Review | Diablo II Reign of the Warlock

I have been a long-time fan of the Diablo series, and Diablo II is actually the first that I played back in the day. I remember my friends and I sitting for hours at the PC grinding to get as much loot and kills as possible simply because it was a fun way to spend time. But of course, as with all good things, it eventually had to come to an end… or did it?

25 years later, after a semi-successful remaster called Diablo II Resurrected, there came a very unexpected DLC called Reign of the Warlock, which featured a brand-new character class, new items and so much more. I had to dive straight in and get playing, and it didn’t take long to get to grips with the Warlock’s abilities, and let me just say he might be just a wee bit overpowered, but that’s not a bad thing because every class has a certain skill level attached, and having an OP character can make the game more fun for those of us who have been through it multiple times.

Anyway, let’s get into the review.

Things I liked!

• New Character Class | The Warlock is a welcome addition to the classes of Diablo II, and I had a great time getting to grips with his skill tree and weapon styles. Let’s talk about weapons first, the Warlock. He can wield normal one-handed weapons as you would expect, making him able to deal with most foes easily while holding a book or shield in the other, but he can also wield two-handed weapons as well. ‘So what! ‘Other characters can do that too,’ I hear you mutter. But can other characters wield a two-handed weapon using only their mind? The warlock can do this and hold a shield item as well, making him a lot more versatile in terms of combat and defence. Not that you really need weapons later on in the game.
  
  You see, the Warlock can summon 3 demon types and later on can bind almost any monster in the game except the bosses and specific quest-based creatures, and with them at hand, you can just wander around examining the landscape while your summoned forces do all the hard work for you. This basically means you only really have to worry about the occasional fireball or arrow if you don’t pay attention. Now you don’t have to use these summons, but it really is a lot of fun.
  
  The Warlock is also a very good class for beginners with easy-to-master skill trees and user-friendly attacks, so whether you are new to the game, coming back after a long hiatus or just want a chill run, then Warlock is going to be the class to play.

• Quality of life features | There have been a few awesome new features added to the game which were long overdue in my opinion, such as the ability to stack gems and runes in your stash, which, let’s be honest, was what most of our stash was taken up with back in the day, so this will free up more space for important things like random boots and helmets that might be important later but that you usually forget about once you get armour that you think looks and sounds cool.
  
  Another awesome addition is the loot filter, which allows you to set it so that the only loot you will see will be specific to your class or others if you are collecting stuff for another run. It certainly takes the guesswork out of picking up items and relieves the clutter in the later game when looting for gold isn’t needed any more.
  
  There’s also a new feature called the Chronicle which lets you keep a note of items you need to collect and complete special sets for your characters and also rewards you for doing so with cool new aesthetics. Another bonus of the chronicle is that it records where you found the items and what they do so that you can find them more easily on future runs if you so choose.
  
• Terror Zones | If you are looking for more of a challenge than what Diablo II already offers, then you should be on the lookout for the Terror Zones. These zones are more dangerous, with bosses actively chasing you and more enemies to defeat the longer you stay within them. The rewards, though, are worth the challenge, as you can find ancient loot sets more easily in these zones, and you can also find statues that will allow you to find and fight the Colossal Ancients.

Mixed & disliked!

• Nitpicks | The only real nitpick I have is that the quality of life upgrades to the game are only available when you buy this pack, and that seems a little unfair to the players who might not want to play as this new class and want to just continue playing as their favourite classes instead. And at £21.99 it’s a little much for features that should be as standard throughout each iteration of the game. Apart from that, I don’t really have any dislikes to note.

How long did I play the review before publishing? Countless hours over the last 25 years / 21 hours with Warlock
How long to beat the story? 20 hours
How long to Complete the game 100%? hundreds of hours if you want to collect everything
You’ll love this game if you like these | Path of Exile series, Torchlight series, Victor Vran

CONCLUSION

Score: 85 /100

Diablo II Reign of the Warlock is a genuinely fun DLC that, in my opinion, should have come out 25 years ago. It refreshes a game that many of us had put to bed and gives it a fresh new set of challenges. I really enjoyed playing as the ridiculously overpowered Warlock, and I hope that this is a sign of things to come. C’mon Blizzard, let’s get some more awesome DLC for older games.