Diablo II


Diablo II is a 2000 action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS X. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror themes, was conceptualized and designed by David Brevik and Erich Schaefer, who, with Max Schaefer, acted as project leads on the game. The senior producers were Matthew Householder and Bill Roper. The game was developed over a three-year period, with a crunch time of a year and a half.
Set shortly after the events of Diablo, the player controls a new hero, attempting to stop the destruction unleashed by Diablo's return. The game's four acts feature a variety of locations and settings to explore and battle in, as well as an increased cast of characters to play as and interact with.
Building on the success of its predecessor, Diablo, and improving the gameplay, both in terms of updated character progression and a better-developed story, Diablo II was one of the most popular games of 2000 and has been cited as one of the greatest games of all time. Major factors that contributed to the game's success include its continuation of popular fantasy themes from the previous game and its access to Blizzard's free online play service, Battle.net. An expansion to the game, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001.
Diablo III, the sequel to Diablo II, was released on May 15, 2012. Diablo II: Resurrected, a remastered version of Diablo II which also includes the Lord of Destruction expansion, was released on September 23, 2021.

Gameplay

Diablo IIs storyline progresses through four chapters or "acts", the Lord of Destruction expansion adds the fifth chapter Act V which continues the story where Act IV left off. Each act follows a predetermined path, but the wilderness and dungeons between key areas are randomly generated. The player progresses through the story by completing a series of quests within each act, compared to the preceding Diablo which most quests are assigned at random and most are optional. Diablo II also has optional side dungeons for extra monsters and experience.
In contrast to the first Diablo, whose levels consisted of descending deeper and deeper into a Gothic-themed dungeon and Hell, Diablo IIs environments are much more varied. Act I is similar to the original Diablo; the Rogue Encampment is a simple palisade fort, with plains and boreal forests making up the wilderness area, and the Monastery resembles the typical medieval fortress. Act II mimics Ancient Egypt's desert and tombs; Lut Gholein resembles a Middle Eastern city and palace during the Crusades. Act III is supposedly based on the Central American jungles; Kurast is inspired by the lost Mayan civilization. Act IV takes place in Hell, modeled on the classical Christian conception with rocks and lava, leading up to a medieval cathedral with demonic features. Added in the expansion, Act V's style is mainly mountainous to showcase the ascending of Mount Arreat by traversing alpine plateaus and icy tunnels and caverns, though there are portals leading to Hellish side dungeons, and at the Arreat Summit is the Worldstone Keep whose architecture is inspired by Angkor Wat.
In addition to the acts, there are three sequential difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare, and Hell; completing the game on a difficulty setting will open up the next level. On higher difficulties, monsters are more varied, stronger, and may be resistant or immune to an element or physical damage; experience is penalized on dying, and the player's resistances are handicapped. However, better items are rewarded to players as they go through higher difficulties. A character retains all abilities and items between difficulties and may return to a lower difficulty at any time, albeit it is not possible to replay the quests that are already completed.
Players can create a hardcore character. In normal mode, the player can resurrect their character if killed and resume playing, while a hardcore character has only one life. If killed, the character is permanently dead and unplayable. In addition, all items and equipment on that character will be lost unless another friendly character has the "loot" icon checked. Standard and hardcore characters play on separate online channels; as such a hardcore player can never appear in the same game session as a standard player.

Item system

Diablo II uses a system of randomly generated equipment similar to the original Diablo, but more complicated. Weapons and armor are divided into several quality levels: normal, magical, set, rare, and unique. Normal quality items are base items with a fixed set of basic properties, such as attribute requirements, maximum durability, armor rating, block chance, damage, and attack speed. Magical quality items have blue names and one or two randomly selected bonuses, such as bonuses attributes, skills, or damage, indicated by a prefix or suffix. Rare quality items have randomly generated yellow names and 2 to 6 random properties. Unique items have fixed names in gold text, and instead of randomized properties, they have a set of 3 to 8 preselected properties. Green-named set items have fixed names and preselected properties like unique items, and belong to specifically named sets of 2 to 6 items. Additional properties known as set bonuses are activated by equipping multiple or all items from the same set. These are themed on individuals, like Civerb's cudgel, shield, and amulet, each of which provides individual bonuses which are enhanced if two or more of the items are used to equip a character. It is unusual to encounter more than one item from a set in a single playthrough of the game, so collectors need to play the game many times to accumulate all items from a set or purchase them online from other players who possess them but do not need them. Additionally, items can possess sockets, which can be used to upgrade items by adding gems for various bonuses.
Diablo II includes an item crafting system. An item called the Horadric Cube is used to combine two or more items to create a new item. For example, three identical lower-quality gems can be combined to create a single higher-quality gem, and three small rejuvenation potions can be combined to create a single, more powerful rejuvenation potion.

