Ten years ago, I brought home the game I'd been waiting years to own. Bought from a small, family owned games store, with a cool 7% discount, Diablo 2 still clocked in at nearly $90. The box folded out several times, showing beautiful images of the classes, towns and mobs I would soon have access to.
The install took far too long. Three CD's worth of content, and a manual that was nowhere near long enough to occupy me in the interim. Save for one poem that I can still vaguely remember.
I have walked the path; the shadowed roads that led to terror's breast. I have plumbed the depths of Hatred's womb and scaled Destruction's crest.
For every secret left unveiled, for every power learned. I'd sell the remmants of my soul, regardless how it burned. And still I sought a higher wisdom few could have attained. 'Though I found it, it would leave me - broken, dammed and drained.
For now I find this power gained is more unto a curse. My spirit burns with every spell and each irreverent verse. Despite this strength and knowledge earned, I have paid a heavy toll. Never should've traded power for my own immortal soul.
Eventually, it was ready. I clicked the play button, beneath the picture of the Amazon facing a Greater Mummy. The blizzard logo appeared, and I got the familiar shiver up my spine that always accompanies a new blizzard game.
The Barbarian was my first character, for one simple reason. I read a review in a computer magazine, and it had the line "...and a set of skills that would send a Diablo 1 warrior crying home to his mummy." I knew I had to play that. Soon I was hewing my way through legions of demons, retaking the rogue monastery, and hoping Charsi would give me some. Double axes where my weapon of choice, and they served me well.
I spent long hours playing my barbarian. At that time, I didn't know anyone else that owned the game, and I had no internet, so I did it all solo. I never even used the minions that I picked up along the way, because it cost too much to resurrect them when they died. After weeks of work I finally found Diablo in his temple, and he fell beneath the fury of my axes. (And three beltfuls of healing potions.)
Soon after I brought my computer to work one day, and "worked late". The instant everyone else had left, I logged on to battle.net for the first time. I joined a game at random, with two other players in it. Although they were a full act ahead of me, they both instantly offered to come back and help me through. The other barbarian in the game traded me some armour he'd found, that was significantly better than anything I'd ever seen. They put up with my stupid questions with good grace, and we spent an fun evening slaughtering monsters and taking their stuff.
My next character was a sorceress. Fire became my plaything, with a smattering of frost to help keep me alive. I had great fun dropping meteors and hydras on things, and kiting them around, back when I didn't even know what kiting meant. She became my highest level character, getting to level 42.
A short time later, some friends started to pick up the game. My best friend and I used to play it from friday night to sunday evening. Arguing who's character would beat who in a duel, and if the Fallen where in fact yelling "Rakanishu" or not.
Then a whole bunch of friends grabbed the game, and I was invited to a Diablo II lan party. Six or eight of us in the game, brand new characters. I chose the class that I played in almost every other game, the Paladin. I also remembered why I hadn't played him for very long previously. He ran like a prat.
I went to many Diablo lans over the next few years. Chaotic, loud, fast-moving gameplay, often lasting well into the next morning. I remember mentioning that you could chase the chickens around in the rogue encampment, and finding out that one of my friends didn't know this. He spent the next ten minutes running back and forth after chickens, just like a kid at the beach. By this time, I'd completed the game several times over, so there was not much new for me. But playing co-op with a group, or even just a single other person was enough to make the game interesting and exhilarating.
I've picked up the game at various intervals over the years. I found out the overpoweredness that was the Hammerdin, and played through as one. The latest playthrough was just last year, when I discovered that my girlfriend, despite being a gamer, had never played it. Trigger another playthrough, this time being able to see everything through a new players eyes. Everything is new and exciting, and small details that I glossed over were amazing to her.
How many of you died instantly to what came next?
Happy birthday, Diablo II. You've occupied uncountable hours of my life, and I begrude you none of them. You've given me some incredible experiences and great memories.
D3 better blow my mind...I'm hopeful that it will, as I don't think its nearly as hard to make a good Diablo game compared to a balanced and fun RTS.
