Diablo Battle Chest Reviews

• The perfect game to while away those stolen hours

  
  By A3OBP99ZV5TG6C on 2005-04-27
  I have played the whole Diablo line since day one. I have put up with lots of abuse, both from wife and kids, about being "addicted". Hah!!! Then one day.... after I poked my head in the room and ran right back out to see if anyone would chase me.... :)
  
  Seriously, this game has it all. On most of the lower levels, the game is the equivalent of 'Freecell'. It is motion oriented solitaire, kind of mindless and entertaining. As you move up to the harder levels, surprises come and mental challenges. And of course the guy factor... all those new toys!!! (We even like the nifty clothes... errrr, I mean armor :))
  
  The story lines are interesting, the players can be developed in soooo many different ways and actually have to develop different battle modes that translate well to their individual "characters" (Ever see a barbarian with a bow??)
  
  I highly recommend this game, regardless of age or sex, single or multi-player... it rocks!!
  
  

• Award Winning Action Packed Gift Set!

  
  By A2NIBFR8U1WLRQ on 2002-02-05
  This my friend, is an award winning gift set collection for any hardcore gamer. Novice or expert, with Diablo and it's following titles this is a great buy for your money's worth! You get the first-ever action-packed Diablo game, it's following ancestors, Diablo II and Diablo II:Lord of Destruction, and you also get Diablo II and Lord of Destruction Strategy Guide, and a cool poster all for currently twenty dollars! Don't miss out on this awesome gift set collection. In Diablo, you are destined to slaughter the lord of terror, Diablo. You get lots of fun filled quests with an epic story line, challenging bosses, great weapons, lovely items, and good graphics. In Diablo II, the lord of terror returns and again, you must go out and hunt Diablo. Diablo II has more items, weapons, better graphics, four acts, and great new challenging monsters and bosses that will keep you playing. Then, after you beat Diablo II, you must install Diablo II:Lord of Destruction. Diablo II:Lord of Destruction is the expansion pack for Diablo II. In Lord of Destruction the lord of terror doesn't return, but you must seek and destroy a new enemy, Baal. Baal is the big boss, the lord of destruction people say. In Diablo II:Lord of Destruction you get thousands, not hundreds but thousands, of new items, lovelier weapons, lots of new monsters, tons of great big bad bosses, and a brand new act to complete, to seek and destroy the lord of terror, Baal. If you have trouble you can always turn to the Diablo II Strategy Guide that comes along with this great gift collection, and who knows, you may learn something new. Diablo Battle Chest is a great gift collection for anyone who loves Blizzard's other award-winning titles, novice or expert, all non or current Diablo fans will love this gift collection. Why? Because it has the first award-winning title that started it all, Diablo, then Diablo II and Diablo II:Lord of Destruction, two manuals, one big fat Diablo II Strategy Guide, a cool poster, and most important of all, addictive hot sweet sweet sizzling non-stop action that will keep you riveted. So for your average gaming buck, it's not a bad deal, so I say buy this item now, or you'll regret it! :)
  
  

• "What I saw next was not meant for mortal eyes"

  
  By A31RM5QU797HPJ on 2005-07-21
  
  
  Diablo Battle Chest includes Diablo, Diablo II and the expansion pack, Lord of Destruction. This is a fun game to play online (World of Warcraft, this is not). You get to play as a hero to fight the forces of Hell. This is a well thought-out game, worthy of being the best RPG of all. I've played AD&D (and still do), but Diablo has some stuff that AD&D doesn't.
  Diablo II is separated into 4 acts (five with LOD). Each of the 5 acts begins with a movie. The voice-acting is great. If you're an RPG fan, than you owe it to yourself to play this game.
  
  

• It is fun...but way too hard!

  
  By AEDLJZMLDDGWA on 2001-10-14
  D2 has a LOT of good features. The graphics and sound effects are great. The character development is better than any which I have ever seen (I played AD&D for the last twenty years, and I think that D2 has developed a better character system). The game is divided into four acts (five with expansion). The first three acts are fun, challenging, and not too hard. The fourth and fifth acts are just rediculously difficult. I find myself running my characters around in the third act in an attempt to beef them up, only to still find them far too weak to stand up to the hordes of far-too-difficult monsters in the fourth act.

  The only reason I have even SEEN the fifth act is because I have some "hacked" characters, which are ultra-powerful (one is a 93rd level paladin with about 3500 HP, and yes he has been killed on the hell difficulty level).

  The difficulty goes to the extreme with the Nightmare and Hell difficulty levels, and I don't know how anyone could ever beat them. A typical monster has over 1000 hp, and does hundreds of points of damage. At the same time, the experience point demands for advancing levels becomes sky-high. While the ammount you get for each monster becomes miniscule in compairison.

