Diablo II
A 2000 action role-playing game by Blizzard North.
Diablo II, an action role-playing game released in 2000, was developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows, Classic Mac OS, and OS X. David Brevik and Erich Schaefer conceived and designed the game, serving as project leads alongside Max Schaefer, with Matthew Householder and Bill Roper as senior producers. Development took three years, including a year and a half of crunch time. The story picks up right after the first Diablo, placing players in control of a new hero who must halt the destruction caused by Diablo's resurgence. The game spans four acts, each with distinct environments and settings to explore, plus a larger cast of characters to play and interact with. By refining the character progression system and deepening the narrative, Diablo II built on the 1997 original's success. It became one of 2000's most popular titles and is frequently listed among the greatest games ever made. Key factors in its popularity included its continuation of the dark fantasy themes from the first game and free online play via Blizzard's Battle.net service. An expansion, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, arrived in 2001. The sequel, Diablo III, launched on May 15, 2012, and a remastered version, Diablo II: Resurrected—which includes the Lord of Destruction expansion—was released on September 23, 2021.
- Developer
- Blizzard North
- Publisher
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Release Year
- 2000
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, OS X
- Genre
- Action role-playing game
- Project Leads
- David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer
- Senior Producers
- Matthew Householder, Bill Roper
Lore & Background
Diablo II was developed over a three-year period, with a crunch time of a year and a half. The game's storyline progresses through four acts, with the Lord of Destruction expansion adding a fifth act. Each act follows a predetermined path, but wilderness and dungeons between key areas are randomly generated. The player progresses by completing quests within each act, and there are optional side dungeons for extra monsters and experience. The game features three sequential difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, with higher difficulties offering stronger monsters and better items but penalizing experience and player resistances. Players can create hardcore characters that have only one life; if killed, the character is permanently dead and unplayable.
Reader's Guide
Diablo II is significant for its refinement of the action role-playing genre, building on the foundation of its predecessor with more varied environments, deeper character progression, and a stronger narrative. The game's four acts—ranging from Gothic forests to Egyptian deserts, Central American jungles, and Hell—offered a diverse setting that expanded the dark fantasy world. Its item system introduced randomly generated equipment with multiple quality levels, including normal, magical, rare, unique, and set items, as well as sockets and a crafting system using the Horadric Cube. The five character classes—Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin—each had unique skills and playstyles. Access to Blizzard's free online service, Battle.net, contributed to its popularity. The game's legacy includes a 2001 expansion, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, a 2012 sequel Diablo III, and a 2021 remaster, Diablo II: Resurrected, which includes the expansion. It remains a benchmark for the genre.
Did You Know?
- Diablo II was developed over a three-year period with a crunch time of a year and a half.
- The game's four acts feature environments based on Gothic, Ancient Egyptian, Central American, and Hellish themes.
- Players can create hardcore characters that are permanently deleted upon death.
- The Horadric Cube allows combining items to create new ones, such as three identical lower-quality gems into a single higher-quality gem.
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