|
      |
          |
|
DIABLO 2: EXPANSION - LORD OF DESTRUCTION By WILL BARKER "And, stricken -- twas nought chance the Great Bard could be saved... Adieu, mon frere..." Indeed, there was a bit of a scene at the 7-11 store when my good pal William Shakespeare dropped like a sack of potatoes into an extra large raspberry and licorice slurpee. The effect was rather distressing. After the paramedic arrived, we used the Great Bard's body as a makeshift couch and completely forgot about the world's greatest playwright's dying words. Instead we had more pressing matters to attend, though things got a bit smelly after a few hours gametime... The expansion to Diablo 2 was loaded up on my laptop - the one thing Shakespeare couldn't obtain before dying. Poetic justice at it's finest! I never did like his insultingly bitter humour anyway... And what's with that neolithic haircut? But the Bard did see something of significance in his death throes - Baal. While Diablo was finally defeated in Diablo 2, Baal continues the dark crusade to unlock the doors to hell itself. The Lord of Destruction has managed to reclaim the soulstone from the weak-willed Marius and is now heading for Mount Arreat where the the Worldstone resides - the one item Baal needs to initiate an unholy armageddon.
Speaking of which, let's start with the new items. There are now a whole slew of character specific items, like the spiked toilet-brush +2. On top of this there are now elite items, which are better than all the unique and exceptional items, of which there are new variants, too. There are new item sets, weapons, armour, rings and so on. Plus, now you can socket magical weapons, which includes all of the above super-specials. Your stash is now bigger and, for the slow, this means you can store more. You can now equip two different weapons combinations, which is quite handy. For instance, you may be shooting icy arrows at a bunch of swamp-dwellers when all of sudden they're outnumbering and surrounding you. In this case, you just cast molten boulder and watch them bleed to death. Mua... muahahah! Oh, wrong train of thought... Blizzard saw fit to include two new characters, the Assassin, who is crap and comes with sucky specials, and the Druid who rocks the house with a plethora of well-thought out skills. Granted, the Assassin does have a few neat tricks up her bloomers, like her nasty shadow discipline finishing moves and all her cosmic judo kicks. However, her trap spells suck and, while the desciptions tout them as uber-powerful, they're actually about as helpful as a punch in the face on a cold, windy day.
The Druid is also friends with animals, like Dr. Doolittle. He can summon crows, wolves, bears and even deadly creeper vines that suck the lifeforce from unsuspecting souls, arr-arrr! Other new features comprise the inclusion of jewels, which can be socketed, only they imbue more powers than gems, like faster run/walk, +20 attack rating, 2-5 fire damage, for instance. Runes act the same way as jewels, in that you can socket them into armour and weapons and they have more properties than the lowly gems. Moreover, if you insert matching runes, they will give you even more power. Charms are also new to the expansion and they only have be kept in your inventory for you to gain bonuses. Not bad, eh? But wait, there's more! Now hirelings (the people you hire i.e. rogues) are much more important. Why? Because they also go up in levels, can be equipped by the player and can even be resurrected. For example, when first starting out in the expansion, after choosing the Druid, I equipped my rogue with a bow of poison. How could I afford this at the start of the game with no money? I lied, but the example was okay, right?
If you start a new adventure you'll have to play through the entire game, then beat Diablo, to access the new levels. However, if you got a pre-saved character whose beaten Diablo you can just import them to the expansion. The new level contains six new quests and a bunch of new monsters and end bosses. The difficulty has obviously been ramped up, but this is a good thing for gun players like me who find it hard to lose (he loses at connect four - Ed). One of the biggest criticisms leveled at Blizzard were the graphics, or lack thereof. They're nice, but very dated and there was a public outcry for an increased screen resolution. 640x480 is so 1995... Now you can jack up the rez to 800x600 and while it may sound like a small increase, it makes a world of difference to the game. The new spell effects, especially the Druid's armageddon and tornado, add much-needed eye-candy to the 2D-based game as well. At the end of the day, this expansion makes Diablo 2 a more complete game. Realistically, the lazy programmers at Blizzard should have put these features into the original, seeing as it only took four years to make. But releasing them now, with two new characters and the huge act five, is a boon to all gamers. If you've got Diablo 2, you should think long and hard about picking this up. It's the icing+2 on a very tasty cake.
ORIGINALITY 70%
|
"Nay, cannot be -- my last breath cometh *cough*. What about the
Lord of Destruction? Thou canst stop the walking dead.... *cough* To believe
so is folly....
The expansion
pack to Diablo 2 arrived with very little fanfare, but I'm laying my cards
on the table right now - this game is infinitely better than the original.
While that's not to say Diablo 2 was a bad game, it's just that the original
game, when compared to the expansion, pales somewhat.
The Druid worships
Mother Nature and, as such, can use the elements to his advantage. He
can cast fire, ice and wind spells, such as molten boulder, tornado and
ice blast. He is adept in the arcane arts of lycanthropy,
too. This enables him
to transform into a wolf and, later on, a bear. 
As far as the
new environments are concerned, be prepared to be awed by the snowy highlands.
But more than that, it's devilishly difficult, so you'd best pack ye olde
shotgun of redemp-shun. 
