Customer Reviews

Diablo 2 Expansion: Lord of Destruction

5 star:		(189)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Many people complain about the high price of the Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (LOD) Expansion set. To do so, I think, is to miss the point. You buy the game to play it, and its playability is what matters. People tend to think that an "expansion" merely adds a "10% more" to a game - but the fact is, LOD adds so much to the original game that you will probably never look back.


Why would you give up a doubled stash? The 800x600 resolution pestered for way back in 2000 when D2 Classic was released? Instant switching between two sets of weapon/shield? New class-specific items, new uniques, greatly improved set items (gain bonuses as you collect each item, instead of having to complete them), elite items, runes (and runeword items), crafted items (i.e. make your own rares)? Two new classes (a druid who can summon creatures, cast elemental spells and shapeshift; an assassin who practises martial arts, lays traps and hones shadow disciplines), and an entire new act set in a wintry landscape (bunnies included)? Afraid to play alone? Don't worry, now your hirelings survive more than their first hit, and can be equiped with weapons and armour - they can even teleport when you walk too far! And some even have paladin auras! And they can be resurrected!


How about little little details like: you can now reset the gambling screen at will; gambling prices scale with your level; a repair-all-equiped items button; blue items now get the most powerful prefixes/suffixes, giving them renewed value; click an item on the Horadric Cube to place it inside (you have to do it to realise the convenience); Act 2 Desert Warrior hirelings cast paladin auras; Act 5 Barbarian hirelings use Stun and Bash; town NPCs now sell more items; Act-end bosses can now be repeatedly killed for chance to find top items (in D2 Classic, great stuff only drops once); you can walk through your hirelings/minions (no more traffic jams in the Maggot Lair)... and the list goes on.


Let's be honest though - everyone knows that the game code is not perfect; it has its bugs. Few games (especially of this scale) can claim to be bug-free. But despite this, the game is totally playable. I myself have not stopped playing D2 since June 30, 2000. The important thing to savour is the fact that the developers, Blizzard, are keen on resolving technical problems and gamneplay issues: think about it - Blizzard has released NINE patches to date. This may seem to suggest that the game is wrought full of bugs, but change your perspective - what it ultimately says is that its developer is conscientious enough to keep working at it. How many software developers can claim this level of diligence?


Ultimately, the game is super-fun. As I suggested in my review of Diablo 2 (Classic), the game rewards all kinds of players, from the undiscerning clicker to the meticulous strategist - that is one of Blizzard's secret ingredients: allowing every style of player to find something that suits them in the game, and yet never fully satisfying them. I suppose that's why, after countless games, my wife is still trying to perfect her (deceptively simple?) mace-stunner barbarian...

As much as I loved and was addicted to Diablo 2, the graphics just weren't there. When you killed a boss and little red pixels splashed everywhere, it made the moment almost laughable. Diablo's programmers took the many comments about the graphics to heart, and they did a STELLAR job of revamping them in this expansion.

I would have easily bought the expansion for the graphic upgrade alone - that makes Diablo 2 almost like an entirely new game, worth playing through all over again. However, they didn't stop there. There are 2 new races - the druid and the assassin - both of which I *love*. The assassin has cool attack moves that are great fun to watch. The druid can either shapeshift, or summon creatures, or control the elements. I love all three, but the elemental attacks are GREAT! This has become my new favorite character.

There are new monsters to fight, an ENTIRE new act with great graphics, tons of new weapons, even new Cube recipes to play with. And, in a move that other game companies should pay attention to, you can now have TWO sets of weapons defined (i.e. bow and sword/shield for example) and easily toggle between them. I've been dying for that in every game I've played!

It is really like an entirely new game, with the added benefit that you don't have to learn new keystrokes. I *highly* encourage any Diablo 2 lover to grab this, and if you don't have either one yet, treat yourself and get them both!

Just a bit of good advice.

Let's get a few things out of the way. First of all, Diablo II is not an RPG. If you're looking for a game like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment or Fallout, look elsewhere. Diablo II is an excellent action game with RPG elements, and if what you're looking for is a hack-n-slash with varying levels of complexity, endless replay value and a huge internet following, this is the only game you'll need.

