Diablo II

Diablo II is a controversial phenomenon in the gaming world. During development it was delayed countless times, pushing the release date ahead for years. Despite the delays, a massive amount of hype built up around the game. A plethora of screenshots, previews, movies and interviews about Diablo II saturated gaming magazines and websites. When it was finally released on June 29, 2000, Diablo II became an instant hit, selling over a million copies in a matter of days. The vast majority of reviewers succumbed to the hype of the game, giving it extremely high marks while failing to acknowledge or simply disregarding its many flaws. Once you are able to look past the thick layer of hype, Diablo II is a shallow game underneath.

The events in Diablo II occur soon after the first game, where the original character, known as "The Wanderer", defeated Diablo and his minions in the village of Tristram. Upon defeating the Lord of Terror, the Wanderer tried to seal the demon by imbedding Diablo's life force crystal into his forehead. Unfortunately, he could not constrain the evil power of Diablo, and it soon possessed his body. Evil demons began following him around the countryside. He soon went into a tavern, where his demons attacked and burned the place down, displayed in a magnificent cinematic introduction sequence. A lone warrior, Marius, was intrigued by the events and decided to accompany the Wanderer on his journey. Ever since then, strange things have been happening around the world, and it appears evil is making another invasion attempt.

Diablo II's story centralizes around the events pertaining to the Wanderer and Marius, using incredible computer graphic cinemas to illustrate the events. Yet you must trail behind them, cleaning up the demons and corruption left in their wake. This leaves the player feeling detached from and uninvolved in the storyline. It would have been much more interesting if the player were given a role as Marius or someone accompanying them on the journey instead.

The graphics in Diablo II are dated, using the ancient 640x480 monitor resolution. Pixelly, blocky graphics plague the game, and users with larger monitors will notice ugly horizontal scanlines across the screen. The game is rendered in two dimensional sprites instead of 3D models, making the game look even more dated. The audio of Diablo II is fairly good, presented in Dolby Surround sound. Players with 3D sound cards can also enjoy the effects of Creative Labs' Environmental Audio and Aureal's A3D. The music is unobtrusive and fits well with the dark, subtle mood of the game. Environmental effects such as rain patter and ambient landscapes sound realistic and convincing.

The biggest grievance of Diablo II is the gameplay. It is boring, repetitive and tiring. Die-hard Diablo II players hate to admit it, but the vast majority of the game is simply chopping up monsters. Proceed outside of town where you are greeted by a rampaging horde of demons. They surround you and attack, so you must keep clicking on them until they are all dead. Burn them with magic spells. Collect their treasure, and move on. Repeat ad nauseam. Continue to do this until you defeat the boss monster of the area or find a special item you must retrieve. Go back to town and receive thanks from the people, where you are assigned another quest that will consist of more monster slaughtering and item hunting. From this, you accumulate a great deal of wealth and experience to upgrade your character. Character building is an addicting pastime, but even it cannot hide the dull monotony of Diablo II's gameplay. Diablo II soon plays like a chore, not a game. After a few hours of laborious gameplay, you are treated to magnificent, refreshing cinemas, but feel disappointed because your character is in no way involved with them. The battle system in Diablo II would have been more exciting had it room for improvisation and strategy. Unlike RPGs from developers such as Square Soft, Konami and Nintendo, there are no plot twists or points along the storyline's path to keep the game interesting. The terrain is a maze of expansive landscapes and claustrophobic corridors in dungeons, saturated with demons that you must cut through in order to proceed to your goal.

In terms of system requirements and performance, Diablo II behaves like a dog. The minimum installation is a whopping gigabyte of hard drive space, unbelievably massive for such a simple game. Even though it is a 2D game supported by hardware acceleration, the frame rate in Diablo II stutters often. Internet play is available on Battle.net, Blizzard's free service. Connecting to Battle.net and meeting with friends is easy and straightforward, but the gameplay remains similar to the single player experience, only this time you are able to do the monster chopping with your friends.

So, is Diablo II a poor game? In a way, yes. It would be impossible for any game to live up to such high expectations, and the delays are no doubt the reason for its aged appearance. Should you buy it, though? Despite its obvious problems, Diablo II has managed to gather a massive following of fans around the world. For many players, the addicting character development and Battle.net play often supercede the shallow gameplay, storyline and graphics. If you loved the first Diablo, you will definitely enjoy the sequel, as it is more of the same formula. If you enjoy the progress of building up a character, but do not care for a good story, Diablo II will be an addicting experience. However, if you want a deep, involving, intriguing role playing game, I recommend System Shock 2.

I hope Blizzard learns a valuable lesson from Diablo II: Gameplay makes the good game.

Good: Great music. Lots of skills to learn. Gorgeous cinemas. Internet play over Battle.net.
Bad: Repetitive, boring gameplay. Severely outdated graphics. Uninvolving storyline.

Developed by Blizzard Entertainment
Reviewed by Davis Lentz