Epic

Firstly I must say that I have not played the first Diablo so I cannot comment on how this game compares. However, I do know that Diablo II and its expansion, Lord of Destruction, are absolutely incredible. I have been playing games for as long as I can remember and if I had to choose my favorite game ever, I would have to pick Diablo II. The battlechest is easily worth the extra ten bucks because you get the expansion to Diablo II and you get the guide. They even throw in the original, but like I said I never played it.

Diablo II is an action RPG, which means you run around killing monsters in real time and then you can upgrade your character's stats and skills. The storyline is not very prevalent, but essentially Diablo has possessed a person and is trying to free his brothers, Mephisto and Baal. You, of course, are attempting to stop him and all of the evil he is spreading throughout the lands.

Gameplay-wise Diablo II is relatively simplistic, but very fun regardless. To fight you simply have to click on a monster and your character automatically attacks. However, the game is a lot more complex than that. There are skills, which are magical spells and such that provide different attack methods. You have to manage your health between fighting and taking potions, but you also have to manage your mana so you can use skills when you need to. While killing monsters you are trying to gain both experience, in order to level up and gain more stats and skills, and loot. Loot is what enemies drop when they die and can be anything from weapons to armor to potions to gold. The RPG element is very rich. You collect different pieces of inventory to wear which include weapon, armor, gloves, boots, belt, rings, amulet, and helmet. These do not only change your stats, but they also change your appearance.

The replayability this game possesses is immense. This is because the game can take a long time to beat and once you do you move onto the next difficulty which is increasingly harder. Also, you can start the game over with a different character providing a vastly different experience. The characters include: barbarian, necromancer, amazon, sorceress, paladin, druid(expansion only), and assassin(expansion only). These characters all play completely differently as you will rely on their completely unique skill sets.

The multiplayer is just like the singleplayer except you can play through the game with up to seven other friends. This mode is very fun to play with a friend especially if you pick different classes that compliment each other well.

In conclusion, if you are a fan of Diablo or of RPGs in general, I strongly suggest this game to you. I played for three years and with the announcement of Diablo 3 I am starting to play again with my friend over battle.net. Simply put, there is no other game out there like Diablo II.