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Tedious

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: January 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Playing Diablo II is like reading a tedious novel with a magically cursed bookmark.

When Blizzard tackled the computer role-playing game genre with their original Diablo, they focused on combat and perfected it to a degree of high art. Diablo's combat was fun and challenging. They haven't really changed the formula for Diablo II, and that's part of what makes the game so tedious. For a sequel, you'd expect more: more story, more options to completing quests, more ... role-playing! Instead, it's all combat, all over again. Moreover, the combat in Diablo II isn't as challenging as it was before. The baddies aren't as bad.

Exploring the new character classes is interesting, and there are definitely different strategies you need to employ to be an effective fighter with the barbarian over the sorceress, for example. The skill system gives you greater options for carnage. But all of the skills and all of the the character attributes contribute nothing except your ability to fight fight fight. And the new quests, which are either kill X or retrieve Y, involve having to wade through thousands of minions on your way to X or Y. It's dull.

Though the game is overall tedious, Blizzard has done some things well that other game houses would do well to emulate. The cinematic scenes between acts are top-notch: the computerized special effects and facial expressions are some of the best I've seen. And in most computer role-playing games, moving from one area to another involves staring at a "Loading..." screen for excrutiatingly long times. In Diablo II, there's zero---ZERO---delay! (The only "Loading" messages are between major map areas, and those are quite brief.) Good job, Blizzard! Unfortunately, the in-play graphics haven't really improved much over the original. Sure, the amazon's butt cheeks show up pretty well, but it's a fairly low resolution game.

So, what did I mean by a "cursed bookmark"?

Imagine if each time you put down a novel and picked it up later, your bookmark moved back by 50 to a 100 pages ... that's the Diablo II experience.

You see, there's a bug in saving games. When you resume your saved game, you don't appear where you were. You start out back in the town. All of the items left around aren't where they were, either. And all of the baddies you killed ... they're back! The tedium of having to kill them on your way to finishing a quest is doubled because you have to do it all over again, every time you save your game.

There's an old adage in software engineering that says if you document your bugs, they become features. How saving games works in Dialbo II is indeed documented in the manual. But this "feature" is a lamentable excuse for what so many other games---including the original Diablo---got right.

Maybe Diablo III will be better.

Simply the best game ever made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: October 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Diablo II has been around quite a while now, but it remains in my mind the greatest game ever made. I was one of many who waited impatiently for untold months for Blizzard to finish the sequel to the original Diablo, and I was by no means disappointed. Blizzard does not release a game until it is really ready for prime time. The most amazing thing about this game is its disarming simplicity. All you need is a mouse and a finger to click with, yet the action is often intense and the experience completely absorbing. When you get right down to it, killing demons and other nefarious beasts is just plain fun. The game can get rather difficult at times, yet this is a game that even I, inept player that I am, have actually been able to complete all on my own.

This game took everything good about the original Diablo and just multiplied it. You now have four entirely different regions to explore, each featuring a number of NPCs-some more helpful than others. You've still got your basic dungeon campaigns, but you also get to explore wild forests, desert sands, and ethereal regions somewhere between earth and the netherworld. Your choices of how to fight are varied indeed; you can choose to fight as one of five different hero types, each of which requires its own unique strategy. I tend to stay with the barbarian because I find it the easiest to control (it's all about slicing and dicing). If you want to use a lot of magic, you have to do a lot more clicking in order to change spells and refresh your manna-when you are surrounded by demons, this can get rather difficult. The NPCs afford you a lot of choices in terms of armor and weapons, but of course you have to earn the cash to pay for the high-dollar stuff by slaughtering untold demon hordes. The monsters you encounter in your travels are diverse and sometimes daunting. You have to use a little skill (or a lot of luck) to defeat some of the premier baddies you will run across, but one advantage this game offers is the aid of a companion. When the going gets tough, a partner firing arrows left and right can be a great help. If you worry about the length of the game, rest assured that there is action enough to keep you clicking for untold hours. There are four "parts" to the game (with very cool introductory sequences), each one featuring about 10 different areas and six significant quests. Finishing the game will take some a lot of time and effort, but it can be done; as soon as you finish, though, you are ready to dive back in and do the whole thing all over again.

