Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

"Lord of Destruction is a phenomenal improvement and add-on to Diablo II, that it’s almost impossible to imagine playing Diablo II without it."

Diablo II - Lord of Destruction is the almighty expansion pack to Diablo II. After playing Lord of Destruction for many hours it is safe to say that Lord of Destruction is an absolutely phenomenal expansion pack to Diablo II and severely adds and improves upon the great concepts established by Diablo II. Lord of Destruction is actually so good that it is almost impossible to imagine anyone ever playing Diablo II again without this incredible expansion pack.

Story:
Fans of Diablo II will be pleased to know that Lord of Destruction's story begins immediately following the ending events of Diablo II with its incredible fifth act. The fifth act added into Diablo II with the expansion is perhaps the best act in the entire game, gameplay and story wise. The story continues after you have just defeated Diablo in hell and you are now in hot pursuit of Baal (lord of destruction, hence the name) who has fled to Arreat Summit in search of the world stone. You must not allow Baal to reach the world stone chamber, and you now must climb mount arreat in hopes of reaching Baal and destroying him once and for all, and to save the mortal world.

Gameplay:
Anyone would imagine that it would be hard to improve upon the magnificent class system in Diablo II and all of the thousands of items you can find in the game. Well you are in for a surprise because the gameplay additions and changes in Diablo II are so essential that it makes for an entire new experience.

The first major addition introduced in Diablo II - Lord of Destruction is that there are now two new playable classes, the Druid and the Assassin. This brings the total number of playable classes to seven, including Diablo II's Barbarian, Paladin, Sorceress, Necromancer and Amazon. Because Diablo II now has seven classes the possibilities for individual character customization are nearly endless. The Assassin and Druid are fully fledged out and each has three of their own tech trees. And everyone will be pleased to know that these new classes are completely new and unique and are not just rehashes of other classes. The only similarities are the Druid and the Necromancer since they can both summon minions to their side; however the Druid's minions are vastly different to those of the Necromancer.

The Druid is like a mage and a summoner mixed together with some shape shifting thrown in for good measure. His three skill trees are elemental, summons, and shape shifting. Elemental is magic like the sorceress except it is more natural magic. The Druid uses magic that comes from the forces of nature such as volcanoes and tornadoes, rather than summoning big balls of ice like the sorceress. Summoning is much like the Necromancer except the Druid's minions are very different. The Druid summons spirits that help him and his party along with creatures such as wolves, ravens and bears at his side. Finally he has shape shifting which is probably the coolest thing about the Druid. He can transform into either a werewolf or a werebear for a limited amount of time and can than use other abilities specific to these transformations on his enemies.

Then there is the Assassin. The Assassin is basically what you would expect, her skill trees are, traps martial arts and shadow disciplines. The traps are especially cool because you can lay elemental magic traps on the ground and lure your enemies into them, or you can simply toss them into the fray of enemies and have your traps devastate them. Next she has martial arts where she can use some cool and deadly finishing moves on her enemies. And finally she has shadow disciplines which have some cool effects like being able to create a copy of herself to confuse her enemies.

Aside from new character classes Lord of Destruction has many other significant changes. For one there are now thousands of more items for you to collect throughout the game and many, many more set and unique items for you to find. There are also many more types of things you can insert into weapons and armor. Instead of just gems you can now use jewels and runes, and the runes are especially cool because if you insert them in a certain order you can create rune words which offer greatly improved effects to your weapons and armor. Another great feature is that your stash is now doubled in size so you can hold double the amount of items in your hidden stash so you can keep a lot more of those unique and set items you are trying to collect. There is just so much more stuff to see, do and collect in Lord of Destruction it is absolutely amazing.

The new act in Lord of Destruction is another site to behold. The graphical improvement for one is simply amazing but the quests are much, much better than those found within the other four acts. The fifth act is almost extremely long and challenging which makes up for the short fourth act which was the final act in the original Diablo II. Not that the fourth act was not challenging, it was in fact very hard but it was much shorter than the other acts. The new act adds a lot more replay value to Diablo and has a satisfying conclusion to game, which makes it a must have for anyone who plays Diablo II.

Graphics:
The 2D style may be considered "outdated" by some, but the graphics in Diablo II are simply amazing to me. Lord of Destruction's fifth act offers some new greatly improved graphics with some really neat weather effects. The fifth act is also especially cool because of the fact that it takes place on a snowy mountain which has some cool glacier interiors for you to explore. The fifth act is a huge expansive environment that is extremely enjoyable and satisfying to explore.

One of the greatest new additions in Lord of Destruction is the new 800x600 resolution which greatly improves the graphics in the game. Everything is much clearer and sharper and you can see much more of the playing field than you could in the previous lower resolution. Graphically Diablo II is a very impressive looking 2D game.

Sound:
Once again the fifth act in the game adds a great new wealth of content, this time in the form of music and voice acting. The voice work and new music in the fifth act is simply amazing. Especially the new musical themes that play within the first act, such as when you are launching the assault right out of Harrogath which has some pretty intense music which makes the game that much more interesting and intense.

The voice work is also very well done, the fifth act has a great new cast of characters to communicate with, and each is voiced believably and has many things to say. The Druid and the Assassin also come complete with their very own dialog which they speak at the appropriate time like all of the other classes, and the other classes all have new lines of speech which they speak in the fifth act.

Value:
Every single addition to Diablo II that is found within this expansion pack is so essential that it's almost not even the same game anymore. Diablo II is so greatly improved by this expansion pack that you must play it for yourself, as it would take much to long to go through every change made with the expansion. Diablo II with all of these changes and a fresh new, lengthy act offers so much replay value it is almost absolutely insane. Almost anyone who has played Diablo II knows that the game is highly addictive with its three different difficulty levels online and its five classes. Now that Diablo II has seven classes and all this new content it is even more dangerously addictive than it has ever been, and is possibly the most enjoyable and most addictive RPG ever made. Anyone who loves action RPGs will simply fall in love with Diablo II and will find hundreds and hundreds of hours buried inside this game.

Score:
Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Value: 10
Tilt: 10

Overall: 9.8
Lord of Destruction is an absolute must have expansion pack for anyone who owns Diablo II. It adds incredible new content in all areas of the game and is as addictive as ever. If you want to play a game that is highly addictive and a fun and entertaining RPG experience with a great story give Diablo II a go, just don't forget its expansion Lord of Destruction, because it is one hell of a ride.

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