Diablo II: Resurected (Switch)

 

To Hell with You!

Where interested in getting this when it first came out for the Switch, but I think it was at the same time as all the controversy came around Activision Blizzards then-CEO surfaced and I just couldn't do it. And now they are bought up by Microsoft and it was a decent sale for the game I thought it was maybe time to get it. I've mentioned before I played through the original game back in... 13 years ago? Damn, and why the hell do I talk about a commercial for a pension agency? It must have been on my mind then.

Story is that the warrior from the first game shoved Diablo's soulstone into his forehead in hope of containing the Lord of Terror. Didn't work that well. The Warrior become the Dark Wanderer and after unleashing demons in a tavern is joined by Marius, a drunkard who had survived the attacks on Tristram. They traveled to Tal Rasha's tomb where Baal, lord of Destruction was held captive by Tal Rasha himself. Finding Baal the Arch-Angel Tyreal stops Diablo from freeing him, but Marius is beconned to pull the soulstone out of the body of Tal Rasha. Tyrael tells Marius to go to where Mephisto is found and enter the gate to hell to destroy Baal's soulstone as Tyrael himself gets trapped in the tomb. Marius follows Baal and Diablo and see them opening a portal to hell and give Diablo his true form back.

This is all shown between chapters. The game is that you create a character based on the 7 different classes, Barbarian, Assassin, Druid, Necromancer, Amazon, Paladin and Sorceress. I chose the Sorceress since I recall liking the sorcerer class in the first game. And I could roleplay it as a beginning for Katrina Bargov from my DnD campaign back in Curse of Strahd. At the first chapter you end up a Rouge encampment where they have fled from a monastery being overrun by Andariel, one of the lesser evils. This is basically an homage to the first game. Yes, you have more walking around in the fields, but there is a monastery and caves which gives the same look as the original. You also fight the original rouge that have been corrupted and turned into an undead. And you go to Tristram to save Deckard Cain. And kill zombie Griswold and find the dead body of Wirt... damn! Everything in the first game turned to shit. At least I can live in denial and believe that all the other people survived since if I can't see them, then they aren't dead. After beating Andariel you head east to the desert where you have to find the tomb and parts of a staff to open it. And as you enter the tomb you get attacked by the lower evil Duriel that constantly killed me. I changed hire from the rouge you get in the first chapter. And then I recalled I could reskill, so I did, went from fire based to ice. Got trounced, thought I should try another skill set and then I realised that you only could do it once. I was screwed so I had to restart. Played it up until that moment again, but I learned that everything I had saved in the stash on page 2-4 came with me so luckily my jewels and gems followed. And I got a lot of better equipment that allowed my hire to actually be a bit tougher, and I checked out a guide for what skills to use. Learning that Static Field was the best for bosses. Great. He died this time. You save Tyrael and heads over the ocean, fights Mephisto, enter hell and kill Diablo.

Back too Marius he had run away at the sight of Diablo and been looked up and have told the story to who he thought was Tyrael, but turned out to be Baal in disguise that wanted back his soulstone. After taking it, killing Marius and burning down the prison or whatever he sets out and invade the northern barbarian lands in order to take control of the Worldstone. After beating Diablo Tyrael sent you after him to the last barbarian stronghold where you have to lift the siege upon their city, rescue captives and prove your worth for the ancients so that you can enter the Worldstone and fight off Baal. In the end Tyrael have to destroy the Worldstone since it has been corrupted. The End!

I've played it once before, or more or less watched as me and my best friend played it back 2000-2003. We played as a Paladin and used a hex configure or whatever to make the character level 99 and give him the best stuff there was. And then we just butchered our way through the whole game. Maybe that's why the cinematic stayed with me since I can't recall the gameplay or what happened as we played the game. So it was rather fun playing it legit this time around. Sorcerer was fun and blasting everyone with fireball is always satisfying. Playing it on console worked really well with the controls, sadly I only learnt about the easier way to use a teleportation scroll far too late in the game. Now, I only played solo offline since I don't have Nintendo Online or any friends to play it. And I don't see that I would play this again unless I got a real craving to see the story again, but there is other games to play. Cause all that is left is the higher difficulties to get better loot to max the character. Maybe a normal run through with a lvl 40 character because most enemies wouldn't stand a chance again.