There is only one negative thing I can say about Diablo II. Death can find you very quickly, yet you cannot save the game as you go along and return to the exact same spot later. When you load a saved game, you start at the central location of the region and have to make your way back the hard way to the spot you previously occupied-the status of your quests is unchanged, and you can still "see" areas you have visited, but it's annoying to have to trek through a couple of lands just to get back to where you already were.

Diablo II is incredibly addicting; you may sit down planning on playing an hour or two, and the first thing you know you've been fighting evil for four or five hours (and you still aren't ready to stop). If you enjoy online gaming, the danger of obsession only grows. Blizzard's free Battlenet online gaming service remains the standard by which all other online gaming services are judged. Blizzard does everything the right way, and Diablo II is a shining example of their commitment to the thoughts and desires of the gaming community. Twenty years from now, I will still be playing Diablo II.

Corrupted Brain Cells!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 23
Date: September 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

At first it is rather amusing to beat swarms of bad guys into piles of pulp, but after the 10,573rd kill, one realizes that there seems to be little more to the game than pointing and clicking really fast. There's lots of bad guys out there, each of which gives you the most infitinesmal amount of experience.

I get the idea that evil has taken a hold on these lands. After you've fought corrupted porcupines, corrupted crows, corrupted supermodels(that you regrettably have to slaughter by the bushel), corrupted fly swarms, corrupted blacksmiths, corrupted vultures... After awhile one can't but ask if the evil corrupted CHAIR is next.

After awhile of playing, the small things get you. How can you resurrect a human skeleton from a porcupine corpse? How can you attack a swarm of bugs with a sword? Why does this 'special' corrupted bug swarm have an individual name and how does it drop magic items when you kill it? Why does that 9'7 550 pound guy pop like a water balloon filled with red paint if you hit him once or twice? This is nitpicking, but most game designs have at least some attention to detail.

And one would think the highest aspiration in the game is to kill the very lords of hell. No! The greatest challenge is to take on the ferocious halberd wielding cows in the 'secret' cow level! That's when I decided to put in an end in my assault on the demonic forces. No matter what my little character does, he has to get corrupted at the end so there can be a sequel.

5 Starz Baby!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: July 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Diablo II is a remarkable hack and slash RPG. The first Diablo took me almost 4 months to beat. i just played Diablo II and i think it is a historic achievment by Blizzard. Great Job! by the way, I do not reccomend this game to anyone new tothe Genere. if i were you, i would go out and by the first one and then go on to the second.

Diablo II or Diablo 1.5?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: June 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

With improved, yet outdated graphics, this game doesn't give off the feeling of playing on a grid as we were confined to in the first. Although with the limited play in the stress test, I was hooked, as I was with Diablo. This sequel to the game offers more choices, more distinction between all of the characters. This game offers a way to circumvent getting totally wronged by player killers (PKers), by allowing to set level limits, passworded games, and a limit on some of the online cheating that plagued the last game. The new items, the new formulas for experience and the new skill trees add a lot to the game rather than having all the fighters running out with energy shield, king's ungodly sword of smiting, and maxed stats at level 20. The story is the same, but rather than being centered in one town, we chase Diablo and his brethren across four towns. The four stars are for a much needed (and awaited) sequel, but with the same basic storyline and somewhat outmoded graphics, it loses one star. That and in a few short days I will be very interested in road testing the other four characters, the stress test barbarian has been played to death.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: October 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to give this game more stars. I really did. The characters are distinct and interesting, the graphics are very good, and it can be quite addictive.

However, there are a couple of flaws that are so annoying it's impossible to give the game a high rating.

First and foremost, the game can be so repetitive at times it could be used as a substitute for Sominex. Some scenes continue far too long, and as you progress into the nightmare/hell levels, it's necessary to repeat scenes in order to level up before continuing with the quests. This gets so monotonous it's unbelievable. Endless traipsing through the Flayer Jungle is enough to give anyone a migraine.

The second huge flaw is that the Blizzard team must have been high when they tested the relative character strengths throughout the entire game (normal, nightmare and hell). Anyone who has played several of the characters into at least the nightmare level will probably reach the conclusion that the Barbarian and Necromancer are by far the easiest characters (Barbarian in particular).

