Diablo II and it's expansion Lord of Destruction is the undisputed cream of the crop as far as hack and slash looters go. Apart from aged CGI cut scenes the game remains perfect to this date. There is even a remaster that touches the game up to modern graphical standards not that it needs it. The visuals of the original is stunning and macabre. The soundtrack drenched with melancholy is sure to stir dread in your soul as you embark on your journey against the Prime Evils (Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal). The game play loop becomes an addiction and is much more resonating in it's RPG elements than the streamlined almost MOBA-like Diablo 3 where you can adjust to the situation on the fly.
Diablo II is comprised of four exhilarating acts of non stop adrenaline with the highlights in my opinion being the first, fourth, and fifth act. The first act sets you in the rogue encampment. From here you will venture forth battling numerous enemies and seek to defeat Andariel (who like Duriel of Act II is a lesser evil). What sets this Act apart from the other acts is it's balanced questline. Each quest doesn't overstay it's welcome. Yes even the quest that has you backtrack to the Dark Woods and Stony Field maintains interesting as it climaxes in the return to Tristram and that tune that serenade's dread. Tristram is the town from Diablo (a game which I never played). To my knowledge Diablo is a more deliberated and focused experience where as the sequel ramps the action and scale to epic proportions but I digress. All the other acts besides one vary in quality of the quest lines. Act II and III are widely considered the weakest acts because the fetch quest lines with Act II being considered superior to III despite III's epic culmination with the first Prime Evil the players will face Mephisto. The issue with Act III is the overall sameness to the region it takes place in. There is variety don't get me wrong but it feels like it just shuffles between ruins, caverns, and jungles all utilizing vary similar color palettes which while dreary seem bland in the marsh.
Act II's Arcane Sanctuary is absolutely worth the various places you have to visit including the maggot lair which in my opinion which I consider to be backed by common opinion the most aggravating area in the game. In multiplayer modes the narrow passageways can cause the player to block another and if you are out of town portals (which instantly opens a portal that you can enter to escape any situation to receive refuge in the Act's respective town) than you most likely will die and while I have never really dug into the meat of hardcore where death is permanent I would assume this zone being the bane of all player's enjoyment of the game.
Act IV also lacks in scenic variety and has the same lava stereo-typically hell based color palette's. It does however possess my favorite town in the angelic Pandemonium fortress which serves as a silver encrusted beacon of hope in defiance of Diablo's wicked grasp. The act is succinct enough that the sameness of the environments culminating in the epic confrontation with Diablo in the Chaos sanctuary that it does not overstay it's welcome as it only has three quests as opposed to the other act's having six.
Finally we have act five which came with the expansion Lords of Destruction in which the player must confront Baal. This act also expects players to bask in the glory of it's grotesque winter wonderland. While it straddles the line between the more varied and less varied acts providing a blend of uniqueness and monotony. The Areat Summit confrontation with the Ancients, the Throne Room and final confrontation in the World Stone Chamber escalate the gravitas of the story and provide the player with a grandiose sense of accomplishment.
In summation I feel that regarding act quality that Act 1 is the clear favorite of mine also due to the secret cow level where the obtuse idea of giving cows weapons and having a deluge of bovine barbarians swarm the player was concocted by the zany geniuses at Blizzard. Act IV is probably the act I would consider the runner up as it does not overstay it's welcome and helps carry the momentum from the battle with Mephisto as you defeat the corrupt fallen angel Izual, the Smith to shatter Mephisto's Soulstone and top it all off a seemingly final battle with the mascot of the series. Act V would follow those because while the early quests have you treak throughout the snow the highlights place it above the fetch quests of the latter two acts on this list. I consider Act II better than the third because the end of Act II and it possesses more variety and build up.
The visuals of this grisly tale are on point as they sequester the players in a morbid and satanic landscape. The variety of the five acts is astonishing in that you go from a regular forest like landscape, to a barren desert, trekking through a marsh, delving into the fiery depths of hell, and finally excavating a tundra along with the sub-habitats in each area. The animations are fluidity of the spells are jaw-dropping and magnificent. The menagerie of pets, forms, spells, and stats can feel overwhelming at first but on subsequent playthroughs or the various opportunities to reallocate skill points and stats you will find childlike delight. It is amusing how a game as grim and melancholy as Diablo II can evoke such awe and wonder in the player.
