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Good decision

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: July 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

After MUCH deliberation, I finally took the plunge and bought Diablo 2. I was unsure at first because there were so many mixed opinions, I'd find a review with five stars than one underneith with one! Well, am I glad to have made the right choice. The game is the biggest thing since AD&D in RPG's. I'll admit that the plot is not as engrossing as Baldur's Gate (which I also have, highly recommended) but it is very methodical with the quests and how everything is tied it. I like the idea of having five characters to choose from, and the skill tree is an awsome idea. To me, the graphics are awsome, the blood, movement, and environment are very realistic. True this is not a complete RPG, it still has all the elements of it, making Diablo 2 one of the most innovative, and challenging RPG's out there. I have a DVD ROM drive and I had NO problems with the installation or playing the game. The sound and graphics work great on my Dell. If you like RPG's you will probably love Diablo 2, my suggestion is to download the demo before buying, or make sure it is returnable, just in case! Overall, D2 is a fabulous and entertaining game my pick for Game of the Year 2000!

Dissapointed, but not surprised

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 20 / 33
Date: August 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When i first purchased Diablo i thought it was the greatest game ever, i have always been a rpg fan and i was in heaven. I played Diablo relentlessly until i conquered it a few times. it was not too long afterwards that somebody told me Baldur's Gate was better and i laughed at them. But as is it turned out, they were right. After playing Baldurs Gate i felt that Diablo was a very shallow game in Comparison. So when i heard of Diablo II i was interested but i was thinking it would probably be much like Diablo, brainless hack and slash that although fun, was very shallow.

I purchased the game and was not surprised to find that the game was as i expected. The plot was a bit more involving than diablo but still could not compare to the plot of Baldur's Gate. I also felt very little freedom about where i chose to go. one of the marvels of baldurs gate was the ability to just go rompin off in search of adventure. Another thing that was sorely lacking was the lack of character development. There was really no history or anything about your character. I was just "Level 22 Barbarian." Now that isnt so bad but it was hard to come away from the complex plots and hundreds of subquests of baldurs gate to diablo II. And to my further dissapointment, the graphics had not been improved and were not much to look at.

My Advice? Go BUY Icewind Dale or Baldur's Gate, or Both.

Diablo 2 - not all it's cracked up to be

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 23
Date: July 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

On the overall scale of things, Diablo 2 is a very good game. However, lovers of the original Diablo may be in for a disappointment.

One area of disappointment is the graphics. The artists do not seem to have been as careful or inspired as those for the original Diablo. To some extent, this is compensated for by effective use of the new 3D accelerator cards; unfortunately, many users have reported that the game does not run in 3D mode with their graphics cards, so you may have to switch to 2D mode to play.

Perhaps a bigger disappointment is that single player mode is essentially gone. What is called 'single player mode' for Diablo 2 does not actually save the game state, so the next time you play, all the monsters you have killed come back to life. This pretty much ruins the game for those looking for a good story line.

Local network play is also a step down from the original Diablo, as the game goes away when the game creator leaves. In the original Diablo, a network game stayed around as long as at least one person was still playing. Not a big deal, but still an annoyance.

The one promised improvement in Diablo 2 is as yet undelivered. On Blizzard's battle.net servers, use of hacked characters and software cheats dominated play of the original Diablo. Diablo 2 uses a different architecture, and offers 'realms' play that keeps the game mechanics on Blizzard's servers, preventing many of these methods of cheating.

Unfortunately, Blizzard's servers are currently so overloaded that it's difficult to actually play a 'realms' game, so one ends up playing open games with the same old hacks and cheats. But once Blizzard gets their server capacity up, the game may be worth the price of admission.