Character classes

Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different character classes: Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Each character has different strengths, weaknesses, and sets of skills to choose from, as well as varying beginning attributes. The maximum level that any character can obtain is level 99.
  • The Amazon hails from the islands of the Twin Seas, near the border of the Great Ocean. The Amazon is akin to the Rogue of Diablo: both primarily use bows and both make equal use of strength and magic but the Amazon can also use javelins and spears. As such, her clan is a rival to the Sisters of the Sightless Eye. Many of her defensive skills are passive in nature, especially Dodge, Avoid, and Evade. The Amazon is voiced by Jessica Straus.
  • The Necromancer is a versatile death-themed spell caster. Necromancers are the priests of the Cult of Rathma from the Eastern jungles. His Summoning skills allow him to raise skeletons, create golems and resurrect dead monsters to fight alongside him. The Necromancer possesses powerful poison spells, which rapidly drain life from afflicted monsters. He also has "Bone" skills, which directly damage enemies while bypassing most resistances. His Curses also afflict the enemy with debilitating status ailments, sowing confusion and chaos in their ranks. The Necromancer is voiced by Michael McConnohie.
  • The Barbarian is a powerful melee fighter who resides on the steppes of Mount Arreat. The Barbarian is akin to the Warrior of Diablo: both are experts with all weapons for frontline combat and both are able to absorb major punishment. As such, the Barbarian is the only class capable of dual wielding weapons. His Combat Masteries allow him to specialize in different types of weapons and also passively increase his resistance, speed, and defense. His Warcries dramatically increase the combat effectiveness of him and his party, as well as afflicting status ailments on enemies. He has a variety of Combat Skills at his command, most of which focus on delivering great force upon a single foe, while some also allow him to leap over chasms and rivers. The Barbarian is voiced by David Thomas.
  • The Sorceress hails from a rebellious coven of female witches who have wrested the secrets of magic from the male-dominated mage clans of the East. She can cast lightning, fire and ice spells. Most of the lightning and fire spells are carried over from the original Diablo, the ice spells can freeze enemies solid and bypass resistances while doing less damage than lightning or fire. Nearly all of these skills are offensive in nature by besieging the enemy with elemental calamity. The Sorceress's Teleport spell allows her to instantly travel to a new destination, allowing her to quickly traverse dungeons as well as making her very difficult to hit. The strength of the Sorceress is her damaging spells and casting speed; her weakness is her relatively low hit points and defense. The Sorceress is voiced by Liana Young.
  • The Paladin is a crusader from the Church of Zakarum, fighting for the glory of the Light. He was part of the forces that defeated King Leoric's army in the first Diablo, although his Order is eventually corrupted by Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred. To reflect his holy nature, the Paladin's combat skills range from fanatical attacks to heavenly thunderbolts. His loadout is split into Combat Skills, Defensive Auras and Offensive Auras. His auras have a range of abilities such as increasing damage, resisting magic attacks or boosting defense. Most auras either affect all party members and allies or all enemies within the area of effect. The Paladin also has specialized skills for eliminating the undead and is highly proficient in the use of a shield, being the only class that can use it as a weapon. The Paladin is voiced by Larry B. Scott.
Two additional character classes, the Druid and Assassin, were added in the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.
  • The Druid is a shapeshifter with the ability to transform into a werewolf or werebear form. He can summon wild animals such as ravens or wolves as allies and attack with nature-based vines or elemental magic like wind or fire. The Druid offers a wide versatility of skills and can be built in several different playstyles. The Druid is voiced by Michael Bell.
  • The Assassin is a martial arts-based class from the Viz-Jaq'taar clan who fights with claw blades and supplements her attacks with the use of shadow magic skills and fire or lightning elemental traps, which remain stationary and affect groups of enemies. The Assassin is voiced by Carrie Gordon.
The player can enlist the help of one hireling from a mercenary captain in the town; Rogue Scouts, Desert Mercenaries or Town Guards, Iron Wolves, and Barbarians, from Acts I, II, III, and V, respectively. In the original release of the game, hirelings would not follow the player through different Acts, nor be revived if killed. The expansion allows players to retain their mercenary throughout the entire game as well as equipping them with armor and weapons, plus hirelings gain experience and attributes like the player although their level cannot surpass that of their master character. Typically, players choose a hireling that provides something missing from their character class; for instance, the melee-focused Paladin may choose an Iron Wolf for ranged magical support.
In Heroes of the Storm, playable characters Cassia and Xul represent the Amazon and the Necromancer classes, respectively.