Overall, I found it fun to play and I can see the addiction of the looter-system. It actually gave me more of a craving for replaying the first game, but it doesn't exist on modern consoles. The claustrophobic feeling of the catacombs and such is amazing, not the same feel here. There's always III, maybe I will get it some time. Or IV if it gets to Switch 2 or whatever the console will be called.

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

I think I preferred the orc looking at me

So this is the expansion of the last game. Mostly it adds two new units a hero per faction, a merchant building and a higher roof on max army. So you get 100 units of food instead of 90. The definite version. New maps added and a possibility to hire mercenary heroes instead of going with the heroes the faction you play. But let us look at the campaign, the story tying this all together. And we start with a scene of Illidan summoning some sea monsters, the Naga. Illidan doesn't look like he used to. He got horns and hoofs so the skull of Gul'dan can't have been that good for him. But we don't play as Illidan, instead his jailer, Maeiv Shadowsong, a night elf avenger. Swift and with the ability to teleport short distances she can reach places no normal soldier can. They brilliantly use it as an exploration point. Leaving the army behind you can climb waterfalls, reach islands just outside of reach and so on. She hunts Illidan to a small fishing village and out to the sea where some unknown islands have appeared. Searching around you realise this is the islands that Gul'dan summoned during Warcraft II in search of the Tomb of Sargeras. Seeking the same artefacts as Gul'dan Illidan must be stopped. As you reach the tomb and go through it you find the writing of Gul'dan who goes more and more mad until he presumably dies. You are to late however to stop Illidan who claims the Eye of Sargeras and raise the tomb, trying to kill you, but using the blink ability you escape, but sadly leaves your troops behind. They even had one of the huntresses named as well, Naisha. Escaping Maeiv sends for help from Malfurion Stormrage who comes toghether with Tyranda, the one person Maiev blames the release of Illidan for. Hunting him to Lordearon Malfurion has to connect with the spirits so Tyranda and Maiev are left alone. They meet an blood elf commander for the Alliance and agrees to help protect their caravan if they in turn will help hunt Illidan. They agree and after almost making it safely away from the undead Tyranda stays behind holding a bridge that collapses and drags her away. Malfurion returns and Maiev tells him that Tyranda was torn apart by the undead and that his only chance for revenge is stopping Illidan. You fight of Illidan and stops his plan on destroying Northern, the arctic of Azeroth. It's then revelled by Kael'thas, the blood elf commander that Tyranda might be alive. Furious Malfurion releases Illidan so that he can help locate Tyranda since he also cares for her. They locate her and rescue her with the help of the Naga (who is night elves that were corrupted 10 000 years ago as their great kingdom fell into the ocean due to addiction to magic. Illidan is let loose and he takes a dimensional portal away from Maiev who's still after revenge.

Elves, night elves, nagas and now blood elves... how many elven races are there?

The next campaign is the human/blood elven one. Kael'thas arrives to Dalaran where his commander, Lord Marshal Garithos, a racist bastard if I ever seen one, berates him and order him to repair some observatories to scout out the undeads movement. They detect a massive army heading there way, but Garidhos takes command of all human and dwarf troops and leaves Kael'thas with only elves. A nice touch is that this is basically the troops that Arthas fought in the last game. They even made the flying unit part of the human army and they actually mention it if you designed your own map and gave yourselves the elven builder. But that isn't enough so a naga witch that helped you before of more support with troops to bolster your army and Kael'thas have no other choice. He wins the battle, but Garithos arrives and accuses him of treason and imprisons him in Dalarans dungeons. Vashi, the naga witch releases him and they break out and through the portal that brought Archimond to Azeroth. They arrive in Outland, what's left of the Orcs homeworld of Draenor. You rescue Illidan from Maeiv and you fight side by side to take over the fortresses of the Burning Legion to bolster your forces enough so that you have a chance to strike at the Lich King who is captured on the Frozen Throne in Northern. All this commanded by Kil'Jaeden, another demon lord. You win and Illidan starts his campaign to rid the world of the Scourge.

