Diablo II
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| Diablo II<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;">Image:Diablo2coverscan.jpg</td></tr> | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Blizzard North
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Image:Flag of the United States.svg Blizzard Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | (PC) Image:Flag of the United States.svg / Image:Flag of Canada.svg / Image:European flag.svg June 29, 2000 Image:Flag of Poland (bordered).svg July 5, 2000 (Mac) Image:Flag of the United States.svg June 29, 2000 Image:Flag of Germany.svg March 14, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: Mature 17+ |
| Platform(s) | Windows Mac OS Mac OS X <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>3 CD-ROMs (Play, Install, and Cinematics discs)</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">System requirements</th><td>Mac OS: |
Diablo II, sequel to the popular 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 the second best selling computer game and number one best selling RPG for the PC, selling over fifteen million copies.<ref>Introduction to Vivendi Games. http://www.vivendi.com/ Vivendi's online website. Retrieved on November 20, 2006.</ref>
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.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
The player assumes the role of a hero, fighting monsters while traversing overland and 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 oblique top-down viewpoint (basically, this just means that the game has a set, hovering camera angle). Players fight monsters to level their character up and gain better items.
Diablo II emphasises 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 each time you restart.
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.
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. 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 acts 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.
[edit] Character classes
[edit] 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 Greek mythology.
[edit] 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.
The Barbarian is capable of dual-wielding any two one-handed weapons, as well as wield two-handed swords in one hand.
[edit] Sorceress
The Sorceress focuses on ranged elemental spells in three areas: Ice, Lightning and Fire. Her Ice-based spells have the benefit of chilling or even completely freezing affected enemies, but do less damage, the Lightning spells do more damage but have a very wide range of damage, whilst the 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; 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, rebellious women who have wrested the secrets of magic use from the male-dominated Mage-clans of the East.
[edit] Necromancer
The Necromancer is also a spell-caster who relies on summoning spirits of the dead to aid him in his work. His skills are split into Summoning, Poison & Bone spells, and Curses. The Summoning skills allow him to revive various skeletons, golems and any normal monster you kill, the Poison & Bone skills allow him to deal direct damage whilst the Curse skills inflict various penalties upon his enemies. Image:Diablopali.jpg
[edit] Paladin
The Paladin is a warrior fighting for all that is good. To reflect this, the Paladin's combat skills range from fanatical attacks to heavenly thunderbolts. His skills are split into combat skills, defensive and offensive auras, 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. Paladins are highly proficient in the use of a shield. They may even use their shield as a weapon.He is the best with defensive skills and is also the best if you want to weaken your enemies without hitting them or casting any spells as such.
[edit] Multiplayer
Unlike the first Diablo, Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind. Several spells (such as auras or battle 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. Online play is otherwise nearly identical to single-player play.
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, and item drops are increased with each player in a game.
As an added dimension, Diablo II allows players to engage in competitive player vs. player (PvP) combat, rewarding victors with piles of gold and the severed ear of their enemy. PvP play outside the framework of duels (i.e. random assaults of other players) led to a community of certain PvPers finding ways to interfere with other high-level parties, or repetitively wipe out low-level players [citation needed]. These players are commonly called PKers (Player Killers) by the Battle.net community.
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 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.
Up to twenty-two 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 number of patches is impossible to determine as Battle.net has the capability of making minor server-side patches to address immediate issues.
[edit] Story
The story of Diablo II takes place soon after the end of the original Diablo. At the end of Diablo, Diablo, the Lord of Terror, was defeated. The hero then takes Diablo's soulstone (a device that is used to bind the soul of any demon or angel) and drives it into his own skull, hoping to contain his soul for all eternity. However, the hero is rapidly corrupted by Diablo and quickly begins to lose control. In the opening scene of Diablo II, Marius, the narrator of the story, witnesses the hero (known as the Dark Wanderer) totally lose control, unleashing the demons of Hell upon a tavern. Marius is the only survivor, and he feels compelled to follow the Wanderer for reasons he himself does not understand. The player plays a character in the wake of the destruction, following the Dark Wanderer, hoping to halt him, ultimately spying the Wanderer outside the city of Kurast but 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, Mephisto and Baal, Diablo's malevolent brothers. Diablo is determined to free them from their 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 planet.
