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| Diablo II | |
|---|---|
 Cover art depicting the Dark Wanderer byGerald Brom | |
| Developer(s) | Blizzard North |
| Publisher(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Director(s) | David Brevik Erich Schaefer Max Schaefer |
| Producer(s) | Mark Kern Kenneth Williams |
| Designer(s) | David Brevik Erich Schaefer Max Schaefer |
| Programmer(s) | Rick Seis |
| Artist(s) | Phil Shenk |
| Writer(s) | Kurt Beaver Stieg Hedlund Matthew Householder Phil Shenk Robert Vieira |
| Composer(s) | Matt Uelmen |
| Series | Diablo |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows,Classic Mac OS,OS X |
| Release | Microsoft Windows Classic Mac OS
|
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing,hack and slash[5] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player,multiplayer |
Diablo II is a 2000action role-playing game developed byBlizzard North and published byBlizzard Entertainment forMicrosoft Windows,Classic Mac OS, andOS X. The game, with itsdark fantasy andhorror themes, was conceptualized and designed byDavid Brevik and Erich Schaefer, who, with Max Schaefer, acted as project leads on the game. The producers were Matthew Householder andBill Roper. The game was developed over a three-year period, with acrunch time of a year and a half.[6]
Set shortly after the events ofDiablo, the player controls a new hero, attempting to stop the destruction unleashed by Diablo's return. The game's four acts feature a variety of locations and settings to explore and battle in, as well as an increased cast of characters to play as and interact with.
Building on the success of its predecessor,Diablo (1997), and improving the gameplay, both in terms of updated character progression and a better-developed story,[7]Diablo II was one of the most popular games of 2000[8] and has been cited as one of thegreatest games of all time. Major factors that contributed to the game's success include its continuation of popular fantasy themes from the previous game and its access to Blizzard's freeonline play service,Battle.net.[9] An expansion to the game,Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001.[10]
Diablo III, the sequel toDiablo II, was released on May 15, 2012.Diablo II: Resurrected, a remastered version ofDiablo II which also includes theLord of Destruction expansion, was released on September 23, 2021.
Diablo II's storyline progresses through four chapters or "acts". Each act follows a predetermined path, but the wilderness and dungeons between key areas are randomly generated. The player progresses through the story by completing a series of quests within each act, while there are also optional side dungeons for extra monsters and experience. In contrast to the firstDiablo, whose levels consisted of descending deeper and deeper into aGothic-themed dungeon and Hell,Diablo II's environments are much more varied. Act I is similar to the originalDiablo; the Rogue Encampment is a simple palisade fort, with plains andboreal forests making up the wilderness area, and the Monastery resembles the typical medieval fortress. Act II mimics AncientEgypt's desert and tombs; Lut Gholein resembles a Middle Eastern city and palace during the Crusades. Act III is supposedly based on theCentral American jungles; Kurast is inspired by the lostMayan civilization. Act IV takes place in Hell and is the shortest, with just three quests compared to the other Acts that have six.
TheLord of Destruction expansion adds the fifth chapter Act V which continues the story where Act IV left off. Act V's style is mainly mountainous as the player ascends Mount Arreat, withalpine plateaus and icy tunnels and caverns. Occasional portals can take the player to dungeons in Hell (seen in Act IV) for extra monsters and experience. After reaching the summit of Arreat, the player gains access to the Worldstone Keep.[11]
In addition to the acts, there are three sequential difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare, and Hell; completing the game (four Acts in the original or five Acts in the expansion) on a difficulty setting will open up the next level. On higher difficulties, monsters are more varied, stronger, and may be resistant or immune to an element or physical damage; experience is penalized on dying, and the player's resistances are handicapped. However, better items are rewarded to players as they go through higher difficulties. A character retains all abilities and items between difficulties and may return to a lower difficulty at any time, albeit it is not possible to replay the quests that are already completed.
Players can create a hardcore character. In normal mode, the player can resurrect their character if killed and resume playing, while a hardcore character has only one life. If killed, the character ispermanently dead and unplayable. In addition, all items and equipment on that character will be lost unless another friendly character has the "loot" icon checked. Standard and hardcore characters play on separate online channels; as such a hardcore player can never appear in the same game session as a standard player.
