"A game you will ALWAYS keep playing."

The sequel to the great Diablo I has arrived. The story, while vague, is basic enough for you to know your goals. You must destroy the evil Diablo. Here's the lowdown on this game. Here is the stuff.

You can choose to take your voyage alone, or go online and voyage with the others. The choice is yours. Online play, however, offers for a lot more fun. You can play on battle.net for FREE on basically any dial up connection or broadband connection and stay stable. The only fees necessary are your Internet connection fees. Battle.net does not charge you for going on their servers. Games can hold up to a maximum of eight players as well.

Graphics: I'll say so now. This game's graphics aren't very big at all. They are pretty low toned. However, this game does not require any big graphics since the gameplay is where it's at. They have some pretty nice cinemas though after traveling through each act.

Gameplay: This game uses the basic controls of a mouse and the keyboard. You move your character with the mouse and select menus through the keyboard commands. While the controls are very awkward at first, they become very easy to get used to. The gameplay seems boring, however, once you start, you get hooked into the game, and it becomes fun. Beginning is almost always the tough part of getting through the boredom, once you gain levels through your character and start getting better skills and items, the fun gets going. The action is always real time even though RPG elements are involved. In this game, you need to travel through the acts, and find Diablo and slay him. That is the goal. You travel through different lands in hopes of slaying Diablo and his minions, but mainly, Diablo is your target. When a player chooses a character class, the character class not only gives a set of skills that his/her own class only has, but, however, there are many different ways to play that character class. The mastering of certain skills causes that player to become unique, even for that character class alone. This causes the game to be playable in many different styles that can almost seem endless. There are 5 character classes: The Barbarian, the Paladin, the Necromancer, the Amazon, and the Sorceress. An example of making a Barbarian unique would be selecting the Barbarian, and mastering that Barbarian with sword mastery skills. This would make a Barbarian unique in a way. There are many weapon choices for a Barbarian so basically, there can be many ways for that Barbarian to fight. Characters can travel the three difficulties to see how far they can go. Normal, nightmare, and hell are the difficulties. After completing normal, players must avoid death, because dieing in any difficulty above normal causes the character to lose experience points as a penalty.

Sound: Basic sound is used, you'll mostly hear haunting music and demons screaming when they come after you, and die.

Replay value: VERY HIGH, when online. If you have an Internet connection and can play on battle.net, then you definitely need this game if you like RPGs and like the social aspects of online. If you're playing online, killing Diablo almost becomes the beginning of the journey. Playing the harder difficulties, collecting items, gaining levels, playing hardcore mode, dueling other players, forming clans with players, and other such aspects, all can be done online and make this game seem endless. Players usually end up becoming ''treasure hunters'' and ''duelers'' online after they've defeated the hardest difficulty of the game, ''Hell.''

Hardcore mode: If becoming a very serious player, you can have the option of playing hardcore mode. This requires that you complete at least normal difficulty first. Afterwards, you can make a ''Hardcore character.'' This game is just like the regular game, with one small change that makes a very big difference. The character cannot be revived after death AT ALL. This one small change makes the game become totally different for the player. You die, you stay dead. You can only make a new character afterwards. Survival becomes the basic goal throughout the journey and makes the game pretty exciting to go through. This can also make the game feel like a totally different experience. This is not recommended for players who aren't too involved with the game. The last thing a fairly causal player needs is to have their hardcore character die after a hard day's work when they barely play the game enough. This tends to be why this is considered ''Hardcore.''

The flaws you may find in this game are not caused by the game itself. However, lag, cheating, and the players themselves, are the flaws of this game. Other players' Internet connections, if not good enough, can cause lag in the game, causing the game to become a flawed experience. Many instances of players being kicked offline are not the game's fault, however, their Internet service provider's fault mostly. People also who do not meet the system requirements for this game will not have a pleasant experience when playing. The players can also ruin the game for others by scamming them out of their items, leaving them with nothing. This can sometimes occur by players running into random people who act too trusting, or by close friends who get into arguments over conflicts online. Smart players need to have no fear though if they can just keep aware of everything online and know the do's and don't's of their actions when playing online.

Summary: This game can keep players going. The game almost becomes endless. After a player completes one character, they can create another. Online accounts on battle.net can store multiple characters, players can make multiple accounts online as long as they keep them active. journeying through the acts of this game and completing the quests with others becomes extremely cooperative. Since the flaws are not the game's fault in itself I cannot degrade the game's score that I give for it. Perfect score: 10/10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/03