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| Diablo II | | By Eric Lopez | | July 21, 2000 | |  As I started composing my review of Diablo 2, I wondered if it wasn't a wasted effort. Previews of every aspect of the game have been available at dozens of game sites for a couple of years. With 2 million units in worldwide distribution as of this writing, a review would seem superfluous. The masses have already made their decision. My local software store ordered several cases of Diablo 2 for the initial launch, and people were lined up out the door to pick up the game they've been waiting four long years to play. For two weeks, the shelf space reserved for Diablo 2 was vacant, as copies were plucked straight out of the shipping boxes long before they reached the shelves. Blizzard already has a smash hit on their hands and will probably be on PC Data's Top Ten list for the next year. Still, I've got a job to do so let's get started.
If you've been playing computer games for any length of time, you've heard of Diablo. Released in 1996 (well, the last week of '95 if you want to get technical about it), it was an instant hit. At the time RPGs were all but abandoned by developers, as it was considered a dying genre. Diablo took the RPG world by storm and convinced companies that there was money to be made with RPGs if the game was good enough. The gameplay itself was simplistic: left click to swing your weapon and right click to cast your spell. Fight your way past countless enemies on 16 dungeon levels to defeat the Lord of Terror himself, Diablo.
 If that was all the game had to offer it might have died on the shelves, but Blizzard added a couple of twists. First, each game was randomly generated; each map was different, and the multitude of random magic items was cleverly implemented. Second, they provided Battle.net, their own online gaming service, for free. This revolutionary move forced other companies who were charging for online multiplayer services to either follow suit or go out of business.
At the end of the first game, your hero (either a Warrior, Rogue or Mage) decides to end the threat of Diablo by slamming the soulstone containing Diablo's soul into his skull. As it turns out, this wasn't the brightest of moves. Diablo 2's intro movie opens with the hero nearly all but consumed by Diablo. Leaving destruction in his wake, he heads east to free his brothers Mephisto and Baal. With Hell's ruling triumvirate together again, they plan to bring Hell to the world of mortals.
 Gone are the familiar heroes from the first game. Diablo 2 introduces five new character classes: Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin and Sorceress. There have been dozens of previews regarding these classes so I won't spend a lot of time talking about them. I will mention that the Sorceress is very similar to the Mage from the first game, as is the Amazon to the Rogue. The other characters are new. (Never mind the Barbarian character hidden in Hellfire's code). Only the Amazon and Sorceress are female, the others are male. It is a shame that all characters don't have the option of choosing to be male or female.
The inventory system is nearly identical to the first game, but now you have slots for belts, gloves and boots. When purchasing from a merchant you now see the appearances of the items instead of a simple list, which is helpful when you're trying to customize your character's appearance. (Plus, it just looks cooler).
 One innovative feature is the implementation of socketed items and gems. Occasionally, you can find or purchase socketed weapons, helms or shields. Each item has one to three sockets into which you can insert various gems. There are several different gems, each one with a different magical effect. The magical effect granted depends on the item you insert the gem. Taking this one step further, there are several grades of gems - the better quality of gem, the more powerful the magic effect. If you're patient, you can devote the time to creating a custom magic item.
Unique items are back, and along with them are the even more rare set items. Unique items most closely resemble the unique items from the first Diablo. Each item has a specific name, and grants multiple abilities to the wielder. With unique set items, each item is clearly marked as part of an armored set. When you find and wear the remaining items, the set grants you special abilities and changes your appearance. However, this feature is very reminiscent of a similar feature within Revenant, and I can't help but wonder at the similarities.
 The best feature of all, and the one most likely to inspire gamers to complete this game again and again, is the skill tree. In the first Diablo, no matter which character class you chose, all characters began to resemble the same uber-character after a while. They all have the same armor, the same spells, etc. In Diablo 2, each character class has a different skill tree made up of passive and active skills. Passive skills are skills that benefit you automatically without using mana, such as quicker mana regeneration for the Sorceress. Examples of active skills include spells for the Sorceress and Necromancer, war cries for the Barbarian and magical arrow attacks for the Amazon. The entire skill tree is visible to you from the beginning, allowing you to plan the use of your skill points in advance. It's impossible to become a master in all skills; even though your character can attain 99th level, you only get one skill point per level. You may become a master in two or three skills, but a single character will never master them all.
Diablo 2 includes many new monster types, and their animation effects are very nice. Like the first game, you will encounter random uniquely-named monster heroes. Monsters following that hero are now called minions, and have slightly more hit points than the typical monster of that kind. It is also possible to encounter monster champions from time to time, who are hardy opponents and tend to drop lots of gold and/or a magic item.
