|
|
Insane
It's a stampede. Game fans of all walks of life and tastes are vacating their
favorite online and offline games like water buffalo on migration. Lone players
wander the empty, forgotten wastes of formerly-popular MUDs, Everquest and God
knows what wondering where their friends have gone. When will they return? After
a three year development period -- far too long for some -- Diablo is back in
Blizzard's sequel to its all time big hit and cleverly named Diablo 2!
I won't kid you - it's totally senseless. There are no concrete reasons on the
surface. Blizzard took its sweet time, and yet Diablo 2 is seemingly nothing
amazing... it's sporting sub-par 640x480 graphics, recycled music and a bizarre
and annoying save system in single player. It runs slow on fast machines, and
has the most simplistic click-fest gameplay. Compatibility problems with several
graphics cards unable to run in D3D mode (it seems to work best with Glide)
and CD-ROMs drives due to CD copy protection all add to the frustration. And,
yet, Diablo 2 will suck you in, like water on desert sand. Hours go by without
notice. Coffee cups litter the kitchens and computer tables. Yes, people are
forgetting to relieve themselves. I haven't had this much fun, for no decernable
explanation on earth, since I weened myself off Angband. And for others, since
Diablo. Actually, it can be summed up in two words really (words a friend of
mine used to describe it): Diablo 2 is the best character builder of all time.
Arcane
It has to be Diablo 2's's simplicity. Wilderness environs are not as far reaching
or as detailed as Baldur's Gate. In comparison, they seem rather drab. Level
graphics do pick up later on - the most beautiful being the Egyptian section.
And, although the limited light source in dungeons (borrowed from Nox) creates
a tense, skin-crawling atmosphere, the monsters types are repeated over and
over again. Well, sort of. They vary with their annoying habits, beginning with
little minions that come to you and run away in a miriad of directions, who
later turn to jumping about or teleporting. They just increase in strength and
abilities.
The A.I. is somewhat sad at best. Many monsters walk up to you for a beating.
Mouse-over the monster, press the right or left mouse button to chose which
attack/skill/spell to use, and hold. Over and over until they all die. Archer
skeletons do stand away, and ranged attack monsters run, stop, turn and fire
when you chase them. But, strategy comes in dealing with hordes of the little
fellows. Much like the lice in Angband which multiply again and again with weak
hits, the numbers can overwhelm a character bringing on their demise. On the
other hand, boss mobs are horredously nasty. And, the catch is - everything
gets nastier in multiplayer as more people join to play.
It's important to begin with death because it can be tricky in Diablo 2 . Death has been designed to be difficult (and costly) and should be avoided when possible. Diablo 2 uses a unique save system which has caused a great deal of confusion. It is identical to that of the original Diablo's multiplayer system. Each character gets only one save slot, and only the character data is retained. The world information is not. "Save and exit" is the only way to quit your session, and when the game is restarted, your character begins in town, while all of the monsters have been repopulated. The game is divided into four Acts, each with a town (no combat zone) - it is there the character starts, even after death. To avoid fighting all the way back to the last location, waypoints (or teleport stations a la Betrayal of Krondor) have been implemented so that the character can return easily. Waypoints are only active after being visited for the first time, but then can be used after that to go directly to an area. But beware! Waypoints can be plopped down in the middle of a flesh-rending horde.
Upon death, all equipment and gold is left with the corpse at the location where the character died. Retrieval can be a very dangerous task as the monsters are still there waiting. Blizzard have provided two solutions to alleviate difficulties. A personal stash, or treasure chest, in town houses just under enough items for a whole backup set of armor and weaponary. It also holds a ton of cash. Picking up my back-up equipment, I just go charging right back (sometimes purchasing the odd additional item in town). The other solution is to save and exit, then restart the game. Restarting after death, the character's equipment and gold will be scattered around town and can be easily gathered. Either way, there's a loss of continuity in the single player game. But, feel free to abuse this to gain levels and cash though, since respawning monsters are good experience fodder!
Dying, however, sets the emotional dynamics in multiplayer. After several hours with a group of three to five people, you each work to save the other's life and do your job. The Amazons stand back - fire and ice arrows flying at the main target, the Paladins and Barbarians rush in for frontal assaults, and the Necromancer controls his minions blocking monsters from the weaker Sorceress who's firing off spell after spell. A Sorceress comes under attack from one in the horde. A group member comes to her aid - an Amazon shifting her aim to the new target, a necromancer rushing in with a wielded weapon, while the Paladin bravely stands before the nastiest monster taking blow after blow effectively commiting suicide to save the rest of the group. When someone dies, the whole group coordinates to kill the monsters, creates a portal that the naked player can walk through and return to gather the remains of his corpse, equipment and cash. As more people join the game, the minions of Diablo grow stronger - gaining proportionately in hit points and damage to the levels of the human characters that join. It gets insane. This is what AD&D was originally trying to simulate. Dungeon crawling in group battle, and what MUDs and other games created in text. This - is simply amazing. The dynamic is only part of the addiction. Character building, although simple, is customized. Add to this a variety of rare armor sets which give your characters different fashion appearances and benefits, and you can spend weeks getting each of your characters just right. Trading is overwhelmingly popular, however it is easy enough to get most pieces that it's unlikely anything will be selling for $3000 (in real money) on eBay. You can even customize your own special weapons by purchasing (or finding) ones with sockets, then looking for gems in the gameworld that fit into the items. Each type of gem offers something unique to weapons, armor and helms. Topaz for lightning, anyone?
