the unbelievable cut scenes between acts. You look upon the world in third-person view. You look at all the characters in the game relatively close and they are very detailed. Going as far as to, being able to see each weapon and piece of armor they wear. Every time you change the style of weapon or armor you will be able to see it on your character. Even the monsters look as good with their weapons and armor.
The spells that are cast in the game look outstanding. They all have their unique style and graphics to go with them, being able to see the difference in graphics from shooting a fireball from your weapon or dropping a blizzard down on your opponents.
The scenery is also well done. Even this is detailed to the point of what time of day it is. Day and night will go by while you are out in the world. You also have a light radius from which you can see. You can still see the scenery but not what is outside your radius. While in a dungeon you can't tell what time of day it is of course but the darkness of the dungeon looks good, only being able to see a short distance what is in front of you. There is also nice details thrown around the world from trees, rocks, even to desert with Egyptian style heads laying in the sand.
I must make a comment about the cut scenes. Having to have a separate CD for these you can expect them to look great. Well, they do. Some of the best cut scenes, if not the best, I have ever scene. The movie Final Fantasy has nothing on the cut scenes in this game. Truly fantastic.
Characters There are five different character types to choose from in the game. You can of course have separate games going with different characters. The character types include; the Barbarian, Amazon, Paladin, Necromancer, and Sorceress. Each one has their own characteristics with 30 different skills (or spells) they can learn and use throughout the game. These skills are on, what they call, a skill tree. Each character has three skill trees with ten skills in each one. The skill trees are of the same type of skills but, each skill being different in its' own right. Each skill can have a total of 20 skill points invested in it with each skill point making it better and better. When going through the game you will only have an average of 35 skill points to distribute so you need to pick a few skills that you really want to use and place more points in them. There are ways, of course, to get items to help certain skills out. As a character advances from level to level they are given 1 skill point per level up to place on a skill. Note that some skills require you to be at least a certain level before your character can learn it.
You will also receive 5 points per level up to distribute between strength, dexterity, life, or mana. This is where the class of character you chose will play a part having to place these points on your character to help him utilize their strengths. For example; a Barbarian will need much more strength and dexterity to use his strength and a sorceress will need more mana points than anything else. Placing points to not help your character's strong points throughout the game will really show up in the tougher quests in later acts.
Controls Controls are rather easy compared to all that you do in the game. You use the mouse to point where you wish to go and to point at the monster you wish to attack. Their are plenty of hit keys to make things go faster when you are in a tough fight and don't have the time to click on anything but the monster you are attacking. These hotkeys include switching from spell to spell, drinking a potion to heal you or give you mana, or even to bring up your inventory or character stats. When I first played I had trouble with my clicking finger getting very soar in a short time of play until I figured out what I was doing wrong. You can hold down the mouse button to continuously move around or to attack the same monster over and over (oops). In all, the controls are rather easy once you get used to them.
Multi-Player (Battle.net) This is by far the best I have ever seen so far from any game. The multi player could easily be an Epinion in its' own rights but, I will sum it up the best I can. Not only do you go online to play with others in this game, it also has everything I have already said in the multiplayer version. Just to give you an idea how complex the multiplayer is, it has its' own CD to download that takes up 950MB. It truly is a separate game.
You go online with the option of choosing from any one of the five characters offered in the single player version. Once the you create your character, that character can only be used in Battle.net. You can't use a character that you used in the single player mode and vice-versa. You take the character through the game just like you did in single player. Nothing changes with the story. What does change is; you can create a game of your choice or join one that is already created. If you join a game already created you pick up right where they are. Be careful in picking a game with others if they are at a much higher level. This is because for every single player in the game the monsters increase in numbers and increase in difficulty. This making the game more tougher the more characters that are in the same game. If this was not the case the game would be way to easy and boring for an experienced player with a high level character.
If you choose to create a game yourself you can control the amount of players that can play with you (remember the more players the tougher the monsters), decide what player levels can play with you, and what mode you play the game as. You can even choose to play the game with one player and just go through the game as you would in single player. I myself play only multiplayer and build my characters up this way. A lot of the times I just play on my own, so the monsters are as they would be in single player mode, because when you choose to play with others your characters will be at higher levels through all the play you did on your own. There are a lot of die hard multiplayers in Diablo even so much as having websites selling items that are extremely hard to find in the game. One of these websites http://www.warriorrealm.com is for this purpose. This maybe a tad over addictive in my book, but goes to show how much fun it truly is if a lot of others take it so seriously.
Replay Value The game has endless replay value. From five different characters to choose from, from spells you will not be able to learn or see their full potential only playing the game one time through, to playing on the Internet building and building your character up. This is also one of the best games I have played as of yet (of its' type) with this good of a replay value.
Once you finish the game one time your character is not done. You can play the game again and again if you wish with the same character. By doing this you get to place more skill points around your skills and learn the ones you have not yet. The option of hard-core mode will be available to you once a character has finished the game. This making the monsters much stronger the second time around earning you more experience points to move up your levels. There is even a hell mode which if your character dies he is dead. Meaning you lose him forever. This takes guts to do once you spent all that time on a single character. All of this is also available and the same in multiplayer mode.
*Update: September 2009* If you still have never tried this game, there are still thousands of people playing online. For a game this old, that is amazing to me! Just letting you know incase you are interesting in trying this out.
System Requirements 32 megabytes of RAM for single player. 64 for multiplayer Windows 95 or higher 4X speed CD-ROM drive 650 MB free for single player 950 MB free for multiplayer SVGA monitor and a video card compatible with DirectDraw.
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