Considering how long development took, I expected more from Diablo II. For how long is it fun to run around killing 5 or 10 versions of the same basic monsters? The answer is, it's fun for awhile, and then you start to drift off...desperately longing for games you would never have previously yearned for, like checkers or solitaire. ANYTHING sounds better after too long with this game.

Sorry, Blizzard folks...better luck next time. I think I'll go play Baldur's Gate II now.

You Must Enter the Realm of Santuary Once Again...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Do you remember playing Diablo? was that fun? addictive? True there are lots of "improvements" to that game but when you just get down to the truth, the game is out and its FUN! I bought the Game right after it was released and I finished it in a week. The game is definately rich and you will enjoy it if you played Diablo. In the previous version of Diablo, there werent that many scenic changes, now you go from one town to another. The Game is 4 Acts long.. and each Act in my opinion is about as long as the original game (except last act) . For each act you travel to a different Town. The NPC's are more entertaining by that I mean they give you lots of useful information....the storyline is more rich and the basic mechanics of just playing is simpler.

Major Pros:

- You can play Multiplayer with your single player character - Diablo creature.. very COOL! [THATS ALL I will SAY] - storyline.. on your toes till the END! - Gaining Skills from a specifc Skill tree is much better than finding Spell books - Stackable Items (awesome now I have space to for more useful stuff) - For each Act you meet a challenging Creature. - each plain or "Area" you go to in each act is diverse and different (except for ActIII) - All of the Quests are interesting and fun.. some quests require that you collect items.

Major Cons: - Act III is repetitive and redundant definately not as exciting as Act I and Act II. Act IV.. well could have been better.. - Bugs, many of them.. that doesnt stop me from loving the game here are a few.. I wasnt able to get a new skill on one occurence. I am a level 30 Amazon and I cant get level 24 > skills, At several points in the Game my Experience would change and I would be holding a weapon I cant equip. - No saving in Single Player Game - No Null modem connection [TCP/IP or Battle.net] - I run the game on a PIII 700MHZ 128R 24X CD and the game is sometimes slow, audio is choppy and alot of breaks.

NevertheLess Go Buy and Enjoy!

Excellent Game...Poor Support

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Diablo II is an excellent game, but only if you want to play offline (single player). I play on the East Realm (on BattleNet) and have 5 characters above level 30 (one of each class). Lag has been a serious problem since I bought the game last summer when it was first released. Back then, Blizzard support said that the overwhelming sales of the game caught them by surprise and they would eliminate the lag by adding more servers. Well, 6 months have passed now and the lag just gets worse and worse every day. It is now so bad that I have found the game to be completely unplayable. Now Blizzard is advertising the game on TV so even more people will be logging onto the already overcrowded, lagged-out servers. It's a shame that all the effort that went into creating such a great game is ruined by the poor support for online players. Playing single-player is not an option for me since I've discovered how much fun it is to team up with friends.

Blizzard's sequel may just be the most addictive roleplaying game ever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The original "Diablo" came along at a time when the CRPG market was in dire straits. The game breathed fresh life into the genre and created an unparalleled accessibility that made it very easy to pick up play. Using the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" formula, the sequel follows along the lines of the original, and expands it into a bigger and better game.

For starters, there are 5 available classes to play with. The fierce Amazon, who excels in javelin and ranged weapons, the melee-specialist Barbarian, the Sorceress, who excels in flinging destructive spells, the undead-raising Necromancer and the holy Paladin. All of the 5 classes have drastically different playing styles, and there is no skill sharing here. Every class is meticulously detailed in every aspect of their skills available, to provide a unique gameplay experience.

The story follows on from the prequel, and is intriguing, if rather sparse at times. The hero who killed Diablo in the first game, which you played as, is now possessed by the evil demon thanks to the soul shard embedded within him. Ironically the hero wanted to imprison Diablo within the shard, and then use his own body as a prison for the shard, but now the Lord Of Terror has overpowered the hero's will and taken control of his once noble body, and sets forth to release his brothers and open the gates of hell for the final time. Your job is to hunt down Diablo and playing as one of the 5 classes, you journey across 4 Acts, all of which are extremely detailed and well thought out in terms of difficulty balance. Act One alone is as big as the entire original game! The distances you can cover are truly humongous. There is a sense of restriction however, because there are pesky barriers set up to quarantine you within the zones. So there is no sightseeing here, you are given a path, and you've got to follow it in order to get the job done. The quests given are interesting and very fun, but the real shame is that there is so few of them. A couple more per Act wouldn't have hurt.

