Re-view – Diablo 2

I speculated in my Diablo review that its sequel would have had to be a great improvement to justify the bad hype that surrounds Diablo 3. Released less than two years after the first game, Diablo 2 was a step forward in gameplay both on and offline, though for this edition of Re-view I’ll be sticking to the single player – partially for my slow internet and partially because after more than 10 years the Battlenet servers for this game are pretty much abandoned.

Speaking of Hell, Diablo 2 quickly demonstrates how it brings players a new and improved demonic experience. Whereas Diablo didn’t really use cutscenes to explain the story, and relied heavily on information the players could find or talk out of complacent townsfolk, Diablo 2 makes full use of animated cutscenes. They aren’t at all bad for the time, and remarkably this isn’t a step down in terms of storyline eloquence. The monologues of the narrator, ‘Marius’, are chillingly tragic. He represents a poor man, caught up in a conflict beyond his comprehension, and unlike the players has no control over what befalls him. In a way it gives a good sense of the plight of the everyman in Diablo’s world, and how helpless they are against the threat from the deepest pits of Hell. A good deal of information on the story can still be picked up by players, but they add to the story rather than support it, making the plot much more coherent without simplifying the game’s lore.

Our heroes have also had an upgrade. Diablo 2 has five characters to Diablo’s three, and rather than repeat its previous roster, it has fleshed it out. There are now greater variations that allow players to choose between strength, speed and magic. The ‘Amazon’, for example, is a combination of the Warrior and Rogue from the last game. Other characters like the ‘Necromancer’ allow entirely new ways of playing. In creating the Necromancer, the designers greatly added to what had only been a handful of summoning spells in the last game. Commanding an army of minions whilst dictating battle statistics from afar offers a strong counterpoint to the gameplay of the Barbarian, and this encourages replayability.

Greater variation can also be seen in the game’s world. The dungeon crawler of before has become a wide world: four over-world maps, from the fields around Tristram to a vast desert to Hell itself – the enemies too benefit from this. Though there are a few that are merely palette swaps of what we’ve seen before, generally there is a whole host of enemies awaiting you in each new area, whether they be spider-infested tunnels or the many villages populated by jungle midgets (maybe they made a misjudgment in appropriateness here).

The dungeon crawler of before has become a wide world.

In terms of making a game engaging, Diablo 2 has much to teach some of today’s titles. One thing that some may find annoying is the leveling system, which required as much point grinding back then as it does now. Another thing is the bosses. Without other players to help you, you will find the bosses in Diablo 2 to be relentless. More than half the strategy guides for them highlight cheats and glitches. With the second boss I had to set a portal right outside its lair. It could take me out in two hits and send me all the way back to town, and by this point I was flying through all the regular enemies with ease. I didn’t finish Diablo 2, because this amount of grinding is hard for one person to bear alone.

That’s not to say that the game was ruined for me. Overall, Diablo 2 was still enjoyable, and I’m honestly tempted to go back and try out a different character class, because I feel that there’s a lot of variation in gameplay I’ve yet to experience. However, as enjoyable as it is, after a while the enemies blend together amidst a cloud of button-mashing familiar spells. If hack and slash PC games are your thing, or if you enjoy truly great gaming lore, then give this game a try. Otherwise you may get more excitement fighting ever growing hideously deformed demons from the lower depths of Hades elsewhere. Perhaps somewhere where you can bring some buddies along to help.