The drab music can evoke impending doom in the player and amplify the occult imagery. The sound effects of the various monsters are well constructed and feel appropriately other-worldly. The voice acting also has quite a bit of thespian weight behind it as the melodramatic tone of the characters creates the impression in the player's mind that this is a urgent and epic series of quests.
There are seven classes in Diablo 2 and while two are the primary ones to initially get through the five acts, three difficulty modes (Normal, Nightmare and Hell but more on that later), and secret Uber level. Subsequent playthroughs or playing through with friends all classes are viable for end game content. Online there are ladder and regular modes. The ladder is where you compete against other players for ranks in experience on a leader board. Every so months the ladder resets and transitions your ladder characters into a normal mode (or you can just start on the regular mode). The most powerful classes are the Paladin and the Sorceress. The sorceress is the most friendly to newer players to farm items as she is the only one who can blaze through the map with the teleport skill. Other classes need Enigma ( a powerful runeword) to obtain such game breaking speed. In Act II you obtain a cube that can fuse gems to make gems more powerful, create new items, or merge runes to create new runes). Creatures drop runes if you have the expansion and the runes you either merged or found can be used to put in item sockets to concoct rune words in those items.
What else is novel to the expansion. Well the two classes I consider the most fun. The shape-shifting/summoning/element controlling Druid, and the trap making/martial artist Assassin. Classes that are still fun but not viable to go to end game in my opinion without the right gear are the to aforementioned ones, Barbarian, and Amazon. Necromancer and Paladin can make it to the end game but at a much slower pace than the sorceress without teleport. Necromancer supposedly can do it naked with his minions doing all the work while cursing the enemy. The Paladin has aura's that make him a worthy edition to any team by boosting their stats (Barbarians can briefly do this with shouts and Druids have sages that can do auras basically but Paladin's are by in large the most varied with their group boosts). Barbarian is the melee enthusiast and Amazon is the ranged one specialist in a brief summation of their respective classes.
All classes have a wide gamut of talents that can plow through normal and nightmare difficulty with ease (well definitely normal). See when you beat five acts you can go to nightmare difficulty which gives the enemies more resistances and lowers yours. Hell difficulty is the final challenge with it creating a further dichotomy in the equilibrium of resistances. All in all you grind for loot and weapons in an addictive gameplay loop that threads the needle between the action heavy Diablo III and the contained Diablo I ( I read it is a slower game).
I tried to let the words do the talking. Let me know if you prefer the text to a bunch of images.
Act II's Arcane Sanctuary is absolutely worth the various places you have to visit including the maggot lair which in my opinion which I consider to be backed by common opinion the most aggravating area in the game. In multiplayer modes the narrow passageways can cause the player to block another and if you are out of town portals (which instantly opens a portal that you can enter to escape any situation to receive refuge in the Act's respective town) than you most likely will die and while I have never really dug into the meat of hardcore where death is permanent I would assume this zone being the bane of all player's enjoyment of the game.
Act IV also lacks in scenic variety and has the same lava stereo-typically hell based color palette's. It does however possess my favorite town in the angelic Pandemonium fortress which serves as a silver encrusted beacon of hope in defiance of Diablo's wicked grasp. The act is succinct enough that the sameness of the environments culminating in the epic confrontation with Diablo in the Chaos sanctuary that it does not overstay it's welcome as it only has three quests as opposed to the other act's having six.
Finally we have act five which came with the expansion Lords of Destruction in which the player must confront Baal. This act also expects players to bask in the glory of it's grotesque winter wonderland. While it straddles the line between the more varied and less varied acts providing a blend of uniqueness and monotony. The Areat Summit confrontation with the Ancients, the Throne Room and final confrontation in the World Stone Chamber escalate the gravitas of the story and provide the player with a grandiose sense of accomplishment.
