Diablo II - Battle Chest

Well, there are some people out there who haven't yet played one or any of the games in Westwood's landmark Diablo series. Westwood was kind enough to send us a boxed version of their Diablo Battle Chest, and we will tell you if it's worth your cash.

While the inclusion of Diablo II will surely be a big selling factor, it's definitely in your best interest to play the game that started it all, Diablo. Still a wonderful example of Westwood's dream of hack-and-slash adventure mixed with RPG, Diablo offers a quest into the deepest of dungeons to eradicate the lord of terror himself. Placed in the torn village of Tristram, you must use choose from three playable classes (Warrior, Rogue or Sorcerer) to begin your quest. Choose from all types of quests and all types of enemies to keep you entertained. In an unusual change for a RPG, Diablo only gives you one town and one deep dungeon. The dungeon is randomly generated in each game so you can play it multiple times and it won't be the same.

And in what became a hallmark of the Diablo series, Diablo gives RPGers more items, armor and weapons than you can dream of. So much of these things, in fact, that you will rarely see two of the same players. It also uses TCP/IP, LAN and Battle.net to allow multi-player games, something commonplace now but not at the time of its launch. The graphics are obviously dated compared to its sequel and other games available now, but shouldn't turn you off from playing it.

It's difficult not to do a full blow-out review for Diablo, but I realize that this is a Battle Chest. It would pointless for me to replay these games considering the immense amount of time I have spent with them all. The return to Tristram (and finally other lands) in Diablo II is a little more recent; therefore, it already has received a lengthy review. Still, it might be good to rehash on what Diablo II did to best its predecessor.

At first glace, many might say that Diablo II isn't a huge leap in visual presentation over the original. After playing for more than ten minutes, that theory goes out the window. The level of detail given to the sequel is far better than the original. The options to change resolution and give hardware acceleration proves to give much better, and smoother, gameplay while keeping the isometric view intact.

In addition to the visual changes, Diablo II also enhances everything from the control to the sound to the multi-player to the scope of the game. When coupled with the amazing expansion pack, which once again received a lengthy review, the Diablo II journey will take you quite some time to complete, and the amazing multi-player mode gives an infinite amount of replayablity.

Outside of the two games and the expansion, the battle chest offers the updated versions of all the titles, as well as a full strategy guide to Diablo II (expansion included). The original game expansion, titled Hellfire, isn't in the chest and the original strategy guide is also not included. This surely detracts from the value as the entire Diablo collection isn't here. Still, if you're a gamer that doesn't have any of these titles, and you're looking for a great way to spend a portion of the new year, look no further. The Diablo II: Battle Chest is a worthy purchase for any true gamer.
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