When Diablo 2 was released in 2000, it didn't quite live up to most critics initial dizzyingly high expectations. But for me the proof of the games' star quality is in its longevity. Diablo 2 is still very popular almost a decade after its release with a huge following on Blizzard's battle.net. Given the fact that this was the first RPG game I've ever played and that I didn't play it until 2009 I wasn't burdened by high expectations and thoroughly enjoyed this game and spent many happy hours playing Diablo 2. Although Diablo 2 is far from perfect I give it a 10 for its ability to entertain and engage you for many hours.
The addictive hack'n-slash gameplay along with the ability to customize your character to suit your playing style is Diablo's 2 strongest points. You will spend most of your time just clicking on various monsters and your character will do the killing, this simple way of playing is oddly addictive (to most people anyway). The interesting part of the game is building up a character with various skills, strengths and weapons to deal with the progressively stronger monsters you will encounter as you progress in the game.
One of the games other strengths is its very forgiving learning curve, allowing a new player plenty of time to get into the game and build up a strong character before having to face some serious opposition. The game appeals to a casual player like me because you don't have to explore every aspect of the game to complete it, but have enough depth and intricacies for the hardcore players to explore who want to do more than just kill Diablo and watch the end movie.
A few things bothered me about Diablo 2. The one thing (that bothered a lot of other people as well) is the low quality graphics, even for a game released in 2000 it's just not up to scratch. The graphics were improved somewhat with the expansion pack so install the expansion if you want to play Diablo 2. The other is that I found one or 2 of the end-level bosses were disproportionally difficult to kill compared with the rest of the monsters in Diablo 2. There is no way to cheat to get past a difficult boss so you really can get stuck after spending many hours building a character who is just not good enough to get past one particular monster.
Overall, if you for some reason never played Diablo 2, it's still not too late. Pick it up from a bargain bin and give it a try!
