Diablo Battlechest Screenshots Diablo Diablo II Diablo II: Lord of Destruction The Final Say! Gameplay 8.0 Graphics 7.5 Sound 8.5 Value 9.0 Diablo Battlechest - reviewed by Ryan N & Tory F Review Date: 12 March 2002 Review Score: 8.5/10  Distributor: Vivendi Universal

Epic adventures through hordes of fiery beasts and monotonous zombies. Not often does a game take weeks never mind months to finish, but when you get two titles in the same box of this formidable size, plus a full game in the form of an expansion pack, you know you are on the verge of becoming socially inept.  Included in the Diablo Battle Chest is Diablo, Diablo II, The Diablo II Expansion  (Lord Of Destruction) and the official strategy guide. For those unfamiliar with the Diablo series, the storyline driven plot puts you up against the most hideous creatures of all time. You constantly roam through caves and underground settlements of infested evil, on your way to completing your goal of cleansing the land from evil.  The games are mostly all mouse driven with clicking the main form of control. The  original Diablo was credited with revolutionising the role playing genre with it's huge  expanses of area and creatures. In Diablo II you are given the choice of playing as one of five characters, and with the  expansion pack you have the choice from seven. Diablo has three characters to choose  from. In all of the titles we found that the characters all played very differently which enhanced the overall longevity of the product. The seven types are Barbarian, Paladin, Necromancer, Sorceress, Amazon, Druid and Assassin. Each character has different powers and capabilities. An extremely cool feature had the Druid reverting to animal form when confronted with evil! When reviewing the title we also took advantage of the Battle.Net servers that Blizzard provide for the game and are extremely pleased to report that even on a 56k dial up, speed was good and character interaction wonderful. The only downside was the Player Killers on some of the servers who took out more time destroying their companions than fighting alongside them. If there was any one complaint to be made about the title was the introduction of "teleporters" as save points in Diablo II. Previously saving wherever you liked, this took some getting used to which was easily overcome.

The overall value of this package is immense and money well spent. If you count 
entertainment in the number of hours spent enjoying it, you will never look back.

While the graphics throughout both games are nothing to jump up and down about they are suitable and easily workable throughout the game. The special effects are the 
highlight, especially the lighting and the various effects of castable spells.

The purchasing of weapons was a great deal of fun and lugging all the items you found in the dungeons certainly made the going rough. There is nothing worse than finding that one cool item that made you dump all your other belongings just in order to carry it.

We found the storyline to be engrossing and made the gameplay even more addictive. There is absolutely no doubting why these titles have sold in their own right in the millions.

Once having completed the games, we took the time out to fully consult the strategy book provided and without spoiling anything, it does give you reason to install everything and start again. It is a very well written and researched book, just like the reviews here at impulsegamer (get outta here! - Ed).

Diablo Battlechest is a must buy title and a worthy AAA title to your games collection. The strategy guide is just the cherry on top! 

- Ryan N & Tory F