It's ironic that the first time I saw the Diablo demo, I wasn't impressed. Gameplay consisted of constant mouse clicking, and that was all. It looked awkward and shallow. Real time action was not conducive to role playing and for me, it was turn based or nothing. I was pretty sure Diablo would be another also-released that was barely remembered by the end of the year.

Then my friends and I discovered Battle.net, magic items, and the Diablo economy. It seemed the rest of the world discovered them around the same time. Everything exploded.

I lost at least six months of my life to Diablo. I haven't experienced before or since the intensity of excitement created by online trading. It was a frenzy I will never forget. I was up until 3am or 4am every night for weeks. I had to have that Godly Plate of the Mammoth or Kings Sword of Haste (only a Bastard version would do). It was more important than food or sleep. Surely some high level demigod would have mercy and bestow it upon me. It would take weeks of playing time and immense luck to find it myself. Trading was my only real hope. Rumours of new and potent items went from fiction to fact in the space of seconds. People were selling their souls for the latest finds. The begging and desire were the stuff of legend.

"GIVE ME DIABLO PLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I'VE GOT HAVE TO HAVE DIABLO PLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Stop shouting! Drop the caps or we'll /ignore you!

"GIVE ME F*&#ING DIABLO PLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I remember leaning back in my chair and staring at my trembling hands in relief. I still had my Obsidian jewelry, my Royal Circlet, my Godly Plate of the Mammoth, and my Eaglehorn bow - the fruit of months of play and trading. The haunting guitar strum in Tristam had never sounded quite so soothing. I spent the rest of that evening quietly shopping in town at the blacksmith's.

Diablo is also the only game to give me genuine chills. The eerie, macabre atmospherics of Hell and sudden dissonant chords could send shivers rippling down my back. The Gothic tinged graphics, sound effects, and gameplay all worked together to create a seamless experience. More than once a monster flew around a blind corner to attack, making me physically jump in my seat.

Sierra's half good, half bad Hellfire expansion pack over a year later was only saved by some brilliant third party modifications which replaced the cheesy PacMan graphics with coherent artwork. We played it till our eyes were bloodshot, and dreamed of the full sequel. The long two years between then and the release of Diablo 2 has just amplified expectations. And now it's here.




Now There Is...

It has been a long time between excursions to Hell. It takes a while for the game to sink in and it deserves the time; it is very different. In most ways Diablo 2 takes up where Diablo left off. In some ways it drops the ball altogether. In many ways it is both bigger and better. In others it is actually worse. By the time the demon Diablo reappears for the penultimate battle however, the game has redeemed itself.

Prerelease hype promised greater than the 640x480 resolution offered by the original and this was, to my mind, the first and most obvious requirement of a sequel. When it was announced dangerously close to release that this would not be the case and D2 would run only in 640x480, I was stunned and disappointed. To be honest, I haven't quite recovered. Blizzard have received a lot of criticism for that decision, and it is deserved. It was a very bad one.

Yet Diablo did not suffer for it's low resolution. The artwork was smooth, atmospheric, and beautifully balanced. Perhaps D2 wouldn't either. Alas, my disappointment upon booting up the beta during the international test was palpable. D2 is in places worse than the original. There are improvements such as character appearances changing with each new item worn, but where Diablo was lush and subtle throughout D2 is at times garish and brash. The first Act of the game can appear perplexingly unbalanced and pixelated. The banding on some monsters is so bad they look like they are only utilizing a 256 colour palette. If you did not make it through the first Act, you would be forgiven for writing the game off completely.



Act 2, however, does much to assuage disappointment. The desert world surrounding Lut Gholein is perfectly rendered. The city itself is stunning. I spent several minutes admiring the palace and it's dome alone. It is pleasantly reminiscent of Fallout and the atmosphere created harks back to old AD&D title Dark Sun. The jungle density of Act 3 stands almost equal with Act 2, and Act 4 surpasses both. Blizzard's artists have taken the brooding nastiness of Hell from the first game and amplified it exponentially in the sequel. It is like playing a 3D, techno-colour version of the first. Hell in Diablo 2 is perversely beautiful, and the 3D effects used are spellbinding. The ghostly passage and ethereal fire of the Burning Soul monsters for instance is spooky artistry at its best.

All monsters fit their surroundings both visually and conceptually, not an easy thing to achieve. There are numerous embellishments whose only purpose is to enrich gameplay - the harmless wandering vermin that squish underfoot (snakes in the jungle, scorpions in the desert, rats in the dungeons), and the 3D motion of foreground buildings and objects. Everything works together visually and makes sense. Sierra take note: this is how Hellfire's monsters, levels, and spell effects should have looked. Shame, shame, shame.