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Mr. Carnage's Diablo II Preview
posted at 6:35 PM on Tuesday, June 6th
i n t r o d u c t i o n
If you know anything about gaming, chances are you've heard about Blizzard's upcoming hack-and-slash sequel to the ever-popular Diablo, Diablo II. And if you know anything about anything, chances are you signed up to take part in the 100,000 person Diablo II battle.net stress test, a limited open beta of the game which is primarily for stressing the Diablo II battle.net servers. Those lucky enough to be accepted into the test got an e-mail with an access code and the download location for the 100MB beta behemoth, while those who have huge amounts of bad luck usually resorted to primitive bribery techniques to acquire an access code from their bastard (yet generous) friend(s), a la yours truly. *wink*
a b o u t - t h e - b e t a
The beta lets you play as only one character class: the manly, hulking, and oh-so-sexy barbarian. Strength is his game, so mana and energy power-ups are basically worthless for him. There are two metaservers available to play on: BetaUSEast and BetaUSWest. You might think that west coasters would tend to use the west server rather than the east server due to some advantage such as latency, but I saw no difference between the two. Basically, people set up an account on each server and use one when the other's down (which used to happen quite a lot). Both servers are working splendidly now, but for a few days about a week ago, the situation was like this: west game servers down, but chat was up and east was totally down; west chat goes down, east chat and game goes up, east game goes down after 15 minutes, chat goes down after 2 hours, everything down; after a while both go back up for 5 minutes, go down again, people start rioting in the streets, President Bill Clinton sells his soul to the Afghani Liberation Army, and John Romero is named CEO of Bungie Software and announces that Halo will have "sidekicks" and will be released in 2065. Small world, isn't it? All this is understandable, though, as the stress test was created to fix quirks in the game servers and as a result they would have to go down randomly. But I really had no idea about that John Romero thing; it's been bugging me ever since.
The chat area of D2's b.net is pretty cool compared to previous Blizzard games' b.net servers. In addition to the chat screen and rotating ads at the top, there is a new channel user list. Unlike Diablo and Starcraft which had users listed alphabetically on the side of the screen with little icons that denoted the user's character class, Diablo II has the users on the bottom of the screen and shows the specific character images for that specific user. So now you can see your little barbarian or rogue in all its glory, with its weapons and equipment showing on the screen for other people to marvel at. It gets really colorful in some channels, as many users like to use gemmed weapons (which I'll detail later on). There's also a little clickable gem in the middle of a screen which apparently does nothing except say "Gem Activated" and "Gem Deactivated"; some say if you keep clicking for several eons you'll see "Perfect Gem Activated," but what this does no one is for sure. One other cool thing about the new user list is that if you go into a Diablo or Starcraft channel, you'll see Diablo or Starcraft characters. While the chat area takes up roughly half the width of the screen, the other half is used for scrolling b.net system messages like "The stress test is live!" or "Please do not give your access key or password away." And it also gives messages like "Server down" and "Game is full" and things of that nature. Why Blizzard decided to devote half the screen to that is beyond me; it can easily display messages of that sort in a smaller space.
Once you enter the game, you'll have a level one barbarian eqipped with a hand axe, a buckler, a couple of health potions, an identify scroll, and a town portal scroll. The immediate surrounding is the Rogue Encampment, the first area of the first act of the game. This area is a place where a band of rogues are camping out away from all the baddy-waddy monsters. The Encampment serves as a town for Act I, similar to Tristam in the original Diablo. There's a shopkeeper, a blacksmith, the head rogue who is a magic items dealer, a couple of other interactable NPCs, and a few non-interactable NPCs. The first thing that'll happen when you enter a game is a conversation with Warriv, one of the interactable NPCs. He gives you a brief history of what has happened since the time of Diablo (a Dark Traveler has been seen in the area and scary monsters have been popping up as well as other evil things) and tells you to talk to Akara, the head rogue. Akara tells you that an evil rogue named Andariel has been corrupting other rogues and you are to do something about it. At this point it's time to go kick some monkey ass! Er... monster ass. You head out of the Encampment into the Blood Moors, a sort of "beginning level" to the game. The monsters here are ass easy to kill; they consist of quill rats (weak porcupine-type creatures) and zombies (not as hard as you think they are.) Scattered throughout the area are chests and loose rocks from which you can get items and equipment from. However, items this early in the game aren't usually very good, so you would get things like Crude Quilted Armors, Damaged Boots, and used copies of Daikatana. Also scattered throughout the area are shrines, which are similar to the original Diablo's, but of course many here are different. Before you can enter the next area, however, you must complete the first quest of the game, and the first of two available quests in the beta. You have to go to the Den of Evil and clear it of monsters. It's not as monumental a task as you might think, although it could take a bit of time. You'll encounter Zombies, Gargantuan Beasts (very easy), Fallen (little devil creatures), and Fallen Shaman (little fireball-throwing dead-raising devil creatures) in the Den. Aside from those enemies, you'll also see the first "boss" creature in the game: a zombie boss. Bosses are inherently harder to kill than its standard counterparts and hold some special ability (teleportation, mana burn, freezing damage, etc.). In addition, it's almost a sure bet that you'll acquire a magical item from a boss, so that's also good too.
