Diablo II

The Good
Diablo II is the sequel to the sensation that was Diablo (obviously). The folks at Blizzard, staying true to their nature, have given the consumers a fantastic sequel to an already great game.

The basis of the game is this. At the end of the first game, your character defeats Diablo, and then stays in the town of Tristam. But after awhile, he leaves, and in his wake a onslaught of devastation occurs. It turns out that Diablo has come back - inhabiting the body of the adventurer from the first game. Your task is to defeat Diablo and his minions and set things right in the world again.

Graphically, the game is utterly beautiful. Even when all the special effects are turned off, there is enough eye-candy to make any jaw drop in astonishment. Spell effects, creature detail, the glow of the fire, all rendered in 800x600 glory. Even the cinematics rival those of the Final Fantasy Series (FF7 and up). The cinematics, although not required viewing to play, contain some of the coolest FMV I've seen in years. At the start of the game and inbetween the various acts, the story is progressed through the movies, and just enhance the game in itself.

The sound and music are excellent as well. Again, all the characters are figures with voice-overs and scrolling text (with the exception of the cinematics), and do well to further the plot. The technical quality of the voice acting is top-notch. The is no doubt in my mind that all the recording was done either at a professional studio or in-house (if they have the equipment for it). The music in the background is very sparse, but it kicks in at the appropriate time.

The controls haven't changed much since Diablo came out. With the exception of on-screen menus that pop-up when you right-click on specific icons, and the fact that you belt number are 1-4 instead of 1-8, the control is exactly like before. And it's good not to screw around with a formula that has worked before.

The automap, while not perfect, is good. Although I would have preferred and automap similar to Nox (with the automap tucked in a corner), Blizzard addressed the automap "clutter" and have different settings depending on your game-style. You can have it like the original (why you would, I have no clue), or you can have it fade out in the center. That way you can still see around you, but still be able to make out the automap to navigate.

The gameplay, after combining all the elements mentioned above, is awesome. The game mechanics are very natural after playing for just a little bit, so it's very easy to get into. The levels are humongous, and wandering around to scavenge everything is only half the fun. And for posterity, here's a small list of other things I found great with Diablo II:

1) The fact that there are only 2 type of Scrolls (Town Portal and Identify). Considering the massive number of scrolls in the first game, I find that this way is much more efficient.

2) The Waypoint system. I like the fact that the waypoints are listed ahead of time, and that while you are playing you can set a goal of how far ahead you what to accomplish. Makes for good strategic play as well. Especially in cases where you are low on potions and need to rush to find the next waypoint. Makes for some great "Evade and Find" gameplay.

The Bad
Although I love Diablo II, I do have a few things that I can't stand.

First, the save system. I like the fact in the first Diablo that you can save at any position and then start back up right where you left off. Especially while you are in the middle of a quest. No such luck in Diablo II. If you Save and Exit Game, your stats, equipment and money are saved, but your position is not. The only benefit from this is that when you start your game again, everything respawns - monsters and gold/chests,etc. But it's still real annoying.

Second, I've had glitches where I gotten stuck on a rock. I can't move and I haven't learn "Leap" yet, so I end up having to Save and Exit, and basically start the level over.

Third, The automap STILL bugs the crap outta me. I find playing with the automap is both a minus and a plus. A minus being if there is a lot going on onscreen, you can't make heads or tails out of anything. And it's a plus when you can see back to where you've been or ahead (somewhat) to where you need to go.

The Bottom Line
Even though it has it's faults, Blizzard did a top-notch job with this sequel. They are one of the few companies that will take a game and make sure it's right BEFORE going gold. A fantastic game. If you like the genre, it's a must have.

The Good
Although the graphics are somewhat dated, you quickly forget the slight blockiness of your Barbarian when you dive into a horde of monsters. Diablo 2 is at its heart a character building game, and the skill system allows you to really experiment with different playing styles, even when only playing one class. For example, the Amazon can be played as a jabbing melee goddess or a mistress of missile weapon mayhem. The classes are well balanced, especially after you patch the game up to v1.06.

Although the graphics aren't the best, the cinematics, voice acting, and sound effect are awesome, especially in several sections of Act 2.

This is one of the few games that I have that I can come back to in six months and still enjoy, whether playing single or multiplayer.

The Bad
The one problem with the skill system is that it rewards you for specializing in high level skills at the expense of developing low level skills. Some classes even have a few throw away skills that are only useful as a means to get to the better skills. For example, the Necromancer's Skeleton Warriors never get very powerful, and so it is useless to build this skill up at all since the golems, revived creatures, and skeleton mages are so much better. If I really wanted to be a master of a skeleton warrior army, I should be able to do it and survive at high levels.

Another thing I don't like is that you are penalized too much when you fight monsters that are 10-20 levels higher than you are. In an attempt to balance the multiplayer game so that a high level character couldn't join a party of low level characters, kill everything for them, and have them advance quickly, you are penalized in xp per kill if you are way above OR BELOW the level of the monster. So if you manage, like I did, to finish the game at Nightmare difficulty when you are level 38 or so, there is no way you can survive or even gain any xp in Hell difficulty until you gain 15-20 levels! The game just slows down too much after level 30 or so.

The Bottom Line
A great hack and slash game no matter how you play it. Despite what Nethack fans may tell you, this is not just "Rogue with nice graphics and sound". It is a different, more entertaining, and much less frustrating and obtuse gaming experience than its text-based predecessors.

The Good
Good Points:

1.A lot of game content: huge areas chock-full with monsters and items;

2.Cool, imaginative, well created and animated monsters, with great sounds;

1. Incredible cinematics (the best in any game so far, and sure worthy of some kind of award...)

4.A whole lot of items, armors, weapons...

5.Skill system, which really adds a lot to character customization;

The Bad
Bad Points:

1.Average graphics;

2.Gameplay that is, with the exception of the skill systems and the added classes, identical to that of Diablo 1; and this is a double-edged sword, meaning that if you liked D1, you will love D2, but if you hated D1, you'll feel the same way about D2.

The Bottom Line
An improved, polished, and simply better Diablo. If you loved the first, you will certainly love the second. If you hated the first, well, don't buy this game. Personally, though, I had a hell of a lot of fun with it...