Diablo 2 is 20 Years Old
I was about to skip a week’s content due to busy-ness but realizing that today marks the 20th anniversary of Diablo 2, I decided to write about it. This article doesn’t make suggestions, it’s not a review, it’s not a deep article in any shape or form. This is me, reminiscing my Diablo 2 days.
When Diablo 2 came out, I was in high school. I had played Diablo 1 a lot, completed the game at least once with each character. I guess this was back when I still thought the pirated copies were original games since we didn’t really get original games in my town, at all. So I install the game, I replace the .exe and fired it.
The intro, with my then English, I just found creepy (I was thinking of Diablo as a semi-horror game thanks to 1st one anyway). I don’t think I fully got what was happening (in hindsight, I guess I wasn’t supposed to), but I loved how it felt. I remember loving the campfire. I looked at the classes and straight up went for Necromancer. I was fascinated by the idea!
A big part of Diablo 1 was making sure you sold everything to get the maximum amount of gold (which then would stay on town floor and later spent elixirs and occasionally Wirt) When I noticed monsters respawned in Diablo 2 I thought “Weird, but ka-ching!”
Then came many hours of slaying monsters. Compared to D1, the “mechanics” in D2 blew my mind. The change of environment was also incredible. Sure, D1 had different stages but in D2, each act has different stages on its own. This showed especially in Act 2. From the lightning-bug infested sands to the claustrophobic worm tunnels and the unreal Arcane Sanctuary, my necromancer slew monster after monster and raised them to do his bidding. Until I faced… Duriel. Duriel would destroy my minions, leaving me undefended. I had to grind in act 2 for a bit for a few Bone Spear levels. Packed on potions and portals and did the deed. Phew.
Act 3 started equally annoying: All my skeletons would follow a different fetish! I remember getting the Iron Golem finally, finding the mechanic very unique. You know the rest. More monsters, different characters, kill Mephisto, Diablo… Do it again, and again, and again. We would talk endless about how cool the cutscenes were. I watched them countless times. The way Tyrael rises, how he grabs Marius…
Then came the Lord of Destruction. I remember talking to my good friend who got the game before me, who described Baal as “he’s like fighting a mage from Baldur’s Gate.” This time I would pick the assassin. I was already interested in the mysterious Natalya from vanilla. I had no chance but to pick her. Once I was done with the game, I just felt curiosity. I wanted to know what happened next!
Fast forward a couple of years — I was in university dorm tasting a full new side of Diablo series: Multiplayer. And just when we were going through it, 1.10 came. I remember logging in after the patch with fresh-Nightmare Barbarian into a pack of ghouls and being absolutely destroyed. Hours and hours of playing and discovering would follow afterwards.
But the adventure wasn’t over. Learning more about piracy and finding a copy, Diablo 2+LoD would become one of the first original games I purchased and I was happy: I had played the game for hours, it was only fair. Little had I known that a new door was open for me: Battle.net.
I would spend hours on Baal, Pinkle, Tristram runs, with a low 80s Bowazon and similar level Meteorb Sorcerer… and I’ll confess, a Hammerdin. Yep, I went there. I couldn’t resist it.
I actually got a couple of my friends to join me as well, but then I started thinking about how seasons are reset… and how I could play WoW instead. And that’s pretty much how I said goodbye to Diablo 2.
During this time I spent countless hours reading about the game, learning the lore and the mechanics. I spent hours talking about it, bonding and forming friendships. I also DM’d the Diablo 2 TTRPG and I brought my Forgotten Realms players to the Sanctuary via portals, granting them exclusive skills as a reward. [Also wrote this Taint concept]
When I saw the Tristam track being played on stage, I almost cried (I did cry finding out about Starcraft 2 release)
Suffice to say, Diablo series had a part in my life and Diablo 2 had the biggest part in it. So happy birthday Diablo 2! May you have a remaster and may Diablo 4 bring the series to its full glory!
