"Diablo II is a great sequel to an amazing game, but certain changes may turn off hardcore fans of the original."

Diablo II is the sequel to Diablo which was released in 1996 for the PC and later released for the Playstation. Diablo II is exclusively for the PC but there is a major reason for this. Diablo II is a very multiplayer focused game, in the sense that a majority of the abilities each of the different classes can learn are much more useful when they can be applied to a party of several people rather than just one player. Hardcore fans may remember Diablo for its engaging single player experience but also that it was playable online. The only was great at the time but wasn't as intense as it was to play the single player game. In Diablo II the focus seems to have been changed from single player and more to multiplayer. Diablo II still has a great storyline and an amazing world to explore but it seems that the core gameplay mechanics were designed with online play in mind, and this is not a bad thing but people who prefer to play alone might be a little irritated by this.

Story:
Diablo II continues the story established in Diablo 1, since you are now in hot pursuit of the Dark Wanderer who was previously the hero from the last game, however he ended up being corrupted by Diablo's soul stone. Although Diablo has been slain it is feared that Diablo will still have a chance to come back and his mission is now to also free his brothers Mephisto - lord of hatred and Baal - lord of destruction. Your mission in Diablo II is to stop Diablo from freeing his brothers and to stop their plans to destroy the world of mortals.

The story in Diablo II unfolds rather nicely but without giving any spoilers away the game ends with a rather large cliff hanger which is kind of bothersome, unless you are playing the expansion where the storyline is resolved in the fifth act which is not in Diablo II, and is only in the expansion pack.

Gameplay:
The original Diablo had you choosing from three character classes who all played much differently from one another. In Diablo II you can now choose from five different character classes, so there is already much more variety between the characters. Also instead of collecting books and learning your spells from them, each character has three predetermined skill trees that focus in different areas. Usually when you play a game it is best to focus only on one, or maybe two of the skills trees. This is nice because it gives a lot more replay value when replaying the game with the same character class, this is because every time you play you can focus on different skills and experiment with different combinations of skills.

The characters you can choose from are the Barbarian, the Paladin, the Sorceress, the Amazon and the Necromancer. The Barbarian and the Paladin are the melee classes of the game since a large portion of their skills involve fighting with swords and axes and other types of weapons similar to these. However they are extremely different from one another. The Barbarian focuses much more on combat than the Paladin and even has skills that severely increase his combat abilities while the Paladin does not have these types of skills. Interesting enough though is that they both have a skill tree that focuses on defensive and offensive abilities that offer great bonuses to themselves and to their party members if they are within a certain radius. The Paladin uses holy auras, while the Barbarian uses war cries.

The Sorceress and the Necromancer are the magicians of Diablo II but they are extremely different from one another. The Sorceress is very much like the Sorcerer from the original Diablo, relying on magic like ice, fire and lighting. The Necromancer on the other hand specializes in undead magic like poison, bone spells, curses and resurrecting the dead, which is extremely cool. It's really fun to have an army of skeletal warriors at your disposal but the only problem with this is if you want to make an army of skeleton warriors you will have to focus in on them 100% or they will not be very effective later in the game. Aside from skeletons the Necromancer can also create Golems with various different types at your disposal it is best to choose one type of Golem and focus on that type since you can only have one Golem alive at any given time. The Necromancer can even resurrect almost any monsters he has slain although these monsters will not last permanently and will die again after several minutes.

Lastly there is the Amazon which is a mighty warrior woman who would be the perfect choice for Diablo 1 players that were fans of the Rogue. The Amazon is best suited using bows and javelins. While the Amazon is not really my type of character she is still a formidable class that can devastate anyone easily in player versus player.

Diablo II has four acts which each have six quests except the final fourth act which only has three. Some of these quests are not very long but many of these quests you will spend almost the entire act trying to finish, and some of them are completely optional but usually offer great bonuses to your characters such as extra skill points. Every time you level up in Diablo II you are awarded with five attribute points (same thing as Diablo) and one skill point which you can use anywhere on the skill tree. Although not every skill will be available to you until you reach a certain level and new skills will be unlocked for your character.

There are literally thousands of items for you to collect in Diablo II including many rare, unique and set items. Set items are especially cool because if you collect all the pieces to a set you will gain special bonuses that are extremely helpful to your character. There are also gems which you can now find and you can place them inside socketed weapons and armor. These gems add special bonuses to your weapons but it is best to wait and upgrade your gems to perfect status and use them in very strong weapons.

For people who like to live life on the edge there is also a new type of online and even offline mode (but isn't much fun offline) called hardcore. Hardcore is the same thing as the regular way of playing but there is one new condition that does not normally apply. When you die in hardcore you die forever. You might be thinking "why would I want to play this?" It might not sound like it but it is actually much more exciting to play than regular Diablo II, and it is not all bad because if you play with your friends you can allow them to retrieve any items your character was wearing if you do perish so you won't lose everything you had.

One of the best things about Diablo II is that it is not confined to a single building. The concept in the original Diablo of going further and further into the depths of Hell was a great concept and added a lot of intensity to the first game but the world of Diablo II is much more expansive and there is much more to explore with the four different acts that all have different kinds of landscape. You will travel from forests, to deserts, to jungles and then eventually Hell. But each act has its own different city with its own group of unique NPCs for you to interact with, and it keeps the experience much more refreshing. You can even revisit Tristram which is the town from the first game but be warned; Tristram isn't the same as it was when you last left it in the first Diablo.

Graphics:
Diablo II stays true to Diablo in the sense that it is of the exact same graphical style, although obviously everything has been spruced up a bit. The magical effects look really cool and there is quite a lot of variety in the level design. One of the coolest aspects is that every piece of equipment changes the look of your character so you can always make your guy look different once you collect a new piece of armor or a new weapon. Online this is great because it gives everyone the chance to have their own individual look instead of everyone looking almost the same in the original Diablo.

Sound:
Diablo II, like is predecessor has extremely high quality voice acting, and lots of it to boot. Each character is brought to life with believable voices and like the first game you can still gossip to them about things besides your quests. All of the characters have quite a lot to say so if you like to get involved in the story you will really like this. The music is also pretty good and features some of the tracks from the first game for some of the games dungeons, which I thought was a nice touch and gave me a bit of a nostalgic feeling. Although Diablo was only released four years before Diablo II it still gave me a great feeling hearing some of the tracks from the first game. Although many areas of the game are kind of "without" music, there's always music there but it is more ambience in certain areas rather than music and sometimes the game feels rather dull in certain areas with the lack of "real" music.

Value:
Diablo II is a great online game that is highly addictive. There are many, many hours of gameplay to be found within Diablo II, online or offline. The five different character classes offer even more replay value since after you beat the game with one character you will most likely want to go through the game again with one of the other character classes. And even then you will most likely find yourself wanting to go back and try out one of the other types of sorceresses you can make since she has fire, ice and lighting. Diablo II has plenty of hours of gameplay and anyone who enjoys action RPGs will not be disappointed with Diablo II.

Score:
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Value: 9
Tilt: 9

Overall:8.8
To sum up Diablo II, if you enjoyed the original Diablo you will have no hard time enjoying Diablo II. Certain gameplay changes might bother you a bit at first and the games faster pace might be a little irritating but within a few hours of playing you will completely forget about all of that because you will be so engrossed in the game online or in the games amazing story. If you have never played the original Diablo you do not need to fear, because no knowledge of Diablo is really needed to enjoy Diablo II. Anyone who played the first game will have a much greater understanding of what is going on, but the game explains enough for newcomers to enjoy the story. Ultimately if you like action RPGs play Diablo II, you will not be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/06