  All in all, a good game that needs to have the monsters toned down a bit.
  
  

• Back in my buddy's Rec Room

  
  By A3DIS5O83SQJWW on 2002-08-15
  Firing up Diablo II takes me back to my early days of D&D. I recently recevied the game from my cousin who has been a hardcore Diablo fan since Day One.

  The Battle Chest is a great value. Although I've been slashing my way through D2, I just found out that a friend plays D1 online at BattleNet. Lucky for me, and others who've discovered the Battle Chest, I've got both games.

  As many others have pointed out, the interface is rather intuitive. I've played D2 online for the most part. Starting out is a real challenge. If you're killed with no backup weapons back in town, you need to trudge out and reclaim your posessions barehanded. And the fiends who inhabit the Diablo landscape aren't going to make it easy for you.

  As characters develop, they really do take on their own personality. As you "level up" you decide where skill points will be distributed. Will you focus on lightning skills, or become the master of two handed axe wielding ? Its up to you. Lots of todays teens will easily get drawn into the adventuring, to be sure. But for for the old-school adventurers who yearn to dig out their 20-sided die one more time, give Diablo a whirl.
  
  

• This Set is a Great Purchase.
  By A3AX7NLMUGOL06 on 2001-11-28
  First of all, this set is great because you pretty much get Diablo I for free, and even spend less than you would buying D2 plus the expansion pack separately. Diablo II is the most addictive and well put together game I have probably ever played. The expansion pack makes it even better. This single set represents literally months of really enjoyable gameplay.
  
  
• Diablo 2 good to start with ----> QUICKLY becomes boring
  By A2T6IIV5KY2M5C on 2002-03-31
  Diablo 2 is good to play for the 1st time.
  There isn't much replay value after 1st time. Even each successive Quest gets more boring because it is a rehashed formula.

  Quest Formula from secret Blizzard QA research labs:

  Quest "abc"
  1. find and kill x number of small monsters (or, more accurately, 'wade' through x number of small monsters)
  2. meet big monster. kill it
  3. receive item to advance to next Quest (ie. go to step 1.)

  What is amazing is the first time you play it it is fun because it is new and although there seems to be a lot of freedom in what you do, there is really no choice beyond choosing which way to kill a monster. There are no secret doors, environmental hazards like drowning or falling down a pit, traps (the 'traps' that do exist subtract some health every now and then <--that is it is to you after playing through the 1st couple of maps), no climbing, no riddles or puzzles, no environment interaction like searching shelves for hidden maps and switches. No mysteries or plot. No pissing in a well to poison it for the other characters (I mean it seems that way if you listen to the sound effect - it just hasen't been implemented).

  The only other remaining REAL POTENTIAL hinted at in Diablo 1 (utilizing tactics in battle) was destroyed because it is not tactical at all. Even in the last Quests the most powerful creatures roaming around are completely not dangerous and fieresome: about as much as a gibberling, perhaps, in Baldur's Gate.

  Diablo 2 may have had to happen this way though because it would be HUGE to make a true, interactive environment and mysterious, interactive and compelling story + Diablo 2. Blizzard has created a world engine where a unique wallpaper is pasted and all the monsters are dumped inside with one major, behaviour-defining flag (CHARGEANDKILLPLAYER = 1).

  Gameplay
  Gameplay (from secret Blizzard QA research labs):

  Gameplay
  1. run onto different map
  2. look at moving graphics on screen
  3. click on moving graphics until they stop moving
  4. collect treasure
  3. go to step 1.

  The much debated RPG elements of Diablo 2 revealed:
  1. click on people in town
  2. __receive__ obligatory inane dialogue or skip and read Quest summary (in shorter more concise form than Quest "abc" above: "Find a and return to b" or, "Kill c")
  3. gamble treasure for .00001% chance of receiving an interesting item

  Now if any of the big bosses had shown intelligence and followed you through the portal to where you kept retreating to recharge health all the time you ran out of potions. THAT would be interesting. But as it is you attack the big, fat end boss, recharge health, attack the . . . and repeat that cycle 10x for victory.

  Graphics
  quite good. ability to look at town characters and quest milestones as hires images would have been nice. You find the few pixels defining a characters features and the environments stops you relating to anything in the game (ie you subconciously thinking when running across a map - happens only once upon entry to map: "some purpley dark cave that looks vaguely jagged" "now im running in some icy cave with a fancy name i can't remember . . . cool" :| Next time round: "mm. . purple cave" and "cyan and blue cave. vaguely icy"

  Maybe if your character shivered and showed icy breath or had to wear furs, started slipping on ice, weapon freezing and snapping into shards, boots making crunching sounds, wading through snow then you may have appreciated that it was THE frozen river passageway. Also if you created firewalls and infernos that the cave would melt and snow and ice would collapse everywhere.

