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Diablo II: The "Battle Chest"
Click picture to order
the "Battle Kit" ( Mac
version)
The short summary of this review is: Diablo
Battle Chest = original Diablo 2 game, plus expansion pack,
in one box. That's for the people who know what sort of cool game I'm
talking about. For those who don't: read on. This is by far and wide the
best RPG game to get for Macintosh. It may have its share of flaws, yet none
which degrade its play value. This is a must-have.
 For
one thing, the most important attribute of any action game --enemy
AI-- is very impressive. Hordes of monsters don't merely attack
one by one; they often attack all at once! This can be annoying
when the swarm is being led by a "mini boss" character
that needs extra effort to defeat. However, battles like this have
"realism" galore, and that's the whole point, right? Well, okay,
not realism as in "there's no such thing as a killer mutant
pygmy," though you know what I mean. You play RPGs for tough battles
like some sort of interactive Lord
of the Rings; this game delivers. There's even Technicolor FX after defeating
the bigger bosses, as if their evil magic is fading away forevermore (free a dungeon of its villainous master, and
rays of light shine through the roof; cool!).
It's weaponry (and skills) where D2 shines. "Socketed"
weapons and armor have holes for magic jewels you find along
the way, allowing you to make your own magic items, from scratch!
A three-socketed sword can be enhanced with fire damage, lighting
damage, and mana drain all at once, as long as you have the appropriate
gems. If you only have one gem, just put it in the sword, and
save the remaining sockets for later. Sure, you can only use
a gem once; put it in a sword/helm/shield, and it's there to
stay. Don't worry; you'll find more!
As for
skills, the game offers a "skill tree." This is different
for each character class, and branches out (quite literally)
depending on your own skill choices in the game. Whenever your
character goes up a level, they get 5 points to add to basic
stats, and they get one additional point, for learning a new
skill. Possible skills for an Amazon female, for example, range from
improving your javelin throw, making magic arrows, or even a
few "passive" skills (dodging an attack,
for example). There are way too many skills to learn in any one
game, making replay value even better; it's inevitable that gamers
will want to replay the game enough to get as many skills as
they want to try out, leading to different game strategies and
different possibilities each time you play.
It isn't being anti-diabloan, so to speak, to
admit that the game series still has its flaws. For one, there's
still one, single, stupid, solitary save game. On the one hand,
you can create multiple characters, and keep those characters separately
with their own save games. On the other hand, each
character has only one save game. This makes backtracking to your favorite
story moments difficult, if not impossible. To make matters worse, enemies
replicate no matter how far you've gone in that game save. This
can be annoying, if you went halfway through the insufferably
endless "marsh" of Act III, and have to start from
scratch. This is even more disturbing, when this means you have
to fight hundreds of the worst game characters of the game, all
over again: tiny, annoying savages that resemble Ewoks with rabies.
Sure, there are "warp points" that allow you to go
to major areas of a level, right away, though with revived enemies, this
is a very small comfort.
As for the plotline, I'm getting a little tired of so many
stories of the "firey red demon who must be defeated before
Earth is doomed." Sure, it's amusing that Diablo now has
two best buddies, each with a gem stuck in their head (no wonder
they're so annoyed). The game story gets better, however. It's
particularly intriguing when you meet up with an archangel ally, showing
(finally) that there is some good in this game's world after all. Adding to
the fun factor of this "Battle Pack" is the fact it includes the
mission add-on pack, "lord of destruction." The original game was
open-ended only to leave gamers with a sort of "too be continued in the
mission pack coming soon" feeling. This includes the mission pack in
one box. It also means the game is even longer than ever before, if played
from the very beginning.
The truth is, "single save game"
notwithstanding this is by far one of the best RPGs to buy for any
Macintosh-er. There's a slew of diverse,
randomized dungeons, to make the game last
for quite some time on your hard drive. However, you have no
idea how hard it was to not give a lower rating. If
there is to be a Diablo 3, give us a better save game
option, please...and no respawning enemies!!! Not that this game isn't
pretty flawless. It just could be even more so. You
know what I mean.
---Techtite
Click
picture to order the "Battle Kit" (Mac
version)
| All text, Title
graphics, and pix not of reviewed product, are created by Techtite,
copyright 1999-2002; all rights reserved. Screen captures of program
reviewed are discrete thumbnails, used only for the purpose of
review, and by no means represent any affiliation with Techtite and the distributors of that product. For further "legalese"
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