Diablo II uses a system of randomly generated equipment similar to theoriginalDiablo, but more complicated. Weapons and armor are divided into several quality levels: normal, magical, set, rare, and unique. Normal quality items are base items with a fixed set of basic properties, such as attribute requirements, maximum durability, armor rating (on armor), block chance (on shields), damage, and attack speed (on weapons). Magical quality items have blue names and one or two randomly selected bonuses, such as bonuses attributes, skills, or damage, indicated by a prefix or suffix. Rare quality items have randomly generated yellow names and 2 to 6 random properties. Unique items have fixed names in gold text, and instead of randomized properties, they have a set of 3 to 8 preselected properties. Green-named set items have fixed names and preselected properties like unique items, and belong to specifically named sets of 2 to 6 items. Additional properties known as set bonuses are activated by equipping multiple or all items from the same set. These are themed on individuals, like Civerb's cudgel, shield, and amulet, each of which provides individual bonuses which are enhanced if two or more of the items are used to equip a character. It is unusual to encounter more than one item from a set in a single playthrough of the game, so collectors need to play the game many times to accumulate all items from a set or purchase them online from other players who possess them but do not need them. Additionally, items can possess sockets, which can be used to upgrade items by adding gems for various bonuses.[12]
Diablo II includes an item crafting system. An item called the Horadric Cube is used to combine two or more items to create a new item. For example, three identical lower-quality gems can be combined to create a single higher-quality gem, and three small rejuvenation potions can be combined to create a single, more powerful rejuvenation potion.[13]
Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different character classes: Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Each character has different strengths, weaknesses, and sets of skills to choose from, as well as varying beginning attributes. The maximum level that any character can obtain is level 99.
Two additional character classes, the Druid and Assassin, were added in the expansionDiablo II: Lord of Destruction.
The player can enlist the help of one hireling (computer-controlledmercenaries) from a mercenary captain in the town; Rogue Scouts (archers with Amazon abilities), Desert Mercenaries or Town Guards (melee fighters with Paladin auras), Iron Wolves (elemental spellcasters with occasional melee capability), and Barbarians (melee fighters withmany hitpoints), from Acts I, II, III, and V, respectively. In the original release of the game, hirelings would not follow the player through different Acts, nor be revived if killed. The expansion allows players to retain their mercenary throughout the entire game as well as equipping them with armor and weapons, plus hirelings gain experience and attributes like the player although their level cannot surpass that of their master character.[20] Typically, players choose a hireling that provides something missing from their character class; for instance, the melee-focused Paladin may choose an Iron Wolf for ranged magical support.
InHeroes of the Storm (2015), playable characters Cassia and Xul represent the Amazon and the Necromancer classes, respectively.[21][22]
Diablo II can be played multiplayer on alocal area network (LAN) or the Blizzard'sBattle.net online service. Unlike the originalDiablo,Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind.[23] Several spells (such as auras or war cries) multiply their effectiveness if they are cast within a party, and although dungeons still exist, they were largely replaced by open spaces.
Battle.net is divided into "Open" and "Closed" realms.[24] Single-player characters may be played on open realms; only Battle.net characters that are stored on Blizzard's servers may be played on closed realms as a measure againstcheating, where they must be played at least once every 90 days to avoid expiration. Open games are subject to many abuses as the characters are stored on the players' own hard drives. Many cheats that were used on closed realms do not exist or work any longer.[25] Hacks, bots, and programs which allow the player to run multiple instances of the game at the same time are not allowed by Blizzard. They are rarely used anymore. Blizzard cracked down on spambots which advertise sites selling Diablo II's virtual items for real-world currency.[26]
As the game can be played cooperatively (Players vs. Environment, PvE), 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).
