Back in my youth, I’d recieved a CD from a gamer’s periodical, ‘PC Gamer‘. Containing a myriad of game demos, one of those happened to be Diablo. Thrown into a world of dark fantasy, I was immediately enraptured by it’s atmosphere and its addictive looting system. The pilgrimage into the town of Tristram had become love at first fright, and I was hardly the only one. Diablo sold millions, with the game’s popularity spawning countless clones trying to mimic the formula. And in the summer of 2000, the sequel arrived. Welcome to Diablo II.
After witnessing The demonic Soulstone being wedged into the hero of the first Diablo, our dark wanderer fights to control the darkness within…and is losing. Wrestling with nothing short of the devil himself, his journey heads east. Always to the east. It would’ve been easy enough for the studios of Blizzard to make “just another Diablo”; repeating the formula and throwing in a few new enemies. Instead, they chose something different. Something ambitious.
The main quest of Diablo II is a global matter, as your champion follows the trail of destruction left by our troubled stranger. New and awe-inspiring characters will make their debuts through thrilling and visually-impressive cinematics; something Blizzard is still very well-known for. It’s a well-written story that aims far higher than the original, which essentially boiled down to “Satan’s in the basement, go whack him a few times”. While not nearly as complicated if juxtaposed with the Planescapes and the Fallouts of the RPG world, it still comes to mind as one of the more memorable ones.
Split into multiple acts, your travels will be far more than a level-to-level affair. The four diverse locales you’ll explore are open-world, and come with a handful of quests outside of quelling the threat ahead. Diablo has always employed a very simple core formula for combat, and its sequel isn’t drastically far off. There’s no need for a roll of the die or fancy mathematics to muddy the action; Left-Click to attack, Right-Click for magic. The major difference between the two games, however, is that the sequel strives to build more in-depth roleplaying systems through skill trees and the characters’ abilities. Instead of having to frantically search for books to find your wall of fire spell, new movesets become available while leveling up and are yours to choose. And with 3 different skill trees for each class, the divergences of your character are numerous.
Straying away from a repeat of the classic Warrior/Rogue/Mage trifecta of the original, you’ll be given more exotic options like the Necromancer and the Amazon. Not just a new name on the label, the gameplay options can vary wildly between classes with abilities like the Paladin’s Aura System, or the Necromancer’s ever-so-elegant corpse explosion. To top it off, Diablo II came with a robust multiplayer system using Battle.net. The game was designed specifically with online in mind, both co-operative and otherwise; It’s a treat for those looking to get their dungeoning on. PvE Partying, PvP dueling, and a ladder system added a greater replay value to the original campaign.
The music is sublime. Composer Matt Uelmen makes his return after the previous title, and manages to retain the brooding vibe of the original. As the game goes on, however, the instrumentals take on a more international and experimental sound than fans may be used to, due to the notable change in location. The mystery and mystique in these new settings are still very present, a testament to the talent going into the aural department of Diablo II.
The graphical side is at the top of its game. While still working off its isometric 2D engine, the art style and the animation quality was exactly what it needed to be. The randomly generated worlds of Diablo II felt like a living, breathing, haunting experience. The original did as well, but not quite to the same degree. The worlds were more detailed, less confined, and encouraged exploration a bit more than its predecessor.
The Lord of Destruction expansion pack arrived a year later, building off a significant story arc and adding a fifth act to the game, as well as two new classes: the Druid and the Assassin.
Diablo II is a beautiful thing. It captures the essence of what made the original such a success, while venturing far from a dreaded case of “sequelitis“. The story will grab you, the enemies will haunt you, and the sheer variety of options will pull you back in. The new characters, the fan-made mods, the expansion pack, and the multiplayer components are more than enough reason to travel once again through the shady sands of Lut Gholein, or the dire docks of Kurast. Diablo II is a must for dungeon crawlers who hunger for dark atmosphere and an entertaining action-based roleplaying experience.
