Editorial: Inside Diablo II

If you received one of the 100,000 e-mails from Blizzard stating that you were accepted to participate in the Diablo II Stress Test, hopefully you are playing it to the fullest, as it will only be playable for a few weeks. Blizzard has successfully delivered 75,000 e-mails, and plans to release the last batch sometime next week. The remaining quarter is targeted towards testers in Asia, Europe, and Africa.

The overall feel of Diablo II is rather repetitive. Many aspects, such as sounds and movement, in the game have not changed whatsoever since its prequel. This however, is not entirely a bad thing, since Diablo I was a great success for its online playability and startling eeriness.

As I waited patiently for Diablo II's East and West servers to come back up, I chatted in Battle.net's Stress Test room and overheard mixed feelings about Diablo's sequel. Many complained about the lack of server stability, while others attempted to explain why it was down so often. DiabloII.com has assured testers that the ups and downs of the servers are normal, and are a result of Blizzard updating code and synching player's statistics.

I was contacted by Blizzard on the 26th of May, with download locations as well as my unique CD key. After the quick 100MB download, I promptly installed the game without a hitch. When I first ran the game a video test occurred, which detected my Direct3D and 3DFX compatibility. After the test I was greeted by some scary church-ish sounding music and a fire-filled title screen. After I clicked the 'Battle.net' button, set up my account/character, and finally logged into the chat room, I was raring to kick some demon...pixels.

One of the things I liked about Diablo II's version of the Battle.net chatting was how each character stands in the bottom section of the window, clad in their currently equipped items, just as they would in the actual game. It gives a sort of 'town meeting' feel to it.

I clicked the 'Join' button, selected a random game that was in session, and watched the load screen appear and disappear within about ten seconds. The screen looked all too familiar with my barbarian character being the only distinguishable difference between Diablo II and it's prequel. There was one big difference however...the graphics.

The new Direct3D graphics in Diablo II are phenomenal. The lighting is superb, and the crisp looking characters and houses really give the game a unique feel. Another addition is the rain effects. In the town I started in a quick flash and streaked lines flying across the screen told me that something was different. This greatly added to the eeriness of the game.

After I exchanged messages with some of the players in the game I was in, I began to roam around and see what was new. Many helpful features have been implemented this time around such as running capabilities, rejuvenation sanctuaries, Gems, which add to your weapon or armor's abilities, and much more.

I was told that the textures have been degraded for the test to lower the file's size, and the huge area that we are allowed to roam around in is only 2% of the complete world. This is amazing. Every time a new game starts, the world is different, thus creating a new and exciting adventure each time. If what I explored was only 2% of the game, it will take a very long time to run around the Diablo II universe in the full version.

No game is perfect however, as there are also some problems with the test. One setback is the server's stability. Blizzard announced that server down-time was routine, and should not be considered seriously, as many causes of disconnection are intentional. However, I quickly learned that the East and West servers go down rather frequently. Every 30 minutes to be more exact. Many times when I would start exploring the deeper parts of the Diablo II world, enemies would stop responding to attacks. A quick press of the Escape key, and a selection of the 'Save and Exit Game' option preserved my character's stats. Since this problem won't surface when the full Diablo II is released, don't consider it when deciding weather or not to obtain a copy.

The second flaw, which may or may not be fixed before the final release is the game's artificial intelligence. It is slacking rather harshly. It reminds me much of Quake I's enemies, how they would simply run at you and not put up much of a fight. In Diablo II, many enemies won't attack until you come within one or two [Diablo] feet of them. Perhaps this is only with enemies at the beginning of the game to ease the chances of beginning players surviving. The final version will answer this question.

The estimated release date of Diablo II is sometime in July, with the stress test period lasting a few weeks. I strongly recommend you try it out if you received a confirmation e-mail.