Diablo II

Expansion to the game of the year. This expansion adds a new act, in which you must hunt down Diablo's older brother, Baal, and rid the world of the last Prime Evil. This game also adds many new items, including class-specific items, new monsters, and most importantly, 2 new character classes, the Druid, and the Assassin.

or 4... At least I think that's how long I spent playing Diablo II in every spare moment I could find, I'm not sure, I kinda lost track of time for a bit.

The concept behind making Diablo II so popular is ridiculously simple. Make an engine that can generate nearly infinite numbers of uniquely different magical items and people will play until the end of time trying to obtain a sword or a suit of armour that's just that little bit better than what you already have.

The stories and cut scenes that drive the game forward and link the various Acts are superbly done and contribute in some way to dispelling the "nothing but a clickfest" label that the Diablo games have been cast as.

Many spells and abilities are only available at level 30 or above and to fully appreciate these players are encouraged to move on to nightmare and hell modes in order to fully develop their characters. Indeed, the most powerful weapons and items are only available in these harder game modes and because of this Diablo2's replayability factor is very high.

The 4 character classes are both well balanced and varied enough that strategies that prove effective for one character class often prove disastrous for another. While Necromancers and Barbarians are traditionally the dominant classes, Blizzard has gone some way to leveling the playing field with their patch. The introduction of the D2 expansion pack also promises to introduce more characters and levels. The future certainly looks bright.

Diablo II is disarmingly addictive and it comes as a breath of fresh air in a crowded field of first person shooters and real time strategies that after a while begin to blend together in mimetic mediocrity.

Just remember to give your mouse hand a chance to recover every couple of hours....

This game is definitely the best PC game ever made. If you plan on playing it, make sure you have a lot of time on your hands. If ever you find yourself in a situation where you have to get up really early in the morning and you do not think you will be able to do it, it will not be a problem if you have this game. You can stay up all night playing it and you won't be tired because this game is very exciting. I've never been able to play a game for so long and not get tired of it. The 2 new classes and the added act just add to the thunder of this game. With great game play, storyline, and voice acting. You can't go wrong with the Lord of the Rings of PC games. A must have for all gamers.

This expansion set is worth getting. Even if it doesn't get good reviews an expansion set is really a BIG GIANT PATCH. They release it in boxes and ship it to stores for people to buy and upgrade thier current product. It would be way too time consuming to download. It comes with new characters such as the Assassin and the Druid. You get new items such as new rune gems. Instead of having 4 acts you now will have 5 acts. It is just like having Super Mario Bros 3 extended to world 10 from world 8. The gameplay is addictive, you can keep playing non-stop. The gameplay is so amazing that you would not get away from this game. The storyline as far as I can say is just so good that this game is considered the Lord of the Rings of PC Games. No one cares about graphics, games are supposed to be gameplay not showcase. Showcases are showcases, and games are games. They just used simple graphics so they can concentrate on making the best gameplay.

It is your urge to own this game and buy with whatever change you have left in your pocket. 10/10

When Diablo 2 was released in 2000, it didn't quite live up to most critics initial dizzyingly high expectations. But for me the proof of the games' star quality is in its longevity. Diablo 2 is still very popular almost a decade after its release with a huge following on Blizzard's battle.net. Given the fact that this was the first RPG game I've ever played and that I didn't play it until 2009 I wasn't burdened by high expectations and thoroughly enjoyed this game and spent many happy hours playing Diablo 2. Although Diablo 2 is far from perfect I give it a 10 for its ability to entertain and engage you for many hours.

The addictive hack'n-slash gameplay along with the ability to customize your character to suit your playing style is Diablo's 2 strongest points. You will spend most of your time just clicking on various monsters and your character will do the killing, this simple way of playing is oddly addictive (to most people anyway). The interesting part of the game is building up a character with various skills, strengths and weapons to deal with the progressively stronger monsters you will encounter as you progress in the game.

One of the games other strengths is its very forgiving learning curve, allowing a new player plenty of time to get into the game and build up a strong character before having to face some serious opposition. The game appeals to a casual player like me because you don't have to explore every aspect of the game to complete it, but have enough depth and intricacies for the hardcore players to explore who want to do more than just kill Diablo and watch the end movie.

A few things bothered me about Diablo 2. The one thing (that bothered a lot of other people as well) is the low quality graphics, even for a game released in 2000 it's just not up to scratch. The graphics were improved somewhat with the expansion pack so install the expansion if you want to play Diablo 2. The other is that I found one or 2 of the end-level bosses were disproportionally difficult to kill compared with the rest of the monsters in Diablo 2. There is no way to cheat to get past a difficult boss so you really can get stuck after spending many hours building a character who is just not good enough to get past one particular monster.

Overall, if you for some reason never played Diablo 2, it's still not too late. Pick it up from a bargain bin and give it a try!