Oh my god, someone please explain why Blizzard is torturing us with this game, even after nearly 5 years. A level of addiction way up on the addiction ladder, around the rank of "Crack" if you ask me. Even after 5 years, this game STILL remains infinitely replayable. In case you still don't understand the level of addiction, let me explain my experience. I got this game about 4 years ago and immediately got hooked to the single player campaign. Then a friend of mine got me into multiplayer, and that was it. We played day and night, no less than 5 hours a day, every single day for 4 years. "Enough is enough" he decided. "This game has consumed my life, my grades have plummited, I'm 16 years old and still don't have a job." He stopped playing for about 3 days before he jumped back in head-first. A few months later, he tried it again, this time he actually broke his CD to keep himself from coming back. About a week later, he bought another copy and jumped back in head-first. We finally managed to cut ourselves loose from the death-grip of this game. It's been about 6 months now, and we're both still itching to get back to playing.
OK, down to business...
Graphics: While they don't seem that impressive, they actually are. The spell effects, death animations of the boss monsters are all pretty good, and this game still holds the crown for best cinematics. Blizzard can't be beat when it comes to cinematics, and they really outdid them in this one. Character looks change dramatically when different items are worn. For example, if your character equips a giant horned helm that glows white in the inventory, it will also glow on your character. Also, if you equip a sword with fire enchantments, it glows blood red on your character. You can make your character look pretty cool or pretty ugly, depending on what you wear.
Gameplay: Once again, INSANELY addictive. Anyway, this isn't just your average hack and slash RPG. This game requires 10% wit and 90% intellect. If you can't think clearly and thoroughly, you simply won't survive. Each of the characters have 30 totally different skills, both passive and active. There are skills that passively increase your attack damage, skills that launch arrows that actually chase enemies down and even ones that summon massive blizzards and meteors from the skies. The eye-candy is fantastic. Aside from the skills, there are also 5 different attributes: Vitality, Strength, Dexterity and Energy. With each level you gain, you get 5 attribute points and 1 skill point and as your character becomes a higher level, much stronger skills are unlocked and better items can be worn. Though there might be just 5 characters (7 including the expansion pack), there are LIMITLESS ways to build them. To top that off, there are tens, possibly HUNDREDS of thousands of different items that you can find, thanks to the games totally random prefix and suffix system. This is what infinte replayability truly is.
SOUND: While it does offer 3D sound, it's not very useful, considering the game isn't 3D to begin with! Nonetheless, the sound effects are very good. Slashes and stabs sound the way they should. Music really sets the mood. Dark dungeons loaded with evil have that disturbing music theme, bright deserts have the arabian theme, jungles have that jungle theme, basically the music is done right.
OVERALL: Diablo 2 reigns supreme as #1 on my list, and it will probably stay that way, unless Blizzard comes up with an even better Diablo 3. As a matter of fact, I heard somewhere that there will be a Diablo 3, but whatever. Best game ever, in my opinion.
LAST WORD: Do yourself a favor, don't buy this game if you have a busy life.
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