This is what happens when you tweak the core gameplay to the max. It makes all the difference.

User Rating: 10 | Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (Re-release) PC
When Diablo II was released, I found the game repetive, tedious and way too simple for an old Might and Magic afficionado as me.

This impression would probably stand for many newcomers to this game, but if you persevere, you'll experience more than just the superficially simple game mechanics. The Diablo II gameplay has grown on me over the years and the LoD expansion pack made a few subtle changes, making the final game more balanced, less frustrating and - more importantly - adds layers of item and skill complexity to the core mechanics.

Anyone interested in these 'hidden layers' of the game, has to check out 'The Arreat Summit', which is basically an online hint book full of simple and advanced recipes for both runewords, crafted item and more. Anyone attempting to run through the 'hell' difficulty should familiarize himself with some of the more complex combinations, as the game rears its ugly head at that point.
Consider the 'normal' and 'nightmare' difficulty levels as mere practice for the mayhem shown at 'hell' difficulty.

A long study of the skills available for each class is also required, as some of the more obvious skills usually don't work that well on later levels, or has limited functions compared to other skills.

What starts as a simple action RPG game, clearly becomes a strategy bound later on - and a subject for discussion for long time players, even to this day. Especially when working together in the very fun LAN multiplayer game - which is the single player campaign in coop.

And that is the magic of Diablo II: LoD - the challenges and added replay value in multiplayer (which can be hard to set up on newer computers in my experience) - fortunately you can play through the Battle.net servers, which works great ...when they are not down.

What is important about this game is, that 10 years after its release, it still retains the magic - the addictive combination of loot, levels and challenge, that so many other games in this genre fails to capture - is beyond any doubt the strength of this game. And even more impressively, at the time of this review (which was updated april 2010) we have seen yet another recent patch for the game (1.13) - this is an official patch for an almost 10 years old game!

This says a lot about the dedication and support from the people at Blizzard, and also a lot about the fans - who are still playing the game, despite outdated, low resolution (800x600 at best) isometric 2D graphics. Because at the end of the day, what matters is gameplay, depth, support and eventually the ever-illusive fun factor. Diablo II has it all, and has had it for years.
It's a proven classic and must-have title in just about every PC gamers collection.