|
Diablo II
|
|
|---|---|
Diablo II cover art |
|
| Developer(s) | Blizzard North |
| Publisher(s) | NA Blizzard Entertainment EU Sierra Entertainment HanbitSoft |
| Designer(s) | David Brevik Stieg Hedlund Erich Schaefer Max Schaefer Eric Sexton |
| Composer(s) | Matt Uelmen |
| License | Proprietary |
| Series | Diablo |
| Version | 1.12a (June 17, 2008) |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X |
| Release date(s) | NA / PAL June 29, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing game (hack and slash) |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 15+ ESRB: M OFLC: MA15+ OFLC: M and R16+ PEGI: 16+ |
| Media | 3 CD-ROMs (Play, Install, and Cinematics discs) |
| System requirements | Mac OS G3 processor or equivalent, System 8.1 or later, 64 MB RAM plus Virtual Memory, 650MB drive space, 4X CD-ROM drive, 256 color display at 640x480 resolution (800x600 with expansion) Windows 233 MHz Pentium or better, 32 MB RAM, 650 MB drive space, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX compatible video card |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse |
Diablo II, sequel to the game Diablo, is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game in a hack and slash and "dungeon roaming" style. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment, and was developed by Blizzard North.
Diablo II was one of the most popular games in 2000.[1] 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.[2]
The game was conceptualized and designed by Stieg Hedlund, with Blizzard North founders David Brevik, Max and Erich 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 1.12a. A sequel, Diablo III, was announced on June 28, 2008.[3]
Contents |
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. Players fight monsters to level their character up and gain better items. Battle is conducted in real-time from an isometric viewpoint. Each act culminates with the destruction of a boss monster, upon which the player proceeds to the next act. Diablo II 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.
In addition to the four acts there are 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 strength, 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 with normal softcore characters the player can resurrect their character if killed and resume playing. A hardcore character only has one life and if killed, will be permanently dead and unplayable, losing everything.
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, or hirelings, 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.
Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different character classes: Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses and sets of skills to choose from, as well as varying beginning attributes.
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, while offline, single player maps are retained in computer memory, though only for a single difficulty setting at a time.
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 gained, monsters' hit points and damage, and the number of items dropped are all increased as more players join a game, though not in a strictly proportional manner. 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 all ladder characters are transferred to the non-ladder population. Certain rare items are available only within ladder games, although they can be traded for and exchanged on non-ladder after the season has ended.
The game has been patched extensively; the precise number of patches is impossible to determine as Battle.net has the capability of making minor server-side patches to address immediate issues. The game is currently in version 1.12. The latest major patch was released on Jun 17, 2008. Through the patch history, several exploits and issues have been addressed (such as illegal item duplication, though it still exists), 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 story of Diablo II takes place after the end of the previous game, Diablo, in the lands of Sanctuary where Diablo, the Lord of Terror, was defeated by an unnamed warrior. The hero who slew Diablo drove the demon's soulstone into his forehead in an attempt to contain him, but Diablo's soul was too strong and eventually corrupted him. The player is an adventurer who appears in the wake of the destruction caused by Diablo and attempts to find out the cause of the destruction, starting with the corrupted warrior. As the player continues through each of the four acts, he faces off against the Prime Evils, superpowers of Hell, and learns of the truth behind the corruption. Diablo released Mephisto (Lord of Hatred) and Baal (Lord of Destruction) from their soulstones and they were taught how to corrupt them by the fallen angel Izual. In the end, the player eventually reaches and slays Mephisto and Diablo. The story continues in the expansion to the game, where the player chases after the last of the Prime Evils; Baal (Lord of Destruction).
Protagonists
An unnamed adventurer who arrives at a rogue encampment in the aftermath of Diablo's movement to free his brothers. The adventurer gradually becomes stronger while searching for the cause of the destruction. He/she tracks Diablo throughout the world and eventually face off against The Lord of Terror in the final battle. In Diablo II: The Lord of Destruction expansion pack, The Adventurer is faced off against Baal, Diablo's brother and the last Primal Evil to be defeated.
The last surviving member of the Horadrim clan, Cain is an old man who supported the adventurers in Diablo with information regarding anything, from tips to demons. He is also the only survivor when Diablo destroys Tristram, the city underneath which Diablo originally resided before he was killed, and is saved by the adventurer. In Diablo II, he travels with the adventurer and offers hints on how to proceed with quests and can identify items for free, as well as information of the history of Sanctuary. He has been confirmed to appear in Diablo III.
Tyrael is an Archangel who rebelled against heaven in order to teach the Horadrim how to seal the Prime Evils' souls into the Soulstones, thereby trapping them for eternity. He is captured by Baal after he fails to stop Diablo from releasing Baal and eventually freed by the adventurer. He comes back when the adventurer reaches the Pandemonium Fortress, the last bastion before Hell, to offer his protection.
