Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of Blizzard’s Diablo II (here in the Americas, Europeans got the game today), a game that can easily be called the best game of its generation, if not the best action RPG ever developed.
Sure, there have been hundreds of action RPGs since, but nearly every one of them used Diablo II as the foundation that they began building on. Whether it was its gem and socket crafting, the AI-controlled mercenary helpers or even the four act structure itself, Diablo II’s features have acted as the default standard for games within its genre for more than a decade.
The summer of 2000 saw a lot of great RPG releases, with the PC’s late 1990s heyday still proudly in effect. Not only did we have Diablo II, but Black Isle (Now Obsidian’s) first Icewind Dale game came out on the 29th of June as well. Even the great Deus Ex ran up against it, having been released a couple weeks prior. Throw in the September release of Baldur’s Gate II and you can see how crowded the genre was back then. Yet, Diablo II stuck out. Even with what I remember as a very rocky launch full of disappearing ground, severe lag spikes and constant disconnects, Blizzard’s magnum opus persevered.
More than just a blueprint for others to copy, Diablo II honed the online multiplayer formula Blizzard established with the first game in the series. The easy jump-in/jump-out multiplayer, the “open” version of their server that let you play your single player character, the ability to turn off the player-killing flag…Diablo II was a game that was so slick and user friendly that it became a gateway drug to gamers who were looking for an introduction to the RPG genre.
It’s been modded to heck and back, and even had private servers crop up for the game that are still alive today…which is impressive for a game from 15 years ago that was never meant to be tinkered with. It’s one of those games that folks still play, that feeling of nostalgia only part of the reason.
Matt Uelman’s soundtrack massages your ears when you first boot it up, his twangy gothic-sounding music remaining one of my favorite soundtracks to this very day. The drizzling of the rain in the first act’s campground and the hopeless, droning voices of the NPCs all set the stage for a suitably dark adventure that nowadays, probably wouldn’t exist. While I do love Diablo III, it was the second game in the series that captured my imagination.
I don’t want to make the article about me, but Diablo II was a game that took over my life for years after its release. Whether it was playing with real-life friends or meeting new ones in the trade channels, Blizzard was responsible for a lot of my lateness at work in the early 2000s. I’m sure the same can be said about many of our readers here. So what are your memories of Diablo II? Feel free to post them in the comments. It’ll please the dark lord.
