Diablo II, sequel to the game Diablo, is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game in a hack and slash or "Dungeon Roaming" style. It was released for both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment. Diablo II was developed by Blizzard North.
By April 2001, Diablo II had become one of the most popular online games ever. Major factors that contributed to Diablo II's success include what fans found to be addictive hack and slash gameplay and free access to Battle.net. Diablo II may be played as a single player game, multi-player via a LAN, or multi-player via Battle.net, with the latter being the most popular. It has also become one of the top thirty best selling computer games ever. Including Diablo II, the Diablo series has sold 17 million copies.
The game was conceptualized and designed by Stieg Hedlund, with Blizzard North founders David Brevik, Max and Eric Shaefer acting as Project Leads for the other disciplines (Engineering, Character Art and Environment Art, respectively). The main Production roles were handled by Matthew Householder and Bill Roper.
An expansion to Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001, and is now at version 1.11b. The idea of a third game in the series was broached when a Swedish journalist, speaking to a Blizzard producer, joked that he probably would be back to visit again "to check out Diablo III", and the producer, seeming to think said journalist knew about Diablo III, replied "Yeah, I don't really know when that event's going to be", thus indicating that Diablo III was in the works.
Game Play
The player assumes the role of a hero, fighting monsters while traversing over land and through dungeons. The storyline of Diablo II is played through four acts. Each act follows a predetermined path with preselected quests, although some quests are optional. Each act culminates with the destruction of a boss monster, upon which the player proceeds to the next act. Battle is conducted in real-time, using an isometric viewpoint. Players fight monsters to level their character up and gain better items.
Diablo II emphasizes combat, and randomly generates many monster properties, level lay-outs and item drops. Most of the maps themselves are randomly generated. In single player mode, the map is randomly generated but locks the setting thereafter; in multiplayer mode, it resets every time the game is restarted.
Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different character classes: Necromancer, Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses and sets of skills to choose from, as well as varying beginning attributes.
In addition to the four acts there are also three difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare, and Hell. A character must complete these difficulty levels in order; only once a character completes Normal difficulty can that character play at Nightmare difficulty, and similarly for Hell difficulty. Each difficulty is a greater challenge than the last, with such features as increased creature difficulty, experience penalties upon death, and other challenges. A character retains all abilities, equipment, etc, between difficulties, and may return to earlier difficulties at any time. Upon completion of the game in normal difficulty, a player may create a hardcore character. While for normal players the game doesn't end when they die (as they can simply resurrect in that act's base of operations), the game ends when a hardcore character is killed.
Diablo II also has a number of other features that enhance gameplay. The player has the option of hiring one of several computer-controlled mercenaries, that follow the player and attack nearby enemies. On occasion, the player might find a rare, valuable item, or one that is part of a set that becomes more powerful when the entire set is collected. Items can be customized using sockets and gems, or transmuted into different items using the Horadric Cube.
Character classes
Amazon
The Amazon is an "active skill"-oriented fighter. Her skills are oriented around personal (generally passive) protective abilities, the use of a bow and arrow (whose abilities are linked with the elements of fire and ice), as well as the spear and javelin (whose abilities are linked with the elements of lightning and poison).
The Amazon is most similar to the Rogue of Diablo: both are primarily associated with bows (and crossbows, in the case of the Amazon), and both are middle points between pure strength and pure magic. The Amazon is different in that she can also use javelins and spears adeptly. The class is loosely based on the Amazons of mythology.
The Amazon is voiced by Jessica Straus.
Barbarian
The Barbarian is a powerful melee-oriented character in Diablo 2, and the only character capable of dual-wielding. His skills are divided into various weapon masteries, warcries, and combat skills. The masteries are purely passive and allow the Barbarian to specialize in different types of weapons and to gain natural speed and resistances. His warcries can enhance his and his party's abilities in combat, reduce the enemy's abilities, frighten the enemy into fleeing and even cause considerable damage to them. The Barbarian's combat skills are attacks that maximize brute force, his greatest asset.
The Barbarians, in Diablo 2, originated from the Northern Highlands, which is where Act 5 of the Expansion takes place, and can also be hired as mercenaries in that Act.
