7 reasons why Diablo II kicked butt

October 27, 4:08 PMGames ExaminerDaniel Nations

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It might be easy to assume Diablo III will pick up where Diablo II left off in the butt kicking department, but many others have tried to build a better Diablo II and failed. Sure, it's Blizzard, so it should be good, right? But after the miserable failure of Hellgate: London, it is safe to say even those involved in developing Diablo II aren't assured success in re-creating what made the game great.

Dungeon Siege was one of the better Diablo-clones, mixing the action-RPG style with traditional RPG elements like controlling an entire party of adventures, but it was much too linear and downright limiting to displace the king of all action-RPGs. Titan Quest was a surprisingly good Diablo-clone despite mixed reviews and so-so sales, but it was also much too linear.

Guild Wars, which was also made by some of the Diablo II designers, did the best job of filling the void. Putting the emphasis more on PvP created some interesting design twists, but ultimately, Guild Wars was no Diablo II.

So what made Diablo II so good?

• Great classes and class strategies

No, Diablo II didn't have that mindblowing never-seen-before class, though the Druid and Assassin classes added with the Lord of Destruction expansion offered a few things rarely seen in RPGs like combo moves and shapeshifting. What Diablo II did have was strong classes with their own unique feel. But what really put them apart was the ability to specialize in different areas, which meant each class might have a half dozen or more strategies that could be exploited through clever class builds.

• Class Synergy

Beyond just class balance, class synergy can be a key ingredient to a great RPG. Class synergy is how well the different classes work in concert, and the synergy between the different classes in Diablo II even beat what we see in most MMORPGs. This can be seen in some great combos like the Paladin's auras being added to the Necromancer's undead horde.

• Interesting items and Item customization

Diablo II didn't invent the idea of customizing magic items, but it may have perfected it with the Lord of Destruction expansion. The addition of runes and runewords makes it so that the player really feels like they can craft a special magic item, and the system remains simple without removing the difficulty of obtaining the best runewords.

• Rogue-like random dungeons and land masses

The quality that most Diablo-clones miss out on is the rogue-like random dungeons and land masses that make playing Diablo again and again much more bearable when you aren't running through the exact same dungeon over and over. While Diablo II can be considered very light in the Rogue-like qualities -- it's really as much of a re-arrangement of the areas as opposed to real random areas -- it certainly beats the extremely linear competition.

• Online gameplay and competition

Another area that really set Diablo II apart was how much Battle.net is part of the game. Not just a way to find a party of adventurers, Battle.net actually adds to the game by allowing different types of gameplay like hardcore mode, player vs player and the ladder system.

• Difficulty

It oftentimes seems like games are getting easier and easier. While Titan Quest was a fairly good Diablo-clone, I could probably get through the entire game with only dying to the big bosses at the end of each act, and even then I'd stand a fair shot at getting through those battles without a death too. What's more, dying oftentimes doesn't even mean very much.

Diablo II did a great job of creating some challenge, especially the first time through the game. (How many of us died the first time we encountered an on-hit proc charged bolt mob?) Death also meant dropping your corpse and all of your equipped items, which presented a special challenge when it was in the middle of a bunch of nasty spiders or vicious pygmies.

• Great Support

Last, but certainly not least, is the great support the game has had over the years. Certainly, the ability to have such good support is due in large part to the long term success of the game, but Blizzard has gone beyond just keeping Battle.net up and fielding customer support calls. They've actually been patching the game all this time. And, for a non-MMORPG, that's an almost unheard of level of support.