Once you finish the quest and clear the Den, you're to go back to Akara where you'll get a special treat: an extra skill level. There are three skill levels with which to upgrade: warcries, combat masteries, and combat skills. Within those are several sublevels. There are limited sublevels within the beta, but that's fine; there isn't much you can use it all for. Within the warcries level are Howl and Find Potion. Howl scares away monsters and Find Potion allows you to root through corpses to find potions. Both of these drain mana. Within combat mastery are sword mastery, axe mastery, and mace mastery. Upgrading the skill levels for these give you better attack and damage ratings for that specific weapon. And in combat skills is Bash, which is a more powerful form of attack, but drains mana.
Whenever you level up you also get to upgrade stat levels as well as stat levels, but those are basically the same as Diablo's. You can upgrade Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Energy. And it takes a specific number of experience points to level up, just like the original Diablo. A wise thing to do with your barbarian is to focus on one weapon class, like swords for example. Then whenever you level up your skill level, keep upgrading your weapon mastery. It'll pay off in the long run.
After the first quest is finished, you get to go to the Cold Plains, a larger and more difficult area than the Blood Moors. Near the entrance is a waypoint, something also found in the Rogue Encampment. This is a new feature to Diablo II, and it's very useful indeed. Once you click on a waypoint, you can get to that area from the Encampment just by going to the Encampment's waypoint and clicking on that specific area's waypoint. It saves a lot of time from journeying through other areas. In the Cold Plains you'll find Gargantuan Beasts, Fallen, Dark Spearswomen (evil rogues), and their boss counterparts. There are also two levels of caves in the Cold Plains, filled with Fallen, Dark Archers, Skeletons, and Hungry Dead (harder zombies), as well as bosses. On the second level of the caves there is also a treasure chest filled with gold, potions, scrolls, and magical items.
The last outdoor area of the beta is the Burial Grounds. You'll find Skeletons and Fallen Dead, as well as the Blood Raven, who you have to kill in order to finish the second quest. She has some nice offensive attacks, and lower level players will have to use up a lot of health potions in order to kill her. She has fireball attacks, arrows, and she can raise the dead. After she's defeated you can go to the NPC Kashya to claim your reward: a rogue NPC of your very own. She'll follow you like a dog, killing things for you, getting hit, getting killed, causing you to lash out from your mental anguish, etc. That's a real nice part of D2: NPC party members. You also have the option of upgrading your rogue from Kashya for some gold. Yes, rogues are people too, I understand that. But it's still true! There are also two more areas in the Burial Grounds: the Mausoleum and the Crypt. They offer even more enemies, bosses and items. Hooray!
g a m e p l a y
Gameplay in Diablo II is almost a mirror representation of Diablo’s. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, it ain’t broke. There are some new nice features, though. You now have the ability to run, and there’s now a stamina bar that goes down as you run. You can regain stamina by standing still for a short period of time or walking rather than running, or by drinking a stamina potion. There are also different methods of attacks now; you can opt for the standard attack, the aforementioned Bash, southpaw attacks, and throwing attacks. You can throw any number of a variety of items, like throwing knives, javelins, and now potions. There are exploding potions and poison gas potions, which, granted, aren’t very powerful as weapons, but have very cool effects. Also, you can use weapons in both hands now, which is a popular thing to do now, as I barely see any high level characters with a shield in one hand. You can also hold down the Alt key to highlight every item on the ground now, so you don’t miss a special item you might not have seen earlier.
