So you’ve mastered every character type in Diablo, gone through the crypt and the nest in the Hellfire expansion, and killed the evil lord Diablo in every way imaginable, including some the designers didn’t intend. And every blasted time, your character rams that stupid soul gem in his forehead, slurps Diablo into his own body, and retires to contemplate goodness in the Far East--until you reload your last save and generate a new maze ... again. So how in Hades can there be a sequel? Well, it seems your hero had this wee containment problem ...

Overview

In Diablo II, your new character must battle the freshly escaped, enraged Diablo in a milieu with the same fighting feel and a more storied, roleplaying depth.

At present the game promises to be a whopping four CD-ROMs, one for each “act” of the story. The game world has grown to approximately seven times the size of the original Diablo. Game loading between scenes on the same disks has improved immensely--and a good thing, too, with randomly-generated wilderness areas, caves, crypts, temples, and dungeons for each of four new towns. Removal of the tedious “loading screens” and a gradual change in the graphics style between locations takes that choppy quality out of section transitions. Game difficulty can again be adjusted. Although experience levels above 50 will be nearly impossible, there is no built-in limit this time. The new graphics engine supports optional 3Dfx and some of the music, high quality as before, has an Asian feel (click here for samples). Original Diablo isn’t required for play, and there is no importing of characters between the two games.

Characters

You play one of five entirely new character classes (Amazon, Necromancer, Paladin, Sorceress, and Barbarian) and may meet the old Rogue, Warrior, and Sorcerer types as nonplayer characters (NPCs). New sets of skills and spells are class-specific.

The Amazon mixes aspects of the original Rogue and Warrior, with a few extra combat skills including hand-to-hand and thrown weapons specialties. She also has the ability to strafe and to fire multiple arrows at once, both skills improving with level.

The Paladin is your holy warrior, with abilities in helpful spell-like “auras,” healing spells/skills such as Cure Poison, and combat skills, including shield attacks.

The Sorceress is one of Diablo II’s two main magic specialists, with spell categories of Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Spells include Ice Storm, Blaze, Ice Bolt, and Meteor.

The Necromancer, the other mage specialist, is restricted to black magic (such as the spectacular “Corpse Explosion” spell). He not only raises the dead but also uses summoning spells: summoned and created creatures are under his partial control. Skills include poisons and a variety of curses (among them, healing prevention and weakness).

The Barbarian mixes hardcore war (two weapons at once!) with a kind of shamanism and promises some interesting enhanced physical combat. The largest and most sturdy of all the character classes, Barbarians attack normally with their right hand and make jab attacks with the left. Skills include Leap and “War Cries” such as Howl.

Skills, Spells, Combat, and Gear

Blizzard has retooled the game to create a unique feel to the character you build: the cookie-cutter similarity has vanished and many possibilities for replay as different, specialized characters now exist within each class, a great improvement. The original foursome of straight stats from Diablo has been replaced by a “skill/spell tree” which tailors combat and spells to each character class. You build expertise up from simple to complex (first you learn simple Lightning, then branch out to Nova and Chain Lightning, and so on), and pick Masteries, such as Fire or Ice, for special expertise and extra damage. Some 30 or so spells and/or skills are exclusive to each class. A mixed improvement in combat: you can now hit running speed, but it lowers your armor class and you eventually exhaust your stamina. Weapons have different ranges and now include spears, throwing axes, and crossbows. Cold and poison resistance have been added to the old fire and lightning resistances.

Instead of three standard appearances for each character type (light, medium, and heavy armored) with look-alike weapons, your particular set of gear will be reflected in your character’s look. Another welcome change is a variety of storage: several belt possibilities, a smarter auto-stow backpack, books as repositories for multiple scrolls, and a separate gold compartment. Game areas for storage, such as buildings and crates, are being considered by the designers.

World and Monsters

NPCs will no longer be little static dolls in set places: they wander around and some can be hired to fight with you, under your partial control (basic commands plus an “autopilot”). This does mean, however, that purchasing items and getting your equipment repaired involves tracking down merchants and smiths. Some town buildings can be entered and explored this time, though the old stall type of shop still exists. Unlike the original Diablo, you may find NPCs walking right up to you and offering one of the approximately 25 quests in the game.

There’s a new shielded barter system for multiplayer, preventing outsiders from interfering (as was often the case with the old “throw it down and I’ll pick it up” method). Unique items will be few and far between, and of far greater value: the game designers now have the ability to set rarity across all games, and are cranking it up pretty high. The actual numbers of preset unique items will total hundreds, however, and there may be a randomizer generating slight variations of each one between games. New types of “expendable” items include poison gas and explosive potions.

The climate will include jungles and desert at the very least, as well as area details such as statues, graveyards, and corpses. Weather and time of day figure into the game environment: you may at times wander through wind, rain, or darkness. Time of day will affect what type of monster is trying to claw its way down your throat, AND there are no safe havens in this game like the town in the old Diablo. Though the game will not involve "platforms" as do arcade-style shoot'em ups, one anticipated feature is an elevation effect in the landscape, making attacks from above (by you or on you) possible. Over 50 different monster types wander the land and underworld this time, and yes, there will be “color variations” (different subtypes) as well. To date, we expect Blood Hawks, Sand Maggots, Skeletons, the Fallen, Fallen Shamen, Thorned Hulks, Blunderbores, Foul Crows, Claw Vipers, Zombies, and Quill Rats. Monster generators will be randomly plopped around the landscape but can be destroyed. Among the “uniques” in monsters are Baal, Mephisto, poisonous Andariel (the Maiden of Anguish), and a revamped, tougher, and angrier Diablo (in a different human host with a whole new look).

Multiplayer

Diablo II will be supported by Blizzard’s popular free multiplayer site, Battle.net. Considerable work has gone into preventing the rampant cheating that rides the current Diablo in multiplayer, including huge changes in the underlying game programming and, on Battle.net, a move of all multiplayer character data to a remote save site to prevent tinkering with character files saved on home systems. Control of game conditions will be given the creator of a game (cooperative game or player duelling) and a special Player Killer (PK) arena is being considered for those who prefer duelling. A frequent autosave for multiplayer should prevent character loss in cases of disconnect or system crash. All quests will function in multiplayer mode this time around, and up to 8 players may participate in Battle.net games. New mapping elements allow you to track your allies and rejoin or rescue them if need be. Another new feature divides experience points among players. Battle.net play will include an easy system for creating and joining clans or guilds, as well as the ability to choose and display clan colors online.

Diablo II Links

For more information, go to www.blizzard.com or www.blizzard.com/diablo2.

For character screen shots, go to www.blizzard.com/diablo2/gallery.htm

For a collection of screen shots that grows weekly, go to www.blizzard.com/diablo2/ssotw.htm

For previews of the music, go to www.blizzard.com/diablo2/audiopreview.htm

For movies of actual game footage (warning: the downloads are huge), go to www.blizzard.com/diablo2/gameplay.htm