The Devil Inside

For those gamers that didn't play the original Diablo, the series is a fast paced, third person perspective game of your chosen medieval character going through a series of towns and dungeons while fighting monsters and acquiring new treasures and items. The game starts off where last game left off - in the countryside, where you very quickly get into action.

That place looks spooky

Out of a temple

Blizzard's official statement says that Diablo 2 is due sometime in 1999. From what I gather from Bill Roper, it may be earlier than their somewhat modest prediction at around August to November because it is already 75% done. In contrast to the original, which only took up one disc, Diablo 2 will be fit in 4 CDs that will each feature one act, or chapter of the story apiece. Each Act will be as large and time consuming as the entire game of Diablo 1.

Vision is restricted in dark areas

Looks like a fight

The Characters

This time around you will be able to use 5 new types of characters. The graphics of the original Warrior, Rogue, and Sorcerer will be seen as NPCs (non player characters) in the towns. Each of the five classes can learn 30 skills and spells to distinguish themselves from one another. Each character will have to reach a certain status before he or she is able to wield certain weapons or use certain spells. This time around while there won't be a class-limit; there will be a statistic limit for your character that can only be broken by a magical item. Blizzard hopes that the characters are balanced enough so that a wide-variety will be used to create a longer duration of entertainment (and probably cut down on their imbalance e-mail).