Throwback Thursday - Diablo II

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday, our weekly look into my Top 100 games and general nostalgia.  While my blog is rated E for everyone's safe and enjoyable viewing, I should mention this week's throwback is rated M for Mature.  Parental discretion is advised for playing this game.

Speaking of which, this week's pick: The hack and slash, role-playing, rogue-like loot game that is Diablo II.

Released in the US on June 29th, 2000, Diablo II is considered by many fans to be the best in its series.  Back in the day, up to eight players could rally together to gather loot and crusade against demons and bovine alike (more on that later).  With the expansion, players could choose from seven different character classes, each with their own benefits, weaknesses, and skills: The Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, Paladin, Druid, and Assassin.  As players would level up these characters, they would then choose skills to level up from their skill tree.  These were important decisions to make though, as every selection would end up being permanently assigned to that character.  While that may seem stressful, I believe it forged a more personal attachment to your characters as each character selected and leveled up in this way would end up being unique.



Aside from your class and skills, the other way to build a unique and powerful character was from the loot that you'd collect while exploring dungeons and killing legendary minions.  Quick note: Loot refers to weapons, armor, accessories, and more that you collect in the game and equip to your hero or use for crafting.  All weapons, armor, and accessories come with a great variety of stats (attack, defense, durability, etc.) as well as effects (bonus damage, elemental damage, recovery boosts, enhanced skills, etc.).  There are also different rarities of items (normal, magical, rare, unique, and sets), each being color coded for quick identification and excitement when such is seen dropped on the battlefield.  That suspense is heightened as players must typically use scrolls of identity to discover what the rare item happens to be.  Like ripping off the wrapping paper of a tantalizing gift, this loot mechanic makes for an addicting game hook and motivating factor for playing the game on repeatedly on harder difficulties for rarer items.

Cool characters with decked out gear would be nothing without an interesting world to explore.  Fortunately, Diablo II offers a compelling narrative along with varied landscapes and dungeons, all of which are randomly generated, offering added reasons for multiple play-through.  Not only are the worlds randomly generated, but you'll often encounter random special minions, complete with special names and unique abilities of their own.  It was just another fun element that helped personalize this world and made each adventure a more unique story to be shared among friends.

Beware Coldworm the Burrower!

To wrap this up, this game also features one of the best Easter Eggs known to video games.  Back during the original Diablo, there were rumors about cows that appear in the game.  While this rumor turned out to be fake, it became a running joke in Blizzard's other games and news leading up to Diablo II.  So it was quite the bizarre treat to discover there is a secret cow level in Diablo II if players were to craft two specific items in the Horadric Cube in Act I.  In this level, players then face an onslaught of standing cows, all murderously mooing and attacking the players.  The results is pure hilarity and horror.

There is no cow level.

Bonus Content: Enjoy the melodic and creepy ambiance that is this game, composed by Matt Uelmen.