Diablo 2 adds the welcome addition of running, which you can toggle on or off. The length of time you can run depends on your stamina, which is based on your vitality. You are forced to walk once you've depleted your stamina, but it recharges automatically. Some monster types also run, many of them faster than you. Sometimes combat resembles something out of a Jackie Chan movie, only with missile weapons and spells flying all over the place instead of cleverly placed props.
You now have a luggage box, your "stash", into which you can store items. Items placed in your stash will be available in each town you visit, but its storage space is limited. Later in the second act, you will acquire an item into which you can store a few more items, but its clear the designers intended to prevent hoarding of magical items. You will no longer be able to leave dozens of items on the ground, as items not in your stash or one your person quickly disappear.
 Not all new elements are impressive. In the "so what's the point?" department, we have keys and tomes. Apparently, some chests are now locked, all of which can be opened with the same generic keys. But since keys are as common as skeletons, you'll never be in a situation where you can't open chests. Just devote one inventory slot to keys (a slot will hold 6), sell the rest, and forget about them. Also new are tomes, each of which holds a maximum of 20 of the same spell type. When you run out, simply drop more scrolls onto the tome and you're good to go. A keen idea, but there are only two types of scrolls in the game: Identify and Town Portal. Midway through the first act, you'll acquire a permanent town-based NPC that will identify your items for free, so you really don't need identify scrolls unless you're desperate to identify an item on the spot. Just devote two inventory slots to hold a town portal tome, sell the extras, and forget about them.
Shrines are also back...sort of. Part of the fun in Diablo was activating the obscurely named shrines, deciphering their cryptic message, then determining what changes, for good or ill, they made to your character. In Diablo 2 shrines are much cooler looking; each act has unique shrine graphics that fit the overall motif. Sadly, shrines have now been reduced to mere power-ups such as increased armor or stamina, healing, or mana recharge. On the plus side, shrines recharge over time so you can visit a favorite shrine later.
Graphics 
Since Diablo 2 has been in development for four long years, you would expect the graphics to be cutting edge. However, the pre-rendered 640x480 graphics look very dated compared to today's polygonal games. Oddly, Diablo 2 wouldn't even work with my TNT card until I installed the 5.22 Detonator drivers, which I've been avoiding due to their effect on other programs on my machine. Once installed it worked like a champ but I can't imagine what program elements wouldn't work with the older drivers. The graphics are effective, but certainly not revolutionary. Even the 3D spell effects look somewhat grainy, and the parallax effect at such low resolution just looks goofy. There is an option to disable the 3D portion of the game and rely on 2D graphics, but I didn't notice any perceptible performance increase.
Characters and monsters are larger, but that just means your view is that much more limited. Of course, your enemies don't have this problem. Spells and missiles will assault you from all directions while you frantically search for the shooter. Unlike the Stormtroopers from Star Wars, these guys never miss. If they do, it's because you were in motion at the time they started firing.
The automap is back, but often very difficult to see to the color of the map being a similar color to the area you're exploring. I've often found the best way to view the map was to position it over the darkest part of the screen and tweak as necessary.
The cinematics, however, are absolutely stunning. There are five movies: one at the start of each act and the endgame. Each movie has the feel of a high-budget blockbuster, and it's apparent someone went to a lot of trouble to create these. They are of a quality you could watch several times and find something new with each viewing. There's an option to install these to your hard drive during installation, but with only five new movies it's hardly worth the hard drive space or the performance hit.
Sound 
Diablo 2 more than makes up for its graphical limitations with its music and sound effects. Although many sounds have been recycled from the original Diablo, there are plenty of new sounds to hear. Even some of the music from the first game is included here with some slight changes. The new musical scores are outstanding; the theme for Lut Gholein is particularly haunting and beautiful. I spent several minutes in the game doing nothing just to hear that music.
Interface
Controlling Diablo 2 is nearly identical to the first game. Left click to attack, right click to cast a spell. Left click on the interface buttons or hit a hot key to open your automap, spell list/skill tree, character and inventory screens. You no longer need to click monsters repeatedly to continue attacking them. Holding the left click button on an enemy will direct your character to continue attacking it until it dies.
