Both of these games were great. Blizzard did a fantastic job on the original and also made a valuable expansion set. But was the expansion set good enough in all apects?
Now, the expansion set offered a superb gameplay and there is no way to argue about that. The increased stash size, zillions of new items and a new act, set in Barbarian homeland. Now that was great but in terms of storyline I think Lord of Destruction was not as strong as the main game. In Diablo II, we had a mysterious story going on in every act which was fun to follow through the quests and even gossips, especially Tal Rasha and his mysterious tombs were all fascinating. Cienmatic sequences were magnificent. I was keen to complete the act to see what happens next to Marius and the Dark Wanderer but in the mean time I was totally blown away with the storyline of each act in same time. The music were skillfully done, each act had its own music style which not only brought the dark atomosphere of the game but it didn't get annoying as it played over and over.
However these were not the same for Lord of Destruction. Ok, the fact that Baal had escaped and we had to go after him was a nice start. But the game took this approach a bit differently. I mean, we start out from the gates of Horragath and going through numerious monsters to kill Shank the overseer. The siege just doens't look real and it looks more like a maze. Of course that is the sign that we're playing an RPG game but it doesn't make sense with the idea of a siege.
They could have places some caves through the act like the first or third act but instead they made portals to hell. This is nice for gameplay but hey, we're in mountains. How can we have so little amount of caves?
Another thing was the idea that Nilhathak made a deal with Baal by giving him the relic of ancients. Now, dealing with a prime evil sounds a bit wiered. If the prime evils just want to perish the mankind then what is this idea? Couldn't they just give Diablo something to stop him in the first place?
The idea of Throne of Destruction was also strange. Ok, Baal is protected with some kind of shield and we have to fight his minions first before steping forward to the final battle in the world stone chamber. Couldn't they just have the monsters coming from that protal instead of having Baal standing up and summoning them? That is not a bad idea but what happens to that shield of Baal when he goes through the portal then? This shield idea is not really clear.
The music was very nice. Matt Uelmen used an orchestra to bring us the atmosphere of Barbarian homelands (and I think he also tried to be abit respectful to Basil Poldouris's score for Conan movies) but the problem was, the music got abit boring as it played over and over and it didn't provide a dark atmosphere same as the original game. I mean, when I played Diablo II and entered the Chaos santuary, the music really gave me the jibblies. But the World Stone Keep game me the feeling as if I was listening to documentary of how the Lord of Destruction was defeated.
Finally, as for the cinematic sequences, I think only the finale followed the same procedure of Diablo II. The opening cinematic was just wasting time. Sure Blizzard's cinematics are brilliant but whereas we begun following a great, mysterious story in the opening Diablo II, LOD just shows us Baal, killing a barbarian who asks him to turn back. The idea of having a single person asking a prime evil to turn back is abit stupid. If he was to listen then ok, I would shout DIABLO! TURN BACK! YOU SHALL NOT REACH THE MORTAL WORLD! There are several seconds of this cinematic sequence wasted for showing how Baal is going to kill this barbarian. There is nothing special about this, just abit of wind and havng Baal moving his hands...
Overall, I think despite of the new, great gameplay it offered, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction didn't really follow the path of the original game. I would call it a superb game if it wasn't a follow up, because when speaking of the former, the idea of is expanding what was originally introduced and while they did try to do that, I personally didn't feel I was continuing my role as the hero whom I played as in Diablo II.
I made lots of arguments here. I love both Diablo II and Lord of Destruction but these factors were a bit dissapointing for me. Now, I haven't spend all this time writting these up to ask you to appriciate it. Share your thoughts of the expansion set as well. If I mentioned something that you don't agree, shout it out. Let's see what everyone thinks.