Meanwhile Arthas have returned to Lordearon, he confronts the remaining Dread Lords and takes back power from the Legion. As he is about to round up the remaining humans in the land he is suddenly weekend as the Lich King calls out for help. Arthas prepares to leave, but the Dread Lords stage a coup, but he is saved by the banshee's under his commander Sylvanas Windrunner who now serves him as an undead ranger. Sadly for him it's all a ruse since the Lich King failing powers have returned free will to Sylvanas that wants revenge. Kel'thusad on the other hand appears and save Arthas that leaves for Northrend. Sylvanas meanwhile establish the Forsaken and reclaims the lands of Lordearon for those like her, undead that have been given free will. She accomplish this by teaming up with one of the Dread Lords she defeated and Garithos who she released from a mind spell by another Dread Lord and promising Lordearon back to the humans. She of course back stabs him, but no one really feels sorry for him. Meanwhile Arthas arrives at Northrend and fight his way past Naga's and Blood Elves with the help of a Nerubuian undead hero that leads him through a shortcut under the mountain (geez, I wonder if they were inspired by the Moria section in Lord of the Rings). There you encounter the surviving dwarfs of Muradin and some unknown horrors of the deep, and it all ends with fighting a tentacled monster. You arrive outside and has to stop Illidan from entering the Frozen Throne. Succeed and a short battle between Arthas and Illidan occurs where Illidan falls wounded to the ground and Arthas ascend the stairs to the Frozen Throne and claims the Lich Kings crown, turning him into the new Lich King. And that is pretty much it for the rts campaigns.

He looks a bit like Darkwolf from Fire and Ice

Of course there is one more scenario, but it doesn't play as an rts. Instead it works as an rpg, where you control Rexxar, a Mok'nathal, half-ogre, half-orc that ends up in the founding of Durotan, the nation of the orcs in Kalimdor under the guidance of Thrall. You begin by giving a message from a dying orc soldier to Thrall and as you do small task for important people in Ogrimmar, the capital, you begin to discover that humans are harassing the wild life and your own people. Since the only humans in Kalimdor lives at Theramore Island under the leadership of Jaina Proudmore, Rexxar is sent out to investigate. Apparently these humans hail from Kul Tiras and occupy Theramore under their leader Admiral Proudmore... yes, the Admiral Proudmore that was one of your commanders in Warcraft II and Jainas father. So fuelled by hatred the only way to stop him is invade Thereamore with orcs, trolls, ogres and Tauren allies that Rexxar has gathered along the journey and the battle is tough, but in the end you slay the admiral and peace returns to Kalimdor and the truce between Orcs and Humans remains under the guidance of Jaina. This scenario is really fun and I suspect that it plays a bit like the mmorpg would play later on. You can't really die since there is resurrection stones scattered around the maps and you respond from the last one you were near. You see Thrall, Cairne and Jaina and even get to play with them at full strength. Sadly no Grom Hellscream, although he is mentioned.

There is supposed to be a demo campaign as well taking place after the prologue in the first game and the orc campaign and is about how Thrall ended up on a mysterious island occupied by Trolls and Murlocs. The Trolls aid them, but they are taken hostage by the Murlocs that plan to sacrifice them to a sea witch. Thrall rescues them, but their leader is killed and he makes Thrall promise to look after his people. Meanwhile the island is sinking to the ground. They escape and continues to Kalimdor. Basically it tells the story how trolls appear in the horde as they arrive in Kalimdor, even though Thrall says they aren't part of the horde in the prologue. No voices though. I can't find it and I don't know if you are supposed to win the game on hard or if it's hiding in some folder, but I don't care really.

Overall the story doesn't feel as good since it end with Arthas winning... he who clearly is one of the bad guys. Also, the stakes feels lower. It isn't about stopping the demons from taking over the world. It's about rescuing the one responsible for it in the first place. The Night elves and Blood Elves campaign works fine, but then again the final real level is the orc rpg and that work. Proudmore was hinted as well in the map designer since his avatar was there. I also know someone used him as a stand in for Boromir I believe in a map based on Lord of the Rings. The thing going for the undead campaign is the Sylvana chapters as well as the trek in "Moria". Sylvana who I can sympathise with for being turned into the undead as well as killing of despicable people like Garithos and the Moria segment is rather suspensfull together with some interesting lore tidbits about the faceless ones and primordial demons. Arthas, however, is still unlikable. Really wish they made another rts cause I don't have enough time to play through more than 10 years of updates and expansions for the mmorpg.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Well, at least we moved away from an orc and human staring at each other... then again he's staring at me... maybe I'm the human?

