Rating: 
Summary: A nice multiplayer experience, but no BG2
Review: I'm pretty sure that Diablo 2 fans won't like me for what i'm about to say..... but still read the review all through.I've played Baldurs Gate, BG2, Planescape Torment, Fallout, Fallout 2, the games from Black Isle... they've all excelled in this CRPG game genre. Finally someone makes a new one, Diablo (which i didn't play) and then Diablo 2, and although Diablo has qualities that e.g. Baldurs Gate 2 doesn't have.. it's still a pretty lousy game (compared to BG2 and Icewind Dale that is) I do on the other hand like the graphics, they're a bit smoother than the ones in BG2 and the character you play in Diablo is much more handling than the ones in BG2 .... much more versatile. THAT IS that you can fight off some heavy monsters with your mage, thats something a wizard in BG2/Icewind Dale could never hope to achieve. (without magic of course) I also like that the multiplayer feat. is much more versatile and you can join those channels or servers and select from multiple games which to my knowledge is not available in any of the games i'm comparing Diablo 2 with. Diablo still requires the depth of the black isle games, and although it's nice to get those new features you haven't seen in the Black Isle games, Diablo 2 failes to provide the same gameplay experience, fails to provide me with equal fun as BG2 gave me, of course i realize that people may have different opinions but i'm pretty sure most CRPG/RPG veterans will agree with me on most of this. However for the ingenuity and well balanced gameplay aswell as nice graphics especially in the cutscenes i give the game 3 stars
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't beat the original...
Review: Diablo 2 sounded like a great improvement on the original Diablo. The characters are a lot more individual, with each change of armour or weapon making you look different. That is something that Diablo and Hellfire could definetly have done with. But- there are a lot of things Diablo 2 could have done without. First, you can's save your game. This is supposed to make it more exciting. It just makes it boring as the monsters continously come back to life. Goodbye to the satisfaction of clearing out a level. There is also a lot more equipment to get in Diablo 2, a you find a lot more stuff on creatures. it's a lot more complicated to get started with, and not half as addictive as Diablo and Hellfire. Simply, the original was better. They should have carried the main core of the game into Diablo 2, with new levels. It's so much more exciting when you know already what a brillant AC is etc. I'm still playing Diablo and Hellfire. I'm a long way away from giving them up for Diablo 2.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious
Review: Playing Diablo II is like reading a tedious novel with a magically cursed bookmark. When Blizzard tackled the computer role-playing game genre with their original Diablo, they focused on combat and perfected it to a degree of high art. Diablo's combat was fun and challenging. They haven't really changed the formula for Diablo II, and that's part of what makes the game so tedious. For a sequel, you'd expect more: more story, more options to completing quests, more ... role-playing! Instead, it's all combat, all over again. Moreover, the combat in Diablo II isn't as challenging as it was before. The baddies aren't as bad. Exploring the new character classes is interesting, and there are definitely different strategies you need to employ to be an effective fighter with the barbarian over the sorceress, for example. The skill system gives you greater options for carnage. But all of the skills and all of the the character attributes contribute nothing except your ability to fight fight fight. And the new quests, which are either kill X or retrieve Y, involve having to wade through thousands of minions on your way to X or Y. It's dull. Though the game is overall tedious, Blizzard has done some things well that other game houses would do well to emulate. The cinematic scenes between acts are top-notch: the computerized special effects and facial expressions are some of the best I've seen. And in most computer role-playing games, moving from one area to another involves staring at a "Loading..." screen for excrutiatingly long times. In Diablo II, there's zero---ZERO---delay! (The only "Loading" messages are between major map areas, and those are quite brief.) Good job, Blizzard! Unfortunately, the in-play graphics haven't really improved much over the original. Sure, the amazon's butt cheeks show up pretty well, but it's a fairly low resolution game. So, what did I mean by a "cursed bookmark"? Imagine if each time you put down a novel and picked it up later, your bookmark moved back by 50 to a 100 pages ... that's the Diablo II experience. You see, there's a bug in saving games. When you resume your saved game, you don't appear where you were. You start out back in the town. All of the items left around aren't where they were, either. And all of the baddies you killed ... they're back! The tedium of having to kill them on your way to finishing a quest is doubled because you have to do it all over again, every time you save your game. There's an old adage in software engineering that says if you document your bugs, they become features. How saving games works in Dialbo II is indeed documented in the manual. But this "feature" is a lamentable excuse for what so many other games---including the original Diablo---got right. Maybe Diablo III will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Great Sequel... a few misses...
