Gameplay

Getting Strong

The game is quite long, actually. 26 levels (which seems to be the standard Diablo-killing time) is at least 40-50 hours of play in our experience. Through this time you'll be going through the 4 Acts in the game, each with an absolutely awesome movie leading up to it. The first 3 acts have 6 quests you must go through before proceeding to the next act, while Act 4 is pretty short at 3 quests. The first act is pretty weak at first but seriously picks up towards the end - in fact, it was the only part of the game that we felt an urgency to play similar to the dark oppressiveness felt throughout Diablo.

Misshapen is right

Ark! I hate magicians!

Act II is extremely fun. The loot is good and the enemies are tough but not annoying - for the most part. There are these pathetic little Leaper creatures but they're not too strong so they don't get irritating. You'll be fighting lots and lots of undead in the desert that Act II is set in - there are strong ancient Egyptian and medieval Muslim cultural references throughout - quite a change from Diablo's dark gothic world.

Creepy

Familiar...

Act III was the most tedious part of the game. For one, you are in the jungle in which the tree canopy refuses to come off so you can't see some of your enemies. Second problem is that the first two areas in Act III are long, windy, run until you get bored stretches of jungle. Finally, there are these annoying brat creatures called Fetishes which constantly fire darts at you through blowguns. They look annoying. The noise they make is annoying. And they run even further than any Fallen or Puke Dog in Diablo ever did. Whatever designer created these things must be on the same wavelength as whoever created frogs and dragonflies in Daikatana. Then there is a quest in which you must search six temples in three gigantic zones for the one special temple, looking for an artifact. Not so strong.

Fallen bastards

Hrmmm

Act IV is a battle. It's short, abrupt and bloody. You'll get mobbed like never before. You'll face demons which spawn other demons. You'll face two extremely tough minibosses and the Hordes of Hell themselves. The approach to the inner sanctum of Diablo's Sanctuary is guarded by nothing short of an army. No character is safe. Every weakness present in any character will be exploited. Oh, and you get to fight Hephastos, a miniboss who has claimed my life more often than Diablo himself.

There is a problem with the game and quests though. If you quit or save and exit, it won't save the worldstate. You'll have to kill all the monsters along the way to your quest item again. This has the unfortunate side-effect of keeping people playing longer than they should or want to, because they don't want to lose the two or three hours spent clearing a dungeon or two (or Hell) in order to prepare for a boss or to get a quest item. A Diablo run, for example, isn't economical unless you do the first two levels of Hell where a lot of loot drops - the repairs and potions are cost prohibitive to just use a waypoint to get to the River of Flame near his Sanctuary.