The Barbarian was originally conceptualized for Hellfire, the original Diablo "expansion" made by Sierra. The character was not implemented in the final version but was included as a hidden class in the 1.01 patch for Hellfire. The character had the same appearance and speech as the Warrior but had altered statistics and a different ability.
In both nightmare and hell modes, the natural resistance for all characters drop. The Barbarian is the only class that can passively increase his resistance through a skill. Barbarians also can deal massive damage from their Whirlwind, Berserk, and Frenzy skills.
The Barbarian is voiced by David Thomas.
Sorceress
The Sorceress focuses on ranged elemental spells in three areas: Ice, Lightning and Fire. Her Ice spells can chill or even completely freeze affected enemies, but do less damage than Lightning or Fire. Lightning spells can do both very high and very low damage, whereas Fire spells deal more consistent damage.
The spell Teleport essentially defines the sorceress, allowing much faster mobility than any other character. The strong point of the Sorceress is powerful damaging spells and casting speed; her weakness is her relatively low hit points and defense, demanding that the player pay close attention to keep her out of the fray.
Sorceresses are, according to the storyline, a rebellious coven of female witches who have wrested the secrets of magic use from the male-dominated Mage-clans of the East.
The Sorceress is voiced by Liana Young.
Necromancer
The Necromancer is a versatile spellcaster with control over the powers of death. His skills are split into Summoning, Curses, and Poison and Bone spells. Summoning skills allow him to form skeletal minions from corpses, to temporarily revive deceased monsters, and to create a golem with unique properties. Poison and Bone skills include the Necromancer's direct-damage spells as well as some defensive abilities, and while his bone attacks generally cause less raw damage than the Sorceress's spells, they are resisted by very few enemies. Curse skills serve a supportive role by inflicting a status ailment upon enemies in their area of effect, allowing for very powerful strategies when used with skills from other trees. All classes can take advantage of curse effects in multiplayer.
A signature Necromancer ability is Corpse Explosion, which violently creates a burst of gore and flame by destroying the body of a fallen enemy.
The Necromancer is voiced by Michael McConnohie.
Paladin
The Paladin is a religious warrior fighting for all that is good. To reflect this, the zealous Paladin's combat skills range from fanatical attacks to heavenly thunderbolts. His skills are split into combat skills, defensive auras, and offensive auras, the latter two of which can enhance personal abilities, lower the amount of damage dealt by enemies or recover health. These auras are helpful in a multiplayer game as many of them can be used to upgrade all of the party's stats. Most auras require no mana and this makes a Paladin a very economic character as the paladin needs to spend little to nothing on mana recovery.
Paladins are highly proficient in the use of a shield, both as a weapon and with greatly enhanced defensive capabilities. He is the best with defensive skills and is also the best if the player wishes to passively weaken enemies. Some of the Paladin's skills are extremely efficient at eliminating the undead.
The Paladin is voiced by Larry B. Scott.
Multiplayer
Unlike the original Diablo, Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind. Several spells (such as auras or war cries) multiply their effectiveness if they are cast within a party, and dungeons, although they still exist, were largely replaced by open spaces.
Multiplayer is achieved through Blizzard's Battle.net free online service, or via a LAN. Battle.net is divided into "Open" and "Closed" realms. Players may play their single-player characters on open realms; characters in closed realms are stored on Blizzard's servers, as a measure against cheating, where they must be played every 90 days to avoid expiration. Online play is otherwise nearly identical to single-player play. The most notable difference is that online maps are generated randomly, with a new map for every game a player enters -- but offline, single player maps are retained in computer memory, but only for a single difficulty setting at a time. For example, you play on normal, complete it, and start playing nightmare. Now the maps for nightmare difficulty level are saved instead. If you choose to play on normal again with the same character, new maps are regenerated and the saved nightmare maps discarded.
As the game can be played cooperatively (Players vs. Monsters, PvM), groups of players with specific sets of complementary skills can finish some of the game's climactic battles in a matter of seconds, providing strong incentives for party-oriented character builds. Up to eight players can be in one game; they can either unite as a single party, play as individuals, or form multiple opposing parties. Experience; monsters' hitpoints (both the damage required to kill a given monster, and the amount of damage the monster can inflict); and the amount of items dropped, are increased as more players join a game.