[edit] Easter eggs
Many of the characters, items and places in Diablo II are named after Blizzard employees and their loved ones. (Note: some of these examples are taken from the Lord of Destruction expansion pack)
Examples of item names that are anagrams of developer names:
- Nokozan Relic = Karin Colenzo
- (The) Mahim-Oak Curio = Michio Okamura
- Bverrit Keep = Peter Brevik
- Rusthandle = (Mark) Sutherland
- Rixot’s Keen = Erik Sexton
- Skewer (of) Krintiz = Kris Renkewitz
Examples of monster names taken from the development team:
- Colenzo the Annihilator = Karin Colenzo
- Lord de Seis = Rick Seis
- Shenk the Overseer = Phil Shenk
Examples of item names taken from the developer team:
- Civerb's set = surnames of David and Peter Brevik, spelled backwards (and replacing the 'k' with a 'c')
- Schaefer's Hammer = Erich/Max Schaefer
Examples of locations taken from development team:
- The Halls of Vaught = Fredrick Vaught
Additionally, other items are references to movies or books. A good example here is a small dagger, or Dirk, called The Diggler, which is based on the main character of the movie Boogie Nights called Dirk Diggler. The Tarnhelm is a reference to the opera Das Rheingold of Der Ring des Nibelungen (aka The Ring Cycle).
There are also historical references: Tancred's Battlegear refers probably to Tancred, Prince of Galilee, while Pelta Lunata refers to the crescent shaped shield of the mythic Amazons. Hotspur probably refers to Henry Percy. Mount Arreat most likely alludes to the biblical Mount Ararat (where Noah's Ark landed after the great flood to begin life anew). The Countess from Act I, who drank the blood of virgins, is likely a reference to the historical Elizabeth Bathory.
The Unique Crossbow "Buriza-Do Kyanon" is Japanese spelling for "Blizzard Cannon".
Diablo II also uses the concept of undecidable figures to represent the "Arcane Sanctuary" level, since it is an extradimensional, magical construct of the wizard Horazon. Players are able to walk on a flat surface and find their characters below their starting point, similar to M. C. Escher's woodblock print Waterfall. The algorithm for impossible geometry was not difficult to achieve; instead, the program sees the level as a plane and the visual representations do the work of creating this effect. The level plays with and takes advantage of the limits of isometric projection.
[edit] 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, 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 quell 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. <ref>"The Secret Cow Level". http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/ The Arreat Summit.</ref> Among online game enthusiasts, this phrase has become an Internet joke similar to the phrase There Is No Cabal.
On April 1st, 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. (Defeating Baal in the difficulty that you want to enter the cow level in is no longer required, as of patch 1.11b. One only needs to be able to access a certain difficulty to enter its cow level.)
Some references to the cow level exist in World of Warcraft:
- One of the loading screen tips contains the phrase "There is no cow level".
- The robot "Techbot" outside of Gnomeregan says "There is no cow level... well maybe".
- The game contains a leather chestpiece armor item called "Cow King's Hide" <ref>Cow King's Hide stats. http://thottbot.com/ Thottbot: World of Warcraft database.</ref>
- The game contains a weapon called "Wirt's Third Leg" (The first leg is the one in Diablo II and the second, "Wirt's Other Leg", can be found in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne).
[edit] Reception
Diablo II was a runaway success for Blizzard. 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 2000, it had sold 2.75 million copies worldwide. <ref>Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade. Official U.S. Playstation Magazine.</ref>.
[edit] Versions
Blizzard released two versions of the game upon its launch; the regular edition and a limited Collector's Edition. The collector's edition box contained the following items:
- The game on three CDs
- Exclusive Diablo II DVD movie
- Collector's Edition manual
- Original Diablo II soundtrack
- Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG
[edit] References
<references />
- BlueNews news article[1]
- Inside Mac games news article[2]
- GameZone news article[3]
- Internet Movie Database[4]
- CVG interview with Bill Roper, [5]
[edit] See also
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction - expansion pack.
- Diablo (computer game) the predecessor.
- Blizzard Entertainment the developer.
- List of Computer Role-Playing Games
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- The Arreat Summit, official Strategy Guide
- DiabloII.net - Diablo, Hellfire, Diablo II Fansite
- Diablo II at GameFAQs
- Diablo II at MobyGames
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Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | Articles with sections needing expansion | 2000s Video Games | 2000 computer and video games | Combat-oriented computer role-playing games | Multiplayer online games | Mac OS games | Mac OS X games | Diablo games | Windows games | Blizzard games | Computer and video games featuring cooperative gameplay