I've been beta testing the expansion, and to me the jump from Diablo II to D2X is similar to the jump from Diablo to Diablo II. This is a very good thing. The expansion totally refreshes the game, adding new items, new item types, new magical properties, two new character classes and an entirely new act.

This new act is about the length of Act 2, and I feel it is by far the most gripping and interesting act in the game. It picks up right after Act 4, and makes an excellent transition from Act 4 normal to Act 1 nightmare, or Act 4 nightmare to Act 1 hell. The areas are interesting, varied, beautifully drawn and populated by new and creative monsters. High quality items are dropped and experience is so high it's an ideal place to level up till you're ready for that jump to the next difficulty level.

With all the new magical properties and items, there are vast new equipment possibilities. You will now need to make decisions between certain properties including 'charges' of a class's skills usable by any class, self-replenishing throwing weapons, and armors that cast a spell when you're struck.

If you need a new cyber addiction, Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is the first and last game you'll need for a long time.

I lost most of last summer to Diablo II. I finished the game with every character class, kicked Diablo to Hell and back several times over and had a great time.

I didn't know what they could do to improve upon the game, and when I got a chance to play in the beta test, I figured it would be a little more story (wrapping up the cliffhanger ending of Diablo II), two more classes and that's it. Well, not quite.

Listed seperately, all the other changes to the game don't amount to much. Sure, it's neat to be able to swap between two weapons on the fly -- all of my characters now use bows in addition to up-close-and-personal weapons -- and the double stash size is also appreciated. I also really enjoy the no-longer-worthless hirelings, whom you can arm, take with you through the different acts and who gain experience as time goes on. But the cumulative effect of dozens and dozens of changes and improvements is to make the game feel signficantly more polished, challenges scale up appropriately (as opposed to the too-easy Nightmare and Hell modes in Diablo II classic) and the whole game experience much richer.

Sure, there's a fifth act, wherein the heroes chase after Baal through the barbarian highlands before he can tear down the wall that seperates Hell from the mortal realm. And it's got six new quests, the best yet in fact, and features NPC barbarians who fight with or without you against Baal's minions. For the first time, you're not walking into the aftermath of battle, but into an actual warzone.

And sure, there's two new classes, the shapechanging/animal summoning/elemental spell using Druid and the martial arts-using Assassin, both of whom are distinct from the five original classes and are more challenging and rewarding to play.

But it's the sum total of all these changes and additions that make Diablo II: Lord of Destruction a must-have for anyone who enjoyed the original. The beta period is ending this week and the final version comes out this Friday. I figure I'll be losing another summer to Diablo II ...

I absolutely love Diablo II and when I heard about it... I was thrilled. It's only going to be a few more weeks before it actually comes out. I was in awe about the new stuff that is going to be added.

2 new character classes, Druid and Assassin. Each with 30 new abilities and special weapons.

Some things that I saw were weapon tabs (for those of you who have played Baldur's Gate). They are quick weapon selection for easy weapon access for up to 4 weapons (2 on each hand) for the right time. Another thing that made my jaw drop was the doubled stash size and 10 times (somewhere around there) the amount of gold it can hold (the picture that I saw said 1250000).

Another thing that they have which is really useful is quest specific items. These are items only found by completing a quest and only on certain character class can use them:

Necromancer-Wands Barbarians-Axes Paladin-Shields Amazon-Bow and Spears Assassin-Dagger Sorseress-Staves Druid-Clubs (something like that)

They have also added jewels which are either magical or unique and do more then gems but do the same thing no matter what you insert them into.

Like sockets? Well now EVERYTHING (including armor and shields) can have up to SIX sockets! Thrown weapons however cannot have sockets.

Runes have come back from the world of Hellfire. Runes DO NOT act like traps as they did in Hellfire. Instead they insert into weapons as do jewel and gems. Ecept now they can turn an item unique. Runes have prefixes like Pul Rune. I saw a weapon that had a Jo, Ber, Pul, and an Es rune inserted. The weapon was an axe and its name was now JoBerPulEs. The name is derived from the prefix of the runes and will now encourage to insert in the right format.

