Diablo 2 - Bestseller Series for Windows

This is my first review in about 3 months. I?ve been out of it and I went from writing reviews almost everyday to writing one once every two months. I?ll tell you why and I?ll do a review on it. Its called Diablo 2 made those Gods of computer gaming: Blizzard. I never really had any interest in the first Diablo game. But I was hooked another Blizzard production called Starcraft, quite possibly the greatest game ever made. So it didn?t get me too excited when this game was set for release. My mind was quickly changed when I went deeper into what this game had to offer. Like Starcraft, Diablo has five totally different paths you can take when you start the game. In Starcraft you had three different races each with their advantages and disadvantages. Now in Diablo 2 you have five totally unique character classes. I will get into them later in the review. What made Starcraft such a fantastic game was the fact that you would never get tired of it. Every race has different units each with there own skills so the strategies are almost endless and if you go on Battle.net your opponents will change so you will never know what to expect. Diablo 2 offers the same options but in a much different playing style. First of all Starcraft was a strategy game while Diablo is an action RPG (role playing game), so the playing styles are much different.

Now when you first pop in your play disc after a successful installation you are asked to decide whether you want to start a single-player game or a multi-player game. Now when you want to install the game you have three different types of installation. You have single-player install, which just allows you to play the single-player game and takes maybe 300 megabytes; than there is multi-player install, which gives you every play mode at about 600 megabytes; and then there is full install, which provides everything and installs the cinematics so you don?t have to switch from play disc to cinematics disc to view one of the 5 movies. And that will take a good 1000 megabytes. So you can choose what best suits you. Now if you want to play single player mode you should know you will never be able to go on ?legal? Battle.net but you can still compete over the Internet in ?open Battle.net?. The difference is that a character made in ?legal? Battle.net will be protected by Blizzard from hackers and what not while Open Battle.net doesn?t. So you can decide your path and move on to the Character selection, this part I will get more into.

The Barbarian
This is probably the simplest character you could use. He starts off as a Barbarian would; he has strong fighting capabilities but no real skills. He is a brute and will probably be able to kill many enemies with one hit through out the game. However being that he doesn?t have any real skills he is rather boring to play as. His main powers are his combat skills which are usually just beefed up regular attacks, he has war cries which have different effects on the enemies, and he has weapon masteries which makes him do more damage with that specific weapon. He can also carry two one-handed weapons in each hand, which is a unique skill, that only the Barbarian possesses. He can also carry a two handed sword in one hand and a shield in the other while other characters can?t. So you can tell by these skills that the Barbarian is a skilled fighter. So if you dig melee combat, which isn?t really this game?s high point, then this character is definitely for you. He is good for beginners too.

The Paladin
Now this guy is similar to the Barbarian because his strong point is his hand to hand fighting. However, the Paladin has some magic qualities that make his game more exciting. He is a holy warrior so his magic does the most damage against undead monsters. He has some combat skills that add to his melee combat. Early in the game they are similar to the Barbarian skills but later as his levels grow his combat skills become more magical. He also has two different types of auras. The offensive auras have effects on the enemies and make adds effects to his attack, while the defensive auras offers different types of protection against your enemies. The Paladin is definitely a good character to use for beginners and for advanced players.

The Necromancer
This has to be one of my favorite characters. The Necromancer is mainly a magic user. However is magic style is rather unorthodox and that?s what makes him so great. His magic deals with raising the dead and cursing enemies with crippling effects. He could raise different types of creatures from dead monsters. He can raises skeleton warriors, skeleton mages, and different types of golems. He also has poison and bone spells that could take out a group of enemies and he has curses that can cripple a whole group of monsters. However the Necromancer will have a hard time starting off because many of his best spells will come later on. He also isn?t much of a hand to hand fighter so he isn?t the best character to pick for a beginner.

The Sorceress
Another hardcore magic user with bad battle stats. She has the more traditional magic attacks. But they are far from boring. They have amazing animation and almost all of them are completely unique. Her magic is broken down by the three elements: fire, ice, and lightning. You start off with small attacks like fare balls and lightning sparks and then you move your way to blizzards and thunderstorms. Like the Necromancer, the Sorceress has poor hand to hand combat skills and when she carries a two handed staff she cannot wear a shield which hampers her defense. So she is a tough character to use.

Amazon
She is a warrior with a unique fighting style. She uses bows, crossbows, and throwing javelins. Even though any character can use those weapons the Amazon has skills that could increase their power. She has bow and crossbow skills, which give elemental damage to her weapons. There is also Javelin skills that have the same effect. And then she has magic skills, which give her extra powers. She has some nice looking spells and she is a unique character but I never really wanted to use her.

Now once you pick the character you are off to the world of Diablo, which is filed with crazy monsters and demons. Now the point of the game is to complete the missions of each act (there are a total of 4) and fight a final boss at the end of each act. As you kill enemies your experience increases you gain levels. When you gain a level you are rewarded with attribute points and skill points. Attribute points give your character additional bonuses in strength, health, and other attributes, while skill points will allow you to learn a new skill or make ones you know even stronger. So you can make some spells more effective depending on which you like. You also learn new skills as you gain experience.

Battling monsters can be a difficult task if you are a certain type of character. There are different approaches to battling monsters. If you are a magic user it?s best to keep your distance and hit the monsters from a good range. Hand to hand combat is simple you just left click on what you want to die and hold it till its dead. And depending on your character?s strength it could die really quickly or really slowly. You also find items that will help you on your journey. There are potions that heal and give you mana (your magic power). You also find armor and weapons that increase your stats to keep you on the level with the increasing monsters. Some weapons have a special effect on the owner depending on what character classes. For instance a Mace or Scepter might give skill points to some of the Paladin?s skills. It?s a wonderful world out there.

With the five different characters and the skill point system this game has a high replay value rate. And you can go on Battle.net to see if your character can stand up to the other people playing this game. This game will keep you entertained for a long time if you like what you?ve read in this review. I mean the first month I had this game I didn?t even touch Starcraft, and that?s one of my favorite games. Is this game better? I can?t answer that. I?ve been playing Starcraft for 3 years and it hasn?t bored me yet. Diablo hasn?t been in my life for that long but it has been a good companion for the time being. If you like computer games than this game should be in your library if it?s not then for shame. Hang you head and slap your forehead all the way to your local software store and buy it now. Why are you still reading, Go! Now! Buy!