True role playing

To finally deserve the title role playing game, Diablo II should propose approximately six major searches per act to be carried out, in a universe notably more interactive. The player will be able thus to interact with elements of the decoration and to obtain information through the non-player characters whom it will meet. These searches could be also undertaken in multiplayer, which should accentuate the co-operation between players on Battle.net, Blizzard's online server. Whereas Diablo made it possible to only have a maximum of four players connected simultaneously, Diablo II should accept up to eight. Moreover, Bill Roper made it clear to us that the difficulty of each part will be adjusted with the number of players connected together. And even if the players decided it would be better to himself divide themselves into teams, each Act offer a world sufficiently vast so that one would not necessarily inevitably find themselves in some area of which the population of monster have been devastated by another!

Single characters in their kind

Whereas in Diablo nothing resembled one warrior more than another warrior, Diablo II allows you to really " customize " your character. Initially, five classes of characters will be proposed to you : the barbarian and the Amazon for the amateurs of combat ; the enchantress and the necromancer for those which are rather inclined towards magic ; and the paladin which draws its force from the faith in its weapons. Then, the weapons and the armours carried will be displayed accurately on the screen, rather than to be represented by standard graphic elements. Lastly, each character could be developed in a unique way by specializing it in certain competences, among about thirty available. For example, for the Amazon, you are free to place the point that you receive (in an increase of level) in the competence relative with handling of javelin, or that relative with archery. In multiplayer, two characters of the same class will be able to thus appear perfectly complementary.

A universe reconsidered multiplay

In addition to the search undertaken in multiplayer mode, Battle.net offer some many new options for the player of Diablo II. For example, Blizzard is thinking of putting some secure means to allow the player to himself exchange or sell some object within the party. The existence of clans will be also on Battle.net, where each member will dissociate himself by a specific logo to his clan. In addition, the members of a same " tribe " will have the possibility of bringing together their characters in a hall deprived to involve them with combat, for example.

An arena of combat, where the players will defy themselves for the stake of their choice, is also considered. Lastly, by adopting a constant server/client connection, Blizzard indeed expects to eradicate the cheating in Diablo II, the data relating to the characters of each player will be preserved on the server of Battle.net.

There still remain many things to discover about Diablo II, in particular Act III and the barbarian, which will be presented at E3 in May, much like the effects on light and environment with 3D accelerators. There is no doubt that when it comes out, expected this autumn, Diablo II will get everyone talking..