Good game for rats

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 33
Date: October 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In psychology there is a concept called "variable reinforcement schedule". Basically, if you reward a rat for pressing a bar, say with a food pellet, he will want to press the bar. BUT, if you only reinforce the rat randomly as he pushes the bar, well, he'll push furiously, neglecting socializing, hygiene, and all else. Diablo 2 works exactly like the latter situation. You kill a baddie. Did he drop something good? Maybe, maybe not. Every random time a baddie does drop something good, it inflames your brain to want to repeat that behavior, just like a slot machine, or a rat pressing a bar. The priciple is PROVEN to be elegantly addicting. In one sense, that makes this an incredibly efficient game, based on sound scientific data, with a vicious hook. On the other hand, I could put you in a cage with an IV of endorphins that randomly activated occasionaly after you pressed a bar, and you'd all be giving it 5 star reviews on amazon and wasting your time playing it. Here's an idea: spend time with your loved ones, read a book, draw a picture. Life is short.

Decent Game, but Far Too Repetitive

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 16
Date: September 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Like many other reviews, I found this game to have a "wow" factor for the first few hours, but it wasn't very long before I noticed that every area you explore is exactly the same. No matter what level you are, its the same wilderness, same caves, same crypts, etc. The scenery barely changes, and the monsters are exactly the same, just change colors for higher levels. The quests are all the same, either "kill person X" or "retrieve item X." I cannot stress enough how much repetition is in this game, and it got very boring, very fast.

The graphics are decent, but the game would not run in 3D mode, even with a GeForce 2 Pro, 64MB graphics card, on a high end machine. If you played Diablo (the original), there is basically nothing new in this game, its the same game with slightly better graphics.

Even for a hack and slash arcade style game, it is lacking. Combat consists only of walking up to a monster and clicking your mouse until its dead. Occasionally you will have to hit one of your number keys to drink a heal or mana potion, but thats basically it.

Don't expect anything new in this game. It has no depth or adventure, its really just an updated version of the old arcade game "Gauntlet." If you have never played any graphic adventure games or the original Diablo, you may enjoy this for a while. But veteran game players, especially those who have played any of the Baldur's Gate series games, or any MMORPG players who have played Everquest, Ultima Online, or Asheron's Call will very likely find this game incredibly boring and shallow. Its only value is as an action, hack and slash style game for a first time game player.

Multiplayer is not much better, as the quests and areas to explore are exactly the same as the single player game, you just get to play with friends. There is an extremely large patch to download if you plan on playing over a network. This game cannot even come close to competing with MMORPG's.

In summary, this game was mostly hype. The great reviews it received are likely from people who just got the game and have only played for a few hours before reviewing it. The game's success is likely from first time players and those with no experience with MMORPG's or other graphic or RPG games. If you are new to these type games, I could recommend it for your first game experience, otherwise, you might want to take a pass.

Fun Game - To Many Bugs

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Allow me to begin by saying that I have everything required except I have a 200 MMX rather than a 233 Megaherts Pentium, which is the minimum required.

I played Diablo I for a long time both on and off line so needless to say I was one of the first to buy the game when it came out at $65.00 bucks.

I enjoy Diablo II very much and I finally killed Diablo last night for the first time. :-)

This is a fun game that still has a lot of the mystery found in the original game. My only complaint is the bugs. For example, every time a huge group of creatures is near - the game lags temporarily while they all load (my video card is a Monster Fusion 16mb). Online gaming lag time is horrible - time to get ADSL or cable connection.

Also, I left the Horadric Cube in Act II on the ground in town with other items only to come back from the jungle and it was gone - fortunately, after I had combined the Horadric Staff! Alas, the computer figured it out in ACT III that it stole my cube and gave it back so I could complete ACT III. I don't like the automap because it is hard to see. Also, the creatures many times get blended in with background especially in the white desert while using it. Diablo had much better graphics because you could see everything better with the automap on.

The good things - a place to stash stuff, good plots, mystery with numerous monsters, more creative items, fun conquering the quests. Oh yeah, the time warps are great.

This is it in a nutshell. Personally, I think if they made these good things changes in Diablo I and kept the graphics similiar - this game would be the greatest. I also wish they would cut down on the number of people to talk to in town - how about one stop shopping.

Good luck everyone!

