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I must say, at first I didn't like Diablo II. I hated it to be exact. But, it does grow on you rather quick. I might as well get all of the bad features out of the way first.

To begin with, unless you're collecting all the Diablo stuff, Battle Chest can easily be passed up. The regular old Diablo II, without expansion was good, really good, I didn't lag much, never had a connnection crash, etc. All of this stopped when I upgraded. Constant lag when playing online, it will crash quit often.

The mechanics of the game itself isn't very amusing. You get an overhead view, and you basically walk around, clicking on monsters you want to kill, while dungeon trolling. If you're thinking about playing it offline, get ready for an extremely dull and tedious time. Time. Another factor. This isn't the sort of game where you can put 10 minutes a day on. You really need to devote yourself to it. Graphics. While the cinematics are superb, the environments themselves are rather lackluster. There is no varied colors, or awesome sights to see. There is a desert, plain, forest/swamp, snowfield, and underground hellish place. The atmosphere is almost always dark, day or night, not much to look at.

On the other hand, it does come with some great benefits. First, Battle Chest is cheaper than buying each included seperately. It comes with Diablo I and II, Expansion, and Strategy Guide. Well worth the fifty dollars. I cannot stress enough that online playing is the best way! Get together with a few friends in one game, and watch the hours fly by. Yes, this game is addictive. I should clear up what I mean. Like most games, multiplayer is a great way of having a ton of fun. It's hard to describe, but interacting, talking, fighting together, it's much more...exhilirating I guess the word would be. Expansion version makes your inventory twice as big, adds several hundreds of new items and variations. The story is cool, it has cut scenes, not much in terms of development though. There are several characters to choose from, a variety of skills they can learn, and each world is randomly generated. The music is by no means superb but it's par.

Well, to put it simply, you'll either love it or hate it. Online with others is the best way of having a good time, but by now there are better games out, though this is still classic. I would strongly suggest trying this out for awhile, since a large portion of people that get this game buy it because of the hype.

Since both games (plus the expansion) are involved here I'll go ahead and give all 3 a review.

Diablo came out in the mid 90's to rave reviews and newly found addiction from PC gamers everywhere. I got my own copy (still the original) and found the game to be a refreshing switch from other games I was goofing off with at the time. Diablo's premise is that you enter the town of Tristram to defeat an evil that has sprung up out of nowhere and resides in dark places below the village. The graphics for the time were pretty good albeit grainy and dark by today's standards. The characters you could play as were all great although the only real difference between them (Magician, Warrior, Rogue) were the starting stats, and even your Warrior could learn spells (same as the Magician) provided he found enough books and skill levels, the Magician could do much the same with Warrior weapons, provided the player put points into Strength and Dexterity. The plot to be honest was a bit ho-hum, go down, hack and slash, and rescue some kid while defeating monsters with thier own story and lore, which oddly I found no interest in. To make matters worse the singleplayer game went much quicker than multiplayer and so a shorter game is less apt to hold your attention span. But it's real value came when adventuring with friends either by internet or modem (yeah, people did modem to modem gaming back then...unreal ;) ) and it was in this way the game became unbelievably addictive as hours long searches in dungeons for the best weapons and equipment became a pastime.

Diablo II was the much ballyhooed and awaited sequel in gaming history at the time. The game saw a few delays getting out of production (usually a surefire sign a game will be a dud) but turned into solid gold. In every single way an improvement over it's forebear. And the plot was outstanding! The music, atmosphere, the weapons and armor you could find...what was there to *not* be liked about the game? The story has you following the previous game's hero (the plot assumes it was the Warrior) and watches his downward spiral as he travels east towards the place of Diablo's rebirth, releasing mayhem as he moves. Besides special missions that give you permanent stat upgrades and named items you have a gigantic choice of places to explore, there are runes and gems that you can drop into weapons and armor, giving them custom upgrades.

D2: Lord of Destruction follows the path of the last bad guy, the Lord of Destruction, into the frozen lands of the north, homeland of the Barbarian. This expansion gets a lot of mixed reviews, but personally I like it. The music, locales, and especially the amazing experience one can get just by going through the expansion once is not to be ignored. Plus super customized "named" armor that you make by having certain rare runes is definitely a bonus beyond words.

Online play is fun but with so many hacked items it's simply better to go it alone and try and get some good stuff that's legit, a real sign of respectability these days. The game is very addictive and you'll find yourself going back to it again and again. Try it out and see :)

This my friend, is an award winning gift set collection for any hardcore gamer. Novice or expert, with Diablo and it's following titles this is a great buy for your money's worth! You get the first-ever action-packed Diablo game, it's following ancestors, Diablo II and Diablo II:Lord of Destruction, and you also get Diablo II and Lord of Destruction Strategy Guide, and a cool poster all for currently twenty dollars! Don't miss out on this awesome gift set collection. In Diablo, you are destined to slaughter the lord of terror, Diablo. You get lots of fun filled quests with an epic story line, challenging bosses, great weapons, lovely items, and good graphics. In Diablo II, the lord of terror returns and again, you must go out and hunt Diablo. Diablo II has more items, weapons, better graphics, four acts, and great new challenging monsters and bosses that will keep you playing. Then, after you beat Diablo II, you must install Diablo II:Lord of Destruction. Diablo II:Lord of Destruction is the expansion pack for Diablo II. In Lord of Destruction the lord of terror doesn't return, but you must seek and destroy a new enemy, Baal. Baal is the big boss, the lord of destruction people say. In Diablo II:Lord of Destruction you get thousands, not hundreds but thousands, of new items, lovelier weapons, lots of new monsters, tons of great big bad bosses, and a brand new act to complete, to seek and destroy the lord of terror, Baal. If you have trouble you can always turn to the Diablo II Strategy Guide that comes along with this great gift collection, and who knows, you may learn something new. Diablo Battle Chest is a great gift collection for anyone who loves Blizzard's other award-winning titles, novice or expert, all non or current Diablo fans will love this gift collection. Why? Because it has the first award-winning title that started it all, Diablo, then Diablo II and Diablo II:Lord of Destruction, two manuals, one big fat Diablo II Strategy Guide, a cool poster, and most important of all, addictive hot sweet sweet sizzling non-stop action that will keep you riveted. So for your average gaming buck, it's not a bad deal, so I say buy this item now, or you'll regret it! :)