[JamesE]

Anyone want to help ease me into it? Is it worth installing the expansion (this means I have to find the expansion)?

[Talbain]

It might be worth playing some of the mods for the game that exist out there... but the game itself isn't terribly interesting. It's just a glorified hack-and-slash. Though if you want that, it can give you a solid day's entertainment.
_________________

[Jeff Garneau]

if you aren't stealing it play the online ladder. don't bother with hardcore until you know what you're doing. the expansion is pretty cool but you won't see most of the cool stuff in it until you're about like 10 hours in.

to tell the truth i've actually never seen much of the new areas in the expansion as i got rushed past most of them. the new items are totally sweet though.

you can make a pretty ill-out weapon early on with a few chipped/flawed gems. save them after that, you'll combine them into more powerful ones.

oh yeah and you get more stash space in the expansion.

man i could talk for hours.

[Jeff Garneau]

i think the mods kind of trivialize the game actually.

[Jeff Garneau]

also look at diabloii.net | battle.net/diablo2exp and decide what kind of build you want to do before you start playing the game.

designing your character is really the most fun.

also it's cool when it works out.

[Talbain]

I personally enjoyed the original more than the 2nd iteration, simply because the characters weren't very clearly defined (I always made battle mages, I rather liked that you could do something like that), you could customize how you played the game a lot. Diablo II, I guess partially as a result of the skills system, makes it so that there are only so many ways to play through the game with a certain character type. Granted, it's interesting, I just didn't find it as interesting as the original.

Also, the mods trivialize the game, but I've always found the game to be somewhat trivial. The original was the same way.
_________________

[Felix]

don't play it without friends?

it's like an mmo, but with way more accidental heart. just, y'know, not something you'd want to stifle your enjoyment of by playing single player.

[another god]

[another god]

Oh yeah. If you're on the somethingawful forums, the SA DII guild is a godsend to DII.
_________________
interdimensional

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

[ajutla]

Isn't installing the expansion the only way you can get the game to run in something higher than 640x480 or something? I don't remember; it's been years since I've really thought about this stuff.

I remember kind of liking the first act of DII, but then it got very old very fast. I gave up somewhere in act 3, feeling sick and dirty.

[Talbain]

[Felix]

[SplashBeats]

D2 isn't something to be pondered upon, really. You pick a character that fits your playstyle (Ignore builds your first time though, seriously) and go kill shit with some buddies. The game doesn't require a huge time investment, considering your average quest takes roughly 10 minutes to do. It's the most pick-up-and-play online game that I can think of, as it doesn't require the time-investment of an MMO, nor the skills of a FPS.

[kf]

Yeah, it's like they say, 800×600 on the expansion only. Personally, I agree with the whole "don't play alone" idea since the game is pretty weak solo. God, if they took out all the running it would be way more better. Thematically, I much prefer D1 to D2. It is arguably more fun to design a build than it is to actually play the game at times! But I guess D2 is more about hangin' out and makin' them numbers go up more than being some sort of high concept game.
_________________