Played D2 for years...good stuff
EDIT: Duriel in normal mode single player is such a fucking OP boss for sorcs...I always died like 40 times to him because you cant run away and he does so much fucking damage...gay
Yeah this is a game I've come back to so many many too again. Can't wait until they release diablo 3 I'm certain that it will live up to the hype now that starcraft 2 has had such great reception.
I also chose barbarian on my first playthrough and coincidentally I picked sorcreress second! Although I was frost.
fffffff im still semi addicted to d2 after all these yearS @___@ can never completely get rid of it even though its the most pointless thing ever to kill mephisto and pindleskin and whatever like 900000000000 times over and over again to get stupid items !!
the best part is no matter how long you go without it you can always just pick it up and play through normal with some friends with no twinking and it will still be fun all over again
also it's fun to try and use retarded skills; i've soloed a blaze/thunderstorm sorc all the way to act 5 hell
edit: the best part of blaze is that duriel is the easiest boss in the world to kill. just run around in circles till he dies!
Yeah, I remember playing this on a 200 MMX, it was a goddamn nightmare.
After LOD came out, I tried to do a Baal run on the same PC, but it would lag worse than Duriel, so that was pretty much my sole reason for getting an upgrade.
The first time I played D2 I ran into the Devil's Den right outside rouge camp and got raped by the mobs there, lol.
Good old memories. Now I just can't wait for D3. But, judging from Blizzard style and tradition, it would take at least 2 more years to get our hands on it
Diablo 2 still kicking major asss i played it once again this year it was well worth the procrastinating and the less time i spent studying.. i even got better grades.. hehe..
i still remember it clearly, i was so happy that my friend on a lan playing a lvl 47 barbarian helping me out a lvl 32 sorceress and then as we exited the desert city level i saw his skull tag. HOSTILE???? and he pwned me untill i lost interest in the game xd
my friends introduced me to this game a year ago. I chose sorceress and this was my first rpg like this. I had played pokemon, mario and zelda, but that was about it. So, this whole leveling thing was fun to learn. I ended up being called a swordsmaness because i used a sword for almost all of act 1 and didnt realize staffs help your spells. The best part though was the 2 portal system and me running ahead and either dying or bringing a million enemies back with me as i am dying. fun times
Saw this thread as I was starting to download Diablo2... I never played it but all the praise from TL is getting me pretty pumped. I'm going to see if I can get my friends back into it since it sounds like multiplayer is best. Even if it doesn't have the same magic that it might have had playing it for the first time 10 years ago, running through the game in anticipation of Diablo 3 should be fun enough.
On June 30 2010 15:34 c.Deadly wrote: Saw this thread as I was starting to download Diablo2... I never played it but all the praise from TL is getting me pretty pumped. I'm going to see if I can get my friends back into it since it sounds like multiplayer is best. Even if it doesn't have the same magic that it might have had playing it for the first time 10 years ago, running through the game in anticipation of Diablo 3 should be fun enough.
you could literally play and beat the game with the mouse alone. clickclickclicklcick ooh drop clicklicklclicklckliclkcklckliccklcklcklck
the story was kinda neat but the first diablo scared the shit out of me and i loved every bit of it. d2 was taking the horror rpg and making it fantasy for me =(
edit;
imagine this when you are 10 years old, alone in the dark playing computer games for the first time.AND these graphics are the top of the line for the time.
some scary shit, the room of bodies at the end haunts me to this day (lolololol)
I actually learned this language on USEast, trading stuff on D2 ^^. My English would be even more broken without it.
Diablo 2 for me was more of a trading game. I'd log in to get "richer" and then people thought I was cool because I would go around wearing Tyrael's Might when it sold on ebay for $100.
I was a cool kid back in the day. I remember crying because of it too.
Yeah, the first one was a fair bit darker than this one. But there are some fairly gory scenes. The Durance of Hate and the slaughtered harem girls were pretty strong. I got the same feeling as the butcher from that fallen angel Tyrial sends you to fight, and from Radament.
