9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Blizzard has done it again!
Date of Review: Jun 30, 2000
Blizzard recently released its newest hit game Diablo II. There has been over four years of anticipation for this game and constant delays to ensure quality standards. Blizzard has released such hits as WarCraft, WarCraft II, StarCraft and the original Diablo. I am current writing this article as I am trying to log on to the Battle.Net server
*** Comparison to the Original Diablo ***
The original Diablo had fustrating load times and the story was so what sectioned due to the loading of levels. Diablo II is continuous, so you go from one area to another area without loading. Another bad thing about the original was that the gameplay was static, so click and the enemy, but in Diablo II there is much more strategy in using spells and battling. There are also five unique characters to play instead of the original three. Blizzard has learned from its mistakes and created a masterpiece from it. It plays like an RPG now, instead of an action game like the original
*** Graphics ***
Four year old graphics with a bit of improvement. Shadows move depending on where you are and other light sources, pretty cool. Very nice graphics effect. The image is not as static due to parralax, which has to due with the planes the images are in. An object in front will move against the background. It's pretty, but not spectacular, no major inovations here.
*** Music and Sound ***
Music and Sound really adds to the atmosphere. The music selections are superb. Also there are 3D sounds. If you have a 3D sound card that supports EAX, which is a Creative inc. standard and 4 speakers, you can enjoy the 3D positional sound, since I don't have that many speakers, I can't really say, but the 3D sound should be spectacular.
*** Battle.Net ***
Blizzard's Free On-line gaming service. Right now their servers are being overwhelming by the vast amount of people playing this game. Over 2 million preorders for this game. It will probably take them a couple of weeks to upgrade all the servers. Also In the original Diablo, cheating was rampant, but now since the character information is stored on their servers, we can feel a bit more secure about cheating. Cheating make the game dull and boring.
*** Single Player ***
Haven't played it much, to busy trying to connect to the Battle.net servers.
*** Multiplayer ***
Get a group of friend together and play. This game was built for multiplayer. Each character has spells, which benefit everyone. They have different strengths and cover each other's weak points. This is truely a beautiful game.
*** Gameplay ***
Why are you reading this? Go and buy the game! It's that good.
*** Buy It, Play It, and Enjoy It! ***
