TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 1,967
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
I remember when all this was fields.
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In Why I Love, PC Gamer writers pick an aspect of PC gaming that they love and write about why it's brilliant. This week, Jody remembers Diablo 2's dark opening.
It's weird to feel affection for dreary bogs with names like Blood Moor, even if they do look like backdrops against which Kate Bush might do an interpretive dance at any moment. But Act 1 of Diablo 2, from the first time I left the Rogue Encampment to the moment I caught a caravan east, is carved into my bones.
Everywhere you go in Act 1 feels like somewhere you could have walked to from the first game. The fields, the graveyard, the haunted monastery, these places all inhabit the same idea space as Tristram. They look like locations from old movies like The Blood on Satan's Claw, or a Hammer horror with vampires in. For the duration of its first act, Diablo 2 was a direct sequel in a way the rest of the game wasn't.
You leave the Rogue Encampment, a conveniently compact hub compared to the more spread-out later towns, and either follow a rough path to various points of interest or immediately go off-piste into the wilds. You might find an optional dungeon, or a mysterious book on a pedestal that leads to a sidequest. Where the first Diablo was claustrophobic, a single dungeon beneath a village, Diablo 2 promised wide open spaces. Here is where that promise pays off.
The deserts of Act 2, bounded by rocks that can make the stairs to the next zone difficult to spot, and especially the jungle of Act 3, a tight maze full of dead ends, will make you miss this "wide corridor" linearity. Act 1 does open-world without time-wasting or boredom.
Corrupted rogues charge at you out of the rain, and when they die their howling spirits leave their bodies like they just opened the Ark of the Covenant. Goatmen bray and impish Fallen chant "Rakanishu!" while the soundtrack's ominous drums kick in. Shamans resurrect dead Fallen if you don't take them out fast, and nests spawn blood hawks if you don't deal with them quickly too. These tricks would be copy-pasted onto later enemies, but here they felt fresh, encouraging tactical play. And there were no bloody lightning beetles.
When you return to Tristram, via a portal unlocked at a circle of sinister standing stones, the village is in ruins. It burns down around you and Griswold the blacksmith, your old ally, is ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
In Why I Love, PC Gamer writers pick an aspect of PC gaming that they love and write about why it's brilliant. This week, Jody remembers Diablo 2's dark opening.
It's weird to feel affection for dreary bogs with names like Blood Moor, even if they do look like backdrops against which Kate Bush might do an interpretive dance at any moment. But Act 1 of Diablo 2, from the first time I left the Rogue Encampment to the moment I caught a caravan east, is carved into my bones.
Everywhere you go in Act 1 feels like somewhere you could have walked to from the first game. The fields, the graveyard, the haunted monastery, these places all inhabit the same idea space as Tristram. They look like locations from old movies like The Blood on Satan's Claw, or a Hammer horror with vampires in. For the duration of its first act, Diablo 2 was a direct sequel in a way the rest of the game wasn't.
You leave the Rogue Encampment, a conveniently compact hub compared to the more spread-out later towns, and either follow a rough path to various points of interest or immediately go off-piste into the wilds. You might find an optional dungeon, or a mysterious book on a pedestal that leads to a sidequest. Where the first Diablo was claustrophobic, a single dungeon beneath a village, Diablo 2 promised wide open spaces. Here is where that promise pays off.
The deserts of Act 2, bounded by rocks that can make the stairs to the next zone difficult to spot, and especially the jungle of Act 3, a tight maze full of dead ends, will make you miss this "wide corridor" linearity. Act 1 does open-world without time-wasting or boredom.
Corrupted rogues charge at you out of the rain, and when they die their howling spirits leave their bodies like they just opened the Ark of the Covenant. Goatmen bray and impish Fallen chant "Rakanishu!" while the soundtrack's ominous drums kick in. Shamans resurrect dead Fallen if you don't take them out fast, and nests spawn blood hawks if you don't deal with them quickly too. These tricks would be copy-pasted onto later enemies, but here they felt fresh, encouraging tactical play. And there were no bloody lightning beetles.
When you return to Tristram, via a portal unlocked at a circle of sinister standing stones, the village is in ruins. It burns down around you and Griswold the blacksmith, your old ally, is ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?