Introduction

Developed by: Blizzard
Diablo 2 official page: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2/
Estimated Release (based on palm reading, crystal balls, bribery, and stargazing): Mid June, 2000. If we're right, send us cookies.

You think you've heard it all

Diablo 2 beta testers have been playing the beejeezus out of Act I for the last couple of weeks. While all five of the characters are available for play, not all of their special abilities are open for use. Beta testers are also unable to taste any of Acts II, III, and IV. With half the spells locked out, and over 75% of the game inaccessible, you can see that there's actually a whole lot more to Diablo 2 than what you might be reading on FiringSquad and other sites!

Nothing like a Blizzard to start your day

That's a Hydra wreaking havoc

Time with the real thing

Last week, Wayne "soso" Chiang and I visited Blizzard's southern California offices. While the primary purpose of our visit was to see progress on Warcraft III (keep your eyes peeled for a full run down on that!), Blizzard was nice enough to let us sit down and play the full version of Diablo 2 as well! The screenshots you see here were snapped from a near final version of the game, which is getting closer and closer to completion. The desert scenes are from Act II, while the cave scenes are mainly from Act III. Blizzard strictly prohibited us from taking any shots of, or writing about Act IV, so you'll have to buy the full version for that.

Frozen Orb is good for spraying damage around

Nova works great when you're surrounded

Will it be worth it? After watching the opening cinematic, we'd say that the movie alone is worth the price of admission. Of course most of you have already downloaded that for free, but don't worry. Our short gameplay experience confirmed that Diablo 2 should be at least as addicting as its predecessor. It's like comparing crack to heroin - who's to say which is a more intoxicating narcotic? Don't answer that.