  Sound
  quite good where it is. needs much more to create immersive environment though
  
  

• An Old Patron Of The Popular and Extremely Addictived PC Game
  By A1C7BWPATO40VA on 2005-08-10
  This whole package includes the first Diablo and the full set of Diablo 2. All together about 5 discs taking about a total of 1.5 GB of harddrive space for not full installation meaning only game and not cinematics, expansion disk require for play. Note: Diablo 1 isn't required for Diablo 2 installation so 1.5 GB is from Diablo 2 alone. Diablo 1 only takes a couple of MB. The main reason anyone should get this is to play it on multiplayer mode with other players through 3 or so different relms-USWest, USEast, and Europe. Different relms just mean different time zones and people supposedly.
  
  Players that should play it nowadays would come upon the option of playing 7 different characters with the expansion set installed. Characters such as: The Necromancer(Summoner/Caster), Sorceress(Spell Caster, taken from D1), Amazon(Melee Bow or Spear related, taken from D1), Barbarian(Pure Melee hand to hand combat), Paladin(Part Caster/Part hand to hand combat, taken from D1), and the two new expansion characters the Assassin(Melee/Caster) and Druid(Summoner/Morpher/Caster). Each one has their own different spells, item functions and looks when equiped, different advantages and disadvantages when it comes to enemies and when versing other player character types and gameplay overall, etc.
  
  Playing this online now would give you the option of either choosing to put your character on normal mode, ladder mode, or hardcore mode. There are more, but I'm not familiar with them. Normal is just as it is, just playing simply for playing it. However, on ladder mode, you get a larger variety of items, the gameplay is different in some situations, things cost differently, and there are seasons in which after each season ends(about a year or so) and all ladder characters get resetted to NORMAL. So ladder is more based on time. Hardcore is hard to the fact that after you die, thats it, just serve for more of a challenge for the risk takers and probably more advance players. Currently ladder season during the making of this review is 2 and 3 is coming soon.
  
  Now, for an online review:
  
  Playing online requires you to be witty and to know your price in the market/trading area. Being witty includes not falling for cheap scams, knowing a good trade from a bad trade, taking advantage of a good situation when they come up, and so on. This is the thing about the game. To become decent you must play about 2 hours a day, to become good you must play about 3-4 hours daily, and the rest are for lifeless people. By the way, anyone here heard about the Korean boy that died from playing this game several days straight without sleep, bathroom breaks, food, etc? It was in the news. Thats another reason why this game becomes a bit shallow later, when the player realizes that no matter how much you play, its hard to get everything you want. Its like going on forever for not much at all. A good player can make about a few profitable trades a day. Gameplay online can also be very laggy at times, the pop error has been fixed. Rushing isn't as easy as you now need to get to level 25 to be rushed and leveled successfully. By the way, you can no longer go all the way to hell cows or nowadays Baal run and go from level 5 to 99.
  
  Expansion therefore has added Baal as the last boss, however, in my opinion, Diablo is still the hardest. Making it a total of 5 acts. Each act contains objectives. Boss goes as follow: Andariel(Melee/Poison), Tal Rasha(Melee/Ice/Poison), Mephisto(Fire/Melee/Ice), Diablo(Fire/Thunder), Baal(forgot, uses some sort of nova and blast). Any further information go to battle.net. This also excluding the secret cow level. Act one, in town, requirements:Warts leg at the town of tristrum, a scroll of town portal, and the cube from act 2.
  
  I remember when I was first introduced into this game around the time of version 1.09. Unfortunately I found out that I was slightly late for one of the most memorable version, version 1.08. 1.08 by the way, was the version of legendary items such as the constricting ring (100resist all, 100magic find ring), 1.08 Valor(over 249+ to vitality from what I remember at lvl 99 ), vampire gaze, shako, stormshield, etc. They make most of their later versions pale in comparison.
  
  I played for a few months in the beginning, got totally addicted to the game, but gave up after the pop error occured during a pvp (player vs player). Pop error is the error in the game during those later versions in which the character would be naked after losing, during the time when you go back out to get your body back, you end up picking up an item and being killed right after, resulting in your main body with all the items that your character was holding to explode and your item laying all over the ground for other people to grab. In this case, my most prized possession at that time, my windforce which took me weeks and 40 SOJS (stone of jordans ring) to get.
  
  Eventually going back to it, however, quitting several months later due to college and complaints from family and friends about my addiction. Sold account for $120.
  
  Just beware, this game can make you swing two ways, make you totally dismiss it or suck you in. Its hard to control yourself. If you have kids that need to do their school work, don't get them this game. Otherwise, get them it, its pretty good and should easily entertain you for months. Nice day everyone.
  
