Diablo II (PC)

What have I done?

I've often pondered starting this. I've bought it twice, and never got around to it. I've read reports, reviews and threads all over the place, none of which have had a bad word to say, other than to say that the game took away all other semblance of life from thousands of players. That's been enough to put me off... I lost 'uuuuuge chunks o' life to Championship Manager, and having successfully broken the grip of that addiction, I don't really need another one.

And yet, here we are. Two hours in, and probably two hundred to go.

Diablo II appears to be the logical progression of Gauntlet. It's probably the logical progression of Diablo I, actually, but I haven't played that either. But to my mind, this is what a modern-day Gauntlet should be. An isometric 3D hack 'n' slash, with RPG-like levelling up elements and stacks of gold and loot to pick up.

For some reason, there's something incredibly appealing about beating things up for their bits of tat. Whether you're saving the gold to buy some exclusive weapon or piece of armour, or just the sheer addictive power of seeing what drops off a corpse, this game knows what ticks your boxes, and proceeds to deliver enough stuff to keep ticking for many a long while.

I'm commenting on this even though I've only played for a couple of hours, which I suspect is like the videogame equivalent of painting the Forth bridge for an hour and then stepping back to admire your work. But I think it's enough to get a decent feel for how the game will pan out... I've levelled up a fair bit, I've completed a couple of quests, and I've hired a mercenary and am about to set off into battle with a companion. Things are picking up. Things need to be killed. I can see how this game gets its claws into you...