I first experienced Warcraft III at my cousins house the summer it came out. We were there on vacation and as I usually did I stayed inside and played games. He had Warcraft 3 so I got the cheat codes and started playing... and what a play it was. The game is divided in different scenarios from the perspective of a hero or heroes of a different fraction. First scenario is the prologue were we are introduced to Thrall, son of Durotar and the warchief after Doomhammer. Raised by humans as a slave he escaped and rallied the horde and freed them from their internments camp and are know haunted by mysterious dreams foretelling the fall of all that he knows. A man called the prophet summons him and bids him travelling across the sea to Kalimdor in the west. Thrall heeds his words and assemble the horde, but have to save Grom Hellscream who has been taken hostage by the humans. After the rescue the horde steals the human ships and set sail.

Our hero for the next couple of chapters

We are then taken to Lordearan, the capital of the Alliance which is crumbling as the elves have left and several human nations as well. A plague is spreading in the north, but the king don't want to quarantine the people and the prophet once again appear urging the people to move west, the only way to save them. They says no and he disappears. Then we follow prince Arthas as he is sent out to stop an orcish raid with Uther the Lightbringer. The orc's are demon worshippers and warns the coming of the demons. Uther dispels this and and we cut to Dalaran, the home of the Kirin Tors, magicians, and Jaina Proudmore who overhear her master Antonidas dismissing the Prophet once again and she receives orders to investigate the plague since the king won't bother other then sending his own son to check it out. Travelling the lands Arthas and Jaina discovers a death cult of necromancer spreading a disease that turn people into the undead which after long battles with the undead forces leads to Arthas purging a town and following the dread lord Mel'ganis responsible to Northrend, the arctic of Azeroth. There he stumbles upon a dwarves expedition led by Muradin Bronzebeard, brother of the Bronzebeard dwarfs king. He is on an expedition looking for a fabled runeblade Frostmourn. The dread lords attack forces Arthas with Muradin's help finding the blade, and discovering that the blade is cursed, but Arthas have gone so far that he claims it anyway, leaving Muradin for dead in the snow as Arthas himself destroy the undead and finish Mel'ganis of as his own soul is claimed. Arthas is transformed into a death knight and returns to Lorderan and kills his father in cold blood, destroying what's left of the alliance.

Still our hero for the next couple of chapters

We then follow Arthas as he goes on a campaign to assemble the cult of the damned, raise their leader who will be his most trusted ally and destroying the elven forces, corrupting their Sunwell and go on to kill some of the remaining orc clans and the city of Dalaran to summon Archimond, the leader of the Burning Legion, the force behind the orcish invasions and the Scourge (which is the name for the undead forces). This causes a gap between Arthas who follows Ner'zhul aka the Lich King, aka the Warchief of Draenor who was captured by the Burning Legion as he tried to escape from them. Furious he plans his revenge. Meanwhile this scenario forced the player to kill people like Uther the Lightbringer, Antonidas and Sylvana Windrunner, younger sister of Alleria Windrunner. Of course you didn't really kill her, just turn her into an undead. To me one of the more boring once since I've never felt that good with the undead. Depressing music, everything is dark and death isn't that funny. Although I really like the necromancers raise dead tactics to overwhelm enemies.

The Iron Man of humans Nightmares is back

The next scenario is the orcs again. Thrall have just landed on Kalimdor and must gather his troops while trying to survive this new landscape. He befriends the tauren chieftain Cairne in their fight against the centaurs and their shamanistic beliefs. He points him toward Stonetallon Peak and the Oracle living their if he wants answers so he goes there, encountering Grom and the Warsong Clan in the middle of a conflict against humans. Grom seems to be caught by a bloodlust, disobeying Thrall's direct orders to leave the humans alone so he is sent away to Ashenvale forest to build a settlement, but that only escalates problems as he is attacked by night elves who don't see kindly to someone defiling their forrest. After building their camp the demigod Cenarius appears which forces Grom and the orcs to drink from a pool of demonic energies, a pool spiked with the blood of the demon Manneroth who once enslaved them and started the wars between orcs and humans. They defeat Cenarius, but are reigned into the Burning Legion. Meanwhile Thrall reached the peak and was reunited with Cairne as they battle the human encampments around the Oracles cave. They reach the top and sees Jaina Proudmore entering, the only human lord that headed the warnings of the prophet. They battle through the underground traps and monster and are standing face to face with Jaina when the Prophet once again show up, telling them that they must put aside their hatred since a new threat is upon them. The first plan is to save Grom and the Warsong Clan. Thrall and Cairne battles the crazed orcs and demons that spawns the battlefield and bring Grom captured in a gem to Jaina and a ritual is prepared that gives him back his free will. Grom tells Thrall that it was in fact he that drank the demon blood first and in doing so corrupted most of the orc clans and they did so willingly. Thrall and Grom then proceeds to confront Manneroth. And here its supposed to be a cutscene, and to my surprise it actually played. Glad for that since it is one of the more epic moments when Thrall and Grom confront Manneroth, he brushes Thrall to the side and taunts Grom that lets out a Hell Scream and proceeds to dig his axe deep into the flesh of Manneroth that explodes in a fiery inferno. Thrall holds his friend as the blood curse is lifted and Grom Hellscream draws his final breath. Epic!!!

