Diablo 2 Review
By Jaden
One of the most anticipated computer games ever finally arrived in
stores this past summer. I don't think any game can fully live up to the expectations. At the time the game was originally supposed to be released, it would have been nothing short of a coup of the entire computer gaming world. With such a vast playing realm, a wide variety of characters and monsters, incredible graphics, and cutting-edge game-play features, early reports and screen shots had fans in a virtual frenzy for the game. By the time the game was released a couple years later, the graphics were outdated, features had been included in other games quicker to the market, and fans were tired of waiting.
Despite the anticlimactic release, Diablo II is a great game and comes
close to fulfilling the reputation that preceded it. With an Act V reportedly in development, hopefully future expansions will continue to improve one of the most popular RPGs. {editor’s note:
Obviously, the expansion has been released, and hey... we liked it.}
Game Play
Diablo II plays much like the original Diablo. You can still choose among several character classes-five
now, instead of three-and you can use the same characters for single player and multiplayer. It is still a third-person view where you click on your screen to move your character, click monsters to attack, and click items to pick them up. Right-clicking is still used for a second ability (with your primary ability assigned to the left click), although those abilities are now skills and not just spells. You can still assign function keys to different skills, also. There are still healing, mana, and rejuvenation potions (rejuvenations are now purple), although there are more than two types of each now. There is still a belt with numbered slots for easy access to potions. Don't panic-even though you only see four slots, you can get belts that have as many as 12 slots. There are still panels showing inventory, character traits, skills (as opposed to spells in the original game), and quest information, although these have changed somewhat. Waypoints replace the direct-access passages to different areas that were in the first game, and thankfully there are a lot more of them in Diablo II. Finally, there is still a town or encampment in each Act where there are no monsters and where you can buy, sell, and repair items and where you will find someone to heal you for free. In all, if you ever played the original Diablo, you should be able to play Diablo II right away without much problem.
That said, there are some notable differences worth noting to avoid confusion and help you make better decisions. The only scrolls remaining are Town Portal and Identify, and there ar e no longer any spell books. Skills take the place of spells, and there is
no longer one list of spells that anyone can learn. Some classes cannot learn spells at all; those that can have their own unique spells (some of which you'll recognize
from the original Diablo). The ability to learn skills comes only with experience, not gold or luck as in the original, so spend your skill points wisely. It's usually
best to specialize in a few skills rather than trying a little bit of everything.
There are two new attack effects that can be produced by spells and magic weapons for good guys and bad
guys alike-freezing and poison. A character or monster who is the victim of a freezing attack will turn blue and move and attack at a very slow rate. A victim of a poison attack will turn green and take
extra damage while green. If your character is poisoned, your health ball will turn green, also. There
are potions and magical resistances to counteract both of these effects. Fire and lightning attacks still exist. There are no potions for these, but there are magic items to resist fire.
Diablo II also includes more potions. There are a number of different exploding potions (Fulminating
Potion is one of them, although no game documentation tells you this) and gas potions that can be used as weapons. Unfortunately they must be armed-placed as your primary weapon on your
inventory screen-and cannot be accessed from your belt. This drawback makes them virtuously useless in single-player mode and almost as useless in multi-player mode. There are also stamina
potions to replenish your stamina, thawing potions to overcome freezing attacks, and antidote potions to overcome poison attacks. 
All shrines are good in Diablo II, except that fire, lightning, and poison shrines damage you as well as the monsters around you. Some chests are locked and
need to be opened by a key. You can find or buy keys, and all keys are the same-any key will open any locked chest. Treasures in Diablo II include gems and skulls of
varying type and quality that can be sold or placed in socketed items (another new feature) to give those items additional characteristics. In addition to regular,
magic, and unique items, there are now set items and socketed items. Set items become more powerful when you obtain all the items in the set (virtually
impossible). Socketed items have one to three slots in which you can permanently insert gems or skulls to add powers to the item.
Finally, an important new feature is the character's stash. Each character has a secure chest in town
(which carries over from one act to another) where he or she can store items, including gold, so that no other player can get them. The price of security is the loss of convenience and hoarding. If you
leave items lying around anywhere other than in your stash (in town or elsewhere), they will disappear after awhile.
The biggest technical improvement with Diablo II is that there is no level-load time. The game will load
when you begin, and there will be load time between each of the four acts. Other than that, you can pass instantly from one area to another without waiting. The biggest problem with the new set-up is
that you can't save your character whenever you want. The game autosaves frequently, but not always frequently enough. Also, you automatically save when you exit, so if you are not happy with your last
battle or with a recent trade, you cannot exit and restart at the last point where you saved.
