At A Glance
the.lazy.man's.review

Praetorian

June 13/2000

 

Diablo v.15?

To: Praetorian. From: Diablo II Stress Test.

The email waited for me, and my eyes immediately fixated on it. They laughed at me, but the dream had become a reality. I was a Diablo II multiplayer beta tester. Despite receiving this email at 2:00 in the morning, I didn't hesitate to download the 100 meg beta, install it, and play it until nearly four (and be consequently late for work the next day, and miss out on precious hours of rubbing my Diablo 2- enabled status in Marauder's and Kingpin's faces...).

I was never a hardcore Diablo fan, however once out of the impressive menu system and actually into a game, Diablo II immediately struck me as… Diablo. The beta is extremely limited in nearly every aspect, but I was filled with a sense of… sameness. Same interface, same look, same feel, which is probably the smartest thing Blizzard could have done- why mess with near perfection? I wandered around the camp for a while, talked to a few people, and started out on my first quest. After furiously clicking my way to victory, the sameness filled me again, and I realized that I would probably not be a hardcore Diablo II fan, either.

The game does have some promising new features (and it better after so long a development time), the most promising of which is a "zero load time". Once you enter the game, you will never (in theory) wait while a new dungeon, or room, or area or any kind loads. The game begins loading the new areas into RAM as you begin to approach them, so that by the time you descend into the crypt to slay the evil that lives undead within it, all the game has to do is snag it all out of RAM instead of accessing your hard drive.

Multiplayer (after the servers finally stopped crashing) seemed much the same as in the first iteration of Diablo, with perhaps the sense that once the game is available to the public it would be on a much larger scale. My biggest complaint about the beta was the restriction to the Barbarian class, which denied me several things I would have liked to have seen. Mixing up a party with various classes would have given a truer impression of the multiplayer, and I would also have liked to take on some Mage with my Paladin and see what combat's really all about. Also, having only a barbarian meant that I couldn't see any of the gorgeous magic spells that Blizzard and all their screenshots are promising...

Well. Diablo 2 has gone gold, and that means that it will soon be available at a retailer near you. So, at a glance, here's my advice: if you liked Diablo, pick up Diablo 2 cause you'll love it. Blizzard has managed to take a good thing and tweak it out, making it that much better. However, if you're looking for an incredible and revolutionary experience after the Methusela-style development time, prepare to be let down.

Diablo II's true test will come when I get my hands on the full version... until then!

-Praetorian

PCXL FOREVER!!!