Diablo II

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 Chase Clements Max Schaefer Eric Sexton
Composer(s)	Matt Uelmen
License	Proprietary
Series	Diablo
Version	1.12a (June 17, 2008)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	NA / PAL June 29, 2000
Genre(s)	Action RPG
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 is a sequel to the game Diablo, 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 of 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 David Brevik and Erich Schaefer, with Blizzard North founders David Brevik, Max and Erich Schaefer 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 currently at version 1.12a. A sequel, Diablo III, was announced on June 28, 2008.^[3]

Gameplay

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 until changing difficulty level; 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, automatically lowered resistances, 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.

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 and weaknesses and sets of skills to choose from, as well as varying beginning attributes.

The five character classes in Diablo II as seen during the opening selection animation. From left to right: the Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin.

• The Amazon is a fighter who hails from a group of islands in the Twin Seas, near the border of the Great Ocean. The class is loosely based on the Amazons of mythology. The Amazon is most similar to the Rogue of Diablo: both are primarily associated with bows, and both make equal use of strength and magic. The Amazon is different in that she can also use javelins and spears adeptly. Her skills are based around personal protective abilities.^[4] The Amazon is voiced by Jessica Straus.^[5]

• The Necromancer is a versatile death-themed spell caster. Necromancers are the priests of the cult of Rathma from the far Eastern jungles. His Summoning skills allow him to form skeletal minions from corpses, to create various types of golems, and to temporarily revive deceased monsters to fight alongside him. Poison and Bone skills include the Necromancer's direct-damage spells as well as some defensive abilities. Curse skills serve a supportive role by inflicting status ailments upon enemies in their area of effect.^[6] The Necromancer is voiced by Michael McConnohie.^[5]

• The Barbarian is a powerful melee-oriented character, and the only character capable of dual-wielding weapons. The Barbarians originates from the northern steppes near Mount Arreat. His weapon masteries allow the Barbarian to specialize in different types of weapons and to gain natural speed and resistances. His war cries can enhance his and his party's abilities in combat and reduce the enemy's abilities. The Barbarian's combat skills are attacks that maximize brute force, his greatest asset.^[7] The Barbarian is voiced by David Thomas.^[5]

• The Sorceress hails from a rebellious coven of female witches who have wrested the secrets of magic use from the male-dominated mage clans of the East. She can cast ice, lightning and fire spells. Her ice spells can freeze enemies, but do less damage than lightning or fire. The Sorceress's Teleport spell allows much faster mobility than any other character. The strong point of the Sorceress is powerful damaging spells and casting speed; her weakness is her relatively low hit points and defense.^[8] The Sorceress is voiced by Liana Young.^[5]

• The Paladin is a religious warrior from the Church of Zakarum in the east, fighting for the glory of light and goodness. To reflect this, the zealous Paladin's combat skills range from fanatical attacks to heavenly thunderbolts. His skills are split into combat skills, defensive auras, and offensive auras. The Paladin's auras can enhance personal abilities, lower the amount of damage dealt by enemies or recover health. The Paladin is highly proficient in the use of a shield, and the best with defensive skills. Some of the Paladin's skills are extremely efficient at eliminating the undead.^[9] The Paladin is voiced by Larry B. Scott.^[5]

• In the expansion, the Druid and Assassin classes were released.

Multiplayer

Unlike the original Diablo, Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind ^[10]. 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 ^[11]. 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 ^[12].

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 ^[13]. The latest major patch was released on June 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.

On March 3, 2009, Blizzard announced a new Diablo 2 content patch, 9 years after the game's release. From the forums: "We’re in the process of working on Diablo II content patch 1.13, and we want to try to include the Diablo community’s most important changes in our production schedule. To achieve this we’re asking for your input on what you’d like to see in this patch." The community can leave their input on the Battle.net forums. ^[14]

Story

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 this is what Diablo wanted and just made him stronger, and the adventurer is in turn corrupted. 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 (from the first game). As the player continues through each of the four acts, he faces off against the Prime Evils, superpowers of Hell, and the two lesser evils who once overthrew the three prime evils, and learns of the truth behind the corruption. Diablo released Mephisto (Lord of Hatred) and Baal (Lord of Destruction) from their soulstones, as they were taught long ago 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 the last of the Prime Evils; Baal (Lord of Destruction) who is going after the mythical Worldstone in an attempt to corrupt it.

