Beware minions of darkness ~ The slayer of Diablo

Diablo was proclaimed "Game of the Year" in 1998, and rightly so. This game sold millions of copies worldwide in that year. I still play every once in a while, even though my character is as maxed in power and abilities as you can get. This game holds hours of entertainment for people who love adventure and magic. The thrill of crushing evil monsters and demon bashing is truly enveloping.

Game Play:
The game is played by point, click, drag and drop. You click on items to pick them up and you can keep track of inventory by a simple click on your inventory button. There is a single player game and multiplayer either through a local area network or you can connect to other players on Battle.net. Multiplayer games are the most popular and the most fun.

You have a "Mana Ball" and a "Blood Ball" that track your health and magic. If your Mana Ball empties you can no longer cast spells, but if your blood ball empties you die. Dying isn't as bad as you would think. You loose all your gold and whatever items you were wearing at the time of demise, but you retain your player level and attributes. You can immediately start back in the town center and catch up with your buddies. If your buddies are trustworthy, they will wait for you to "pick up your stuff" and redress. You can also be resurrected. If a player resurrects you, you can simply "pick up your things" and go on.

Characters:
There are three characters you can choose from to play as. They are the Warrior, the Sorcerer and the Rogue. The Rogue is female but many male players choose the Rogue for her special talents of using the bow effectively and having greater magic capability than the Warrior. The Warrior has limited magic use, his main attraction is strength and sheer brawn. A Warrior can take more punishment and give out more damage physically than the other two. The Sorcerer has the most magic ability and it is his main form of attack and defense. He can use his staff as a weapon if the need arises but it is rarely effective.

Experience:
There are a certain amount of EXP's (experience points) a character must achieve to advance to the next character level. Each level gained gives you 5 points to distribute among your attributes. These attributes are Strength, Magic, Dexterity, and Vitality. These improve your character's ability to inflict damage points, read spell books and scrolls, hold more mana, take less damage and attack faster, and hold more blood (life). Characters max out at level 50 and when all attributes reach their maximum for that particular character. Attribute maximums are different for each of the three characters.

Town:
Town is where you go to get yourself healed and to get more supplies, weapons, magic books, mana, blood and repair your damaged items. There is a blacksmith who buys and sells weapons and armor. He will also repair your damaged weapons and armor. The healer heals you and sells you blood and healing scrolls. The witch buys and sells mana, magic items, magic books and scrolls. There are three other characters in town and they give you information about the labyrinth and what you'll find down in it.

The Labyrinth:
There are 16 levels to the labyrinth itself, each new level becoming more difficult than the last. Each new game the labyrinth is created differently, and nothing will be in the same place from one game to the next. Along the way you will find items like weapons, armor, scrolls and spell books as well as blood potions and mana. The items can either be mundane, magical or unique. Mundane items are regular swords, shields and things of that nature. Magical items are items that have been magically altered giving them special qualities, some of these items are cursed items and can be harmful to your character. Unique items are usually found in special places or taken from dead non-player characters.

NPCs:
These NPCs or non-player characters are 'special' monsters or demons in the game. Most monsters are all called the same thing but these non-player characters have special names and there is only one of each of these but there are many different ones in the game.

Big "D":
Diablo is the main non-player character, killing him ends the game for everyone who happens to be on the sixteenth level when he is killed. The rest of the players will have to exit the game manually. If you are playing a single player game, you are sent on many different quests before you can get to Diablo, but in multiplayer games the goal is to get Diablo and get out before a player killer gets you.

PKs:
PKs or player killers are players like myself who have killed Diablo so many times the game rather lost its flare for us. So we enter games with one intention; to kill all the other players in the game. This is another great feature of this game. You can kill players just like any other character in the game, but you have to be good at it or you will be the one to wind up in the morgue.

Cheaters:
Cheaters are running wild all through Battle.net, and with the help of some talented hackers, they are using cheater programs to become invincible or to get all the power they can and this takes away from the game. I like to fight other players but where is the challenge in squashing a bug? These people who use these cheat programs are really only cheating themselves out of the fun they could be having with this game.

I have spent many hours playing this game with friends on Battle.net and with my family over our home network. This game is fun for everyone but you may want to keep young children (like 3-5 years) from playing because of the violence and small (very small) amount of gore. I recommend this game for anyone who has never played it. You'll have fun for a few months with this one, honestly.