The Ladder System is reset at various intervals by Blizzard to allow for all players to start fresh with new characters on an equal footing. Ladder seasons have lasted from as short as six 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.[27]
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 urgent bugs. As of July 2016[update], the game is in version 1.14d.[28] Through the patch history, several exploits and bugs such as item duplication have been addressed, as well as major revamps to the game's balance (such as the ability to redo skills and attributes). Not all patches have affectedDiablo II directly, as several were designed to address aspects of the expansion to the game and had minimal effects onDiablo II.[29]
Diablo II takes place after the end of the previous game,Diablo, in the world of Sanctuary. InDiablo, an unnamed warrior defeated Diablo and attempted to contain the Lord of Terror's essence within his own body. Since then, the hero has become corrupted by the demon's spirit, causing demons to enter the world around him and wreak havoc.
A band of adventurers who pass through the Rogue Encampment hear these stories of destruction and attempt to find out the cause of the evil, starting with this corrupted "Dark Wanderer." As the story develops, the truth behind this corruption is revealed: the soulstones were originally intended to imprison the Prime Evils after they were banished to the mortal realm by the Lesser Evils. With the corruption of Diablo's soulstone, the demon is able to control the Dark Wanderer and is attempting to free his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal. Baal, united with the mage Tal-Rasha, is imprisoned in a tomb near Lut Gholein. Mephisto is imprisoned in the eastern temple city of Kurast.
As the story progresses, cut scenes show the Dark Wanderer's journey as a drifter named Marius follows him. Marius, now in anasylum, narrates the events to a hooded visitor, whom he initially believes to be the Archangel Tyrael. The player realizes that the Dark Wanderer's mission is to reunite with the other prime evils, Baal and Mephisto. The story is divided up into four acts:
In the epilogue, Marius indicates he was too weak to enter Hell, and that he fears the stone's effects on him. He gives the soulstone to his visitor. The visitor reveals himself to actually be Baal, the last surviving Prime Evil now in possession of his own soulstone. He then kills Marius and sets the asylum on fire.
The story continues with Act V, in the expansionDiablo II: Lord of Destruction where Baal attempts to corrupt the mythical Worldstone on Mount Arreat. Upon returning to the Pandemonium Fortress after defeating Diablo, Tyrael opens a portal to send the adventurers to Arreat.
Diablo II was announced by Blizzard in 1997, with a planned launch in the first quarter of 1998.[30] According to designer and project lead Erich Schaefer, "Diablo II never had an official, complete design document... for the most part we just started making up new stuff."[31] Lead developerDavid Brevik wanted to fix all of the outstanding issues from the firstDiablo, including improved multiplayer, more distinction between the character classes, and building the game more horizontally across a large virtual space of land rather than the vertical, multilevel dungeon ofDiablo. The game was slated to have two years of development work, but it took Blizzard North over three years to finish. Part of this delay was attributed to Brevik's focus on gameplay fromUltima Online, and trying to improve on features from that game forDiablo. Brevik also brought in concepts from games likeCivilization andMaster of Orion, which led to the creation of the character skill tree. The team was given creative freedom to come up with further ideas, often spending time playing video games for inspiration, but this haphazard development path led to the game's delay. After missing a key deadline in 1998, Blizzard North enteredcrunch during 1999 to assure the game would release by 2000.[32]
Diablo II, despite having less than one percent of the original code fromDiablo and having much of its content and internal coding done from scratch, was seen by the testers as "more of the same." The game was meant to be released simultaneously both in North America and internationally. This allowed the marketing and PR department for Blizzard North to focus their efforts in building up excitement in players worldwide for the first week of sales, contributing to the game's success.[31] The cover art, designed byGerald Brom, originally had a hole in the forehead of the character but the hole was hidden afterColumbine High School massacre happened.[33] Over 70 people worked on the game.[34]
A second expansion beyondLord of Destruction had been in the design stages of development at Blizzard, according to David Brevik, but never reached the production stage. In addition to adding new classes, areas, monsters, and items, the expansion would have brought in more elements of amassively multiplayer online (MMO) game featuring elements like guild halls, what Brevik considered an "ARPG+MMO". Brevik said the expansion was shelved when most of the Blizzard North staff left the company around June 2003.[35]
The score was composed byMatt Uelmen and integrates creepy ambience with melodic pieces. The style of the score isambient industrial andexperimental.[36] It was recorded in Redwood City, Oakland, and San Mateo, California, from April 1997 to March 2000.
