Diablo II Review
By Mr. Carnage - 2:43 AM on Tuesday, August 01, 2000
Introduction
| Developer: |
| Blizzard Entertainment |
| |
| System Requirements: |
| Windows® 2000, 95, 98 or NT 4.0 Service Pack 5, Pentium 233 or equivalent, 32 MB RAM, 650 MB available hard drive space, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX™ compatible video card |
| |
| Reviewed Using: |
| Athlon 700, 128 MB RAM, Hercules 3D Prophet DDR, SB Live! Value, 22 GB HD, 8X DVD-ROM |
"After being in development for X years and after X delays, Blizzard Entertainment has finally released its long awaited sequel to the award-winning RPG Diablo, Diablo II." The previous line (in many different variations) is the mother of all introductory statements for Diablo II reviews. It works all the time yet never gives you a bad aftertaste. It gets stuck in your head but doesn’t get stuck in your teeth. It melts in your mouth, not in your hand. Does it work? Yes. Does anyone really care? Not really. What should be put in place of it is a short and sweet statement that maintains the essence of what the lives of over 2 million people are currently hooked on: Diablo II is a game.
Oops, sorry, I meant: Diablo II is a good game. Some may beg to differ, saying it is a great game, or a crappy game. A month ago I would have contradicted myself, saying that Diablo II is a totally kick-ass and great game. But after clearly rethinking my opinions and HMO options, I can only now say that the game that has generated so much money and wasted so many lives is only good. Not great, not amazing, but good. Just like Tic-Tacs.
Gameplay
What new gameplay elements does the game that sold over 2 million copies have that sets it apart from Diablo? Well, not much. The hack-and-slash element is clearly still present, and since Diablo was such a highly-praised game, Blizzard has apparently followed the age-old saying: "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it or much anal discomfort will come to you in the form of cherry-flavored gel capsules." And while there’s obviously nothing wrong with this type of gameplay, it offers very little to no innovation in a time when a hemophiliac gaming industry bleeds innovation. However, Blizzard has still managed to hook millions of people using that, so more power to them.
What’s added in this sequel are a few nice control additions/features, more game area, more monsters, more quests, more NPCs, LOTS more items, and of course, the new characters. Diablo II just wouldn’t be Diablo II without the 5 new characters it has: the barbarian, amazon, sorceress, paladin, and necromancer. They each have his or her own special characteristics (barbarian is a melee fighter, sorceress has magic skills, amazon is a bow and spear fighter, paladin has auras, necromancer can raise the dead), and each play differently.
One of the new control additions is the ability to run, and those of you who’ve played the original Diablo know how great a feature this is. You can also highlight all the items on the ground for easy grabbing by a simple press of the Alt-key – a great feature when you’re trying to steal loot from friends on battle.net. Or bastard pirates.
Overall controls are pretty simple. Instead of the "click-click-click" gameplay of Diablo, this time around it’s only "cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick." Blizzard has included the feature of "clicking and holding," which makes life easier for all of us. Secondary attacks/spells/etc. are utilized with the right-mouse-button. So as long as you know how to click you can be a Diablo II pro in a matter of minutes. Yes, it’s that simple, folks – just 1 easy payment of $49.99 and you can be a D2 pro!
And once you start playing, you can’t stop. There’s absolutely no way to stop. It’s that addictive. First you tell yourself you’re going to stop at the next waypoint (a new feature that lets you access a specific area without the hassle of fighting your way back to it), then it’s the next waypoint, then the end of the act, then what do you know, it’s your 2nd consecutive night without sleep, you’ve beaten the game on nightmare, and apparently there’s a pool of urine on the floor next to you.
The game area has been increased by almost four times, as the size of the first act of Diablo II is roughly equal to the size of all of Diablo. And for those of you that don’t know, there are four Acts in the game – each of which entails a different conflict in the plotline. Quests are given and done in each act – some you can go on without, and some you can’t. But the ones you can complete the game without usually has rewards for finishing it that can be really helpful, like extra skills or stats, for example. A lamborghini would have been nice, too, but apparently Blizzard didn’t think so. Bastards.
Character stats have mostly been left alone but the new unique character skill tree is pretty cool. Each character class now has a complete skill tree filled with unique skills in three different skill areas. A sorceress obviously has her skill tree filled with various spells, and a barbarian specializes in combat skills, etc. Specializing in different skills is an integral part of making your character the best it can be, so these skills are pretty crucial to the game. Adding points to the wrong skills for your character could result in nausea, vomiting, and your kidneys spontaneously imploding, thus sucking your useless human body into a USELESS PIT OF NOTHINGNESS. … Sorry.
However, the arguably best features of the game are the items. Diablo only sported standard items, magical items, and unique items. In Diablo II, you’ll find standard, socketed, gemmed, magical, rare, unique, and set items. Socketed items are basically standards with sockets in which you place gems. Gems are gems – there are many types of them and each has its own special feature that it does to a piece of socketed armor or weapon. Socketed items with gems in them are called gemmed items. (I wonder how they came up with that?) Rare items are similar to uniques in that they usually have very good stats and have multiple modifiers. However, unlike uniques, they have randomly generated names and stats, so it’s very unlikely you’ll see the same rare twice. Hence the name "rare." (Interesting concept, no?) Experience leads me to come to the conclusion that rare items are usually better than their unique counterparts, so ya’ll better get rarifying! Or something.
