Diablo II: Breathing New Life into an Old Demon

By Jonathan Berohn

If you don't play Diablo II, you'd probably think that a play balance patch coming more than 3 years after the game's initial release is not going to make you change your mind. On the other hand, the legion of thousands that still flock to Battle.net every night means that there just might be something worth checking out.

What makes this patch so special? Unlike most game updates-especially updates this far into the life of a game-the 1.10 patch radically changes Diablo II almost as much as the Lord of Destruction expansion pack did when it came out 2 years ago. First of all, the game has become dramatically more difficult. Monsters hit harder, have scads more life, and in general become quite a nuisance-especially in the higher difficulty levels.

There are, however, quite a few new rewards to balance out the difficulty of building and advancing your characters. Blizzard has added over 100 new unique items, 20 new rune words, and a revolutionary system of skill interaction that lets you pump the power of a skill by adding to complementary skills.

Best of all, though, Battle.net gamers (Diablo II comes with free access to Blizzard's online gaming network) can choose to participate in new "ladder" realms, which essentially mean a fresh start. As anyone who has played Diablo II knows only too well, the explosion of hacks, cheats, and dupes has pretty much ruined the pre-patch online version of Diablo.

The question still remains though-why would you want to buy a 3-year-old game? The answer is pretty simple. Unlike most games that come and go very quickly, Diablo II has shown remarkable staying power. Its combination of easy game play with a compelling storyline has kept gamers coming back-even before the patch. And because the game is 3 years old, it's pretty cheap. You can pick up the original Diablo II for $20, the Lord of Destruction expansion for another $20, or a box set that contains both plus the original Diablo I for $40 (I'd recommend the box set-you need Diablo II to play the Expansion, and you want the Expansion for the best features). While you are waiting for the next great game to come along, a newly revamped classic like Diablo is great place to hang out.