Note: all screenshots open in a new window.  Spoilers inside screenshots will have warnings before you look at them.  Every attempt has been made to keep the report plot-spoiler free.  I am aware the screenshots are dark; apparently, it doesn't save my gamma rating with the shot, because it's not THAT dark as I'm playing.

Day 2.  SO much to talk about, I can't even figure out where to begin.  So I'll just start rambling.  Most of this report will just be rambling, in fact.

I'd like to stress again how key it is to note that screenshots don't do the game justice.  Seeing it in motion is where you are really impressed.  Diablo II is ALIVE.   Where in Diablo 1, everything was incredibly static (the only animation in the backgrounds existed in a few spots, such as Hell walls and Cave lava pools) and dull, Diablo II takes it way beyond that.  Weather changes, for one.  Different kinds of rain.  Light rain, heavy rain, drizzle, even thunderstorms (with very real sounding thunder, I might add).  Night and day.  Atmospheric noises.  Caves sound like caves, with squeaks from bats and mice moving about.  Might I add that you can squish the mice in the caves by walking or running over them?  Yes, I admit it, I spent a good half minute chasing mice and squishing them for fun.  Talk about attention to detail.  Talk about someone getting kicks out of hurting little anima...oh wait, forget that last part.

Gone is the tile based system of D1.  The ASCII diagrams we've come so fond of won't have much use now.  In fact, much of the strategy in Diablo 1 regarding positioning is of no point in the sequel.  The tile-based system dominated how we played, from hiding behind pillars to telekilling to Teleflash™ to Happy Feet (© 1997, Woody).  Not to say that Happy Feet doesn't live on, it's just in a different form: running!  Using guerrilla warfare tactics, Boltricia the Sorceress would heavily abuse her run ability to Happy Feet around her enemies.  This worked for a while...until she met enemies that could run right with her.  Yep, not everything is dumb and slow, and I faced many a monster (especially the Dark Rogues) who could keep pace with me, forcing me to turn and fight...or run out of stamina when I wouldn't want to.  Flavie the Rogue warned me that there would be trouble ahead, and she was right.

But I handled it.  See a major boss die here.  No spoilers, since as it's dying you can't see who it is.  Lightning spewed forth from the boss in a wild 10-second long animation.

There's some old tried and true Diablo 1 game elements in action here.  Check out everyone's favorite barn animal (by request).  And, of course, we can't have enough barrels, can we?  Here's a shot of a shrine and its effect.  I've come across many shrines, from Experience Shrines which temporarily raise the experience you get per kill, to Skill Shrines which temporarily raise your skill points.  They're all useful - there are no "bad" shrines in Diablo II.  There are "wells" which can be used a handful of times.  They raise your health and mana a little.  Plus, Health Pools and Mana Pools can be found here and there.  See the new and improved Town Portal in full effect in this shot.

Bosses!  Who wants em?  I sure had a hard time with Bonebreaker.  Read his special ability and you'll see why.  But I got him in the end, thanks to some help: an NPC who came with me.  For completing a quest I got a free NPC who accompanied me throughout the lands of evil.  I was pretty impressed with their AI.  Take a look at Bakula standing guard.  When worlds collide, huh?  The rogue wouldn't just stand still and wait for me, she would patrol around me and take the initiative at times, often attacking a monster I hadn't noticed yet.  She displayed skill in avoiding being hit by enemy monsters, taking Woody's term to heart.  Only once did she get "lost," being unable to go around a corner herself, forcing me to backtrack a bit so she could come around.  With her help distracting Bonebreaker, combined with her physical attacks, Bakula and I took the boss down.  As far as I know, everything she killed gave me experience points, but I couldn't directly confirm that before she died.

And alas, she did die.  Rest in peace, my first NPC.  She served me well against many a creature, such as the boss in that shot who had the ability to teleport.  Very unnerving.  But in the end, there's no resurrect for her.  *Wipes tear*  I did take revenge for her foul murder, killing Bishibosh, a Fallen Shaman boss who could resurrect Fallen Shamans, who could resurrect Fallen.  Yeah, it was tough.  Note the presence of magic resistance on bosses so early in the game.

It was interesting to me how die-hard my Diablo 1 habits were.  I kept trying to stay out of Bakula's line of fire instinctually, something I had to fight since there's no friendly fire in Diablo II.  I remember hearing about the lack of friendly fire in Diablo's sequel years back and being annoyed at it; but once you start playing the game, you'll see why it was removed.  Due to the lack of the tile system, it's kind of difficult to line up shots.  And the game makes up for the lack of friendly fire, believe me.

Check out the character screen!  It's actually quite a bit more useful than the one in Diablo I.  Be sure to note the pop up dialog box when I highlight my defense stat.  In the first Diablo, your true stats were somewhat "hidden" behind those on-screen.  Here, the on-screen values are translated for you.  My defense rating is blue at the time of the shot since I was using a cold spell which raises my defense and freezes any monster who manages to hit me (very cool, I might add; pun intended).  It also makes it perfectly clear which attributes control which stats, as the attributes point to the statistics they alter.  Thus, raising Vitality raises stamina and life.