Multiplayer has some added features in Diablo II. The more characters in the game, the harder the
game gets. Also, there's a lot more area to spread out. As a result, you are able to have more than
four players in a game together. Unfortunately, I have tried multiplayer on Battlenet, internet, and LAN, and have never had it work successfully with more than two players. Even if this is just
coincidence and bad luck, it does suggest instability. Multiplayer now has all the quests in single player. On quests where no individual character completes the quest, all characters receive the
reward and have that quest marked as complete. For quests where one character deals the final blow, that character gets the reward and completed quest, while the other characters still have the quest
listed as incomplete. In order to officially join characters, press "p" for the party panel. You can invite other players in the game to join your party, and you can accept others' invitations.
The biggest benefit in multiplayer for those playing with strangers is the added security. The stash gives
a measure of security in all games. Players wanting complete security can play on Battlenet, where characters are store on the Battlenet server and cannot be tampered with.
Here are a few helpful hints in game play that are not explained in the game documentation: (1)
Treasure chests that glimmer are extra-good. They will have special items and lots of gold. Champions
of any monster class are a lot tougher than their mundane relatives, but they also yield a ton of gold and often a magic item. (2) There are no magic or socketed javelins or other thrown weapons;
consequently, the best use of the Amazon is for bow skills. If you use her for spears, beware that some Javelin and Spear skills apply to javelin only. (3) The Paladin's Aura skills must be active
(selected as your secondary skill) in order to be in effect, but they do not necessarily require you to spend mana. (4) If you die in single player or multiplayer, your body remains were you were slain. By
clicking on the body, you can recover all the items you were wearing, as well as some of your gold. If you quit the game before recovering your possessions (and before someone else does), you body will
be in town the next time you play. (5) If you have hired help, don't let them lag too far behind you, or you might lose them permanently.
Customization
Diablo II does not currently offer any customization to the environment or the creatures. This is the
game's biggest shortfall. Imagine being able create your own worlds and add new monsters to fight. It would vastly improve the multiplayer experience. Perhaps they will add this capability at some point.
That said, Diablo II offers tremendous randomization in game play. There are four acts (with a fifth on the way), each an entirely different environment with its own classes of monsters, and you can travel
freely among any of the acts you have been in. More importantly, there are virtually limitless options in developing your character. There are five different character classes with varying strengths and
weaknesses. As in the original Diablo, each has the same four stats that you can raise as you gain experience levels. A whole new concept with the second Diablo is that of skills. Each character class
has 30 unique skills in three categories which are also raised with experience levels. Because the skills
become more powerful the more points you put into them, you are better off specializing in one or a few skills than trying to get them all. That means that by focusing on different skills, you can completely
change your playing experience even when running the same character class each time.
Graphics
 Graphics in Diablo II might not be up to the level of
some of the other games on the market now, but they are still excellent. If your computer can handle maxing out all the graphic features, the effect is awesome.
Your character will be adventuring day and night, rain and shine, indoors and out, and above and below ground. There are many landscapes and monsters, each unique in appearance.
Community
I have not played on the secure Battlenet site, so I am not well-acquainted with the Diablo II community. Those who do play on Battlenet are very exited
about having secure games without cheating.
Requirements
On a PC, single-player Diablo II requires at minimum a 233 MHz processor, 32 MB of RAM, a 4x
CD-ROM, 650 MB of disk space (950 MB for multi-player). It also requires DirectX 6.1 or higher, but the Diablo II CD comes with DirectX 7.0a. For enhanced 3D graphics, you must have 32 MB of
RAM and a 3D accelerator card with at least 8 MB of texture RAM. We are playing on an AMD K-6 II 400 MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM and a Voodoo 3 2000 video card. We are able
to play with all of the graphics features at the maximum setting without any problems. For multiplayer, the official requirements increase to 64 MB of RAM and 950 MB of disk space. On a Macintosh,
single-player Diablo II requires at minimum a G3 processor with 32 MB of physical RAM plus Virtual Memory (64 MB of RAM recommended), System 8.1, 600 MB of disk space, and a 4x CD-ROM.
For enhanced 3D graphics, you must have a 3D accelerator card with at least 8 MB of texture RAM. For multiplayer, the official requirements increase to 64 MB of RAM and 900 MB of disk space.
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