Antagonists
Blood Raven is the rogue who helped fight against Diablo in Tristram, who has been corrupted by Andariel to guard the Burial Grounds in Act 1. The head of the Rogues requests that the Adventurer kill her.
The Summoner is a sorcerer who helped fight against Diablo in Tristram but who has now taken over the Arcane Sanctuary in Act 2. He must be killed to gain access to the Canyon of the Magi.
Featured in the movies accompanying the game, the Dark Wanderer acts behind the scenes, setting the events in the story in motion. Described by NPCs the Adventurer meets, he is briefly encountered in Act 3 the first time the Adventurer exits Kurast. He wears a hooded brown version of the Horadrim cloak that Deckard Cain wears, and is seen dragging a sword in the movies. It is rightfully assumed that he is the Warrior who helped fight against Diablo in Tristram from the first game.
Izual is an angel who was said to be corrupted by the Prime Evils to destroy the Hellforge but later revealed that he betrayed Tyrael and was not corrupted. He taught the Prime Evils how to corrupt the soulstones, allowing them to harness them for additional power. Tyrael requests that the Adventurer kill him. He is encountered in the Plains of Despair in Act 4.
The Greater Evils
The namesake of the series, antagonist of the first game, and youngest of the three Prime Evils (three brothers). Diablo is a powerful demon lord who is not only strong in close combat, but can use fire, lightning, and bone to decimate his enemies. Diablo is considered to have an affinity for fire. Diablo was slain in the first game, and the warrior who killed him plunged the shard of Soulstone formerly in Prince Albrecht into his own head. The Adventurer searches for and finds him in Act 4, in the Chaos Sanctuary.
Baal is a powerful demon who is strong in both magic and muscle. While he prefers to use his own minions to fight, he can use curses, ice magic, and arcane energy. Baal is considered to have an affinity for ice. Baal was trapped in the body of a Horadrim sorcerer named Tal Rasha and imprisoned in a tomb in the Canyon of the Magi. The Adventurer searches for him in Act 2, but does not find him until Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.
Mephisto was able to break free from his own soulstone after being the first of the three to have been sealed by the Horadrim, and began his campaign to corrupt the jungles of Kurast. Mephisto influenced the Zakarum, high priests of Kurast, and using shards of his soulstone, corrupted the high priests, taking the strongest of the priests, Sankekur, for his own body, essentially resurrecting himself. He uses the Zakarum to gather information and to spread his influence throughout Sanctuary. The demon is also in control of the gates to hell. Mephisto is the eldest of the brothers, and while he is not a fighter, has a wide array of lightning, ice, and poison magic. Mephisto is considered to have an affinity for lightning. The Adventurer searches for and finds him in Act 3, in the Durance of Hate.
The Lesser Evils All command large forces of demons, undead, and monsters. Each one of the Lesser Evils was given an objective to further Hell's presence in Sanctuary.
Encountered in Act 1's Catacomb. Corrupted the Rogues. Uses poison attacks.
Encountered in Act 2. Uses ice attacks and strong physical attacks.
The "Secret Cow Level" is the result of a running joke from the original Diablo that spawned from an Internet rumor about a cow that 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, an add-on for Diablo created by third-party developer Synergistic Software, 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 stop the rumors, Blizzard included a cheat in StarCraft that read "There is no cow level", officially confirming that there was, in fact, no Cow Level.[4] 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 person or party member kills the cow king, the player who created the game becomes unable to reopen the portal in that difficulty.
Diablo II was a runaway success for Blizzard. The game has achieved an overall score of 88 on Metacritic.[5] Gamespy awarded the game an 86 out of 100,[1] IGN awarded the game an 8.3 out of 10,[6] and Gamespot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10[7] along with earning the 2000 runner-up Reader's Choice Award for role-playing game of the year.[8] 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.[9] Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has since surpassed Diablo II's record to become fastest-selling computer game ever at the time of its release, according to Blizzard.[10] As of August 29, 2001, Diablo II has sold 4 million copies worldwide.[11] The game has received the "Computer Game of the Year", "Computer Role Playing Game of the Year", and "Game of the Year" awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences at the 2001 Interactive Achievement Awards.[11]
The game was also released in Collector's Edition format, containing bonus collector's material, a copy of the Diablo Dungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper campaign setting, and promotional movies for other Blizzard games. The Diablo II: Exclusive Gift Set (2000) similarly contained exclusive collector's material and promotional videos, as well as a copy of the official strategy guide. The Diablo Gift Pack (2000) contained copies of Diablo and Diablo II, but no expansions. The Diablo: Battle Chest (2001) contains copies of Diablo, Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.
In 2000, a tabletop adaptation of Diablo II was published by Wizards of the Coast entitled Diablo II: Diablerie, using the d20 System.[12][13]
|
||||||||||||||