Mandatory Replayability

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 20 / 38
Date: November 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Blizzard has taken the position that allowing gamers to save their games is a form of cheating. Instead, they have autosaves at certain points in the game. When you die, you start over from the previous autosave. Sometimes, however, the time between autosaves is HOURS of gameplay. If you die prior to reaching the next autosave, expect to play the same scene over and over until you reach it.

One of the highlights of D1 was that you could walk around and adventure a bit. If you walk around and adventure in D2, you risk getting killed and reverting back (possibly quite a long ways) to your previous autosave point. Hence, D2 requires frantic running from autosave-point to autosave-point with a couple hundred monsters on your tail in order not to keep replaying the same scene over and over and over. Players who are into adventuring and mapping and basically treating the game like they might the real world are punished. Players who like to finish games quickly by running from point A to point B through to point Z will enjoy D2.

Needless to say, this gets tedious in a short while. I've only got about 10 hours (20 if you include replays) on the game but I haven't played it in months. Blizzard-If people want to "cheat" by saving their games every 5 minutes, who cares? Why make the game artificially more difficult? Have the autosave be an option only in a "difficult" setting. After such a long wait (I remember the screenshots from about 3 years ago) D2 was a terrible disappointment.

Again?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: October 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

It's funny how game developers strike on a theme or concept and consider it a gold mine. And like your average gold mine, it's used for a while, some times for years, but before anyone realizes it, it starts to run out. And so like many crazy miners, the game developers keep mining hoping to strike that gigantic hidden vein. Well, Blizzard hit the gold mine with original Diablo. I myself admit, that I stayed up for all hours of the night playing Diablo by myself, on my LAN, and on Blizzard.net. Shame to admit it, I played the game until I reached Hell, then replayed with different characters (Big whoop) and played again using the "evil" hackers tools (GASP!). So when Diablo II was announced, I eagerly awaited the release of the sequel. I announced my retirement from Diablo, ordered and got the Limited Edition of Diablo II and . . . was disappointed.

Really disappointed. My first mistake was accessing Battle.Net the day of release, nay the month of release. Blizzard stress tested the new network for Diablo II due to a fundamental change in how network play is handled. Well,. . . They stress tested for 10,000 people. Well, 70,000 Limited Edition Diablo II's were printed on top of who knows how many of the regular edition and the server was crippled for several months. What did Blizzard think? That we would graciously limit ourselves 10,000 people at a time? (10,000 world wide if I understand the news wheel correctly.) Granted the change was for the best. I myself was getting annoyed by the vast number of Cheating Player Killers (CPK) using special software to "survive" anything. Many honest players were forced to use the very same hackers tools just to enjoy the game. The network was changed for Diablo II to prevent this type of cheat in an "honest" game. At least Blizzard didn't lose all of their brain cells. Blizzard did work hard to improve the AT&T servers for game play and now thanks to their hard work server down time is somewhat minimized (albeit hardly perfected. We game players are an impatient bunch.)

And now on to the graphics. Well,. . . The graphics are nothing new. Still problems with the Voodoo 2 series of the cards (under certain circumstances it appears that you are looking through a sheet of water.) Monsters are still ho hum, areas are um . . the same random maps. Not much difference except the "bowled" effect. Not sure why blizzard implemented this, perhaps to give the player a better "perspective"? Things kind of do look more "distant" as the object reach the edge of the screen. Whatever.

Controls are the same. The game now makes better use of the keyboard however the entire game can still be played without ever touching the keyboard. Both points are good. I like the fact that belt items are a variable (4 for the first belt, 8 for the next belt, 12 for the next belt and so on and so on.) however, many may not like the newer compact look of the screen. They may not realize that this is by design to allow the player more visible gaming area. Item finding is vastly improved (how many times did we squint at the screen to find a stupid ring.) pressing a chosen key highlights the items for easy finding.Also, managing and using your character has never changed from the original. It's still easy to look at the farious stats and items that you have. However, I've never liked how much screen real estate this process has to take.

I find that the characters are somewhat unbalanced for game play. I can't really decide if this is good or bad. It is clear that one character will certainly stand out as the best for player to player combat, not good. As well as another character will become the best for single player games and another will be the best for "grouping." I do like the "unique" spells and abilities of each character. But is all this better than the "vanilla" characters of Diablo I? It certainly is, but by how much I'm not too certain.