  
• Now THIS is my kind of video game...
  By A11C3BT4A8M9VG on 2002-10-22
  ...And it's a GREAT value!! To tell you the truth, I haven't played it a whole lot, so I can't rattle off all sorts of neat facts, but I can tell you it kicks the "you know what" (...) out of most games.

  The graphics are improved with the expansion pack included, allowing you to have 800x600 resolution even on the original Diablo II, which is cool. There are two new character classes, and they are both welcome additions. Act V with 6 new quests I believe, is on the expansion pack.

  Like I said before, this is a...value. At first, I bought Diablo II for [$$]. Then I planned on buying Lord of Destruction for another [$$], but then it hit me...that, my friends, is a [joke]!! I got my money back for Diablo II, and then bought the battle chest which includes Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and an awesome strategy guide...but the best part is....IT'S [$$] LESS THAN THE DIABLO II + EXPANSION PACK COMBO!! Go for the battle chest, it's worth every penny.
  
  

• SLEEP BECOMES OPTIONAL
  By A26F0H4X95PSPN on 2005-01-09
  "If I can just make it to the Arcane Sanctuary, I'll call it a night." How many times did I say this, only to see - out of the corner of my eye - the sun come up?
  Both Diablo I & II are insanely addictive, so keep that in mind when buying this as a gift for loved ones. While the Diablo II expansion included in this set [Lord of Destruction, or LoD] keeps the game fresh, Diablo I is essentially outdated. Diablo I was an amazing game during the pentium era in which it was released, but times have changed, and ultimately there is no reason to spend much time playing Diablo I when you have the sequel and it's expansion in your hands. (There is an expansion available for Diablo I, called HellFire - but again - why not just play the far superior LoD?) It should be mentioned that Diablo II is far outshined by LoD, but you need the Diablo II program on your computer in order to load up LoD, so that's why this package isn't completely redundant. The strategy guide included in this set is for Diablo II; it is somewhat useful for beginners, but advanced players would rather have the LoD strategy guide [not included in this set]. I recommend that players download the latest patch from Blizzard, to get the most out of the game.
  
  While Diablo II & LoD are linear in their game play (you follow the same path every time to get to the end of the game), it is nonetheless impressive how character development can go in so many directions. Seven character classes are offered, and each class has 3 different "skill trees" to progress in. Focusing on certain skills within a tree can itself change the way in which you relate to the game; characters can become so specialized that names have been attributed to them (lexicons can be found on the Net). For example, if you choose to play a character of the new Druid class, he can be differentiated into a Shifter, Summoner, Elementist, Botanist, Windbreaker, Bowling Druid, etc. [lingo used by Diablo addicts, these aren't terms that the game itself uses]. It could be said that choosing different paths renews the playability of the game, as you are forced to figure out new strategies to survive. Once you beat the game in "Normal" mode (i.e., finish all 5 "Acts"), your character may venture into "Nightmare" mode, which adds new dimensions and incentives to continue investing time in your hero (it gets worse: after Nightmare mode there is Hell mode, a level of difficulty that literally makes your character's life a living hell - sounds like fun, no?)
  
  I've been playing this game since its release, have at least one character from each class, and can hardly believe how much I still have to learn. Lately I've discovered several websites devoted to the game, and features of the game that previously made little sense now are revealed as worthwhile to me. The soundtrack for Diablo II & LoD is so good that I've downloaded [for free] all of the music from Blizzard's awesome website. If you are getting the impression that this game can create a black hole in your weekly schedule, then I think I have gotten my point across. Be warned, this is not kid's stuff...I once watched a girlfriend's 10-year-old son break into tears as he realized he could not defeat Baal, the endgame foe. I counseled him on spending his skill points more sagaciously, but it didn't matter: he found some hacked items on the Web and consequently sailed unimpeded thru the game. I like how Blizzard keeps patching the game, though -- countering the hacks, with each patch moving the original version of Diablo II closer to perfection. Sure, it's a ridiculous game in many ways, but when you reach the Nightmare and Hell difficulty modes what you come to care about is survival, not how much sense it all makes...
  
  
• It's the best!
  By on 2003-08-04
  I love Diablo. In my opinion D2's the best game ever made. I've played with my boyfriend's copy but my birthday's coming up and I'm hoping for the battle chest. I've played D1 and D2 before, just not D2x. D1 isn't really so great. People say it has a better storyline but I disagree; it has an insane storyline that revolves around the items you have to give to people. It didn't click with me. However, I love everything about D2. The graphics are great for when it was made, and are still very fashionable by today's standards. It's just not 3D, which puts some people off, but it's a very good looking game and the MOST FUN to play.

  And to the person who said that the game is horrible because there are scammers and people with hacks on BNet, it is all true. Playing on BNet is horrible if you don't congregate with people that you know. They all use hacks and steal items and scam you. But there is no problem if you choose not to interact with these people. Besides, this is irrelevant to the GAME itself; this is the fault of people, not Blizzard. The GAME is great but people are not. It is simple as that. The game still deserves 5 stars because it's the greatest game ever made! Very VERY addicting.
  
