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Quick Info
Mods available?	Yes
Year released	2000
Available from	Bnet (D2) Bnet (D2R)
Category	Rpg
Time to Beat	34.5 Hours
Played?	Yes
Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

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Diablo II is the follow up to the first Diablo game, both of which were developed by Blizzard North and designer David Brevik. The game stays true to many of the systems introduced in the first game, while expanding the world, characters available and complexity. Many individuals consider it to be one of the pinnacle ARPG games, and its influence and inspiration can be seen in more modern games such as Path of Exile, Grim Dawn and Last Epoch.

The game is available from the Battlenet store in two versions - classic (original 2000's release) or resurrected, which was a lovingly crafted remake of the game by Vicarious Visions in 2021. Additional information on both flavors of the game is available below, but as with many older games - most folks new to the genre or series in general will want to pickup the newest version for quality of life and graphical improvements. Both versions of the game have a single expansion pack available to players, titled Lord of Destruction. This expansion added a new act, two new characters and a host of itemization changes.

Table of Contents

Why should this game be played?

For many, this is THE ARPG game, with Diablo II and it's expansion Lord of Destruction being the absolute pinnacle of content. With the release of Diablo II Resurrected, that argument becomes more compelling. Resurrected brought graphical improvements to the title from the 2000's with only small quality of life changes, preserving the game in a loving way.

The title is a great example of the gameplay loop that makes ARPGs so addicting. Playing through the five acts (with Lord of Destruction installed) and the three different difficulty levels will have your character fighting a number of bosses and completing quests through various environments. While some of the trek can get a little tedious (act III), through the journey your character will rise in power and start to come together nicely. Once 'endgame' is reached, it's perhaps not what players would expect from a game these days - there aren't too many new areas or challenges unlocked. In fact, most of the endgame grind in Diablo II consists of running the same bosses or areas over and over hoping for that drop you are seeking. While this won't appeal to all, the loop and consistency of picking out a farming route for a given night and hitting a couple bosses, a dungeon and another area searching for that elusive rune for the next great runeword or unique to complete a build can be very cathartic.

Players can create their own challenges at the end of Diablo II, perhaps you want to perfect a series of builds to farm in specific locations, or find uniques to trade on the online ladder for runes, or complete the 'holy grail'; where each unique item in the game is found and recorded, with some items having crazy high drop rates. This provides each individual something different to work towards. Or, like many others, you might pick up the game for a time and uninstall it until that itch to slay Andrial or Mephisto over and over creeps up again in a few years time.

As another way of extending the longevity of the game, there are many excellent mods available for both original Diablo II and Diablo II Resurrected, ranging from full-conversion to slight quality of life improvements. Some of these mods change the game so drastically, they could be considered standalone games themselves. Whereas others are an expansion on what is already existing, simply adding new items and endgame activities. More info on mods for the game is detailed below in the respective section.

Where to get the game

Diablo II and it's expansion is available in classic form for $9 USD each through the Battlenet store. Diablo II: Resurrected is also available through the store and normally sells for $38 USD, however it will regularly go on sale for $13 USD and is well worth the sale price.

• Diablo 2 Classic
• Diablo 2 Resurrected

Lord of Destruction Expansion

Released only a year and a bit after the original game hit store shelves, Lord of Destruction built upon what made Diablo II such a hit.

The expansion added:

• A whole new act and act boss centered around the birthplace of the Barbarians
• Two new character classes, the Druid and Assassin, which brought with them new playstyles and build approaches
• New items, runewords and associated things to redefine builds
• An expanded stash and new mercenary functionality
• An increase to the available resolution of the game to 800 x 600 up from 640 x 480

There are some folks who enjoy running through Diablo without the expansion, even going as far as seeking out specific versions of the game to have additional challenges, such as the earlier versions of Diablo II prior to balance patches or quality of life updates. However, for those who want to experience D2 at it's best, it's almost necessary to play through with the expansion in place. For those who will play the game only through the Resurrected version, the expansion comes prepackaged, although there is an option to play D2 Resurrected with it disabled.

The additions made by LoD were welcome and added some additional replability to the game, with new quests, bosses and areas to farm. Act 5 as a whole has some memorable areas and each new local visited is moved through quickly enough to keep things fresh. The new classes added provided new builds and playstyles from players to mess around with, and the ability to now have mercenaries follow a character through all the acts and have equippable items themselves provided even more opportunities for a player to hunt for loot.

Classic and Resurrected Versions

The version of Diablo II remade in 2021 and aptly titled 'Diablo II Resurrected' is an example of a remake done right. The developers and designers at Vicarious Visions didn't make any sweeping changes to the game. In fact, the newer version could be referred to as an HD texture pack and a few quality of life changes as opposed to a fullscale remake. The graphics were updated to modernish standards, bringing the games areas to life. Additional quality of life such as: a bigger stash space, shared stash tabs, additional options and availability of controls was added. Some other changes were made, such as the addition of Sunder Charms - powerful items allowing characters to break elemental immunities of monsters at a great cost to their own resistance to that element. Finally, the addition of 'terror zones', where random (on a schedule) zones would become terrorized, raising the difficulty and levels of all monsters in the zones was added. This was a welcome change because it provided even more options for end game farming and kept things fresh.

Resurrected even retained the ability to revert the game back to the old graphics with the touch of a hotkey. Allowing players to marvel at the changes or just relive the good memories of hunting pixelated blobs of treasure.

Available Mods

There are many mods available for both classic D2 and D2 Resurrected. Unfortunately, with the release of Resurrected some additional restrictions were placed on mods within the game, so the more expansive 'total conversions' are only available by playing the classic release. Additional resources for finding mods for both versions are listed below.

For a completely new Diablo like experience, players can check out Median XL. A long running (~38 seasons now!) D2 total conversion mod, Median provides new skills, crafting systems, gear, uniques, challenges, and end game farming to name only a few of the changes. The mod is a game within itself and requires it's own learning curve. The only thing resembling D2 is the graphics, some of the areas and the quests that characters will complete while working through the story.

Mod installation

For the most part, modding both Diablo 2 or Diablo 2:Resurrected is straightforward. The approach will differ depending on the type of mod, and the version of the game. For many of the total conversion mods available for the original Diablo 2, such as Median XL or Path of Diablo, these mods have their own launchers and clear step by step installation instructions available. For Diablo 2:Resurrected there is a mod manager available that will make the process easy. The mod manager, and accompanying mods can be downloaded through Nexus Mods, which throttles download speeds (to an extreme extent) for non-premium users. This can be a pain for larger downloads, and it may be worth considering subscribing to Nexus Mods for a month to quickly download a big batch of mods.

• D2R Mod Manager - Nexus Mods

Reading Materials

Fiction or non-fiction, there is a host of reading materials covering the development of Diablo or set within the universe. I can't vouch for the quality of the fictional writing, as I've not had the chance to read any but I've really enjoyed the nonfiction I've collected and read.

The books Stay Awhile and Listen by David L. Craddock cover the development of both Diablo I and II. The history of Blizzard North is covered, along with the wild ride the company experienced while creating these hit games. Well worth the read!

For more design focused reading, Erin Schaefer, one of the founders of Blizzard North, wrote a post-mortem on Diablo II that is an excellent read. Covering some of the challenges of iterating on such a successful first entry into the series, it's well worth looking over.

There are a dozen novels set in the world of Sanctuary, with several directly covering the events of the second game.Along with the novels, a bunch of graphic novels, art books and the like are also available from other sources.

Additional Resources

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