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A Timeless Classic
Date of Review: Oct 11, 2009
The time and dedication blizzard puts into each game is unparalleled by any other developer out there and this is reflected in the quality of their products. Any ordinary hack and slash style game would have gotten old in a matter of hours, yet diablo has managed to entertain me for years.
This game was fun in single player for the first runthrough of the game, however it got boring and tedious on following attempts to finish the game with different character classes. It was then I decided to venture on battlenet to see what was different about the game, and realized that hacking and slashing through the storyline was only a small fraction of the game. An online world that brings together players all over the world added completely new dimensions to the game, exponentially increasing its addictiveness.
Trading
In single player mode, any item found that you have no use for is worthless. Sometimes you know it is a great item and it is such waste selling it to a merchant, but you have no choice, as inventory space is limited. However, battlenet play allowed the trading of such items, a symbiotic interaction leaving both players a feeling of satisfaction.
Human-Human Interaction
Most gamers tend to be isolated in the comfort of their own rooms, clicking away. The battlenet world allowed Human-Human interactions, building online friendships through an interactive world. This effectively allowed relaxed gameplay amongst friends, rather than the cut-throat approach taken (over items dropped) when playing with strangers. Human-Human interactions also gave rise to clans, where members help each other out with questing difficulties or items to start out.
Dueling
A stranger approaches you and challenges you to a duel. You two engage in a fight and you end up winning it, leaving the satisfaction of knowing that the careful planning and allocation of stats and skills has worked.
Questing (for later patches)
The latest patched greatly increased the difficulty of the later modes, which encouraged co-op play. A character going solo through all modes will eventually encounter difficulties, as most characters are not able to handle every situation. Of course, I found co-op play to be much more fun than going solo.
Endless competition for the top
During the many hours spent on battlenet I have encountered many people where I had to ask the question "how in the world did they acquire so much?" I believe part of what fueled the addiction is endless competition, whether a friendly one amongst clan members or a hostile one against strangers, for the top items in the game. With the chance of finding certain items in the order of magnitude of 10^-20, only certain class of elite will obtain the very top items in the game.
I wrote this review in anticipation for Diablo III, and I look back at some of the elements that made Diablo II such a great game and I know that all of these will be included in Diablo III as well. It has been more than 9 years since the release of Diablo II and it is still being played by many. That's all that is needed to know about the quality and staying power of this game.