  

• Why do people say this game is "addictive"?
  By A2LP3RWE75ZA4O on 2002-05-06
  Diablo 2 is a well-done, well put-together game. What I don't understand, is why it has such a reputation for being "addictive". It's fun for a while, but boy is it ever monotonous!

  The dungeons are randomly generated, which gives you the idea that the game has some replayability, but they are so bland and featureless that it doesn't really make a difference. Each area is a plain-looking labyrinth with a few features that start repeating themselves after you have been playing for five minutes. Each level is filled with hordes of the same 2 or 3 enemies that you clean out by furiously clicking the mouse buttons and tapping your hot keys. When you advance to a new level, the same 2 or 3 enemies are there, but they are a different color, and they have a few more hit points, or they do a bit more damage.

  The game never really challenges you until you face a big boss. Fighting the bosses is the most fun (and the only really challenging) part of the game. The bosses require resourcefulness to defeat. The rest of it can be won by repeating the same set of simple tactics over and over again.

  The complete lack of a storyline in this game doesn't help. It is about as interesting as "Space Invaders". It's too bad, because a good story could have made each level more rewarding.

  To make matters worse, this game has no quick save key. You actually have to quit this game to save it. If you do this, then you start off back in town, and the monsters in every area are resurrected. You have to find a waypoint in order to save the game, unless you feel like cleaning out the same portion of dungeon again to get back to where you were.

  And what do you do if your computer crashes after 45 minutes of unsaved playing?

  [stinks] to be you I guess.

  I don't want to be all negative about this game. It has an excellent interface, which has been copied in some way so many times that it's hard to keep track. You can customize this interface and set up hot keys however you like. The character trait and skill point system is a great way to advance levels. I especially like the skill trees. Each character class has its own unique skill tree, which allows you to develop spells and other special abilities. A character starts off learning the simpler skills, and progresses gradually to learn more powerful skills. The graphics and animation are pretty good, but the spell effects are the best part of the game. The game is long and has a lot of different classes to play with, which means that if you enjoy it you will find this set to be great value.

  It's kind of a downer jumping over to "Diablo 2" from brilliant and rich games like "Planescape:Torment" and "Baldurs Gate 2". "Diablo 2" is sort an arcade game on the PC. I guess that everyone has their own preference.
  
  

• Awesome game
  By A2B4OI5YZAJGZR on 2003-06-09
  many people think that other roleplaying games are better. i found d2 and d2x are awesome! i baught the pack cause i gave the game away to a desperate freind, never to see it again. i played diablo AFTER diablo 2, so it was a let down, blizzard made D2 mountains better than d1, but d1 is still fun, has more a plot line to follow. d2 is better than everquest, cause i love larger battles with monters rather 1 on 1 in a large pointless world. d2 normal is harder, ebcause its harder to level in there, d2x makes it easier, and has a lot of good features. but its more fun to do d2, then d2x, just to be amazed at the new things, rather than get it all at once. it is addicting, so if you don't have extra time, be warned. if your buying to use while working, don't, you'll be [upset] when you have to exit fast, its that addicting.if you do buy this, i was so addicted i had 3 level 80+ characters on battle.net, which is the best thing in the world. hope this helped. its a good buy, or just buy d2 and d2x
  
  
• Worth Every Gold Piece
  By A2PUYMR4W89GUY on 2003-07-14
  I don't know what took me so long to play any of the Diablo games, especially after spending so many hours dedicated to Dungeon Siege. But when I saw the package here, I figured I might as well get it. For the same amount of money you would spend on one brand new game (actually, this is even less than that), you get the following: Diablo, Diablo II, and Diablo II's expansion pack Lord of Destruction, with a strategy guide for the latter two thrown in for good measure. How can you possibly go wrong? You can't.

  The first thing I noticed about Diablo is that it is very similar to Dungeon Siege. I know, I know - Diablo came first. But not for me, since I played Dungeon Siege a year before Diablo. There are some good differences and bad differences between the two, but I won't get into that since they are two different games. Diablo II and Lord of Destruction both have great graphics, but I can't exactly say the same about the first Diablo. I started playing Diablo II first, then took a break to play Diablo - and boy is there a huge difference. Diablo, while still just as much fun to play as its sequel, is harder for two reasons: One, the game is darker and the graphics are grainy, which makes it hard to see where you're going (especially when you have the map mode on); Two, it seems much easier to die than in Diablo II - this may be because not as many monsters tend to drop health potions, and you don't have as much room in your inventory to store them anyway. So, needless to say, I'm spending more time with Diablo II. I'm only still in the first act (although I'm one quest away from completing it), but I'm having the time of my life. It brings back memories of when I first started playing Dungeon Siege last year and couldn't get enough of it. But I think I like Diablo even better. With Dungeon Siege, the characters did the fighting for you; in Diablo, you have to click, click, click till the dang things are dead - which may start to wear on your fingers after a while, but at least this way you feel more like part of the game then in Dungeon Siege.

