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Socketed & Set Weapons

Instead of cluttering up your already limited inventory, scrolls can now be stored in tomes. And you’ll need that extra room with all the new weapons and armour in the game. Making their debut appearance are socketed items. Following the practice of medieval days when a knight’s sword was encrusted with jewels, now you can imbue your weapon, helm or shield with magical properties/bonuses by inserting a wide assortment of gems into the sockets. To cater to our increasing materialism, items now come as normal, magical, rare and unique. The perks list of a unique item spans half the screen. Unique items all form sets, which are three to six themed and complimenting items that have impossibly cool names and give the owner a special bonus. What I would wish for is one of those bottomless halfling bags. But I shall have to settle for the storage crate that follows you like a familiar from town to town, supplementing your limited inventory without complaint.

What is ingrained in my head forever is the wannabe seductive Arabian music in the Lut Gholein Harem (yes, all my adventures were there). Be there even such a thing as Harem music, it was bad. Ouch. What is good is the Barbarian's warcries and taunts, although I certainly expected a Tim Taylor "Ar Ar Ar". In 3D sound, scorching sounds match the direction of the Sorceress' fireballs and lightning bolts. And if you run after them, the sound remains relative to the object's position. Sounds are clearer and crisper, especially that of breaking pottery. The drawback of 3D is that dialogue with townsfolk becomes deeper and less present.

Whatever iota of RPGness Diablo II has is best cultivated in multiplayer mode. Randomly generated multiplayer maps cause much welcomed confusion and appreciate replay value. And with seven hot keys that spew forth seven not-too-witty lines (like "oops, forgive me"), multiplayer mode threatens to be too fun. Most needed was "That's mine, @&%$ off", which was mysteriously absent. Identical to singleplayer in almost every way, multiplayer becomes an exercise of cooperation between up to eight players. And the diversity of possible character-skill combinations makes for interesting parties, especially if a character has skills and spells that will benefit the others--like the Paladin's auras or the Barbarian’s warcries. As a member of a party, you can choose to allow the others to loot your corpse after you've been reduced to one. Death will literally take a greater toll in multiplayer than in singleplayer, and you will curse as you loose a good fifth of your wealth with each passing.