Music

The score has been composed by Matt Uelmen and integrates creepy ambience with melodic pieces. The style of the score is modern classical and experimental ^[15]

Some tracks were created by reusing the tracks from the original game, while others by rearranging tracks that were out-takes. Other scores are combinations of parts that were created more than a year after the first game's release.

While the player visits a town, the game has to create a much more peaceful atmosphere, so for that the town theme from Act I called Wilderness gives a pastoral feel of the wilderness (with the cows, farm fences, cabins and trees).

For Act II Mustafa Waiz, a percussionist and Scott Petersen, the game's sound designer worked on the drum samples. Mustafa played on the dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals which gave Matt Uelmen a base upon which to build tracks around.

The town theme from Act II, called Toru makes strong statement of departure from the world of Act I while also maintaining a thematic connection to what had come before. It is the first time in the series to be used some radically different elements than the guitars and choral sounds that dominate both the original Diablo and the opening quarter of Diablo II.

The foundation of the Toru piece is found in exciting dynamics of a Chinese wind gong. The instrument radically changes color from a steady mysterious drone to a harsh, fearsome noise, that gives exotic feeling and at the same time the pacing of the second town.

In all sequences of Act II with deserts and valleys, Arabic percussion sounds dominate.

The composer was impressed by two of the Spectrasonics music libraries, Symphony of Voices and Heart of Asia. He uses samples from Heart of Asia in the Harem piece from Act II, and tries to put the sampled female voice out front and center, getting a nice alto in it. The Crypt track uses a sample from Symphony of Voices; the choral phrase Miserere. deep in the mix of the track, alongside the excessive rainsticks and cymbal scrapes, combined with metal guitar solos.

Music Inspirations

• Tristram uses the main theme of the first Diablo game and it is the earliest track composed for Diablo II. Coda contains an excerpt of "Prelude in C Minor" by Frederic Chopin.

• Monastery from Act I, inspired by the Polish master, Krzysztof Penderecki with the initial voice and string clusters technique.

• Toru and Maggot from Act II, inspired by Toru Takemitsu, with Toru's use of spacing and time.

• Spider from Act III, sounding like Henry Manfredini

• Fortress from Act V, inspired by variety of operatic scores like Debussy's Peleas and Melisande

• Ice Caves from Act V inspired by fragments of Bernard Herrmann's "Vertigo" and a sequence of Orff's Trionfo di Afrodite
• Ancients from Act V contains a direct quote from Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" Prelude to act one.
• Siege from Act V inspired by fragments of "Mars" by Gustav Holst and contains a direct quote from it.

Credits

^[16]

• Drums - Scott Petersen
• Guitar - Bernie Wilkens
• Oboe - Roger Weismeyer
• Percussion - Mustafa Waiz
• Producer, Performer, Composed By - Matt Uelmen
• Recorded By - Matt Uelmen , Scott Petersen

Voice samples from, Heart of Asia, Heart of Africa, and, Symphony of Voices, by Spectrasonics.

Recorded in Redwood City, Oakland, and San Mateo, California, April 1997 - March 2000.

The Diablo II: Lord of Destruction score was recorded in Bratislava, Slovakia with the Slovak Radio Philharmonic. Kirk Trevor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra conducted the sessions.

Secret Cow Level

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, so that the farmer 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.^[17]

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 in Diablo II.^[17]

Reception

Diablo II Collector's Edition contents.

Diablo II had a positive reception. The game has achieved an overall score of 88 on Metacritic.^[18] Gamespy awarded the game an 86 out of 100,^[1] IGN awarded the game an 8.3 out of 10,^[19] and Gamespot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10^[20] along with earning the 2000 runner-up Reader's Choice Award for role-playing game of the year.^[21] 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.^[22] Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King have since surpassed Diablo II's record to become fastest-selling computer games ever at their times of release, according to Blizzard.^[23][24] As of August 29, 2001, Diablo II has sold 4 million copies worldwide.^[25] 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.^[25]

Versions and re-releases

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) contained copies of Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the official strategy guide, and the original Diablo.

The announcement of Diablo III has renewed the interest in its predecessor and brought more attention to the many mods available for the game.^[26]

Notes

References

External links

• Official Site
• The Arreat Summit, official Strategy Guide