In a time when games series seem to have become almost as popular as books as a means of making even more money from an old idea, Diablo II is anything but more of the same! In the few short months that this game has been on the market, you can already find massive directories of fan sites, volumes of tip, clues and hints at book stores and the game itself just about anywhere that sells media. Anywhere except a second hand shop, that is.

The first game didn't have much of a plot to it. You got to choose from one of three characters to go roaming around in a 25 level, randomly generated maze under the town of Tristine in search of the hell spawn known as Diablo. In the game, this vile being is one of the major demon lords of legend (although I had never heard of him before) that somehow got set loose on the small town. The first game doesn't explain very much at all, because there really wasn't any need. You just walked through floor after floor of mazes killing everything in sight (monsters and demons and other unnatural creatures) until you got to the big guy at the bottom. Pretty simple.

Blizzard took things way over the top with the second release of the game. The Hero who slew Diablo (the guy you played in the first game) did not, in fact kill the monster! Instead, it seems as if the essence of the Demon Lord escaped the long sleep by moving into the hero's body! I say seems because I have only beat half the game so far. The Demon has now taken control of the hero and is leading him to free the other Demon Lords that have been imprisoned on the mortal realm for ages. Once all three of them are free, they will begin to turn the world into another layer of Hell!

So what do you do? Well, you can pick from five different characters this time around and track down the Dark Messenger, hopefully stopping him before he is able to free all the Demon Lords. There is the Paladin, a holy warrior that uses strength of will and personal auras to fight the evil. The Amazon, who is expert at all ranged weapons and develops magic powers to enhance those skills. The Barbarian is a walking one man army, with brutal strength and gain the ability to pull off superhuman tasks as they get stronger. The Sorceress controls the forces of nature as both weapon and defense, not very good at hand to hand, but this isn't someone you want mad at you. My personal favorite is the Necromancer who has average fighting skills and the powers to summon undead warriors, golems and revive defeated creatures who will protect him.

Unlike the first game, each character has completely different powers and abilities. This makes each time you play the game with a different character a whole new thing! Another improvement is that there are four different "worlds" to adventure in, rather than just one. Each world has several areas and each area has at least one or two sub areas, an underground cave, tomb, building to explore, etc. The only problem I have with this idea is that you have to do each "world" in a certain order. BY that, I mean you don't have the choice to run off to the next area without defeating the boss of the world you are playing in.

Once more, each player is allowed to custom his character to a certain degree. Each time you gain a level, you get five attribute points that you can place anywhere you want. You also gain a Skill Point that is used to buy new powers with. As long as you are the minimum level to buy the skill and you have all the lower powers that need to be known beforehand, you can get the power. Putting in more points after you get the "spell" makes it more powerful, but since you only get a single Skill Point per level, spend them wisely.

Blizzard also has Quests in this game. Each world has six quests that are all related to gaining the ability to defeat that world's boss. Each time you complete a Quest, you are given an award by the person who sent you on it. Sometimes this is just knowledge about what to do next, sometimes you are given extra ability or skill points, sometimes an item that really rocks. Many of these quests require you to search the world to find an item (or items) that are needed to even find the Boss Monster. All of them are hard to complete. About the only time I ever die in this game is when I am fighting the guard beastie that have what I need to finish part of a Quest.

Speaking of death, this game also handles that differently. In the main town area of each world, you have a footlocker that you can store extra items and money in. When you die in a fight, whatever you have equipped on you is left where you died. The docs say that your money stays there also, but that's not true. The idea is to give you a chance to run out to your corpse and recover your equipment. There is an easier way. Just save and exit the game then come right back in. Your body with all of your gear will be right there in town for you. The docs say that you don't want to do this because that will erase the money you had on you at the time, but since that happens when you die ANYHOW, it's not a something to deter me from doing it.

Some likes and dislikes about this game. I love the ease of controlling the character. I really like the fact that the game options allow me to adjust the brightness level of the screen so that I can see things clearly. The movie sequences (that you can only see after beating an Act) are really cool. Each time you exit the game, the entire world is repopulated with the monsters that you JUST killed. I DON'T like the fact that you can't save the game without exiting. If there is anything on the ground (yes, you have a stash but it only holds so much) when you exit the game, kiss it good-bye. I like the fact that there is much more cash in this game (the first one was cash poor and so you never had enough to buy the powerful items you needed to beat the game with) but I don't like the fact that many powerful items. This time the gold to item thing was reversed, lots of money, few items worth buying. I don't like that there are depictions of things that I would not want to expose my children to. The kids love to watch me play games and this isn't one I feel good about letting them see everything in.

Whatever, good things of this game largely outweigh the bad things, hence it has been running on my computer everyday since I got the thing. This is a hell of a game. I can hardly wait for the expansion that will include two new characters and a fifth world to adventure in.