An expansion to the game, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001. Major factors that contributed to the game's success include its continuation of popular fantasy themes from the previous game and its access to Blizzard's free online play service,. The game's 5 acts feature a variety of locations and settings to explore and battle in, as well as an increased cast of characters to play as and interact with.īuilding on the success of its predecessor, Diablo (1997), and improving the gameplay, both in terms of updated character progression and a better developed story Diablo II was one of the most popular games of 2000 and has been cited as one of the greatest games of all time.

Set shortly after the events of Diablo, the player controls a new hero, attempting to stop the destruction unleashed by Diablo's return. The game was developed over a 3-year period, with a crunch time of 1.5 years long. The producers were Matthew Householder and Bill Roper. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror themes, was conceptualized and designed by David Brevik and Erich Schaefer, who, with Max Schaefer, acted as project leads on the game. Diablo II is an action role-playing hack-and-slash computer video game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 2000 for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and macOS.