But the essence of "Diablo II" is very much in its practical side. Tinkering with your characters' stats and hunting for items dropped by the monsters is the main attraction. There are literally thousands of items in the game, from magical rings, to rare axes, to the golden unique items, all of which are there for you to play dress up with. Set items are the rarest of them all, and if the set is completed by finding all the pieces (e.g. Death's Hand Sash, Death's Hand Boots...) then you get a very nice bonus. The amount of different monsters you can slay is truly astounding. All kinds of evil critters and denizens of hell make an appearance here, from vicious giant vultures, to lurking sea snakes, and of course - zombies! And lots of zombies too, since this is very much a hack and slash game, you will be clicking and clicking as you trudge through the millions of minions the game throws at you. It does get tedious sometimes, which is the only real letdown of the game's design. There isn't really enough depth to the story to make up for the sheer amount of clicking you have to do. The variance in areas does help, as does the motivation to get better loot, but other than that, "Diablo II" is just a giant slashfest. The Bosses you face at the end of each Act do have to get special mention however. They are extremely challenging and very neat to go up against.

The graphics are attractive, and they were considered very good for its time. Of course, now the 2D backdrops and limited animations are considered dated. The graphics do not detract from the ambience however, all of the monsters have plenty of color, and weather kicks in every now and then. Your character isn't very complex in the animation department I must admit. After all, how many different ways can a Barbarian swing a sword? The different skills do look cool however, like the Sorceress' blaze, where she leaves a trail of fire in her wake.

The music is rather bland, if suitable for the atmosphere. There are dark overtones here with an emphasis on the instrumental side of music. The desert flutes and jungle drums are nice, but the dungeons could have used a little more flair. The monster sounds are amusing, and the voice acting is top notch, as can be expected from Blizzard. The cinematic FMV's (full motion videos) that play between the conclusion of each Act are nothing short of stunning, and truly blew me away. Blizzard set their bar with "Starcraft" and then jumped it themselves with the new standard of cutscenes in "Diablo II".

The multiplayer offering is solid, with Blizzard's Battle.net service providing a stable online gaming experience. Competitive ladders, duels, and just causal playing are all catered for with the ever popular Battle.net. You won't have to look far for a game to join, the lobbies are teeming with life even now. Online characters are created for Battle.net only and stored separately from your singleplayer characters, to prevent any funny business.

The replay value of this game is astonishing. Considering the 20+ hours it takes to complete it the first time, not to mention the Nightmare and Hell modes, which are unlocked after completing Normal mode, there is a lot of playing to do here. Nightmare and Hell modes offer new items, and harder monsters. It is essentially playing through the game a second time, with much tougher monsters, and much better loot. The concept is brilliant, and of course you will be itching to try the other classes as well to see how they fare. Let me warn you though, this game is very addictive, even in singleplayer. Online, that's a whole other level of cyber-crack. The intense competition for items and the jockeying for positions on the ladders are what kept the game alive for this long.

If you are looking for an action RPG that has longevity, without a deep story line and dialogue to bog you down, then this is your game. Those out there who are all about stats and equipment, and competitive gaming need look no further than "Diablo II". Blizzard is known for their excellent pedigree, and they don't disappoint. "Diablo II" improves upon the original in every aspect, and provides the most bang for your buck out of any classic RPG out there. Do yourself a favor and pick this up from a bargain bin. Putting it down again, now that's another story.

Kills WoW

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

With my WoW review unfairly deleted by Fascist Amazon, I must instead post a review of an infinitely better game, Diablo 2. Not only does it take skill to play this game, but the story is 10000000000x better than WoW's. Instead of grinding, you go on exciting quests, treasure hunting, and dungeon crawling. And what else is that its FREE to play online. Thats right, once you pay the games charge, thats it. No fees for servers or anything. Not only that, but the people who play are better. No more lame 13 year olds who say lol too much, these are hardcore players. Instead of killing lame boars or wolves, you fight hellspawned demons, freshly arisen undead warriors, and everything inbetween, even PO'd evil Cows!

So, in short. Stop playing WoW. Get this game and enjoy it, its cheaper and better in every which way.

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