Diablo II

[Nimbus]

So, I just got finished with Torchlight, and seeing how every thread about Torchlight was flooded with references to Diablo II, and everyone was saying that people should try it out, I figured I should probably look into it.

My question is this; has it aged well? I heard that the co-op was a big deal, so are the servers still up, and if so, are people still playing the game? Would the graphics be painful to look at on a 22" monitor? How hard is it to get running on Vista? Some games from that era are notoriously hard to get running on modern OSes (Read: System Shock 2).

Basically, is it still worth dropping €20-40 on?

 

[GoldenCondor]

No way, the game still looks beautiful. I would say the graphics are pretty damn realistic compared to it's 3D plastic brothers in Warcraft 3 and old 3D games.

It's totally worth it, you will spend lots of time if you can find "Free" games online, where old players drop their stuff for noobs.

It's an amazing game. Get it.

 

[Destal]

I would highly recommend D2 if you don't have a problem with a little old school stuff. I would also say that you definitely should play D1 first. The storyline throughout both games can really draw you in. It runs on Vista perfectly fine, D2 at least. I haven't tried Diablo on it. The Diablo series will remain one of the all time favorites, if not the top of that list. If you like Torchlight, you probably will like D1 and D2, considering they were made by a lot of the same people.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

People still play Diablo. If you're going multiplayer though, I wouldn't suggest choosing the warrior if playing with the rogue and especially the wizard.

 

[Nimbus]

Sounds like I should definitely check it out, but are people still playing it? It's not much use playing a game focused on co-op when there's no-one to play with, am I right?

 

[Amnestic]

Pretty sure the BNet servers for D2 will still be up. If you're gaming online (which is the only real way to play ), don't play on the Open BNet servers, as those will be filled with hacked characters. 'Closed' BNet will have them as well, but to a far smaller degree.

It's a good game. Excellent, in fact. Dunno how hard it is to get up on Vista (as I use XP still). If you can convince a friend to play with you, the experience will be far better. Playing Diablo 2 alone can become a bit of a drag at times. Having a few friends with you makes it all the sweeter to run around dungeons blowing the hell out of...well, hell monsters.

LAN it up, babeh.

 

[infinisynth]

I don't have vista but in my opinion, Diablo II is an awesome game thats really not bad graphic wise. It still has dedicated multiplayer on battle.net, but unfortunately most people that play dII are annoying and/or will try to rip you off oh and then there is the constant advertisement spamming trying to get you to buy items online. But there are ways around that. It's probably worth it if you can get it for cheap, make sure you get the expansion pack because it adds many useful items and features.

 

[The Austin]

A bung-hole load of people still play.

Including mua .

 

[Abedeus]

D2 servers are still good and running, although people are burned out because Blizzard promised a patch in April and it's November already...

Play it, play it, play it. And next summer, I'm finally going to make a shrine in honor of Diablo 2. Also, play in windowed mode. You don't want to see 860x640 or something like that stretched to 1680x1050. Really. Dropping 20 EUR? Mmm, yeah. 40? No. But that's from a Polish perspective - I bought Diablo 2 when it was 160 PLN (40 USD at that time), the expansion pack was a bit over 120 (30 USD, more or less). Then I bought them again in a re-release, because my CDs were damaged and I wanted to play it badly. Now the game and expansion costs 60 PLN, about 20 USD.

 

[Nimbus]

...don't play on the Open BNet servers, as those will be filled with hacked characters. 'Closed' BNet will have them as well, but to a far smaller degree...

Uh... What? 'Open Servers', 'Closed Servers'... I have no idea what you are talking about...

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Ah crap it seems as usual I am late to the party, and anything I say would just be parroting what others have already said. One of the best PC games out there, bar none.

Oh wait there is something I can be helpful with.
Open servers are used on open battle.net This means that characters used on these servers can be played in single player, and vice versa. These characters are stored on your computer in the diablo 2 save file.
Closed servers refers to closed battle.net These servers are host by blizzard themselves. Characters played on closed battle.net (often closed is referred to simply as battle.net, and open is open b.net) are stored on these servers, not your computer, and thus can only be accessed through those servers. Since blizzard actually hosts those servers it is much harder, if not impossible to hack on them, whereas open is fair game to such, seeing as the characters are stored on the player's computer.

 

[chaos13]

I found that the first diablo had terrible graphics but the second one has ok graphics. You will find however that compaired to torch light they will be terrible. If you can see past the ugly however the story line and the mass purgings you will commit are fun. However if you are looking for a long well developed story you will not find it in diablo 2. After you complete normal difficulty, you will go on to nightmare, then hell. The story repeats its' self during these difficulties the only key diffrences are that you will be facing tougher monsters and get better loot.