Players are allowed to duel each other with all damage being reduced in player vs player (PvP). The bounty for a successful kill in PvP is a portion of the gold and the "ear" of the defeated player (with the previous owner's name and level at the time of the kill).
Patch 1.10 included the option of playing with a ladder character. The ladder system can be reset at various intervals to allow for all players to start fresh with new characters on an equal footing. Ladder seasons have lasted from as short as nine months to over a year. When a ladder season ends the ladder population is transferred to the non-ladder population with all items that player is holding. Certain rare items and rune words are available only within ladder games, although they can be traded for and exchanged on non-ladder after the season has ended.
Up to twenty-two official patches have been released for Diablo II. Through the patch history, several exploits and issues have been addressed (such as illegal item duplication), as well as major revamps to the game's balance. Not all patches have affected Diablo II directly, as several were designed to address issues in the expansion to the game and had minimal effects on Diablo II. The game is currently in version 1.11b. The exact real number of patches is impossible to determine as Battle.net has the capability of making minor server-side patches to address immediate issues.
Story
The story of Diablo II takes place soon after the end of the original Diablo. At the end of Diablo, The Lord of Terror was defeated by a mortal hero. The hero who slew Diablo (i.e. the Warrior character of the first game) drives the soulstone of Diablo (a magical stone containing the soul of a demon or angel) into his own head in an attempt to contain Diablo in his own body. After this event, the hero is corrupted by Diablo and gradually loses control of Diablo's soul. In the opening cinematic of Diablo II, Marius, the narrator of the story, witnesses the fallen hero (known only as the Dark Wanderer) totally lose control, unleashing the demons of Hell upon a tavern. Marius is the only survivor (it is implied that rather than just being blind luck, the demons were ignoring him), and he feels compelled to follow the Wanderer for reasons he himself does not understand. The new player character is a different hero following in the wake of the destruction, chasing the Dark Wanderer, hoping to put an end to the demon lord within him. The new hero ultimately catches up to the Wanderer outside the city of Kurast but is unable to stop him. The rest of the story is revealed through the four acts, as the player faces not just the demon lord Diablo, but two new major villains, his equally malevolent brothers, fellow Prime Evils Mephisto, Lord of Hatred and Baal, Lord of Destruction. Diablo is determined to free them from their soulstone incarceration, which was forced upon all three long ago, and from which Diablo managed to break free in the first game. The hero travels through different lands to thwart the forces of Hell from conquering the world known as Sanctuary.
The story tells about seven "Great evils" (7 is the number of the powers of hell), some of them are slain in Diablo 2, but two, as of Lord of Destruction, have not yet been seen.
The 7 Great Evils:-
The "Lesser Evils"
- Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish (also known as Demon Queen, slain in D2, act I)
A fairly powerful enemy using mainly poison based attacks. She uses homing poison arrows, poison spray and the weak claws on her back in hand-to-hand battle. She is found deep in the catacombs of the monastery behind a large set of wooden doors, surrounded by her minions.
- Duriel, the Lord of Pain (slain in D2, act II)
A very fast and very aggressive enemy. His pure physical strength can easily overwhelm an unprepared player. He attacks using his large claws, and may also freeze the player, making it even easier for him to quickly dispense of opposition. He is found in the true Tomb of Tal Rasha by placing the Horadric Staff, a weapon obtained by combining certain items in a Horadric cube, into an orifice.
- Azmodan, the Lord of Sin (Has not yet appeared.)
- Belial, the Lord of Lies (Has not yet appeared.)
The "Prime Evils"
- Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred (eldest of three brothers, defeated in Diablo II, act III)
He uses several powerful lightning attacks and does have a weak melee attack. He also uses a chilling orb that does massive amounts of damage, along with a poison cloud that he releases. He can be found in his lair in the temple city of Travincal in Kurast by destroying the Compelling Orb that locked him in his lair. You must use a unique flail called Khalim's Will to destroy it.