  The only complaint I have about this game is when I installed Diablo II, it took more than two hours to install - but maybe it had more to do with my computer (which has XP) than the actual game, because my boyfriend said it shouldn't have taken so long.

  So if you ever thought of playing Diablo, or played Dungeon Siege and liked it, then this is your best bet. My boyfriend had purchased all three of these games back when they first came out and spent about this much on each - if not more (ha ha, honey!). So, I ended up waiting a long time to play this, but I guess it paid off in the end.
  
  

• Stay Away!!
  By A2GBVP3TU3X701 on 2007-05-08
  Unless you enjoy crack cocaine and other highly addictive substances, this game is not for you! I don't know how Blizzard stumbled on the perfect randon-reward system to ensure a large section of the community would never get a tan again, but I wish I had back the 2 solid years of life they stole from me.
  
  
• Bo D2 fan
  By on 2001-11-05
  Diablo2 is the best game I have ever played in my life. The graphics are much beter then the frist one. And the characters are better,too. Also it is the hardest game I have ever played.Diablo2 lord of destruction is what makes it the best game I have ever played.And getting both in the same pakage is realy a good deal.Plus you get Diablo1 and you get a stradegy gide. I hope you by it and like it also I hope this was a goud review.
  
  
• BEST GAMES EVER
  By A20ZVA5KSD86YM on 2001-11-14
  I don't really own the Battle Chest, but I have bought each game individually. I doubt that matters, though. Diablo was a great game when I got it and it still is, but I never play it anymore because of Diablo II and Diablo II Expansion Set. Diablo II is the best game I own, besides its expansion. I sincerely recommend these games but you might not want to get normal Diablo, because it will most likely be neglected as long as you have the other two.
  
  
• Amazingly addictive
  By A20AM8BA2RU9NU on 2001-12-31
  Diablo II is A hack-n-slash RPG with surprising depth. The gameplay is fast and furious that either hooks you for life or leaves you cold. The skill point system is amazing, allowing for a huge variety of character variations, there is 5 classes in the original and 7 in the expansion pack but each class has hundreds of ways to play. For example you can be a druid with brute force, become the werewolf and attack enemies with speed and power or you can summon animals to do your bidding but not with the same character. It's the character variation and the will to make the best character possible that keeps you coming back. It also packs the original, which is a big plus, if you get bored of the second go old school with the original. But be warned, If you get hooked on this game there is no turning back. Shop wisely. If you have grades or a social life to worry about steer clear of this game. It sucks your time like a black hole. But it's a compelling and extremely entertaining black hole.
  
  
• a good value for the money
  By AA61MHMONR4XI on 2003-04-23
  I read about Diablo years ago. Now this package is available. These games are HIGHLY addictive!

  It takes quite a while to get through the quest, or quests. There is alot of fighting and crypt crawling. Sometimes management of items will get tedious, and you will have to sell or drop some things along the way. I had to tackle some of the bosses several times in order to achieve victory. Along the way there are hirelings available to help you on your quest. There are also some helpful non-player characters with information and services available. I've had to take a break from it several times, as the last legs of the journey can be difficult. It is sometimes preferable to go back and clean out several dungeons to raise experience levels before tackling a tough boss.

  There are several classes available. I played the barbarian in the demo, and am now running a necromancer. The spell casters are a little more difficult to play - the game is basically alot of fighting, and unless you have some decent magical items or helpers you are going to find yourself dying frequently. The graphics are awesome, but you will need a pretty fast processor -there is a lag sometimes even on my machine. I've never seen such great backgrounds before, and the creatures and people are quite vivid. The slant of the game is obviously towards males aged 13 - 30 though - there's alot of half naked women running around!

  One of the design features I like the best is the skill system. You don't simply go up in levels and learn spells automatically. You must choose various skills, most of which can be taken again to improve them. The basic skills must be learned before some of the advanced stuff can be chosen. No two characters will be the same. Sometimes you will find a choice does not work well given your style of play, as I did a few times. Some skills will find more general use, and others you might only use a few times to get out of a sticky situation. The same system applies for fighters. If you don't know the skill for a particular weapon it will be less effective, and some weapons may not be available for your class at all. And armor is sometimes unwearable without some rings or amulets available to boost your strength.

  It's long and sometimes frustrating, but the package was well worth the money.
  
