The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Diablo II

It's easy to either blast one of the most anticipated games in the last few years or it is very easy to overlook the flaws. After spending many hours playing Diablo II I find myself somewhere in the middle. I will endeavor to cover the finer points of the game rather than have lengthy prose. Its just a game.

The Plot As compared to the original Diablo there is a plot. Compared to other CPRG's, there is barely a plot. Each of the first three acts has 6 quests. Some of these may be a one shot; others might have multiple objectives. Most of the individual quests are basic and do not require a great deal of thought to solve, but they do accomplish moving the overall story along. Between each act is a movie, that has very good graphics and sound, particularly Act II/III (which I have used as a demo for my new Monsoon MM-700 speakers).

The NPC's are far and few and paint broad strokes in developing the plot, given the nature of the game it would probably be a hinderance to have a lot of developed NPC's running around. Diablo II has not advertised itself as an immersive RPG, but it does have a workable plot that you get some satisfaction playing through.

Gameplay

Diablo II plays a lot like Diablo. If you liked the first one, you are going to have a good time with Diablo II. The best addition to Diablo II is five character classes to choose from: paladin, amazon, necromancer, barbarian and sorceress. Each class has its own unique skills. There are enough skills to differenciate classes amongst themselves. Do you want a fire-oriented sorceress or a cold-oriented one? Do you want an amazon who is master of the bow or the spear? There are tough choices to be made, especially since skill points come one per level. Also skills are dependent on each other, so you might have to learn a useless skill (such as telekinesis) in order to get a more advanced skill. This alone gives Diablo II a much higher replay value than its predecessor.

Arg, either the game is far too easy or far too tough. There really is not much in between. The monsters are smarter, but you can still woogie* them into a favorable position and blast them from a distance. Also sometimes you quite literally open a flood gate and can get far too many monsters than you can really deal with.

The great thing about Diablo that carries over into Diablo II is the multiplayer gaming. There are many options to choose from, open Battlenet allows you to use your single player in a multiplayer format. Realmed games are a neat concept and new to Diablo II. Gone are the days of Diablo when anyone could hack a character to their benefit. Realmed games have all the characters kept centrally and limits cheating. Though I suspect it is still possible to twink** a character.

The equipment in Diablo II is very similar but there are a lot of new weapons, items and armor. The most useful is the different belts. Each belt type has a different capacity to carry potions and scrolls. Some items are class specific (wands and staves, for example)

An interesting game concept is the addition of gems and socketed items (which you insert gems into) are a nice feature, but unless you have collected/created quality gems its useless. You can, usually, get better magic items during the course of play. The only exception to this is that staves and wands will usually have a spell bonus, then by adding gems they become decent weapons too.

The random treasure generation is better than Diablo, but sometimes does not pay heed to logic (if the Chaos Knight had a magical long sword, why wasn't he using it?). On the other hand it lets your characters get items that they would have had to wait a longtime for in Diablo.

· A woogie is playing a game within the rules but exploiting them to your benefit. · ** A twink is giving an item to a friend to take care of (or dropping on the ground) and having a less powerful character of your come into the game and pick it up.

Technical Stuff Diablo II is not exactly memory efficient. Playing at 64MB RAM gets a lot of slow spots, 128MB RAM is where you want to be for serious gaming. This is not a bad thing, as you can tell when a large amount of monsters are headed your way by the program slowing down. Also you can get a cup of coffee (just kidding…sort of).

The graphics are a step above Diablo, but not much more. The word here is evolution, not revolution. The backgrounds are lush and there is more detail in characters and monsters alike. Each act has new monsters and settings, so there is a lot more too look at.

Quirks Why can't the game remember to load up your belt when you re-equip after death? Money in your stash gets taken away when you die. No side kicks in Act IV, when you REALLY need one. Why can't you remove gems from socketed items? NPC's and monsters can see off screen.