The enemy of the Night Elves is really resource planning

This of course opens up the final campaign that is the Night Elves. As the humans and orc allied themselves they go deeper into Ashenvale forrest where they are harassed by the Night Elves who doesn't kindly look to intruders, especially those who have slain their demigod. Sadly for them the Burning Legion appears and for this new threat priestess Tyranda Whisperwind decide to wake the druids from their sleep, especially the Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage and her beloved. As they search for the druid of the claw they encounter a prison, a prison to keep the Betrayer under guard, Illidan Stormrage, Malfurions brother. Tyranda releases him and while he guards the forest Arthas approaches him and tells him of the Legions action. Apparently they possess the skull of Gul'dan, the artefact used by Ner'zhul to open the portals on Draenor, causing its destruction. At the moment it is the driving force behind the corruption of the forrest under guard of Thycondrius, the dread lord that gave Arthas his instructions under the undead campaign. Illidan take control of the skull, but instead of destroying as he originally planned he consumes its powers and turn into a half-demon that destroys Thycondrius as was Arthas plan. Tyranda and Malfurion confront him and banish him for the use of demonic powers that once doomed the Elven race. Malfurion is then summoned by a dream voice together with Thrall and Jaina. The Prophet appears and tell them who he really is, Medivh, the Last Guardian. Slain as he was possessed by Sargeras and brought the orcs to Azeroth. He tell them of Archimonds real plan, to take the World Tree's energy. So they muster their defences and endure a siege for 45 minutes as the Legion climbs the summit. And since I played the game legit it was one fingernail biting session. After 15 minutes the human line was overrun. The orc line hold for 30 minutes after that since it was closer to my own base so reinforcement was faster. But Thralls orcs was forced to retreat leaving the Night Elves alone. During the final stages I fortified the two entry points with guardian ancients that threw boulder after boulder. The fountains healing my troops as they fought wave after wave of undead and demons. Resources thin and reinforcement far away, Archimonde himself appears, breaking down the line. 8 seconds left. The final stand, thank god the AI is stupid so instead of reaching his goal he is occupied attacking whats left off my base while the final second turns. I survived the siege and once again surprised to see the ending movie depicting how the wisps that Malfurion summoned surrounds Archimonde and destroys him. The weakest unit in game destroys the Archdemon himself. Great storytelling.

This is probably the definite version of the Warcraft games (with exception of the expansion, but it's not much it adds compare to the difference between Warcraft II and III). Even though they limited the army size I can easily go between different units and even cast support spells on their portrait instead of trying to locate a damaged unit. Some spells even have auto-cast features. Also the story is better laid out since there is a focus with the heroes you have. The problem is that it's really good to know the shortcuts, but it might be too much with 4 different factions to remember each and everyone. We even have inventory to either boost the heroes power, summon reinforcements or support healing and such. Also, playing this game legit for the first time through I discovered things that I missed as a kid. For example in the Night Elf mission to get the druids of the claw I stumbled upon a hidden passageway behind some trees and suddenly a cutscene played where the Largest Panda in the World showed up and I was forced to slay it. I recall seeing the cutscene but without the monster, which probably indicates that the god-mode cheat enabled my troops to kill it before the cutscene started. I always preferred the Night elves due to being elves, but as playing it I realises they are one of the harder since they really need to use magic to distract and immobilise their enemies and I've never been good at that. Of course they are the best when dealing with flyers since their base troop is an archer. And one should really start with the Priestess of the Moon hero since she's the only one boosting attack damage for archers of the heroes. A pity the demon hunter is the coolest.

Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal

How cheap, they used almost the same picture

The follow up and here we starts to see the really good ideas for the campaign. Actual hero units that are a bit better than normal troops and if you can manage the troops alright, you have a great time. Basic story is that the orcs back on Draenor (their home world) under the guidance of Ner'Zhul tries to open the portal again, succeed and starts raids in Azeroth. Here we are introduced to the greatest warrior that the orcs have, the leader of the Warsong Clan: Grommash "Grom" Hellscream.

Grom and Friends

Mostly the orcs fight some different clans to gather artefacts to open a portal and then more artefacts to open other portals... I honestly can't see the main goal of the plan really. I know the consequences, but beyond that I would say demonic influences like everything else in this series. The human campaigns starts with the arch-wizard Khadgar (the one closing the portal at the end of the main game) sensing a disturbance so he sends Aleria Windrunner, an elven ranger and her scouts to gather an expedition force to fight of these orcs. You gather Danath Trollbane and the paladin Turalyon, second in command of lord Lothar and probably the supposed main character of Tides of Darkness. It really ads up as a second in command, watching the death of Lothar and assuming his position afterwards. They push back a couple of raids and then follows the orcs back to Draenor and tries to retake the artefacts that was stolen from them to stop Ner'Zhul to activate some demonic plan.

Danath and Friends

Still can't get the controls working and here it would be pretty much necessary since this game is hard. First campaign of orcs I finished with just Hellscream still standing. Basically I did the first two missions of each campaign and then cheated to the end ("it is a good day to die"). The cheat isn't perfect though since you still take damage from magic attacks or friendly fire and with cannons and all destroying fire attacks you know the damn death knights or wizards will wreck you. So you still have to keep your guard up. Still, the human expedition push in and grabs the artefacts, especially the book of Medivh, but it's to late. Ner'Zhul have already mastered the spells and prepares to open several other portals. Basically he tries to escape Draenor and the demons that are hunting him and this causes the planet to be broken up. The expedition force sees this and must destroy the portal to Azeroth so the cataclysm won't reach their home as well and then they escape into the nearest portal to avoid being destroyed. Meanwhile some of the orchis hordes escaped to Azeroth before the fall of the portal since they also realised their world was doomed, and of course one of them was Grom Hellscream.

This game is much more fun to play the campaign since you got some actual characters to interact with instead of hearing about all these people in the mission briefings. You still exist as some unknown commander for either side, but this will be for the last time. And even though it isn't much about these proto-hero units since they just upgraded normal troops that either are fully upgraded with better stats or as in Alerias case longer range on her bow. The problem with these troops are that they must often survive the mission and with limited healing possibilities (at least humans got the holy light of the paladins), meaning every death knight is a gamble if you survive or not (since both sides fight the orcs in the beginning). And of course the orc have the best champion since who doesn't like references to Black Sabbath's Iron Man or Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare? I didn't get it when first playing, I might known who the bands were, but I didn't know their songs until almost 10 years later. Still, replaying it was pretty much a short stop for the next game Warcraft III which is why I cheated my way through since I'm not that good and the game is to archaic in play for my taste when I can't quickly change between troops or quickly get the spell I need in a certain situation. Everything changed with the next game.

He IS Iron Man

Lord of Terror

Guess what? After having Diablo for 15 years I finally finished it for the first time, took me 3 days of just playing. About does cheating Balrogs? I outsmarted them by doing a fast maneuver they didn't see coming... I ran. I went down a level, leveled once and then teleported back to town and then descended through the short cut into hell where they did once again run toward me and I was able to take down the first two after using all my potions and then fled up to the surface again, restock and reenter to give the final strike toward the last ones. Deader then dead. It felt so good. Then of course it was going even deeper, but who's your enemies? F***ing Succubus who only fires from a distance and when you get closer runs away. Some I was chasing over the whole damn floor before I was able to strike them down. And then it's f***ing Mages. Same MO, but this time they teleport. More annoying then ever, just stand still so I can cleave you with my sword. Finally, after hunting the damn Archbishop Lazarus around for 10 minutes I finally corners him and hack him to death and it's time to duke it out with Diablo... after fighting even more mages to open up his room. And then the Lord of Terror himself hides together with his Knights and mages waiting to kill me, but I got him, I finally got him. Take that demons of my past nightmares.