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. A single track usually integrates recorded samples from sound libraries, live recorded instrument interpretation samples specially meant for the game (guitar, flute, oriental percussion), and electronic instruments also, making the tracks difficult for later live interpretations.
While the player visits the town, the game recreates the peaceful atmosphere from the firstDiablo game, so for that the theme from Act I called "Rogue" comes back with the same chords of the original piece, reproducing only a part of the originalDiablo town theme. For Act II Mustafa Waiz, a percussionist, and Scott Petersen, the game's sound designer, worked on the drum samples. Waiz 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, "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 ofDiablo 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, which 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 theSpectrasonics music libraries,Symphony of Voices andHeart of Asia. He used samples fromHeart of Asia in theHarem piece from Act II. The "Crypt" track uses a sample fromSymphony of Voices; the choral phraseMiserere. Voice samples fromHeart of Asia,Heart of Africa, andSymphony of Voices by Spectrasonics.The "Harem" track samples fromHeart of Asia the Sanskrit Female 1 samples.[37]
The game was released inCollector's Edition format, containing bonuscollector's material, a copy of theDiabloDungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper campaign setting, and promotional movies for other Blizzard games. In 2000, theDiablo II: Exclusive Gift Set similarly contained exclusive collector's material and promotional videos, as well as a copy of the official strategy guide. The 2000 releasedDiablo Gift Pack contained copies ofDiablo andDiablo II, but no expansions. The 2001Diablo: Battle Chest version contained copies ofDiablo II,Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the official strategy guide, and the originalDiablo. Recently however[when?], theBattle Chest edition no longer contains the originalDiablo.
Diablo II was released in Japan through Capcom.[38]
Until 2016, Blizzard provided limited support forDiablo II, including occasional patches. Although the original CDretail release worked onWindows 95/98/Me/NT4SP5,[39] the current version downloadable fromBattle.net requires at leastWindows 2000/XP.[40]
Around 2008, the announcement ofDiablo III renewed the interest in its predecessor and brought more attention to the many mods available for the game.[41]
In 2015, an unofficialport for theARM architecture-basedPandora handheld became available bystatic recompilation andreverse engineering of the originalx86 version.[42][43]
On March 11, 2016, Blizzard released the 1.14a Patch, which added support for Windows 7 and newer, a macOS installer and support for OS X 10.10 and 10.11.[4][44]Diablo II is not supported on macOS 10.15, due to Apple completely dropping compatibility with 32-bit binaries in this version.[45]
A remaster of the original and expansion, entitledDiablo II: Resurrected, was released in 2021 for Windows,PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Xbox One,Xbox Series X and Series S, andNintendo Switch. The remaster includes updated graphics, smoother gameplay and re-rendering of the game'scutscenes, and supports cross-progression between the different platforms.[46] The remastered version supports online features for players within the same console family, but not local co-op.Cross-platform play was not available upon release, although there is a possibility of it being included in a future update. The game also features quality-of-life improvements that Blizzard can implement by taking advantage of modern computers and consoles, including support for controllers on all systems, easier means of item identification, and shared stashes of items between all of a player's characters.[47] But the designers also forego elements such as quest markers that are common in modern games, preserving as much of the original experience as possible, and making the re-master almost completely unchanged from the originalDiablo II.[48]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| GameRankings | 89%[49] |
| Metacritic | 88/100[50] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| GameSpot | 8.5/10.0[51] |
| GameSpy | 86/100[8] |
| IGN | 8.3/10.0[52] |
| Next Generation |  [53] |
| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| Guinness Book of World Records | Fastest Selling Computer Game Ever Sold (2000)[54] |
| Interactive Achievement Awards | PC Role-Playing Game of the Year (2001)[55][56] |
| Interactive Achievement Awards | PC Game of the Year (2001)[55][57] |
| Interactive Achievement Awards | Game of the Year (2001)[55][58] |
| PC Gamer | #16 "50 Best Games of All Time" (2005)[59] |
| PC Gamer | #82 "Top 100 Games" (2007)[60] |
| Computer and Video Games | #25 "The 101 Best PC Games Ever" (2005)[61] |
| GamePro | #11 "The 32 Best PC Games" (2008)[62] |