Mundane
Heated arguments of whether the title is an RPG aside, Diablo 2 caters to the
dungeon hacking/exploration efficianado offering five different class characters:
Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Each has their own unique
skills/spells. The Necromancer summons undead minions (sometimes from the very
corpses you've just slain) which makes him good at killing hordes of smaller
monsters, while his "corpse explosion" skill is great for big boss
mobs. The Paladin level more slowly, but their armor class, healing skills,
and strength mean they're usually an easy match for just about anything. The
Amazon is an archer and javelin class with good dodge, and the Barbarian - the
toughest fighting machine with the ability to wield two weapons at once...puah!
The Sorceress...well....
Character build-up is based on experienced gained by killing monsters. Quests
will have you running through plot-driven sequences within each of the four
Acts making up the various scenes of the story. Their rewards come as equipment
enhancements, attribute increases or just being able to move on to the next
story section and kill more monsters. When enough monsters die, a level is gained
and 5 points can be distrbuted amongst four attributes increasing strength,
dexterity, vitality or energy. It's all clearly spelled out what each does,
for example, vitality affects the character's stamina and life.
That's not all, however. One skill point per level can be applied to a skill tree. The skill tree is best used to create focused characters. Skills are broken up into categories and more become available as the character reaches higher levels. The points can be applied multiple times to one skill, making it more powerful, or used to get through the tree to higher level skills. The drawback is skill points are sometimes wasted on useless skills just so one gets to the bottom of the tree where the more powerful spells/skills are. Those are points I'd rather use more efficiently. Regardless, the character can use only one skill at a time. Very simplistic. The skill that is active can be changed through a menu on the interface, or hot keys can be set for faster switching.
The most important aspect about skills and attributes rests with multiplayer. Paladins, for instance, that have highly trained group skills or auras, such as "Fanatacism," which increases the attack rate for all party members and a high "Prayer" skill allows him to heal party members by draining his mana, will be popular chaps on Battle.net.
Multiplayer is a phenomena that must be experienced. On the first day I arrived on Battle.net there were over 34,000 games being played by 64,000 gamers - if the numbers on the servers are correct. Blizzard have serious problems dealing with the current masses on the Realms servers (these are secure servers where player's characters are saved on Battle.net and not on their own hard drive, much like Ultima Online or Everquest). But games are playable if one is patient enough to keep trying. Playing at odd hours also helps. These problems have been compounded by some questionable actions by Blizzard - huge gameplay slowdowns were recently caused by people downloading the recent patch to v1.02! Why the patch is located behind the same gateway or servers as the games, one can only wonder. In addition, bandwidth has been reduced which caused a dramatic change in lag (delay between server and client). My initial games were quite fast, while recent ones were impossible. Blizzard, of course, promises to fix all that.
Those frustrated with the Realm servers have another option in the form of "Open" games. While Realm characters are stored online and much less likely to be corrupted or hacked into or modified, they're restricted to the Realms server and cannot be used in single-player or LAN games. Open characters, however, are stored on the player's computer and can be used in both single player and Open multi-player games -- an open version of Battle.net provides a more limited form of matchmaking in this instance. One of my worst experiences, however, was an overly friendly level 98 character who handed me an amulet, asked for no gold...then proceded to go hostile against me (a "player-killer")...needless to say, pressing escape to the Save & Exit option is a life saver for my poor level 11 Amazon. Playing through the match-making service isn't necessary, because TCP/IP games can be made by hosting a game on your own machine, provided you have pre-arranged it with friends.
Hard Rain
Diablo 2 is a rogue game, following the style of addictive predessors - Moria
and Angband whose roots are deep in the RPG mythos. It also feels like other
famous titles: Daggerfall for dungeon cleaning, Fallout for the topdown view
and rats and other things dwelling in the caves, and of course, Diablo! But,
it's something more. Its focus on cooperative multiplayer dungeon hacking brings
to life those concepts born long ago, out of a Tolkien age when Frodo battled
Mordor. Don't be surpised at its simplicity - this is not an intellectual game.
Taking simple, proven gameplay, Blizzard have changed very little. They ignored
superficial technical advances and instead mixed the right elements together
with a new "evil has returned" story and a much improved interface
from the original Diablo.
The title does have serious quirks and problems, but the gameplay is captivatingly
silly. It goes like this: begin in town, run to dungeons, kill monsters and
collect stuff, portal or use waypoints back to town, sell a myriad of weapons,
potions, armor and restock your supplies. Portal back. Repeat. It's also wonderful.
For all the madness surrounding the title, and all us poor addicted gamers who
are suffering wrist and finger pain from pressing the mouse buttons, Diablo
2 is like an inexplicable drug. And I'm sure you already own a copy.
Back To Index Page