The old problem (or option) of player-killing (or PKing) is still present in Diablo II, although it’s been modified heavily now. The only way to PK in Diablo II is to express hostility to another player while you are still in town, not while out fighting monsters in dungeons. This will undoubtedly eliminate the problem of cheap kills and whatnot. Also, you can’t loot the dead player’s body unless they allow you to, but you get a percentage of their gold for your reward. I think this method to PKing and dueling is much better than the Diablo’s, and is more considerate to those who just want to gain experience and have fun.
Another new feature is the party option. You can ask other people to join your party and ally with you, which allows you to share the experience points gained. It’s a nice addition, but there’s not much use for it on higher character levels unless you’re with an eight player group.
v i s u a l s
I was sorely disappointed at how Diablo II looked. Character animations have improved since the first game, but all of the 2D graphics are not sharp at all. I expected to see crisp, clear graphics, but that was not the case. The 2D graphics are probably the only low point in the game, but everything else more than makes up for it.
The 3D acceleration option didn’t add as much as I had hoped for (I hoped for a lot since I didn’t read any previews of the game; most were spoilers anyhow), but they added some cool features. The most notable difference is the change in the isometric view. Now instead of the standard top-down isometric RPG game view, you have something similar to Populous: The Beginning’s view. It’s pretty cool to see. There are also some funkadelic colored lighting effects, especially noticeable on the Fallen Shaman and Exploding Shrines. I got epileptic seizures from them, but like a tough little Japanese Pokémon-watching kid, I kept right on playing.
Also, the new automap is more detailed and shows shrines, paths, walls, entrances, other characters, etc. It’s been wholly improved since Diablo and I thank Blizzard for the numerous improvements.
i t e m s & e q u i p m e n t
There is a truckload of items and equipment you can get in Diablo II; tons more than in Diablo. There was a surprisingly huge amount of items available in the beta alone. Along with standard items, magical items and unique items, there are now rare and set items. Rare items are somewhat similar to uniques in that they come with multiple modifiers, but unlike uniques who have set names and attributes, rares have randomly generated names and attributes so it’s unlikely that you’ll ever find the same rare item more than once. Set items are special and powerful items that also have multiple modifiers, but are part of a larger set of 3 or more items. It’s highly unlikely to collect a whole set in the beta, but finding singles of a set is quite common.
There are also gems in Diablo II. These are things like emeralds and diamonds that, when put into a socketed item (a weapon, shield, or helmet that has sockets for you to put gems in), will give the item extra attributes depending on the gem. These gems have different levels: chipped, flawed, normal, flawless, and perfect. The higher the level, the better the attributes it gives the item. And the only way to upgrade a gem is to find a gem shrine, which will randomly upgrade a gem in your inventory. Now these gem shrines are ultra rare, so people would pay good money or trade good items in exchange for a non-chipped gem. To be quite honest, I think gem and set collecting will be the lasting factor in Diablo II. No one cares about beating the game; everyone just wants to patiently search for every set and every gem, not to forget perfecting them. I foresee an Everquest/e-bay type thing for Diablo II – people selling their characters complete with set items and every perfect gem for big bucks. People will start buying the game not to play it and have fun, no, but to collect items. Gems and sets could very well be the next collecting craze since Pokémon! Or not.
c o n c l u s i o n
Diablo II will be your god if it isn’t already. This game has so much to offer in terms of gameplay. Although there is only a tiny percentage of the game world in the stress test beta, that’s saying a lot considering the total area in the beta. The final version will be a huge, huge world with many different monsters and five available character classes with a variety of spells and attacks. Finishing the whole game will take a long time, indeed, and afterward there’s several eons’ worth of multiplayer playing time as you hunt and trade for the best items you can get for your character. There isn’t much bad I can say about this game, except maybe for the mediocre graphics, but as I said before, the other parts of the game more than makes up for it. I can guarantee that Diablo II will be the hottest selling item in software retailers in a month or two when this game is released. If you don’t pick this title up, you’ll sorely be missing something special. This game rocks.
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