  

• THIS IS FUN
  By AVZNB9OGO7XMD on 2003-08-22
  I was struck dumb with awe when i friend showed me this game. IT is the koolest game i have ever played on the computer. You are a hero who tries to defeat the ultimate evil Diablo. You can choose from 7 classes in the expainsion. Assisain, druid, amazon, barbarian, padilin, and my fav sorceress. When you first start out u have no armor and weak weapons but when u kill monsters you will gain exp and sometimes they drop weapons or armor. This is a 3rd person game and its real time. The animations are wonderful and the cutseens are really well done. The cap lv is 99 and when u lv up u can choose to up str or def or something else. You can also get speical attacks or magic. Like leap attack if ur a barbarin or something like nova which is an attack that realeses energy and goes out of u in the form of a cricle. This is the best game i have played in a long time i it has a high replay rating since u can play online and theres so many iteams to collect. The secret cow lv is really fun and funny. I hope u enjoy this as much as i did
  
  
• How long have I been playing this???
  By on 2004-03-27
  These games were a big hit on my PC.
  The original Diablo's graphics didn't seem poor to me until after Diablo II came out.
  Love the greater character depth that II brought.
  The additional character types also revive the story when you have 'played out' an old character.
  Problems?
  Well for the Nech. raising the dead can come back to haunt you...if you grow them on both sides of you in a tunnel they have a tendency to jam the tunnel and thier love of you means that they arent going anywhere. Must restart the game to resume.
  I also prefer a Game Save to save right where I am and not return me to back to the level origin with all the bad guys I worked hard to terminate revived as if I have to pay some penalty for saving the game.
  It also took me a while to learn that you don't have to pick something up just because a monster dropped it. This lesson will save you loads of trips to the surface to sell worthless junk when the thing that you really want respectable armor/weapons to spend with the money that seems to always be filling your little chest (storage rental???).
  These minor blemishes don't detract from the inventive play and running battles that keep me coming back for more.
  
  
• I'm Addicted to this Game
  By A13TO1ZFAH9SVN on 2004-11-09
  Diablo was a fun game. I enjoyed beating it, but the game had it's flaws. I picked Diablo II up a couple of months ago, because I finally found the Battlechest for a price I felt I could pay. I wish I wouldn't have been so cheap. This game is awesome. It blows the first one away and they hard to even compare.
  
  Diablo II is kind of like an RPG. You don't fight in the normal RPG way, but your goal is to complete missions and work your character up to a high enough level so you can slay the Dark Lord. In the original game there were only three character classes to chose from. That has changed in this one. You can now select from an Amazon, Necromancer, Sorceress, Paladin, Barbarian, and with the Expansion Set a Druid and Assasin.
  
  All the characters have special abilites that none of the others do. The abilities hold true to the idea behind the character. They had a new fun element to the game play. Magic is done a lot more realistic in this game than it was in the first one.
  
  The gameplay is pretty fun. I've beat Diablo, but haven't finished beating the Expansion set. I'm almost to Baal and I'm loving every second of it. Some of the quests I found to be quite fun. The guys did a good job writing the storyline. Some of them did get a little old and I was very happy once I completed them.
  
  The real thing that makes this game shine though is Battle.Net. You have to give Blizzard there props. Battle.Net should be prescribed with a warning label. Every Blizzard game I've ever owned has always been better on Battle.Net fighting with other people and this one holds true to that. It isn't as fun as Starcraft on the Net, but it's not to far from it.
  
  This game is addictive. You will lose all sense of time and place when you play it. You will want to beat it. You will want to beat it again. So don't be a cheap skate like I was and go pick this one up. You won't regret it.
  
  
• Addictive as Hell!
  By AWQ20N9GPMA2U on 2002-01-08
  So now it's been about a year of playing classic Diablo II and the Expansion and I'm still addicted. This is purchase is actually my second copy so that my wife can play online with me. This game is definately not for the hardcore turn-based RPG fans but does allow some creativity of items and characters found in the traditional. However, if you like a mix between first person shooters and RTS you will have fun playing. Additionally, b-net is a ton of fun with friends whom you can't always visit. If you are interested in this game, buy this box set (it's an awesome deal)!
  
  
• this is for kids with fast eye hand coordination
  By A3OOT4R3GCZKZZ on 2001-12-27
  i was given this set as a birthday gift, because I'd mentioned several years ago I enjoyed MYST. Well, where MYST required thinking and reasoning as your main requirements, this Diablo stuff is mainly a blood and gore kill or be killed game. I am in my early 40's and apparently lack the eye hand coordination to fight "monsters". I was very disappointed.
  