Keeping with what appears to be a growing industry trend, Blizzard has opted not to include a typical save feature with Diablo 2. Yes, at any point in the game you can select the "Save and Exit" function, which takes you back to the main menu. When you save the game, Diablo 2 saves your quest status, waypoints, maps, and shrine placement. When you load the game, the shrines will be different, the chests are refilled and, worst of all, monsters regenerate in every area of the game, including areas you've already cleared. On one hand, this is great if you enjoy visiting the same areas and fighting the same monsters again and again. On the other hand, it's a pain to have to clear out the same three levels that you finished the night before just to continue with the game. Yes, Blizzard did include waypoints but there are a finite number of them per act. To get from one waypoint to another you still have to fight your way past the reborn monsters. Be sure to allocate two-hour blocks of playing time to insure you'll finish your current quest before saving, otherwise you're essentially starting the quest over again.
AI 
Your foes are certainly effective at ambushing and overwhelming you, but make no mistake; you're not exactly up against Quake bots here. Enemies will continue to attack you until either you or they are dead. Still, your foes use their limited abilities to great advantage. Fast moving enemies will dodge your distance or spell attacks if they can, and spell users will try to stay behind melee fighters when at all possible.
You may hire NPCs in Diablo 2. Each town has someone from which you can hire mercenaries, but you may only have one at a time in your party. You have no control over NPCs; they're completely independent and orbit you like a satellite. NPCs are weak and quick to die, but are great because they start shooting at monsters you can't see, thus acting like an early warning system. This is very helpful on wide open levels where you can quickly get surrounded.
Multiplayer
As a single player game, Diablo 2 is a bit on the dull side. It's apparent that this game was designed as a multiplayer game first and foremost, and that's where the fun comes into play. As with the first game, you can create games using a LAN or modem connection, but it's obvious that the venue of choice is Battle.net. Unfortunately, with scores of people worldwide trying to play multiplayer Diablo 2, Blizzard's servers have been up intermittently. If these servers had been consistently up since day one, this feature would have scored much higher.
On Battle.net, you can choose to play an open or realm character. The difference is that open characters are stored on your computer; realm characters are stored on Blizzard's servers. While open characters are obviously more vulnerable to hacking, you can use the same character in single and multiplayer games. Realm characters are stored on Blizzard's servers, and cannot be accessed except via Battle.net. This move is expected to drastically cut down the number of hacked characters that ruined Battle.net for Diablo players. You can also choose to create a hardcore character. These characters are also stored on Battle.net, but once they die, that's it. They're gone.
Replayability 
If you're familiar with the first game, then you'll understand this game. Commit multiple acts of genocide across four realms in your efforts to end the threat of Diablo. Seriously, at first the faster combat is fun as it forces you to rethink your tactics. You'll develop different strategies for different foes. However, by the end of the second act the body count becomes comical. Advance ten feet, fight off three dozen monsters. Wait for your mana to recharge, possibly suck down a healing potion or two, and do it again. Diablo 2 no longer keeps count of the number of monsters you kill, and I wonder if Blizzard removed that feature because the numbers would be ludicrously high. This is compounded even more by the fact that each act has a monster capable of resurrecting other monsters, so you may end up fighting even more of the same monster over and over.
Each act has six quests, some of them with multiple parts, for a total of 21 quests in the game. But the randomization feature is gone; you'll get the same 21 quests in every game, though different classes may encounter slight variations in NPC dialogue. This is not necessarily a good thing, as some of the quests are downright tedious, and mandatory for advancing the game plot.
Admittedly, the storyline is not the most compelling reason to play Diablo 2 again and again. Players will most likely want to experience playing each of the five character classes, and since it will takes several weeks, and maybe even a few months, to completely max out your character, it will take quite some time to fully explore the possibilities of all the characters. With hundreds of unique magical items and easter eggs within this game, even the most meticulous and compulsive players will be hard pressed to find all of them.
Conclusion
If Diablo 2 had been released four years ago, it would no doubt have been praised as a technical marvel. But this is 2000 and the gaming landscape has changed. After Diablo, RPG fans were treated to epics such as Fallout 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. I've always said that gameplay and not cutting-edge graphics make a good game, but as a single player game, this game is regrettably shallow. The mindless gameplay is great for 10-15 minutes at a time, but unless you're able to devote two or more hours to this game in a single session, the save game feature will prevent you from progressing. It's not even up to Blizzard's usual stellar level of quality control; within two weeks of its release, they released two patches to fix game-stopping bugs.
However, the unique elements of this game are enjoyable enough to make you want to clear out just one more level, but in a multiplayer game. Hook up with a few trusted friends on Battle.net or on a local network, and you've got a recipe for fun. This game is simply a hack and slash with a Pokemon collector's mentality to seek out another new magical item, or decipher a new Horadric Cube recipe. Take it at face value, and you're in for a treat. For solitary gamers looking for a deep role-playing experience, look elsewhere. |
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