Dear Diablo II, i have always prefered your father. I think that you are a mediocre game and and i don't like you but you are highly addictive. Happy birthday.
hehe. D2 and I had a strained relationship. I was around 10 or so at the time, and my brother had played it a bit. I had watched how he could level up and get new spells. So I started playing, and for some reason, the necromancer reached out to me. The cinematic of the army of skeletons attacking the tavern was just soo cool, that I had to control that power.
So I put my first point into raise skeleton, and not too long later, I had a sizeable army of (extremely weak) skeletons, and I was still whacking fallen in Act I. And then for some reason, my mother happened to see what was going on in the screen; the Fallen die with a semi circular arc of blood spraying out of their mouths, and special monsters exploding into piles of blood. My mother soon decided this game was too bloodthirsty for a impressionable young child as myself, and banned me from playing it.
But this only made me want to play even more. So on saturday mornings, when everyone was out of the house, I would sneak onto my computer and start up D2. Since I was starting anew, I decided to start a new character, so I started a sorc. With this new more powerful character, I was finally able to reach Act 2!! (the skeletons were REALLY horrible back in the day hahaha) Oh how I remember the bright and exciting landscapes of Lut Gholein; the Jewel in the Desert.. However, with every slight noise or hint of my parents returning, I would have to exit the game just of sheer nerves. For that reason, I never got that much playtime, leading to the demise of my sorc at around lvl 20, never to be played again.
Of course several years later, I was finally allowed to play, as I was now older. However, this time, I had the power of the internet, and I logged onto B.net, much like many of you, and walked down that wondrous path of Online play.
On June 30 2010 15:42 Destro wrote: I dont understand all the D2 love here..
you could literally play and beat the game with the mouse alone. clickclickclicklcick ooh drop clicklicklclicklckliclkcklckliccklcklcklck
the story was kinda neat but the first diablo scared the shit out of me and i loved every bit of it. d2 was taking the horror rpg and making it fantasy for me =(
edit;
imagine this when you are 10 years old, alone in the dark playing computer games for the first time.AND these graphics are the top of the line for the time.
there was a brief period of time over summer vacancies last year where i wanted catch up on d2 bnet play (only played single back in the day) and i NERDED THE SHIT OUT OF IT. holy crap. it was like a certain time in wow classic when i went two days without sleep just because the game was able to keep me awake 24/2.
i had this incredibly well equipped mf sorc after like three weeks of getting the hang of the game with trading, efficient boss runs etc. and then i suddenly stopped playing because i was simply oversaturated.
maybe i'll start again some time before d3 is released to compensate my hype
Great game - great play, awesome music, spectacular gfx. I especially enjoyed the different settings of each act - wasteland, desert, jungle, hell, snowlands... each forming an unforgettable atmosphere. Although not too "balanced" in terms of characters and skill choices, but it didn't matter at all.
fuuu. yup, got owned by that game a few times. losing a few 90+ hardcore characters to drops or script PKers was enough to get me off it though. I never liked 1.10+ much, so I got mostly out of it after that.
hehe yeah, I finished Diablo 1 ages ago and it was awesome, but after getting used to the walking speed on 2, I just cant go back no matter how many times I try. Some friends and I teamed up a few months back to finally finish Diablo 2 on all difficulties and it was a awesome time, we had some good laughs and ragefests. Imagine this, you are in the worldstone keep on hell, pinned down from one side by a bunch of gloams trying to 1 shot you offscreen, the whole party is fighting like mad just to move up a few meters, its slow but its going, then suddenly we notice one of our sorces is missing, where the hell is he, at that moment someone up ahead lures some more gloams and we are forced to retreat, just to have that missing sorcer show up from behind luring 20 more monsters right into our escape path because he went exploring on his own, the whole party gets slaughtered, good times are had by all. Amazing game.
D2 is great in that I can still go back to it once a year for a couple days and enjoy a runthrough with a build I've never played. Strangely enough, I've had more fun with the game over the years in single player than elsewhere. The single player community was (is) really active, too.
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