Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

"I just paid $35 for a glorified patch?!?!?"

Based on Diablo II: Lord of Destruction's sales figures, you have to admit Blizzard has it made. Every game they've put out over the past few years has sold over a million copies, when most PC games struggle to reach a hundred thousand. With Warcraft III and World of Warcraft on the horizon, there also seems to be no end in sight. Hell, I'm beginning to think Blizzard could release a ''watch paint dry'' simulator and sell a million copies.

My frustration stems from the fact that very little is truly accomplished with the LoD expansion. Want to know what you paid $35-40 for? It boils down to one new Act and two new character classes. In case you missed that, you get one new Act and two new character classes. All hail Blizzard's excellent expansion!

To be completely fair, those aren't the only new things in LoD. However, as implied by my tagline, all the other improvements could have been accomplished through a patch. It may have ended up being one huge-ass patch, but it would be a necessary download, since the improvements to the gameplay do greatly enhance the experience.

Obviously, with Diablo II being a primarily item-based game, the main improvements were to items. There are now class-specific items, which are all one type (i.e. Helms for the Barbarians) and provide bonuses to one or more of your character's skills. There are also new ''Exceptional'' and ''Elite'' items that can only be found in the later levels of the game. Another item addition is Jewels, which can be socketed in items.

The most coveted new items are Runes. As with Jewels and Gems, they can be inserted into socketed equipment. The big difference is that, when certain runes are inserted in a certain order, it can create a ''Rune Word''. This word adds a host of attributes to the item, making it greatly more powerful. The rarest runes are also among the rarest items in LoD. For example, only one in 137 million non-boss monsters at level 90 or greater will drop the rarest rune!

Two other useful modifications are doubled space in your stash and an improved mercenary interface. The doubled storage is sort of useful, but since many people create characters for the sole purpose of holding items, it loses purpose. As for the mercenaries, you can equip and heal them. They can also level up now, so they can now serve a more useful purpose than just taking blows from the enemies. (Of course, when they die, they take all your precious equipment with them...)

Blizzard went one-for-two with the new character classes. The Assassin is a unique experience with her addition of ''charge-up'' and ''finishing'' skills. Once you charge up enough, you can use a finishing move which adds its own effects. An interesting variation is the ''Trapsassin'', which, utilizing such skills as Fire and Lightning sentries, allows the skilled player to kill enemies with little to no damage.

On the other hand, the Druid is derivative and a bore to play. One of his skill trees has Sorceress-type skills, and another has Necromancer-type skills. The only addition is his ability to change into either a Werewolf or a Bear to enhance his melee battle skills.

The new act is the logical conclusion to Diablo II. You're presented with eight new quests and the true final boss. Naturally, certain locations in this new act have become the new favorite spots for levelling up.

The core gameplay of Diablo II remains unchanged. Since you have to have Diablo II installed to play LoD, it's safe to assume if you're reading this, you know the basics. Just as a review, Diablo II is a hack-n'-slash game at its core. You fight bad guys and attempt to kill them by clicking them many, many times. This seems tedious (and it is at times), but that's what the Skills are for. Each character class has 30 Unique skills at his/her disposal. The use of these Skills varies, but most of them either enhance your character's attack or defense in some way. After defeating Act 5 in Normal difficulty, you gain access to Nightmare difficulty. Once completing Nightmare you open up Hell difficulty.

Obviously, LoD was meant to be played online. You can play single player, but for the most part it is uninteresting. Without the camaraderie of fellow players, LoD is worthless. You level up much quicker with more people playing with you. Also lost in single player are the fun player-vs.-player duels. Once you trust someone enough that you can drop your gold to the ground (to avoid losing it from death), you can battle indefinitely.

Unfortunately, playing online adds the dreaded lag monster to the equation. Even on a top-of-the-line computer with high-speed Internet access, the frame rates can be unbearably low during peak hours. To make matters worse, the worst lag in the game occurs when the last group of monsters before the final boss are generated. If you're not in town at the time of their creation, your death is highly likely.

One more change in LoD comes in the graphics department. Blizzard has added an 800 by 600 resolution option to the previous 640 by 480 resolution, which was mandatory in Diablo II. As could be seen in the later acts in Diablo II, Act 5 is the most polished act graphically. The monsters and the environments boast greater detail than ever seen before. This detail still doesn't even come close to matching up with the best-looking games out on the market today, but graphics are not an important aspect of LoD.

The sound has also been improved. While I could barely notice the background music in Diablo II, I can actually hear it now! It's still not especially good, but that's probably because Blizzard didn't want the attention distracted from the excellent sound effects. You truly get a feeling for the action with the sounds of swords clanking against armor and fire burning in many places.

Yes, Blizzard could have, and should have, done more with this expansion. They chose not to, however, and since they're Blizzard, they can do that. Even though LoD's not actually worth $35 dollars, you have almost no choice but to buy it. Diablo II's servers are now deserted compared to LoD's. It's also hard to imagine playing without the myriad of improvements. Unfortunately, I still can't get past the feeling that LoD is no more than a glorified patch. Shame on you, Blizzard.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/01, Updated 01/07/02