I have a love/hate relationship with Diablo 2. The new characters are wonderful; I especially like the sorceress. And all the characters have special abilities that they can put "skill points" into. Blizzard simply went crazy peppering powerful magic artifacts throughout the game. Be ready to spend long hours contemplating if you should wear the armor of the fox or the beryl chain of light. I like the town-portal function A LOT, which the Baldur's Gate games don't have. This saves you the time of traversing through multiple levels of dungeons just to get to town. There are also things called "waypoints" scattered at intervals that transfer you back to the town.
BUT. . . I hate the fact that you can't save without exiting the game. When you do save and exit, you start in town again, regardless of whether or not you were in a dungeon when you saved. Any town portals you have will disappear, so you have to take a waypoint to the nearest area. Unfortunately, the areas are repopulated with monsters. So, if you just spent a bunch of time killing a difficult unique monster, get ready to do so again. Plus, although you can hire mercenaries to aid you on your quests, they have little or no combat value and are basically a waste of gold. Diablo 2 is VERY extensive. Too extensive. If you are searching for anything, be prepared to spend a lot of time going over seemingly endless areas in search for items to satisfy the quest you're on. Also, the plot isn't very involved, so sometimes playing feels pointless. But, I still devote much of my time to playing this game. The reason it got three stars is because my not-so-minor annoyances have won over my overall enjoyment of the game. I would think twice before buying this, escpecially with games like BG2 out, and things like Myths of Drannor and BG2:Throne of Bhaal on the way.
I have a love/hate relationship with Diablo 2. The new characters are wonderful; I especially like the sorceress. And all the characters have special abilities that they can put "skill points" into. Blizzard simply went crazy peppering powerful magic artifacts throughout the game. Be ready to spend long hours contemplating if you should wear the armor of the fox or the beryl chain of light. I like the town-portal function A LOT, which the Baldur's Gate games don't have. This saves you the time of traversing through multiple levels of dungeons just to get to town. There are also things called "waypoints" scattered at intervals that transfer you back to the town. BUT. . . I hate the fact that you can't save without exiting the game. When you do save and exit, you start in town again, regardless of whether or not you were in a dungeon when you saved. Any town portals you have will disappear, so you have to take a waypoint to the nearest area. Unfortunately, the areas are repopulated with monsters. So, if you just spent a bunch of time killing a difficult unique monster, get ready to do so again. Plus, although you can hire mercenaries to aid you on your quests, they have little or no combat value and are basically a waste of gold. Diablo 2 is VERY extensive. Too extensive. If you are searching for anything, be prepared to spend a lot of time going over seemingly endless areas in search for items to satisfy the quest you're on. Also, the plot isn't very involved, so sometimes playing feels pointless. But, I still devote much of my time to playing this game. The reason it got three stars is because my not-so-minor annoyances have won over my overall enjoyment of the game. I would think twice before buying this, escpecially with games like BG2 out, and things like Myths of Drannor and BG2:Throne of Bhaal on the way.