Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

Overall: 8.0/10.
This is a solid "Diablo 2" clone with a lot of action and interesting content. It can be played casual with just the mouse clicking or intense at hardcore mode when you just cannot die. The way you can alternate the game using mods is a important part, as well as the fact that its just a singleplayer experience.

Graphics: 7.5/10.
At first I had a hard time to se what was happening when I played, there is a lot of colours and contrasts everywhere. But no worries, it doesn't take that long to get used to the graphics! Compared to the game that inspired this one - Diablo 2 - there is some severe upgrades graphically. I also like the more comical and humoristic style instead of the pure demonic in D2. The magic effects are nicely done and the surroundings in the different areas has a nice feel to them. The only thing I can think of as a downside for the graphics - now when I'm used - is that it can be hard to se where the mouse is (since there are so much contrast and colours).

Sound: 9.0/10.
In the sound department there is a lot of total or half made rip-offs from Diablo 2, hence the feeling is just a tad brighter and more comical then D2. The voice acting is great, but I have some problems hearing what Syl says sometimes. The music is solid and doesn't get too repetitive. In general I would say that it would be really hard to make anything better or more suitable to this game.

Game play: 8.0/10.
The gameplay is much similar to that of D2, but in comparison this one has some groundbreaking new stuff. One of them is the pet that always follows you around. It's nice to always have a companion when everyone else seem to want to kill you, and what's better is that you can equip the pet, transform it using the fish-system and even tell it to go back to town and sell stuff for you (ohh yeah, then it's not ALWAYS following you around..). There is cool items, nice dungeons, interesting secrets, good skills, heavy battles and a very good level progression. To play hardcore (the character becomes unplayable when dead), is a adrenaline push since you have to be much more careful with what you do...my level 18 vanquisher got TKO-ed by a trap in a dungeon that she shouldn't been messing around in. Another cool thing about this game is the mods and the program that makes them so easy to apply - "torchleech". In the program you can add new areas, classes and items etc... and hence alter the gameplay, this is something that makes the game interesting even after you 'finished' it with all the three classes once. But there is also some downsides with the gameplay in general. I miss the way my fighters used to jump in D2, and the alchemist is to weak in comparison to the other two classes - mostly because he doesn't have any skills that are truly affected by his weapons. The big bossfights are to easy and even if you have your pet to give items to, the inventory just keeps getting full all the time (still nicer inventory then the one in D2 though). Another downer is the cheating that the mods enable, to finish the game on hardcore isn't as honourable when you know that people have cheated their way to success in this mode. Though the biggest downside to this game is that it's not multiplayer - but that will be fixed when the second game comes...

Idea: 7.5/10.
Since the idea is - for the most part - stolen, I cannot give it the glory a game like this deserves. But the alternations and differences are all better then the old D2 and therefore I still make it shine a little. The shared stash is another idea that I didn't write about in the gameplay section. I also should be mentioning portal-scrolls to instant action, the fame-system and how the enemies move from higher level cliffs to jump down at you.

Story 6.0/10.
The story is the one thing that seems to be a bit weaker then D2. But it's clear and solid nevertheless. The sidequests are OK, with as little information as possible without being hard to understand. I would say though, that the main quest seem a bit short when finished... good that I can continue to play for eternity...