The Bottom Line Diablo II is a good game that only suffers from inflated expectations. It is not revolutionary, but that does not discount its quality. Diablo II has enough of a plot to keep the combat interesting and enough variation in characters to have good replay value.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Diablo II
Author: Blizzard North Category: CRPG Company/Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment Line: Diablo Cost: $49.99 Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Wes Johnson on 08/12/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Diablo II It's easy to either blast one of the most anticipated games in the last few years or it is very easy to overlook the flaws. After spending many hours playing Diablo II I find myself somewhere in the middle. I will endeavor to cover the finer points of the game rather than have lengthy prose. Its just a game. The Plot As compared to the original Diablo there is a plot. Compared to other CPRG's, there is barely a plot. Each of the first three acts has 6 quests. Some of these may be a one shot; others might have multiple objectives. Most of the individual quests are basic and do not require a great deal of thought to solve, but they do accomplish moving the overall story along. Between each act is a movie, that has very good graphics and sound, particularly Act II/III (which I have used as a demo for my new Monsoon MM-700 speakers). The NPC's are far and few and paint broad strokes in developing the plot, given the nature of the game it would probably be a hinderance to have a lot of developed NPC's running around. Diablo II has not advertised itself as an immersive RPG, but it does have a workable plot that you get some satisfaction playing through. Gameplay Diablo II plays a lot like Diablo. If you liked the first one, you are going to have a good time with Diablo II. The best addition to Diablo II is five character classes to choose from: paladin, amazon, necromancer, barbarian and sorceress. Each class has its own unique skills. There are enough skills to differenciate classes amongst themselves. Do you want a fire-oriented sorceress or a cold-oriented one? Do you want an amazon who is master of the bow or the spear? There are tough choices to be made, especially since skill points come one per level. Also skills are dependent on each other, so you might have to learn a useless skill (such as telekinesis) in order to get a more advanced skill. This alone gives Diablo II a much higher replay value than its predecessor. Arg, either the game is far too easy or far too tough. There really is not much in between. The monsters are smarter, but you can still woogie* them into a favorable position and blast them from a distance. Also sometimes you quite literally open a flood gate and can get far too many monsters than you can really deal with. The great thing about Diablo that carries over into Diablo II is the multiplayer gaming. There are many options to choose from, open Battlenet allows you to use your single player in a multiplayer format. Realmed games are a neat concept and new to Diablo II. Gone are the days of Diablo when anyone could hack a character to their benefit. Realmed games have all the characters kept centrally and limits cheating. Though I suspect it is still possible to twink a character. The equipment in Diablo II is very similar but there are a lot of new weapons, items and armor. The most useful is the different belts. Each belt type has a different capacity to carry potions and scrolls. Some items are class specific (wands and staves, for example) An interesting game concept is the addition of gems and socketed items (which you insert gems into) are a nice feature, but unless you have collected/created quality gems its useless. You can, usually, get better magic items during the course of play. The only exception to this is that staves and wands will usually have a spell bonus, then by adding gems they become decent weapons too. The random treasure generation is better than Diablo, but sometimes does not pay heed to logic (if the Chaos Knight had a magical long sword, why wasn't he using it?). On the other hand it lets your characters get items that they would have had to wait a longtime for in Diablo. · A woogie is playing a game within the rules but exploiting them to your benefit. · A twink is giving an item to a friend to take care of (or dropping on the ground) and having a less powerful character of your come into the game and pick it up. Technical Stuff Diablo II is not exactly memory efficient. Playing at 64MB RAM gets a lot of slow spots, 128MB RAM is where you want to be for serious gaming. This is not a bad thing, as you can tell when a large amount of monsters are headed your way by the program slowing down. Also you can get a cup of coffee (just kidding…sort of). The graphics are a step above Diablo, but not much more. The word here is evolution, not revolution. The backgrounds are lush and there is more detail in characters and monsters alike. Each act has new monsters and settings, so there is a lot more too look at. Quirks Why can't the game remember to load up your belt when you re-equip after death? Money in your stash gets taken away when you die. No side kicks in Act IV, when you REALLY need one. Why can't you remove gems from socketed items? NPC's and monsters can see off screen. The Bottom Line Diablo II is a good game that only suffers from inflated expectations. It is not revolutionary, but that does not discount its quality. Diablo II has enough of a plot to keep the combat interesting and enough variation in characters to have good replay value. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)