Diablo II - Lord of Destruction
(Expansion game for Diablo II)
(Personal Computer)
In the original Diablo, you were a young adventurer whose
travels had brought you to the town by the name of Tristram
(Welcome to Tristram, population: 12). Alas, the poor hamlet
of Tristram was ravaged by legions of demons and hell spawn,
whose attacks were threatening to drop the expanding villages
population down to a single digit. You take it upon yourself as
an aspiring Hero wannabe to save the steading. You set off
hacking your way through dungeons until you arrive at Hell itself,
to kill Diablo, the Lord of Terror, who was the root of all their
problems. After you kill Diablo, his soul is imprisoned in a
crystal, and in a colossal act of idiocy, you plunge the crystal into
your own forehead, and the game ends. In Diablo II you begin
as yet another aspiring Hero Wannabe. It seems that Diablo has
possessed your old character, and is running amok, and so you
set out to kill your old character. In this game, in addition to the
usual assortment of murders, defilations, pillaging, and cursing,
Diablo is also attempting to free his two big brothers. By the
end of the game, you manage to kill Diablo, and one of his
brothers, Mephisto, but the other one, Baal, gave everyone the
slip. Your goal in this expansion is to go find and destroy Baal,
who is busy trying to take over the world by raiding some high
temple on a mountain for the world stone. Or something like
that.
Plot. This is a true expansion of Diablo II. It has the 4 Acts
of the original, plus the expansion includes 1 more Act, with 6
new quests to complete. The story line is pretty much stated
above; kill everything that moves until you get to Baal, then kill
him too. There is some attempt at some minor subplot, saving
the town under siege, and killing off the chief of the village,
because he has sold his soul to Baal. The ending after you kill
Baal was kinda disappointing and abrupt.
Graphics. The graphics, though not the cutting edge eye
candy of other games, are a small but noticeable amount better
than that in the basic game. Major improvements include
enhanced display controls for the Automap, contrast, etc, and
now you can play in 600x800 resolution, which really rocks.
Sound. No major changes in the sound department of which
Im aware. If you have never played Diablo before, the sound,
while not exactly up to SDDS, Dolby, and THX standards, is
important in that it gives you more information than an average
game does. Diablo has an array of sound effects that clue you
into all sorts of details, from type of monster, to types of attack,
whether one hits or blocks, items being dropped, etc. This is
actually a little different from most games, which just use sound
effects for realism, and in many cases, the sound could be turned
off on such games, and no real loss of information occurs.
Gameplay. Control-wise, the game still plays the same.
You have a 3rd person point of view, and you walk around and kill stuff a la Zelda. Ok,
time for a list of all the spiffy changes to the basic game. In the expansion, there are 2 new
character classes, an Assassin and a Druid. The Assassin can do martial arts, ninja type stuff,
and set booby-traps. The Druid can turn into a werewolf or werebear, and can summon a legion
of furry critters to his aid. There are now all sorts of special rune stones and crystals, as well as
class specific items. You can also carry more junk and money in your stash. There are news
sets of items, and new monsters. In short, EVERYTHING has been expanded.
Difficulty. Act V isnt too terribly hard on normal difficulty, though Baal is much harder
to kill than Diablo. The game does have multiple difficulty settings though. I imagine Act V
would be ungodly hard at the highest difficulty setting.
Spiffy Stuff. Two new character classes, and all new junk to collect! Also you can play
Diablo II and the expansion versions off the same disc, so no changing discs to play whichever
version of the game you want. Also, you can update your old characters to the expansion
version, which gives you access to all the new stuff you can get.
Replay Value. Diablo has always had a very high replay value because every time you
play a new game, all the maps are randomly generated, as is which enemies you will find in an
area, and what items you can find. The game engine has enough random factors to always keep
the game fresh.
Overall. If you liked Diablo II, then you will like the expansion. For $35 you get a
new Act, 6 new quests with rewards, 2 new character classes with new skills, and a whole
assortment of new and expanded stuff to kill or find. Diablo II is one of biggest games out there,
and I believe the expansion broke all sorts of sales records. And remember, if you get tired of
single player or multiplayer, Battle.net is always good for a change. Overall, Ive put in *way*
too many hours on this game since I bought it earlier this month.