There are many new weapons as the War Pike, Hydra Bow, Crown Shield and Fang Visor which gives 80 defense. An Amazon was using a War Pike which gave +1 to Passive and magic Skills and +1285 to attack rating!!! Spears can now give Amazons skills. There will also be orbs which act like Sorceress wands, they also give abilities to the sorceress much like staves.

There are thing called charms which you dont equip but just have in your inventory and they give you the special attributes that are described on them (horadric cube and stash dont count). Be warned that this might sound nice but most charms are 2-4 inventory spaces large.

There are also crafted items (name appears in orange) that you can only create thru the right items and the horadric cube. They are far more superior than any magic item. Also elite items come into play and are only available thru Hell diffuculty (Names appear in red I believe). elite Items are the most powerful items in the game.

In Act 5 you can hire Babarians. You will now be able to edit your mercenary's weapons/shield, helm and armor and revive them if they get killed. This applies to the Rouge (Act I mercenaries), Lut Gholein Spearmen (Act II mercenaries) and the Fighter-Mages (Act III mercenaries).

I can't wait till D2:LoD comes out!

I'm writing after having played Diablo II and Lord of Destruction on and off for a few years. I've bought several other games, including Baldur's Gate II, but Diablo II with LOD keeps pulling me back. It's probably the best combination of action and role playing (in the light sense of the term) ever created.

This expansion pack is essential. Don't buy Diablo II without it, because the technical improvements change the complexion of the entire game. The increased resolution -- 800x600 -- isn't simply cosmetic. It widens the field of ranged combat. And Act V, added in the expansion, is likely the best of the lot.

Why does Diablo II/LOD live perpetually on my hard drive?

First, while the graphics are no longer state of the art, the mood of the whole game just works. I'm not a graphic artist and can't tell you why. But this is a very immersive game. The first time I played through Act IV (Hell), I really felt like I had spent a few hours in the grim, volcanic wastes. The Flayer Dungeon in Act III still scares the cr@p out of me.

Next, DII/LOD is extremely easy to learn and takes a long time to master -- the mark of a good game. Replayability is fair to good, because each of the character classes requires different strategies. You'll never get the "right" skill mix the first time through as a sorcess, paladin, etc. It takes practice. If the fixed maps and quests don't add variety, the character development makes up for it nicely.

Finally, while the role-playing aspect is kind of light -- you can just go out and hack and slay until your heart's content -- it's enough. Baldur's Gate II bogged down in a heavy story line that made me feel like I was working. Diablo II has a straight line story, but it's secondary. Mostly you just revel in how your character improves and acquires more powerful items. If you read the forums on Blizzard.com, you'll see that DII/LOD players are extremely attached to their characters. Is this psychologically healthy? I think it's fine and speaks to the success of the game.

After three years or so, I can still recommend Diablo II with its expansion. Every time I thought I was through, I end up digging up my installation CDs and loading it for "just one more run."

(Cut and paste, Amazon's browser doesn't like HTML)

[1] For complete details on the new Uniques, Sets, and other treasures, look at: spirea.lurkerlounge.com

[2] For detailed coverage on the Beta, and continuing revelations, check out: http://www.diabloii.net

[3] For discussion of changes, strategies, exploits, and skill reorientation, visit: http://www.lurkerlounge.com

[4] The Chaos Sanctuary is being updated - it's called The Arreat Summit, and will be the official source for all LoD data. Right now, Geoff has it in a very partial format - most of it is just cloned Chaos Sanc info. http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/

[5] The Beta testers are discussing their revelations in the official D2X forum, here: http://www.battle.net/forums/d2xbeta/

[6] And for the best strategy overviews, where you can learn a LOT without reading your eyes bloodshot for 20 hours straight looking for detail, check out my site, http://www.darkangelcollect.com - due to the imbalances and bugs in the current D2X Beta, I'm waiting for the actual RELEASE of LoD to put all of my Xpack data into the site. Look for that massive update to my site in June.

Enjoy!

As a beta tester, I have played both of the new characters and all of the old characters. Of the new characters, I have found the Druid to be more to my liking. I like the quest rewards in the XPac where you can now make improvements to the items you are carrying. These include adding sockets to rare and unique items. One caveat though, the spell casting characters (Sorceress & Necromancer) have had time delays applied to her spell casting speeds. For example, the Sorceress' Frozen Orb can only be cast at a rate of one per second. Over all, I find this expansion an excellent play experience and give it five stars.

