 Overview
Everyone thought it was over. The Hero had descended into the depth and faced Diablo. The demon was
gone and the pall of evil that shrouded Tristram had lifted. But Diablo was only contained
-- not defeated. The Hero has now become the reincarnation of Diablo
himself and is bent on freeing his two lesser brothers, Baal and Mephisto. Tristram lies in
ruins and evil now walks the countryside laying waste to all in its path.
New Heroes must arise to fight... and you’ve chosen to join the fray. In your quest to push back the darkness and vanquish the demons that threaten to destroy the world, you will walk across vast plains crawling with undead and travel through dank caves reeking with the stink of unseen monsters. And you don’t have to fight alone, you can choose to fight alongside true allies, complementing and enhancing each
other's abilities in order to create a force that must work together to succeed.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
The gameplay in Diablo II is very similar to the original; fans of
Diablo are going to feel at home almost immediately. Basic movement and
attacks are virtually unchanged and while the graphics are greatly enhanced, they retain the flavor of the original game.
Diablo II is split into four acts. The first act centers on an Amazon camp near Tristram (the
town originally featured in Diablo). You even get to visit the now destroyed town on a mission to rescue one of the townsfolk. Other missions include recovering lost or stolen items from dungeons and crypts, finding arcane items and ingredients, and destroying the demonic minions that infest the land.
While the overall feel of the game is familiar there are several significant differences
-- the two you‘ll notice first are the character classes and the way skill advancement works. There are five different character types in
Diablo II: the Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorceress, Amazon, and Paladin. Each of the
five classes has a skill tree of possible skills, no two of which are alike. The Paladins skills focus on Auras that either protect or enhance their abilities as well as their allies. Necromancers are masters of summoning, bringing fourth bands of undead warriors and golems to fight at their behest. The Sorceress
uses the powers of magical fire, cold and electrical energies to unleash devastating spells. Barbarians and Amazons are master fighters,
although they differ in their preferred choice of weaponry. Your character
will gain new abilities each time he or she increases a level and also as a reward for some quests. Each skill point earned allows you to increase one area of expertise. The Sorceress’ skills are her spells -- no more hunting for a tome so you can learn a new spell, just spend the skill point and you’re there.
Another major difference is in the variety of items available and the all-new socketed items. Socketed items act like regular weapons, helms, and shields, but have one additional feature. During your adventures you will find gems of different quality levels that can be put into the sockets, granting the items new abilities. These gems can also change the
look of the item when it’s equipped, making your character’s appearance in the game much more customizable than
in the original Diablo. The game also includes new “set” items. Each piece of a set has enhancements and special powers, but when combined the entire set grants one or more additional bonuses.
 Multiplayer
While the single player game is a lot of fun, Diablo II really shines in multiplayer. When players team together to fight, their powers augment each other.
For example, the auras generated by Paladins apply to all members of the party, as well as any allies they’ve conjured or hired. Players aren’t automatically allied when they join the same game
-- they must elect to team up. Since the maximum number of players that can join a game has been increased, it’s possible to have two or more parties in the same game. Blizzard has added other features to enhance multiplayer gaming, including a secure trading system that allows players to swap items and cash without risk.
There are two types of characters in the game: Open and Realm. Open characters are used in single player games, as well as LAN games, games hosted on private TCP/IP servers, and games hosted in the open section of Battle.net. These characters live on the player’s
machine and are potentially open to being hacked or modified (in fact cheating is already becoming common in open Battle.net games).
Realm characters live on Battle.net and can’t be used in any games other than on the secured realm servers. Since they are stored on the servers they’re available from any machine (unlike the open characters)
and they’re considered more secure. For most players realm games have quickly become the standard -- the extra security allows players to trust people they meet.
While the idea of the realm games is great, Blizzard has some serious problems when it comes to implementation. Battle.net’s realm servers have been consistently overloaded since the game’s
release and in many cases have been completely down for hours or even days at a time. Blizzard is promising
improvements and they can’t come fast enough to satisfy players who are becoming frustrated with
not being able to play. The requirement that new accounts and characters spend at
least two hours playing during the 48 hours after they have been created (or be automatically deleted) makes the inability to connect even more frustrating.
Graphics
The graphics engine in Diablo II is a significantly upgraded version of what was used in
Diablo. Overall, the graphics are more detailed and the animations are smoother and more realistic. The nicest new features is the support for 3D accelerators for enhanced lighting and magic effects -- it’s really something to watch the shadows of barrels move as you
maneuver around them in a dark dungeon. The 3D acceleration also adds extra perspective and depth to the graphics -- don’t get me wrong, the non-3D mode looks great, but the 3D mode looks amazing.
Be warned that there are some problems with the 3D modes though -- the initial release had problems supporting some
cards and, while most of these have been fixed for Win 9x users, Windows 2000 users will still find many issues getting 3D acceleration working.
 Audio
The soundtrack is wonderful and will even give you the chills at times. Each area of the game has its own background theme, which gets creepier and more foreboding as the game progresses. You can get a sample at Blizzards website -- they’ll be releasing MP3 versions of the soundtrack over the next few weeks. Topping off the soundtrack is a rich collection of effects and environmental sounds. There is little
in gaming life more satisfying that listening to an enemy explode wetly after you’ve come very close to death yourself.
System Requirements
If you want to play multiplayer (and you do) the requirements are: Pentium 233 or faster (Pentium II recommended), 4X CD-ROM, 64MB RAM, 950 MB hard drive space available, and a 28.8k or faster modem.
Bottom Line
If you liked Diablo, you’ll like Diablo II. It’s proven very addicting and time consuming (just ask our wives), so if you don’t have much time, you may not be able to really enjoy it. We said this about
Diablo but it’s just as true about the sequel: Diablo II really rocks. The gameplay has maintained all the features that made the original
enjoyable and the enhancements to character growth, story depth, graphics, and multiplayer support are welcome improvements.
While it is a great game, it doesn’t rate top honors due to the many issues with Battle.net and flaky support for Windows 2000.
Review Posted On 17 July 2000.
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