| Destructoid | #7 "Top Video Games of the Decade" (2009)[63] |
| IGN | #6 "Top 10 RPGs of All Time" (2012)[64] |
Diablo II has a positive reception. The PC version of the game achieves an overall score of 88/100 onMetacritic and 89% atGameRankings.[49][50]GameSpy awarded the game an 86 out of 100,[8]IGN awarded the game an 8.3 out of 10,[52] andGameSpot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10.[65]
Greg Vederman reviewed the PC version of the game forNext Generation, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "Diablo II is a must-have PC title. That's all there is to it."[53]
Diablo II earned GameSpot's 2000 runner-up Reader's Choice Award for role-playing game of the year.[51]Diablo II was awarded with "PC Role-Playing Game of the Year", "PC Game of the Year", and "Game of the Year" from theAcademy of Interactive Arts and Sciences during the4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.[55][66] In August 2016,Diablo II placed 21st onTime's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.[67] It was placed at No. 8 onGame Informer's "Top 100 RPGs Of All Time" list.[68]
On its debut day,Diablo II sold 184,000 units.[69] The game's global sales reached 1 million copies after two weeks,[70] and 2 million after one and a half months.[71] It was awarded a spot in theGuinness Book of World Records 2000 edition for being the fastest sellingcomputer game ever, with more than 1 million units sold in the first two weeks of availability.[54] Its sales during 2000 alone reached 2.75 million globally;[72] 33% of these copies were sold outside the United States, with South Korea making up the largest international market.[73]Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos,World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade,World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King,World of Warcraft: Cataclysm andDiablo III have since surpassedDiablo II's record to become fastest-selling computer games ever at their times of release, according to Blizzard.[74][75]
In the United States,PC Data tracked 308,923 sales forDiablo II during the June 25–July 1 period, including sales of its Collector's Edition. This drew revenues of $17.2 million.[76] Domestic sales reached 790,285 units ($41.05 million) by the end of October 2000, according to PC Data. Another $4.47 million were earned in the region by that date via sales of theCollector's Edition.[77]Diablo II finished 2000 with 970,131 sales in the United States, for a gross of $48.2 million.[78]
Diablo II's success continued in 2001: from February to the first week of November, it totaled sales of 306,422 units in the United States.[79] It was ultimately the country's eighth best-selling computer title of 2001,[80] with sales of 517,037 units and revenues of $19.3 million.[81] Its lifetime domestic sales climbed to 1.7 million units, for $67.1 million in revenue, by August 2006. At this time, this ledEdge to declare it the United States' second-largest computer game hit released since January 2000.[82] It received a "Gold" sales award from theEntertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[83] indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[84]
Diablo II became a major hit in the German market and debuted at #1 on Media Control's computer game sales chart for June 2000. Speaking with Havas Interactive's public relations director,PC Player's Udo Hoffman noted that the representative "had to make an effort on the phone to avoid singing and jubilating" over the game's commercial performance.[85] The Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) presentedDiablo II with a "Gold" award after three weeks of availability,[86] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[87] It maintained first place for July and rose to "Platinum" status (200,000 sales) by the end of the month.[85][87][88] The game proceeded to place in Media Control's top 10 through October, peaking at #2 in August,[85] and in the top 30 through December.[89][90] By the end of 2000, roughly 350,000 units had been sold in the German market.[85]Diablo II continued to chart in January 2001, with a placement of 24th,[90] and itsLimited Edition debuted in second place for February.[91] That April, the VUD presented the game with a "Double-Platinum" certification, for 400,000 sales. This made it one of the region's best-selling computer games ever at that time.[92]
As of June 29, 2001,Diablo II has sold 4 million copies worldwide.[93] Copies ofDiablo: Battle Chest continue to be sold in retail stores, appearing on theNPD Group's top 10 PC games sales list as recently as 2010.[94] Even more remarkably, theDiablo: Battle Chest was the 19th best-selling PC game of 2008[95] – a full eight years after the game's initial release – and 11 million users still playedDiablo II andStarCraft over Battle.net in 2010.[96]
OrderDiablo 2 out 6/7/2000
This is statically recompiled Windows executable, that was recompiled to ARM and bundled with ARM version of wine.
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