Review: First, let me tell you what I like in a RPG computer game. I like a game that takes very little time to get going. I like games that follow the premise of AD&D, but not the exact structure. I prefer hack-n-slash to complicated spellslinging and it has to have growth in experience and items/armor. So how did Diablo II do? Very well. It lets me be the hack-n-slash monster that I want to be. I found that as I moved up in experience, I was able to incorporate the appropriate upgrade in weapons and armor. The monsters were tougher overall, the gameplay has improved and the sound and graphics are awesome. Also, the emphasis on gold is gone. There's plenty of it and you're able to sell tons of items, so you won't starve from lack of funds. But... You can't save you're game and return to that exact point. They claim they wanted add an element of dread to the game and not allow you to keep saving/returning until you defeated whatever you were up against. Good idea, bad implementation. It basically means that even if you just want to quit playing for the night, you will have to start over on that chapter and re-fight the same monsters again to get to the same point. But its not a show stopper, just incredibly inconvenient. Also, the game is just too linear for my tastes. I liked Diablo I where you had quests but you basically were there to clear out all the dungeon nasties at the same time. But again, its such a great game that I got over it. Bottom line: If you like the first Diablo, you'll like the second. If you like RPG's in general you'll like it. If you like more of a strategy game, you will not.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Game
Review: Diablo 2 is a great improvement on the original Diablo. There is a great depth to the game that much improves on the original storyline of Diablo. There are now four fully populated cities with at least six characters in each who you can trade with and get advice from. Each of the cities has their own problem that you have to solve. You solve the problems by completing the quests given to you by the characters. There is an almost unlimited supply of weapons and armor you get. There are unique and magical items that you can only find once in the game. There is a slight improvement in graphics from the original Diablo. There a five video clips in the game- one before each act and one at the end- which are pretty good but take up allot of hard drive space. A full install of the game will take a little over 1.5 gigs of hard drive.
Rating: 
Summary: Most addictive and great on Battle.net
Review: Ok, so it does lag a lot if you have 56k. But otherwise, it's great multipyaer action! The interface is easy to use and the game itself is one hell of a ride.
Rating:
Summary: Boring as crap
Review: One thing that bothers me about this game is it gets really boring, really fast. It takes relatively no time to finish the game, and within a few days you've already played through all 5 classes. I tried playing multiplayer with my roomate, and it still is boring really fast, not to mention how laggy it was. I was personally astounded at the price it was listed for at home, 60 bucks. That's way more than I wanna pay for a game, especially one that loses my interest so quickly. If you're borrowing this game, then I would suggest playing it until you get bored with it, otherwise, don't waste the money.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Game... I think...
Review: Blizzard has done it again. They have created another ADDICTIVE game for gamers all over the world to drool over. ADDICTIVE pretty much sums up the gameplay for Diablo II, one of the hottest RPG's on the market. Why is it so ADDICTIVE? Simple. While playing, you constantly strive for the next achievement. "I'm just gonna play until I activate the waypoint for the Dark Woods... Well, while I'm here I mine as well try and level my character up... If I can just get 1000 more pieces of gold, I can buy that nifty shield... You get the idea. Blizzard has improved on many of the problems people had with the original Diablo. First off, they have improved the overworld so that it includes more than 1 town... It now has four, and each town is surrounded by MASSIVE amounts of places to explore. The dungeons are no longer piled on top of eachother. Instead, they are spread out over the huge land. The inventory system has been improved, but is still a pain. You now have a chest in town that will hold some of your junk, thus doubling your inventory. However, the junk in there cannot be accessed while in battle. Therefore, pack as much junk as you can on your back. Quests are now NOT random (thank God). What this means is that everyone gets the same quests. You still don't have to complete ALL of them, but trust me... you should. What has Blizzard not improved? Well, for one thing, the gameplay is as repetitive as ever. Click Click Click Click Click Click... It never ends! You wade through monster after monster after monster after monster after monster... see how annoying it can be? Nevertheless, the game has taken leaps and bounds, and the good outweighs the bad. If you even remotely enjoyed Diablo, I guarantee that you will like Diablo II.
Rating:
Summary: This is a good game
Review: I have been playing this game for about a month now. It only took a week or so to beat it, but since then I have re-started it countless times trying to revise the way I evolve my character. Although I think this is a great game and worth the price, I feel there is something missing to the story line. The episodes that you get to watch as you progress through the game are done extremely well, and I have watch them several times in awe of their attention to detail. But besides the episodes there was no story line to follow or maybe it was just assumed (did not develop along the way). But that didn't stop the fun, and the internal desire to figure out how to evolve the greatest charter and try out all their abilities, with limitless possibilities (I'm gonna be awhile). Which has caused me to lose a lot of sleep and start this game over and over. It's a good thing I don't have a life, :).
Rating:
Summary: I love this game!
Review: I have had this game for almost 2 years, and I have played it almost every day since then.
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