There really isn't much to say about this game. Giving or not giving a star for each quality, I rated the game like thus. One star for the solid, but very stock, graphics. One star for the extremely refined controls. However I have to force a loss of one star for the quirkiness of the battle.net servers. "Is that fair?" you may ask. Well, yes, You see, playing Diablo II by yourself is only 50% of the game. Playing online or on a LAN is the other 50%. Online play is such an integral part of the experience of this game that I feel that Blizzard's service should be included in the rating. Sorry guys and gals. I can't decide whether to give or take one star for the characters. I would rather give half a star but amazon doesn't allow that, therefor I'll be nice and round up. One star for the character selection and development. The final star goes towards overall addiction. This game is indeed addictive, however care should be exercised that boredom won't creep in. All in all, three and a half stars rounded up to four. This game needs to be viewed as an extension of the original instead of the a whole new version and your enjoyment will increase. The price is a bit high as of this writing but I feel it is worth the hard earned cash (or credit in our modern world).

On a final note, (yes, I'm positive, no more paragraphs.) some of you may wonder why I don't always include music and sound in my reviews. It is because I am a part of the deaf community (although, I myself am not deaf.) I am keenly aware that deaf people often really don't care about music in a game so therfor I tend to leave those out. In case you are wondering, the music in Diablo II is far better than that found in Diablo I. Much more moody and awe inspiring, it certainly sets the pace of the game.

Thanks for reading!

TigerPomme

Fun multiplayer, but replay value drops quickly

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: March 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Diablo 2 is an extremely large version of it predecessor Diablo. Technologically, there are virtually no graphical or artificial intelligence improvements.

Of course, Diablo was a wild success, and teaming up with friends makes the multiplayer aspect of the game remain the funnest portion. The voice acting is also quite good.

However, be advised that you are very likely to spend 30 hours straight on this game and then never touch it again. The game design is ultimately repetitive. Take away the spooky-medieval mystique and they could retitle the game "Errand Boy". What's more, take away the spooky-medival graphics, and you're left with what I call "The Mouse Game":

Imagine a game in which you are a red dot, being attacked by multiple blue dots. For variety's sake, you can either right-click or left-click on the blue dots to attack them. As the game progresses, your clicks become more devastating, but the blue dots become increasingly resilient to clicks. Make the dots look like monsters and add fog, voila Diablo 2!

Addicting, even if it is a bit repetitive...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: July 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Let me get this off my chest to start. One of the main reasons this game got some bad press from some people was because it was a far cry from being the traditional RPG. Well, that's because it's not the traditional RPG. It's more of a subclass of RPG's, which can only be called the "Hack 'n Slash" genre. There is nothing wrong with this genre, especially if you prefer action oriented games. Just stop comparing this to games like Baldur's Gate. They are too different to be compared. Now that that's over with, on with the review...

This game gives you a choice between 5 character classes: Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin, Sorceress, and Amazon. Each class has it's own strengths and weaknesses. They are all very playable. The game consists of 4 "acts" with 6 "quests" each. There is not much in the way of story building, but that is because of it's genre.

Graphically, it doesn't look very up to date. After all, it runs in 640x480 resolution. That's pretty low by today's standards. Some of the effects are very nice though, and the stages have a grim and dark atmosphere about them. And the cutscenes have to be seen to be believed. Simply stunning.

The sound is excellent, with great music and some nice voice acting. The gameplay is mostly point-and-click, which makes it easy for the greenest newbie to play. However, many gamers might find the gameplay too repetitive, with too much "Point-Click-Kill" gameplay. However, there is a stran ge addiction that catches people who let it. Suddenly, you have this urge to keep playing, just to get the next magic item or experiance level. Before you know it, you will have been playing for hours!

This game has an excellent multiplayer mode as well, where 8 players can play through the game togeather. Overall, this game is worth getting, even if it is repetetive. Blizzard has done it again

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