Diablo II was, without a doubt, one of the most addictive and entertaining games of 2000. However, with the release of Diablo II Expansion: Lord of Destruction, those of you that put Diablo 2 down, or have reduced your playing hours, prepare to be sucked back in to the world of Diablo...

With Diablo dead and his soulstone destroyed, it seems that the world is at peace again. However, there was one major oversight: Baal, Lord of Destruction(and my favorite of the three Prime Evils) has been amassing a great army during your hero's trek into Hell to battle Diablo. This tremendous oversight has now come into fruition, as Baal has invaded the Barbarian Highlands in the Northen regions, thrusting you once more into battle with one of the most powerful forces of Evil in existence...

With dozens of new monster types, you will find yourself fighting for your life against some of the most difficult monsters yet encountered in the game. Some, namely the Reanimated Horde, simply just do not want to stay down! They may require you to kill them up to 3 times just to keep them there! However, each time you kill it, it is as if you are killing another monster entirely, giving you even more experience and possibility for items. These are just some of the many new monster you'll encounter, including a few unique 'Boss' monsters, including The Lord of Destruction himself!

Two new classes headline this expansion set, which are the Assassin and the Druid.

The Assassin is an incredible class. She has 3 skill trees, one of which is Martial Arts, which give her the ability to perform magical martial arts moves, as well as the addition of 'charge up' moves that, when charged enough, will result in a fantastic display of effects and heavy damage to monsters. Another skill tree is the Disciplines tree, which allows her to master her art of using Claw weapons(the assassin unique class weapon) and other abilities such as blocking, elemental resistance, even creating a 'shadow' version of herself, capable of the same destructive force that she is! Her final tree, Traps, is a great tree that allows the assassin to deploy devices such as fire bombs, lightning webs and others to keep enemies at bay.

The Druid is very much like the Necromancer class, with one extra unique and awesome ability: the ability to shape-shift into a Werewolf or Werebear! Aside from that, the druid is a master of Earthly magics, with the forces of nature at his command. He can also summon the animals of the wild and spiritual realms, such as Dire Wolves, ravens and Grizzly bears! Definitely a formidable fighter, he is sort of like a revamped NEcromancer on steroids.

Also in this expansion is one final act with 6 quests, Act V. Those of you who have beaten Diablo II already are saying: 'One act? That's it? Is it worth it?' All i can say is YES. Act V is almost TWICE the size of Act III, which was the longest Act in the original game. The playfields are huge and beautifully detailed, and yet another masterful musical score accompanies the new act, fitting nicely with the chaos and drama that happens throughout.

Finally, there are thousands more unique, set, magical and rare items added to the game's original thousands! This should make adventuring alot more desirable, and up the replay value a few notches.

The expansion also includes two more cinematics, again, in excellent quality and worthy of the standards set by Blizzard in the past. The opening cinema to Act V is incredible. If you didn't like Baal previously, trust me, you'll like him now. Excellent voice acting and casting, dozens of new creatures, thousands of new items and 2 new incredible classes all stuffed into one HUGE Act make this well worth your time and money. The addiction is going to come back...and its gonna hit HARD.

I was a big fan of Diablo, so after a long while I bought Diablo II. The sequel was much more fun than the original, and I especially liked playing as the necromancer. When I first heard that Blizzard was making an expansion, I was skeptical. The game seemed fine, and new classes are usually kinda hokey anyway (at least hokey enough to not be worth [price]). "What else could they add to the game?" I thought. To my surprise, the expansion made many useful improvements to the game. You can now quickly switch between two weapon/shield combinations, which made it worth it for me to use a bow. The new classes, to my surprise, are really fun. Honestly, I haven't actually even tried the assassin class - I'm still very busy with the druid. The druid is by far my very favorite class, with the necromancer coming in a distant second. The expansion also adds a new act to the story, class-specific items, an expanded storage area, and more changes in addition to these. This expansion is well-worth the [price] I paid for it. If you like Diablo II, do yourself a big favor and try the expansion - it's just more of a good thing. If you didn't like Diablo II much, try the expansion - it's like playing a whole new game.