Set items have the most unique concept. Individual set items have generally pretty good stats with 1 or 2 modifiers – sort of like a cross between a magical and unique item. However, each particular set item is part of a set (no duh?) that may have up to 6 or 7 items (some have as low as 3) and when that set is completed, will give the user extra magical properties. So in addition to wearing pretty good individual items, you’ll gain extra bonuses for finishing the set. Pretty cool, huh?
New features on battle.net (Blizzard’s free on-line gaming service that allows you to play D2 with the other 2 or so million people with the game) include a player-to-player trading interface, shared experience within a party, and a better PvP fighting system.
However, most of the complaints generated from Diablo II has been about battle.net itself. Never has the gaming service been stable since the release of Diablo II and 2 million people tried to pour in. Apparently Blizzard wasn’t expecting that kind of success with sales and didn’t prepare itself to provide the adequate bandwidth to hold more than tens of thousands of people on each realm. Since the release, Blizzard has been working night and day to upgrade the battle.net servers and increase user capacity, but problems have still arisen. Extreme lag, deleted characters, and other such problems have been plaguing many players, and they want a fix now. The service will only get better in the future, so players shouldn’t have to bitch and moan for much longer.
Aesthetics
Diablo II’s graphics are severely outdated, sporting low-resolution 2D sprites in a time when 3D rules supreme. Each main character, NPC, and unique monster sports its own unique character model that is pretty well-detailed (in stunning pixellated 2D, no less), but many of the average monsters you’ll encounter in the game will be named differently and be of a different difficulty level, but look similar to one another with the exception of color. And as we all know, the difference between purple and blue signifies the introduction of a NEW, BIGGER, BADDER monster that looks exactly like the other one. The landscapes in some of the beginning areas (namely most of Act I) are pretty drab, but later on some of the landscapes are really well-detailed and pretty. The 3D graphics option is also mostly used to make the landscape look 3-dimensional, adding a scrolling, parallax effect when you move around the map. It looks pretty neat, but requires a 3D accelerator to take advantage of and also slows down framerates.
The overall clarity and smoothness of the 2D graphics are pretty weak. Although character models are larger than those of Diablo, that has resulted in more blocky and pixellated graphics, which are obviously a no-no. Poopie on Blizzard for not improving the graphics. However, some of the spells have really nice effects, especially sorceress fire spells. The 3D option allows for colored lighting, which is a nice aesthetic effect. And the icing (or mud, if you will) on the cake on why D2’s graphics stink: 640x480 resolution. Is there an option for 800x600? Nope. Is there an option for 1024x768? Nope. The only way to play Diablo II is with disgustingly ancient 640x480 as the standard resolution. I’m sorry, folks, but that just won’t cut it when you’re trying to peel potatoes… or play a game.
Sound
Diablo II has great music tracks that set the mood quite nicely for each area. For example, in Act II, which is a desert area that can be compared to the African Sahara or Arabia, the music played is that which you would normally associate with Arabia or a middle-eastern desert area, which includes flute-ish sort of things. The soundtrack CD that is included in Diablo II Collector’s Edition boxes is a nice thing to have just to listen to the nice music in the game.
Sound effects are also very well done in the game. Attack and spell sounds are what you would expect if not better, the characters and monsters yell battlecries and scream in pain as they die, and ambient sounds are a great effect. Top notch all the way. Character voice acting also sounds great. There’s nothing cheesy, they all sound great, and a big purple star goes to Blizzard for sound. (All the gold stars got stuck to my ass in a freak accident involving gold stars and … my ass.)
Conclusion
You might think Diablo II kicks ass because, well, it’s Diablo II. And undoubtedly many others share your exact same feelings. But the game’s outdated, sub-par graphics, not-so-revolutionary gameplay, and b.net problems have proved otherwise to me. Don’t get me wrong, Diablo II is a good game. It’s fun, addicting, and likely to stay on your hard drive for a long ways to come as long as the battle.net service continues to improve. But it’s not a totally kick-ass great game.
Gameplay: 4/5
The fun factor is off the roof, but there’s no real innovation to the RPG genre.
Aesthetics: 2.5/5
Extremely outdated, pixellacious graphics. 3D effects are minimal, but nice.
Sound: 5/5
Very well-done, moody music. Sound effects are top notch.
Value: 4/5
At $49.99 in retail stores, and $59.95 from the Blizzard online store, Diablo II isn’t exactly a bargain. But it’ll keep you playing for a long time, and this is GUD™.
Conclusion: 4/5
Diablo II could be so much better – even with no new innovation but very nice graphics I would have called it great. But as it is now, a 4/5 rating is the best it will garner. |
