Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

"What More Could You Want?"

Given the success of Diablo II, it should come as no surprise that Blizzard decided to release an expansion. But you may be wondering, just what can Blizzard do to expand an already phenomenal experience? Well, as it turns out; a lot.

The first thing the Lord of Destruction expansion takes care of is wrapping up the one big loose thread that remained at the end of D2, namely the fact that Baal was still running around in the mortal plane. After Diablo is slain in the base game, the archangel Tyrael will open a portal to the barbarian homeland of Mount Arreat where Baal is waging war on the natives, while making his way to some unknown goal.

This hunt for Baal comprises an entirely new fifth Act which takes place in a snowy mountainous region. Thankfully, all new set pieces and tile sets have been created for this, so players won't be seeing anything from the base game here. These tile sets include snowy tundra, icy caverns and a few maze-like temple areas. The added fifth Act also uses a newly created roster of beasties, so players won't be slaughtering old enemies. This new Act also comes with a full complement of quests, nearly all of which have some special reward at the end.

As for the technical aspect of the graphics, things haven't really been changed. There's been no dramatic overhaul of the graphics engine or anything like that. However the resolution has been increased from 640x480 to 800x600 which pulls the perspective back quite a bit, which is quite nice.

Other than the new Act the other big change is the addition of two new characters; the Assassin and the Druid. The Assassin is a skill reliant martial artist who has lots of close up skills which can be charged up over several uses, gaining special attributes and then discharged with a finishing move. She also has a large array of traps, which serve as passive weapons. Her final skill tree has a lot of passive skills and buff/debuff type skills which increase her ability to do damage or reduce the enemies ability to dish it out.

The Druid is probably the more interesting of the two characters due to his wild skill trees and versatility. He has access to a variety of elemental attacks, mainly revolving around wind and fire. Some of these skills can cause fissures to open in the ground and spew forth lava, create a volcano under an enemy or release tornados into the environment. Another tree gives him the ability to summon pets, such as wolves, vines which can poison enemies, or eat their corpses to rejuvenate the Druids health or mana. He can also call forth spirits which give out bonuses such as increased damage or health. The ultimate skill of this tree is the ability to summon a grizzly bear. Finally, there is the Shapeshifter tree. Players can choose the route of the agile werewolf or the tank werebear. From there, the rest of the skills unlock special attacks for either shape, such as a poisonous Rabies attack for the werewolf, or a damaging shockwave attack for the werebear.

Beyond this, Blizzard has made a mind boggling number of changes, which range from truly game altering to nearly unnoticeable. The interface has been further streamlined, moving all buttons into one central bar at the bottom of the screen. They have also added the ability to have two weapon set ups for a character, which players can switch between at the press of a button. This allows an Amazon to switch between a bow to a spear in the blink of an eye, thus allowing the use of both offensive skill trees which ultimately gives each character a greater amount of versatility.

Hirelings, which were introduced in the base game, have received a dramatic overhaul. They were originally disposable companions, only good for a short time before doing something stupid and getting killed. While players will still have no control over them, and they still have a tendency to wade into fights they can't win, it is a good bit easier to keep them alive. Players can now equip hirelings with armor, helmets and weapons thereby increasing their ability to deal out and take damage. They can also be healed by giving them a potion, though in the heat of combat it isn't easy to do this, and a hot-key would have made it much easier. In addition to that, they can be moved from Act to Act which is especially nice given that they now rack up experience points and level up just like the hero so they can become a game-long companion.

A very interesting addition are the Runes and Runewords. Like gems, Runes bestow special characteristics when placed into a socketed item. However, if you're playing on Battle.net certain combinations of Runes make up a Runeword which grants ridiculous powers to the item in question, much like a Unique item. Unfortunately those who opt to play offline will not have this ability, which is a bit aggravating, but relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

The hardcore faithful of Diablo II will also notice that many skills have been altered for the sake of balance. These will have a lot of people crying foul, especially in instances where damage has been reduced, and in extreme instances rendering a particular build useless. The Sorceress also has to contend with this, as several of her high powered skills have been imposed with a casting delay. Ultimately though, this was done for the sake of general fairness and did help the overall balance as well as further increase the strategic thinking necessary to play the game.

Other minor tweaks include an option to turn the gigantic screen obscuring map into a small minimap located on the side of the screen. At higher difficulty levels, monsters have been given elemental immunities and damage resistance in order to up the challenge. Finally, hundreds of new items have been added along with magic prefixes and suffixes for items, which give a wider potential array of attributes.

THE VERDICT
This expansion not only expanded the games content to the point of ridiculousness, but it is what ultimately gave the game its unbelievable staying power. In short, it's the perfect expansion pack. And by association of having this installed, the base Diablo II game becomes perfect as well. Nearly a decade on, Diablo II is still the best of its kind and an immense pleasure to play.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/09

Game Release: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (US, 06/27/01)