Platform:PC/Mac
Edition:Collector's
.com
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In Diablo II, players return to a world of dark fantasy. As one
of five distinct character types, players will explore the world
of Diablo II, journey across distant lands, fight new villains,
discover new treasures, and uncover ancient mysteries. The
Collectors Edition includes the four-CD game, a 24-minute Diablo
II movie on DVD and in letter-box format, the 70-minute
soundtrack, and the D&D Diablo II pen-and-paper box set for
playing D&D in the Diablo II setting.
Since the beginning of time, the forces of order and chaos have
been engaged in an eternal struggle to decide the e of all
creation. That struggle has now come to the mortal realm, and
neither man, demon, nor angel will be left unscathed.
Diablo, lord of terror, and youngest of the three prime evils,
awoke from his long beneath the dark earth. Setting in
motion a grand scheme to free his exiled brothers, Mephisto and
Baal, Diablo took control of the small western kingdom of
Khanduras. Working from deep within the ancient catacombs beneath
the town of Tristram, Diablo gripped the entire populace in a
blanket of fear and paranoia.
Ultimately, as even Khanduras's good King Leoric fell under
Diablo's wicked power, a lone hero arose to challenge the
darkness that had engulfed the land. After plumbing the hellish
depths of the labyrinth under Tristram, the nameless hero finally
confronted the lord of terror himself. Knowing full well that
Diablo's spirit could never be truly destroyed, the hero made the
noblest sacrifice of all: casting his soul and his very sanity
aside, the hero took the spirit of Diablo into himself, hoping
that his own strength of will could contain the demon within. The
hero could never have known that his selfless act would not only
ensure Diablo's victory, but would also irrevocably damn his soul
for all time.
Review
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Several changes have been made in the general gameplay of Diablo.
The first thing you'll notice is the new interface. The familiar
balls of and mana frame the interface, but now more of the
screen is devoted to the game. The text window in the middle of
the screen is gone. Now, dialogue from NPCs appears over the
respective NPC's head, and item descriptions and text also appear
over objects.
Another new addition is the stamina bar. One big gameplay change
is the ability to run. Now, you can run, but only for limited
durations. When you do run, the stamina bar slowly depletes. When
it runs out, you need to rest until it starts to fill up again.
There will be items and spells that increase your stamina, but
running will always be a limited ability. Although running
obviously allows you to travel faster, it will leave you more
vulnerable to attack, although you can go from run to attack
seamlessly, as there is no pause between the two actions.
Moving around in Diablo has been improved in other ways as well.
To cut down on the tediousness of walking back and forth between
cleared-out areas and town, Blizzard North has added waypoints to
the game.
However, these aren't waypoints in the real-time strategy sense.
These waypoints are more like teleportation spots, quick portals
between two or more locations in the same act. Each town has a
waypoint, and various locations around the wilderness also have
waypoints. You won't be able to use a waypoint until you've
actually visited it once, and you won't be able to jump through
it until you have touched at least two, since this is not a
one-way travel system to explore the . Instead, it's a
convenience for moving about already explored areas.
The actual development of your character is also different. You
now purchase skills via skill points each time you advance a
level. In addition, the skill sets of each character are really
differentiated, so that the abilities of the characters do not
overlap. One other note about character development is that dying
causes you to lose experience points. The designers wanted to
make death something you would want to avoid even more , so they
added experience loss in addition to equipment loss. However,
you'll never lose enough experience to drop a level.
Not only is development different, but the classes are different
as well. There are now five characters to choose from when you
play: , barbarian, necromancer, paladin, and sorceress. Each has
his or her own strengths and weaknesses, although all should be
very different and enjoyable to play. One of the key reasons why
Diablo II looks like it will have immense replay value is because
of the great differences between classes.
: A good all-around class with some spell use and special
physical attacks. She is best with the bow, but also good with
the spear and javelin, excelling in long-range attacks.
Barbarian: A powerful brute bereft of magic but possessed of
potent combat skills. He is the only character that can wield two
weapons at once; and this ability is available from level one!
Necromancer: A weak character who can command undead minions to
aid him. His spells let him animate the dead and enhance their
strength. He has some offensive magic.
Paladin: This warrior is second in physical strength and the
best defensive fighter. He has healing and defensive spells to go
with his powerful melee attacks.
Sorceress: She is also a weak fighter but possesses the most
powerful magic arsenal, complete with fire, cold, and lightning
spells.
The new trading menu is a big improvement over Diablo, where you
had to dump your items on the ground and hope the other player
paid you. Now, when you click on another player, you are
requesting a trade. If he agrees, a trading window pops up, where
you can place your items for trade and he can place his
compensation. You both click when you are ready to finalize the
transaction. It is not unlike the trading window for EverQuest.
Another new feature we noticed but that took us a while to
comprehend was the socket items. You'll find weapons, shields,
and helms in the game that have sockets in them. You'll also find
gems in rare instances in caves and off of dead monsters' bodies.
These gems can be placed in the sockets to convey special powers
in the items, like the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII. A
topaz, for instance, adds lightning damage if you place it in a
weapon, but adds lightning resistance if you put it in armor. In
our short time playing, we've already seen several different
gems, including sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and jeweled
skulls. This adds yet another element to the already rich
plethora of items you can find in the game.
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