"When Diablo strikes back part 2!"

The Lord of Terror, Diablo, is back and now he's out to avenge his brothers! If you played the first Diablo and loved it, most likely you'll love this one also. Even if you never played Diablo and you played this one first you'll still love it, hopefully.

Graphics 8/10
Very improved over the first one. It's not as bland inside the caves or in town. Everything has it's own vibrant color and certain theme to it. As in Diablo where everything was gothic and dreary. This one tends to be more, less gothic and not as dreary. As oppose to looks it's dreary but you don't get that dreary feeling though. The NPC's and everything is a big improvement over Diablo. Even the FMV's were a huge improvement over Diablo's. Having more than just three. There were a total of 5 I think. After each time you beat an act.

Music 5/10
I never really played with the music that much. Ok I didn't play with the music at all except when I first got it. The music was allright but got very repetitive after playing for oh so many hours. The music never changed unless you entered a different act.

Sound 10/10
The sound has improved much over the first one. Every character has it's own voice and distinct sound when running. In caves or tombs the sound of the footsteps echoing is a nice touch. Even the sound of stepping on a spider or rat sounds real and nice. All the NPC's voices were done nicely.

Gameplay 10/10
Gameplay was changed a lot more than in Diablo. It's still the point click point click system but in a lot of ways it had improved. As where in Diablo you had the choice of picking 3 classes (Warrior, Archer Lady, and Sorcrer) you now have the choice of picking between 5 classes (Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Paladin, and Sorceress). All having their own distinct qualities. The Amazon is more of an archer lady or spear wielding, she's a powerful melee warrior. The Necromancer raises the dead and is good for having an army of the dead plus can explode corpses and curse creatures. The Barbarian is pure melee and the most powerful melee character. The Paladin is good for being a party leader with his bountiful of auras and he's a hybrid of the barbarian and maybe amazon or Sorceress. The Sorceress is pure magic and the most powerful magic user. With any of those Characters you can have endless builds for each one. Each of them have 30 skills to choose from.

Story 7/10
The story takes off from the last Diablo. The hero took Diablo's soulstone and shoved it in his forehead and wandered off towards the East to free his brother Baal. So you, the new hero, is off to stop Diablo in his tracks and stop him from releasing Baal, the Lord of Destruction. But before you can do that, in each Act (there's 4) you need to do oh so many quests before you can go onto the next one.

Challenge 6/10
There wasn't much challenge in this game really for any of the classes. After you beat normal there's nightmare and hell but those are pretty easy. Even Duriel becomes a peice of cake after awhile.

Replay 7/10
Replay is pretty high, after single player there's always the wide world of Multiplayer which gives you more than SP has to offer. But I found replay wasn't that high. That was until I got the expansion set.

Overall 8/10
Diablo 2 is a fun game and I've been playing it since 2001 and have been ever since. It's a fun game especially if you're really bored and have nothing better to do.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/03, Updated 05/26/03