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. 

Blast From the Past: "The Operative: No One Lives Forever"


No One Lives Forever is a spy-genre game franchise that first began in 2000. In both the first game and the sequel, you play Cate Archer, master spy of UNITY – a secret British organization, an organization that feels ripped straight out of a typical 1960's spy movie. As Archer, you are sent on various missions around the world, starting in Morocco. Multiple UNITY agents have been killed as the game begins, so Cate gets a quick promotion and sent on assignment to Morocco. The Morocco mission is long, and exciting. Aside from some of the “gimmick” levels involving skydiving without a parachute and a zero-gravity space station, the Morocco mission is perhaps my favorite, in both the mix of humor and large and spacious level design. You soon realize that H.A.R.M. is involved and the game takes off!

I honestly do not know how innovative the game was at the time, but it's hard to find another game that mixed so many different locales, land, air and sea so perfectly. You get a taste of East and West Germany, the Alps, escape from a sinking boat, scuba dive a shipwreck, *free fall from an airplane*, explore tropical jungles, zero gravity space stations and underground lairs. This game pretty much has it all.