How Diablo II Taught Me The Way of The Warrior

I love RPG's. From tabletop RPG's like Magic to the traditional JRPG like Final Fantasy. I just love them. Over time I've grown very fond of the western RPG.  That's not to say that I don't like JRPG's. They just haven't evolved in such a way to keep me interested or engaged. My first real experience with a traditional western RPG was actually Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance (both 1 & 2) on the PlayStation 2. I played co-op with a friend and was in love from day one.

This is where Diablo II comes in. I have had friend upon friend say "DUDE! You gotta play Diablo II!" I would then ask them why, and they would spew a lot more hyperbole and I would just move on. I just didn't see the appeal of playing an 11 year old action RPG, especially on a PC. Then one day, a friend just got fed up with my cynicism and made me buy it. That was 2 weeks ago. My thoughts? Everything I've played and been told about games was a lie. Diablo II is a huge deal. 

I'm playing way too many titles now (if you've followed this blog since day one...then you know I've always had this issue). I'm playing Borderlands (6th play through on two systems), Dungeon Siege 3, and Dragon Age 2. These are all action RPG's (yes even Borderlands), and I have discovered that these titles have done nothing with the core elements of what make up an action RPG. Is this bad? Not necessarily, it just means that the system is perfect, so why change it?

How these particular aforementioned titles set themselves apart is by usually taking the core elements and adding a couple of unique twists. For instance with Borderlands it's about the weapons, with Dragon Age 2 it's the furious pace of the action (as in not as sluggish as most action RPG titles), and Dungeon Siege 3 is essentially an amped up version of Diablo II across the board.

I'm only about six hours into Diablo II and I can't believe how ahead of its time it was. I mean the game looks hideous, but it is absolutely incredible. It's lo-fi gaming at its finest. I'm putting in DOS prompts for invites for crying out loud. That's almost as sexy as wearing a pair of Nike Cortez. Almost. I'm really impressed at just how much this game's influence has stretched to so many other titles over the last 11 years. Granted, there were titles that were doing this before Diablo II (Might and Magic, Neverwinter Nights, and even Blizzard's own Warcraft), it's just that this was a heavy metal version of all those older titles. It's like Iron Maiden, Testament, and Judas Priest had an orgy and out came Diablo II.

Right now I have a level 12 barbarian purging the whatever land of demons, orcs, witches, and all kinds of other crap. I'm not alone in my quest however. I'm playing with someone who has destroyed the game some 2 or 3 times with multiple character classes. He's "rushing" me through the game now. This means he's got all this cool shit that I don't and he helps me beat the game super fast. I level up really quick ,and then we do some stuff that I don't quite grasp because I had no idea how many people still play this game. This would explain Blizzard taking their sweet time releasing Diablo 3.

They know they could release a polished turd with a few changes and we'll just gobble it up like the adorably gullible morons we are. Of course they won't do that because guys like this will verbally crucify you. The video is fake, but he makes a fantastic point about how ridiculous the "core" fan base can be. I love the game. I haven't played a game on PC since Guild Wars and that was 7 years ago.

 While playing Diablo II I begin to remember why I hated to play games on PC. There are always a million commands and shortcuts, it drives me insane. I'm used to it now though and I'm having a lot of fun. My friend uses all this terminology from the Diablo II vernacular that I don't get, but I'm glad I get to see why people enjoy the game so much. Everything that I thought was "innovative" or "groundbreaking" was neither of those things, they were simply enhancements of older mechanics and that's okay.

Diablo II is very influential in terms of the action RPG's that we see today, and I don't really see them deviating from such a successful formula any time soon. Diablo II has turned me from a non-believer in the PC platform to a full blown advocate for it. With so many titles coming to PC, I'm starting to realize that maybe it's time to build a killer machine. Diablo II has effectively shown me the way of the warrior in so many ways.