- Diablo, the Lord of Terror (youngest of the three, defeated in Diablo II, act IV)
The Leader of the Three. He uses the fire element. He is a powerful boss, especially in later difficulties. His attacks include: Lightning Inferno, Fire Nova, Firestorm, Bone Prison, Cold Touch, and a charge-like melee attack. He appears after activating the five hell seals and defeating their protectors, the Lord De Seis (Unique Oblivion Knight), Infector of Souls (Unique Venom Lord) and Grand Vizier of Chaos (Unique Doom Caster.)
- Baal, the Lord of Destruction (defeated in Diablo II Expansion: Lord of Destruction, act V)
He is found in the Worldstone Keep. After destroying the five swarms of his minions, he'll walk into the portal to Worldstone Chamber, the battleground. He uses fire strikes and a cold attack, the latter of which causes a severe knock back, as well as freezing. He also summons a copy of himself, capable of using all of his attacks, only adding to the troubles of anyone attempting to slay the Lord of Destruction.
Easter eggs
Secret Cow Level
The "Secret Cow Level" is the result of a running joke from the original Diablo that spawned from an Internet rumor about a cow which appears in the game, seemingly without purpose. Supposedly, if the cow was clicked on a certain number of times, a portal to a secret level would open. The rumor was a hoax, but the legend was born, and player after player asked Blizzard about how to access the level.
In Diablo: Hellfire, the only expansion to the original Diablo (This "expansion" is actually considered an "add-on", since it was not an official release, but instead released by Sierra Entertainment), it was possible to change a parameter in a specific text file (Command.txt), so that the farmer who gives out the "rune bomb" quest was dressed in a cow suit, with appropriate new dialogue ("Moo." "I said Moo!"). This added fuel to the fire. To kill the rumor, Blizzard included a cheat (that automatically won the game) in StarCraft that read "There is no cow level", this being Blizzard's way of officially confirming that there was, in fact, no Cow Level. Among online game enthusiasts, this phrase has become an Internet joke similar to the phrase There Is No Cabal.
On April 1, 1999, a Diablo II Screenshot of the Week featured cows fighting. People wondered if the screenshot was an April Fool's joke or if there really was a Secret Cow Level planned for Diablo II. It turned out that there was a cow level. To access the level, one must kill Diablo (or, in Lord of Destruction, kill Baal), return to Rogue Encampment in Act I within the same difficulty level, and then transmute Wirt's Leg with a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube. This will open a portal to the secret level. There is an item set named "The Cow King's Leathers" (in Lord of Destruction only) which may only be collected in this secret level. When a player kills the cow king for their first time on a difficulty level, that player and any other player in the secret cow level at the time of the king's death (regardless of whether or not they are in the same party) becomes unable to reopen the portal to the level on that difficulty level.
Sometimes during an old version of the World of Warcraft loading screen, the tip is: "There is no cow level" - similar to the cheat in Starcraft.
Chat Gem
There is a purple chat gem that is only visible when inside a chat channel. There are many theories about the purpose of this gem. There is, however, no verified purpose for this gem aside from a meaningless message. The gem toggles between an active and inactive state. When activated, a chat message appears stating, "Gem Activated" and likewise, a message "Gem Deactivated" is shown when it becomes inactive. It is also known to say "Mooooooo!" and "Perfect Gem Activated" on random, rare occasions. The official Multiplayer FAQ noted that "[the gem] is working correctly and has more than exceeded our expectations". It wasn't until much later in a fan-chat where Bill Roper revealed that the secret about the gem is that it has no secret, "Sometimes a Gem is just a Gem!"
Reception
Diablo II was a runaway success for Blizzard. The game has achieved an overall score of 88 on Metacritic. Gamespy awarded the game an 86 out of 100, IGN awarded the game an 8.3 out of 10, and Gamespot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10 along with earning the 2000 runner-up Reader's Choice Award for role-playing game of the year. It was awarded a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records "2000 edition" for being the fastest selling computer game ever sold, with more than 1 million units sold in the first two weeks of availability; by January 2001, it had sold 2.80 million copies worldwide.