Description
The package contains Diablo, Diablo II and the Diablo II add-on with strategy guide.
Diablo:
Long ago a secret war raged between Heaven and Hell, each using humanity as its pawns. While the Prime Evils of Hell were engaged in war their lesser lieutenants conspired to overthrow them. They mutinied suddenly with the combined forces of Hell, overwhelming the three Primes. Stripped of their power, they were banished to the mortal realm. Human agents of Heaven, upon discovering this, found the three Primes and sealed them within gemstone prisons, each of them sent to a different corner of the earth and kept under guard to prevent them from escaping.
As years turns to centuries, however, the power of Heaven's agents waned, until eventually not even the people of the town of Tristram knew that buried deep under their chapel was the soul of the Lord of Terror, Diablo. As the strength of his prison waned Diablo reached out into the world, corrupting the dreams of the land's good king, driving him to attack his neighbors. The nation of Khanduras fought wars with no intention of winning, desiring only slaughter and suffering. Now the lands lay scorched, home only to monsters and the dead. Rumors spread of a way to stop the demons, as well as rumors of great wealth, and both draw adventurers from far to the small town of Tristram.
Players start by choosing their avatar's class: either Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer. Warriors have the highest maximum strength and can repair weapons and armor inside the dungeon, but this will lower the item's maximum durability. The Rogue has the highest maximum dexterity and can both see and disarm traps on treasure chests. The Sorcerer has the highest maximum magic attribute and can recharge the charges on a spellcasting staff at the cost of his own mana.
Characters can equip armor, weapons, and accessories found in the chapel's shifting dungeons, but strong equipment will have minimum attribute requirements to be worn. Most equipment will have randomized stats, but some strong monsters will drop Unique weapons with set stats. Magic can be learned by finding magic tomes, and leveled up by finding multiples of the same spell tome, but advanced spell levels can not be learned if the character's magic stat is too low. Upon destroying enough monsters to level up the player is rewarded with additional attribute points to distribute to whichever attributes they wish. Occasionally the few people left in town will inform the player of a job they would like done, either an exceptionally strong monster that must be slain or a unique item found deep in the dungeon, and will reward the player in kind upon completion of the quest.
Diablo can be played cooperatively with 1 to 3 other players over LAN or BattleNet with the PC versions, or with 1 player locally on the PlayStation. Players can team up to survive the depths of the dungeons, or turn on each other to steal one another's items from their corpse. The quest unique zones are removed from the online version of a dungeon, and instead quest monsters will be found wandering the level that would normally lead to their unique area.
Diablo II:
Knowing well that Diablo's spirit could never be truly destroyed, the hero of Tristram made the noblest sacrifice of all: he took the spirit of the Lord of Terror into himself, hoping that his strength of will could contain the demon within. He was wrong. Diablo's essence corrupted him, gradually taking over his human nature. He has turned into the Dark Wanderer, a mysterious being whose every step causes destruction and death. A nameless adventurer visits the Rogue Encampment and decides to help its inhabitants by slaying monsters surrounding the area, and eventually pursuing the Dark Wanderer himself.
Like its predecessor, Diablo II is an action role-playing game. The player may choose between five available characters classes: Amazon (a rogue-like class with ranged attacks), Necromancer (can summon undead and inflict status ailments), Barbarian (a powerful melee fighter who can dual-wield weapons), Sorceress (offensive spellcaster), and Paladin (fights with shields and can cast support spells). Much of the game takes place in randomized dungeon-like areas heavily populated by enemies. Unlike the previous game, the environments are not restricted to a single dungeon and include variously themed locations, each with its own town and quests.
The player character gains experience points from slaying monsters, and can be leveled up manually, increasing his or her primary attributes and acquiring abilities. Much of the customization relies on equipment and item combinations. Diablo's magic has been replaced with skills: class specific abilities that can be purchased with skill points as characters level up. For example, a Paladin's skills allow him to cover allies with a protective aura, while a Sorceress can learn to fire lightning bolts and frozen blasts from her hands. Skills can be purchased several times to level them up, and some skills, when purchased, will increase the effectiveness of other skills. A new item type, socketed, has been added as well. Socketed items can be modified permanently by adding magic gems to them, increasing their statistics or adding elemental properties.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction:
After the demonic brothers Diablo and Mephisto were finally defeated, the heroic adventurer who has accomplished that feat returned to the Pandemonium Fortress, summoned by Archangel Tyrael. The third evil brother, Baal, has survived by obtaining his Soulstone. He has raised an army and attacked Mount Arreat in the Barbarian Highlands. The protagonist must venture there and defeat Baal once and for all.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is an expansion to Diablo II. It adds Act V which concludes the overarching story, offers a new area with more powerful enemies and six quests to complete. It also enhances and modifies the base game by adding the following:
- Two new character classes: female Assassin (has access to martial arts, shadow techniques, and traps) and Druid (can shape-shift and summon animals to fight on his side)
- Companions can stay with the player character for the duration of the entire game. They also level up on their own, can be equipped, healed, and resurrected
- Additional weapons and items
- The quest item Horadric Cube allows creation of custom items
- Runes can be placed into sockets and provide further bonuses when arranged in a particular order
- Charms can be found and placed in the inventory for various benefits
- Jewels have random bonuses
- The player can switch between two sets of weapons and armor
- An expanded stash for storing items, two times the size of the original one
- 800x600 resolution is available alongside the former 640x480
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