Why Diablo II Still Rules
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In cases where you can stand and fight with the skills you've carefully activated and upgraded while leveling, no game since provides the sense of satisfaction I get from utterly mauling a pack of enemies. Gory fireworks explode with nearly every kill as each monster type exhibits a different death animation. Fallen spin to the ground and squeal as they spit out a semicircle of blood, giving the thump of your weapon's killing strike a sense of weight. This all happens in under a second and is repeated ten, twenty, thirty times per monster group as loot explodes alongside bodies, monsters and mercenaries cast spells and you make efficient use of your equipped skills.
Not only does wholesale slaughter award experience, it provides a constant stream of rewards. Every time you click to attack, you pull a slot machine arm. The draw of the loot system isn't simply netting an item with +5 dexterity instead of +3, though that's part of it. It's all the ancillary effects: the percent chance to cast a frost nova when hit, the increased gold percentage find, the extra fire damage, the increased chance to block. It's a feverish race to acquire that perfect set of gear that you're constantly assembling but seemingly never able to complete.
Naturally, the better items are rarer. Coloring item names in accordance with rarity is common in video games, something Diablo popularized. The first time a yellow item drops is like an extra present at Christmas. All you can see is its name, teasing you with hidden potential. Unwrapping it is a simple matter of picking it up and activating a scroll, and with each step you savor the possibilities, imagining your ideal statistical bonuses. Finally you click to unwrap the item and a wall of magic effects explodes across the description pane. Your eyes frantically scan the page to see if the real stats match those you imagined. Half-freeze duration is stacked with poison resist and enhanced defense and a minor bonus to light rating, and suddenly the gloves you'd been wearing, which only a short while ago were your best item, seem like trash. You swap, and sprint into the field more confident than ever.