Yeah, it was fun and spooky, pretty fitting for the week we remember the dead. And it is really a good looking game for an almost 20 year old game, even the cinematics are pretty decent, the people's faces looks a little blocky and the raven in the beginning seems to have scales instead of feathers (compared to the opening cinematic for Blizzard's Warcraft 3), but overall really nice. Overall game graphics fill its parts, but it is a little bit devoid of color, and then we have the problem with that I can't see behind the walls or a hard time seeing what's on the floor from my fallen enemies. Sometimes they pile up so much that there's seems to be nothing else than a pool of blood and body parts, but it hides an armory. Music fits the mood as well, but it can be repetitive when it loops around and around, what are there, five tracks overall? Finally we have the awesome backstory which just fills me with awe. The war between angels and demons are a really interesting read in the manual that don't appear that detailed in the game, but it's almost makes it better. It's just small tidbits here and there, for example one creature log in the manual describe the arrogance and vanity of the angel Inarius (apparently they changed the backstory later on) that sees himself above all others and attacks the demons alone with only his followers. The demons retribution is how they capture him and pull his wings and eyelids of, mutilates him and throw him to a prison with only mirrors so he always will see what he have become. No pictures, nothing, instead my imagination sets in and probably creates to me the most awesome (although horrible) picture of that event. Really, by being that scared when I was younger I only reached level 2 or 3 before I chickened out (and not knowing about the restart option) I spent much more time reading the manual and instead imagining the story... Hmm, might have been all those scary images I created that stopped me.

Talking about terrifying, or just an interesting thought. This video is from a pension agency (or whatever it is called) trying to campaigning so that people decides for more ethical pension collective investment schemes (that is, they are campaigning for not as profitable, but more easier for you conscious or if you are a religious time, your afterlife) so that we all strive for a better world. It means no companies associated with weapons, oil, dictatorship and so on. All that altruistic goodness for a better world so that the future generation will grow up in a better tomorrow. My question is, why would we want that when the children attacks a random person dressed in a polar suit? F***ing bastards, why should we help them if they act like that? Let them burn, I will gladly call upon Diablo himself if I don't have to deal with children that annoying. It probably would be a much quicker destruction then what will happen when they take over.

Children of Mana/Diablo

 

Someone (probably none) wondering what I meant by last posts cliffhanger? Children of Mana is a game for the DS that I must say is one of the more boring games I ever played. And I usually like RPG:s, although they can lean to be the most cliché-filled plots ever (Skies of Arcadia for some example) and can play them over and over again. Although that is probably not a fair comparison since it's actually an action-RPG Dungeon Crawler, and the only other game that comes close that I've played in that genre is Diablo... and I never finished that game. So I'm probably not terrible fond of that genre since I prefer a whole world with lots of villages to visit and people to talk to. Feels like it's worth exploring and further the plot to see a new place and visit new people to save (without hoping to get paid). These two games are just looked in the same village with either a change of dungeon location (Children of Mana) or the dungeon itself changes depending on how further down you get in it (Diablo). All in all, it just feels boring. The things that balance it up on the other hand is the atmosphere in Diablo, it really feels scary, dark colors and sounds making you want to play it (it's just that I suck at leveling up my character in a good way and therefore not prepared to win tougher fights). Children of Mana on the other hand is more beautiful, the colors are fantastic and all... but it isn't enough for me to persuade me to finish it (beyond the fact I have to finish the game). Hmm, now I got a craving to play Diablo... hold on a minute.

 

*Three days later* OK, there isn't any competition, Diablo is so much better. It felt pretty good playing it this week with All Saint's Day and Halloween. And guess what, I made it to level 13, which means HELL. And it really are. Ambushed and killed by four Balrogs who had nothing better too do than wait at the entrance and await my decent into hell. Those bastards, I have waded through hordes of monster, but those four corners me and then kill me every single time. Being just a mere Warrior I'm now seriously looking into using my limited spell power to at least get some advantage... No, those demons are immune to my level 12 fireball which is the most leveled up spell I got. The only one that seemed to turn the tide was Stone Curse, but I don't have enough mana in order to stop more than one, which means the other three keeps bashing on me until the cursed one awakens and I'm lucky if I'm able to kill at least one, but then my potions are all out and I'm dead. Cheating bastards. If I'm not able to turn the tide and keeps getting killed the other option would be to start a new game again, and I didn't know that, and I have had this game for 15 years. A new game plus feature without even needing to complete the game. Only bother is to wade through the first 8-9 levels without being able to pick up any XP, but if that what it takes to survive the first level of hell so be it, at least I got some really nice armor and equipment fighting the first bosses.