What is Diablo II?

When Blizzard released the Mac version of Diablo in mid-1998, the move left Mac users in a state of conflict. While the game was brilliant, PC users had been playing it for more than a year. Blizzard has finally stopped treating Mac users like third-class citizens. With a Mac version of Diablo II out less than a month after the PC release, we're now safely entrenched in second-class status.

That's about the only cheap joke we can make at Blizzard's expense. Diablo's sequel, Diablo II, is a vastly impressive, absorbing game that has already caused three nights of total sleep deprivation for this reviewer. The game fixes many of the first Diablo's flaws, resulting in a brilliant, deep playing experience.

As in the original Diablo, the game engine is a real-time, multiplayer update on the character-based classic Rogue... Players explore a world filled with monsters, weapons, armor, rings, potions, scrolls, and all the usual trappings of a role-playing game. You gain experience by killing monsters; kill enough, and you go up a level and become more powerful. Enchantments empower some of the weapons, armor, and other items, increasing the character's prowess. Diablo divides the world into “safe” areas where players can relax, recuperate, sell off excess weaponry, and ask local about the plot; and wilderness areas, containing a rich variety of monsters out for blood.

If you ever played the first Diablo, you'll appreciate the minor tweaks in this version. Gone are the original game's frequently fruitless conversations — instead, clickable exclamation points appear over the heads of nonplayer characters to indicate when they have some message to deliver. Diablo’s world has expanded vasdy from the original game’s meager l6 levels, and now includes a large number of enormous outdoor levels. The first game loaded new levels very slowly; now, switching levels (particularly in the outdoor areas) causes little delay. The five character classes... offer greater distinctions than the original game’s three classes, and now require significantly different playing styles. Shrines are now labeled by their fimction, eliminating a lot of guesswork.

Diablo offers beautiful art, marred by occasional graphic glitches. For example, the Amazon’s bulky leather armor seems ineffective, as it fail to extend below her waist. Flickering torches create gorgeous, though wildly unrealistic, guttering shadows. However, the exquisitely rendered shadows of spires are well worth seeing, and it’s not unusual to see neophyte players running around madly in circles for no other purpose than the pure eye-candy enjoyment of watching them. The game generally handles the large cast of characters and their interactions well, again with a few inconsistencies. Kashya, the guard captain in the well-named Rogue encampment, sometimes forgets her usual gushing admiration of Amazons with the occasional acerbic remark. And from time to time, characters get caught in corners, causing an unpleasant shaking effect onscreen.

We tested the game on a G4/500 and on an iBook, which let us see how Diablo would play on a machine that just met the processor and memory requirements (and that let us play on the road). With the iBook, we occasionally encountered ferocious lag. While rarely fatal, this phenomenon disconcerted us. The software rendering — required by the iBook — was outstanding, almost indistinguishable (with the exception of a few perspective effects) from the graphics on the G4.

Quibbles aside, Diablo II is a brilliant game. Unless you’ve decided Unreal Tournament is the first, last, and only game you’ll ever play, you should get your hands on this one.

Sammis, Ian. (October 2000). Diablo II. MacAddict. (pgs. 48-49).

Download Diablo II for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 8.1

Compatibility notes

Architecture: PPC

 

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver