Diablo II has everything that made the original Diablo great--non-stop action, wicked monsters, dark, Gothic atmosphere and fantastic magic items. But new enhancements such as the class skill-system and cheater-proof multi-player competition make Diablo II even better.

With the original character classes gone, players choose from a new cadre of champions--the Barbarian (who can wield two two-handed swords at once, one in each hand), the Necromancer (who raises the dead to fight his battles), the Amazon (master of bow and spear), Paladin (holy crusader) and Sorceress (wielder of elemental magic). These warriors follow a diabolical plot through four acts, and each act is roughly as big as in the original Diablo.

Diablo II looks and behaves very much like Diablo. Players are assigned quests by non-player characters and adventure through dark catacombs and crypts. Hordes of vile monsters assail the hero, who survives by force of arms, powerful spells and through the use of varied and exotic magic items.

Randomly generated dungeons guarantee fresh adventure each time a new game is started. But unlike the original game, characters must fight their way through the above-ground wilderness before entering a dungeon. Fortunately, some of the frustrations of adventuring have been lessened in Diablo II, thanks to the new ability to run and the clever implementation of "waypoints", which let your character quickly travel to and from the safety of town.

Along with the new character classes comes a new character skill system. As in the original game, players improve their character's ability scores as they kill monsters and gain experience. But unlike the original game, players get to add specific skills, spells and powers each time they advance. Other enhancements include a method for creating and customising magic items, 3-D accelerated spell effects, anti-cheat multi-player and a place to safely store excess money and equipment.

Even without these tweaks, even without the sophisticated story line and all the cool new features, Diablo II is just a great game. The sound, music and graphics combine to create a tantalisingly eerie setting. Players will willingly let their game-playing hours slip well past reasonable bedtimes, suffering bleary-eyed classes and meetings in exchange for "just one more" magic item, dungeon level or character skill. Diablo is back. 

Diablo II: Lord Of Destruction:

Not content to merely add on additional levels, the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion improves the entire Diablo II game experience and concludes the story. The expansion has been described as both an "add-in" and an "add-on", and truly is a must-have for Diablo II players.

The add-on is the new act, which tells the story of Baal's destructive trek through the Barbarian Highlands. You must stop him before he corrupts the magical Worldstone and opens Hell.

The add-in is all the improvements to the core game. The most obvious improvement is with graphics. Lord of Destruction lets gamers ratchet up Diablo II's graphics resolution to 800 x 600. This means both prettier graphics and the ability to see more of the battlefield at once, which effectively increases the range of spells and missile weapons.

The graphics boost is nice, but hardcore players will really appreciate the gameplay enhancements. It's hard to pick the single best element from this long list of substantial improvements: a larger character stash, more socketable items, more unique items, new classes of weapons and new Horadric Cube recipes. Entirely new features include the ability to craft unique magic items, runes (which function like gems but can be combined to form powerful runeword combinations), totems (add ability, combat or resistance bonuses, but take up space in inventory) and hireling inventory (hand down your old equipment to your hireling). All these improvements are applied to both the new act and the four acts in Diablo II.

Even experienced Diablo II players get to appreciate the improvements to acts 1 to 4 because the two new character classes(Assassin and Druid) must complete all four acts in Diablo II before they can be used in the expansion. The Assassin is a stealthy warrior and wizard slayer who uses martial arts, traps and mental discipline to defeat Hell's minions.

The conclusion to one of the best-loved and most-played games of all time is satisfying and well worth the hours of sleepless nights and the blurry-eyed mornings.-