Spells?  Try some Frost Nova, a great-looking spell which slows down any monsters within a specific radius.

Equipment?  Here's some.  First up is a LONG bow.  It takes up 4 slots vertically in the inventory because it's so huge.  Here's some trivia: what would a Long Bow of Readiness do in Diablo 1?  Well, as I said, those familiar with D1 will be familiar with D2, as you can see in this shot of the bow.  Cash flow problems getting you down?  Check out this ring, with a suffix that's all new.  Here's a staff that Akara had for sale, which at the time was quite out of my price range.  But ooh, do I want that!  And finally, a Sharp Wand which I sold in town; quite a Necromancer item.

Death is something we all face.  In Diablo, we face it a little more than in Real Life, yes...and Boltricia faces this fact here.  I like how it informed me who killed me, so I know who to come back and beat the (censored) out of for taking me down.  Rakanishu paid for his crime, I can assure you.  When a character dies in D2, their corpse remains on the ground.  Only the character who died can retrieve the items on the corpse, so there is no stealing or MK'ing going on.  Clicking on the corpse gets you all your items back at once, instantly equipping them - very nice.  While heading back to my corpse, I ran into the Moldy Tome, a book much like those in Diablo (same voice-over man, too) which gave me a new quest.  Note the marker on the minimap showing where my corpse is.

Party!  Party!  The Party System in Diablo II looks sweet.  Check out Jows, a name some old-time DSF regulars might recall, sporting his Paladin.  One great advantage of the party is that auras he cast would affect me as well.  See this effect in action as Jows and I guard the door of a burnt-out house, waiting for monsters to come out to their doom.  Both he and I have the Might aura on, increasing our physical damage.  What a massacre.

There are three types of monsters: regular ones, champions, and bosses.  See a champion here, denoted in blue text.  Tough little buggers.  I also ran into a monster generator, a Foul Crow Nest which generated, as you can expect, Foul Crows.  Not a very good shot of the generator, I'd admit, but it gives you the general idea.  Like monsters, the generator has a bar showing its hit points which you have to whittle down while defending yourself from the monsters spewing from it.  The squiggly lines on the right side of the minimap were a large rock face.  Land features are shown on the minimaps to help you navigate.

I mentioned in Beta Report 1 how useful the Alt key is in finding items on the ground.  Oh, you have no idea how true it is.  See evidence of it in this shot.  The great thing about holding down Alt is that you can then just highlight the word(s) of the item to pick it up, so I can just scroll down that list and pick them all up rapidly.  Very handy.

The rest of the shots are from a quest which contains quite a few spoilers.  If you want everything to be exciting and new when you get the game, don't read on.  This will ruin a somewhat fun surprise for you.  If you can't wait to hear everything you can about the game, then do press on.  The next beta report will be in a few days, as I'll be far too busy with Real Life concerns to beta test, much less beta report.  So, see you then.  Look for one on April 7.

So, on to some spoilers...some spoiler space here.

I was told that a very familiar town name had been devastated and that there was one sole survivor that needed rescuing.  This town was too far away to ever walk there, so I'd need to find a portal which could take me.  Can you guess what town it was?

To activate the portal, I'd need to find a scroll from a magical tree.  This I accomplished and brought it to Akara (boy, isn't that name really close to an NPC from D1?  hmm), who was able to interpret it as a set of instructions to operate a set of stones in a Stone Valley.  I knew where to go as I found those stones before, and headed off to touch the stones in the correct order.  You could say it got results.  Stepping into the portal, I found myself in VERY familiar territory.  Guess what music was playing?  But the real shocker came when I met this poor soul.  If you haven't figured out where I am yet, read the location name in the upper right corner of the minimap.  You know, it's funny, because he was nothing more than a static Blacksmith NPC, but I felt dejected that in the end, this is what happened to him.  I put him out of his misery quickly.

But, you know, I couldn't help but grin wickedly when I found this.  It's actually a mace that a fighter can use, and none of the people in town would let me sell it to them.  The little brat finally got what he deserved.

But the goal of the quest was to find our favorite Sean Connery sound-a-like and rescue him.  He was being held in a cage by some Skeleton Champions and Carver Shamans (and a Carver Shaman boss).  I pulled him down from the cage and told him to get back to the Rogue Encampment, an order he was happy to follow.  See him zipping out in his Town Portal here.  Oh yeah, don't miss the little person in the upper right, that's the damage indicator in D2.  My sword is yellow because it's damaged.  Items that reach zero durability aren't destroyed in Diablo II, just made unusable until repaired.

Deckard Cain gives a little information on the fate of Tristram in a portion of his conversation with me in the Rogue Encampment here.  He agreed to identify all items for FREE for me from then on!  Sweet.