  
• Unbelievably addictive, infinite depth.
  By A2O7FFTDI99MVZ on 2002-04-24
  I have so say, as a newborn Hardcore Diablo fan, that is may be the most justified purchase of my gaming lifespan. I have been glued to my computer since I opened this Blizzard masterpiece, and I foresee no end in sight to my addiction. The single player game, while entertaining, in no way compares to the wonder that is the Diablo multiplayer experience. Who doesn't love to get on-line with seven of your closest friends and put an end to the forces of evil. Building your adventuring party from level one, and taking down boss after boss using in depth strategy, or in some cases plain old melee carnage provides this gamer with a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I can say that if you love gaming, this may be the single greatest purchase you can ever make. One caveat, however. If you are married, be prepared for several severe tongue lashings. My wife has already forgotten my name.
  
  
• HORRIBLE HORRIBLE GAME
  By AFPJLXBDMC7WI on 2003-05-30
  Diablo is pretty fun when you frist start out to paly it, but then once you get on Battle.net things start to go down. Online people get "rushed" rushing is where another high lvl charcter takes you though the main quests of the game in a matter of an hour, after that all you have to do is go leach in a game and then you are a lvl 85 charcter. There is no skill at all involved in Diablo, all you do is get rushed and then you but items off of ebay for your charcter, and then you have a very good charcter for a rush and some items off of ebay. Also on Dialo is trading, people trade with each other, except the trading chanell is always flooding so you can not read what people are saying, then when you accualy get to trade with some one they will either try and rip you off, or use a trade hack to steal your items. Hacking is another major problem on Diablo, everyone except the strange few people hack on Diablo, weither it be a Map Hack or another one everyone has one and they ruin the game. The Whole of Diablo 2 witht the expansion has only about 25 quests, when people never do any way because they are always geting rushed. During my Diablo time, I never complated the whole game on my own, and if you ask alot of people that play it they will never have also they will have just gotten rushed and then bought itmes. Scaming is also a bad thing about Diablo, poeple are very desprete for itmes so they will try and scam them out of you. One more thing, Diablo is also very addacting, some times I could not stop my slef from playing it because it was so addaing, while it has no point the game is very addaing. OK enough about the bad things of Diablo, time for the good things: NOTHING AT ALL. dont my this game invest your time in somehting else like StarCraft or WarCraft or an xbox. DIABLO IS A HORRIBLE ...GAME
  
  
• Diablo 2 When I kill a monster I like it to stay dead.
  By on 2003-12-04
  This review is for those who plan to play Diablo 2 off-line and not online. This game has some really serious design flaws. The first being the inability to save when you want. The second being every time you exit the game the monsters repopulate forcing you to replay that area over again and losing an hour of so of your time. Also the storyline wasnt that interesting mostly just hack and slash and I lost interest half way through the game which has never happened before.
  
  
• Many hours of fun/ Many hours of boredom
  By A2TUMM4IR07H2L on 2003-12-29
  When you first start to play this game it's the funnest thing in the world. Leveling and customizing your own character i mean what could be better. After playing it for some hours you start to realize that all you are doing is clicking a mouse and its not really entertaining. Then you decide to try out closed battle.net and its cool. Again many more hours of fun. Then you try open battle.net. Parties over. hackers and scammers everywhere then you think its awsome and you learn how to do it. You make a hacked character and play. After about 2 hours you realize that this is VERY boring and quit playing Diablo for some time. Oh and if your lucky your hacked character will screw up and all that time you put into hacking it will go down the drain. You will come back to this game after some months and it will be fun again and the cycle will repeat. And that is what happens when you buy this. If your a fan on boredom AND fun then this is a dream come true! Happy gaming.
  
  
• Very fun!
  By A21Q29J3ZWPDNP on 2005-10-23
  I'd have to say that Diablo 2 is the king of massive dungeon crawls for the PC. You have a massive world to explore (which was beautifully rendered for it's time) with hordes upon hordes of crazy undead and demons. There is a fair variety of classes to choose from, and enough different skills and items to make the characters fairly unique. There is a smattering of story throughout the game, and it's well done enough to be worth paying attention to. To add to the replay value, Blizzard has the online servers, where you can meet up with people from all over the world and play for free. Since the game doesn't require much of a computer, most people with a computer can enjoy it (a broadband connection helps a lot for online play, however).
  
  
• I really hate this!
  By A1AEGRPE4VM4RD on 2001-11-27
  I bought the diablo, diablo2 and diablo2e separately and they costed me almost a [dollar amount]. Now here comes the battle chest! With a price that is lower than [dollar amount]!
  I hate myself for making the deciseion to buy those great softwares that early...
  But no money can replace the great fun that these games brough me within the last few years.
  It's a great game, indeed.
  
  

• PC Gamer (1-year)

• StarCraft Battle Chest
• Warcraft III Battle Chest
• Baldur's Gate 2: Ultimate Collection (Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal)
• World of Warcraft Battlechest
• Diablo 2: Lord Of Destruction Expansion Set (PC & Mac)