In summation I feel that regarding act quality that Act 1 is the clear favorite of mine also due to the secret cow level where the obtuse idea of giving cows weapons and having a deluge of bovine barbarians swarm the player was concocted by the zany geniuses at Blizzard. Act IV is probably the act I would consider the runner up as it does not overstay it's welcome and helps carry the momentum from the battle with Mephisto as you defeat the corrupt fallen angel Izual, the Smith to shatter Mephisto's Soulstone and top it all off a seemingly final battle with the mascot of the series. Act V would follow those because while the early quests have you treak throughout the snow the highlights place it above the fetch quests of the latter two acts on this list. I consider Act II better than the third because the end of Act II and it possesses more variety and build up.
The visuals of this grisly tale are on point as they sequester the players in a morbid and satanic landscape. The variety of the five acts is astonishing in that you go from a regular forest like landscape, to a barren desert, trekking through a marsh, delving into the fiery depths of hell, and finally excavating a tundra along with the sub-habitats in each area. The animations are fluidity of the spells are jaw-dropping and magnificent. The menagerie of pets, forms, spells, and stats can feel overwhelming at first but on subsequent playthroughs or the various opportunities to reallocate skill points and stats you will find childlike delight. It is amusing how a game as grim and melancholy as Diablo II can evoke such awe and wonder in the player.
The drab music can evoke impending doom in the player and amplify the occult imagery. The sound effects of the various monsters are well constructed and feel appropriately other-worldly. The voice acting also has quite a bit of thespian weight behind it as the melodramatic tone of the characters creates the impression in the player's mind that this is a urgent and epic series of quests.
There are seven classes in Diablo 2 and while two are the primary ones to initially get through the five acts, three difficulty modes (Normal, Nightmare and Hell but more on that later), and secret Uber level. Subsequent playthroughs or playing through with friends all classes are viable for end game content. Online there are ladder and regular modes. The ladder is where you compete against other players for ranks in experience on a leader board. Every so months the ladder resets and transitions your ladder characters into a normal mode (or you can just start on the regular mode). The most powerful classes are the Paladin and the Sorceress. The sorceress is the most friendly to newer players to farm items as she is the only one who can blaze through the map with the teleport skill. Other classes need Enigma ( a powerful runeword) to obtain such game breaking speed. In Act II you obtain a cube that can fuse gems to make gems more powerful, create new items, or merge runes to create new runes). Creatures drop runes if you have the expansion and the runes you either merged or found can be used to put in item sockets to concoct rune words in those items.
What else is novel to the expansion. Well the two classes I consider the most fun. The shape-shifting/summoning/element controlling Druid, and the trap making/martial artist Assassin. Classes that are still fun but not viable to go to end game in my opinion without the right gear are the to aforementioned ones, Barbarian, and Amazon. Necromancer and Paladin can make it to the end game but at a much slower pace than the sorceress without teleport. Necromancer supposedly can do it naked with his minions doing all the work while cursing the enemy. The Paladin has aura's that make him a worthy edition to any team by boosting their stats (Barbarians can briefly do this with shouts and Druids have sages that can do auras basically but Paladin's are by in large the most varied with their group boosts). Barbarian is the melee enthusiast and Amazon is the ranged one specialist in a brief summation of their respective classes.
All classes have a wide gamut of talents that can plow through normal and nightmare difficulty with ease (well definitely normal). See when you beat five acts you can go to nightmare difficulty which gives the enemies more resistances and lowers yours. Hell difficulty is the final challenge with it creating a further dichotomy in the equilibrium of resistances. All in all you grind for loot and weapons in an addictive gameplay loop that threads the needle between the action heavy Diablo III and the contained Diablo I ( I read it is a slower game).
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I tried to let the words do the talking. Let me know if you prefer the text to a bunch of images.
Pros
- + Bleak hellish landscape
- + macabre and gothic aesthetic
- + in depth classes with unique feel
- + epic scale adventure
Cons
- - disjointed act quality
10
Gameplay
10
Graphics
7
Story
10
Sound
10
Replayability
10
out of 10
Overall
The perfect Action RPG.
