Diablo 2 - Bestseller Series for Windows

Diablo 2 was pretty amazing, although it was overhyped. The fact that it stuck you with 640x480 resolution was pretty crappy, and the graphics, although better, hadn't seen much improvement over the original. The music in the game was really good for each area though, and helped immerse you in the story. I found after beating the game though, the replayability was somewhat lacking. The quests were the exact same, so were the enemies, the only difference was what character you were playing with, and how you leveled them up. The skill attributes were a great touch though, but kind of difficult to master at first. The game really does excell though at what it is... a simple hack and slash. I didn't expect anything more or less, and I was very satisfied with it. Sure there was a plot to it, but none of it really surprised me or alarmed me. If you want a strategic plot driven RPG, get B-Gate 2. If it's hack and slash galore you seek, look no further than Diablo 2. Although the replayability is lacking a bit, it's still fun to take your high level character and lay waste to Act 1 minions.

The biggest problem the game faces however, is the multiplayer aspect on Battle Net (B-Net). The idea of Realm characters was brilliant, but I can't count how many times I've lost the connection to B-net and my characters have either been lost completely, or taken back down to where they started at the session (I had a Level 4 Paladin I brought up to level 12, only to be disconnected, and lost all the XP, Gold, and items I collected). Blizzard has issued patches that seem to have fixed the problem of loosing my characters, items, and experience, but the game still gets disconnected sometimes like a 2 month overdue phone bill. I know the problem is server related, because I run on a DSL line, and I've heard many complaints about lost connections from people running on Cables and DSL. If this problem could somehow be fixed, the game would be much more fun and easier to play online.

The expansion pack Lord of Destruction is due out soon, and offers 2 new classes to play, as well as improved stash size (sorely needed), and hundreds of new items to find, along with one more Act with six quests. It also offers a new viewing mode I think (800x600? maybe even higher?) This will improve the playability of the game, but only time will tell if it will fix the problems alread associated with the game.