Act III is the longest of the original four Diablo II acts, but with my new Warlock, it honestly flew by. There was little friction as I continued my approach of allowing my summoned Goatman to tank while I ran around getting potshots in and picking up loot.
I generally enjoy Kurast; a jungle makes for a good horror-tinged setting. At no point did I need to grind for levels or gold, so I was able to just cruise through and enjoy the macabre scenery.
Despite being extremely cool looking, the act’s boss, Mephisto, was pretty much a pushover.
Act IV is the shortest act in the game, and in my opinion, the coolest. I absolutely adore everything from the gothic architecture to the liberal use of pentagrams to the rivers of flame. This act feels the closest to the aesthetics of the original game (and any heavy metal album banned in the 80s).
It was here that I hit my first brief roadblock of the game, which was, appropriately, Diablo. It’s been a hot minute since I last fought the lord of terror in D2 and I found myself totally unprepared for his attacks and patterns. I was wiped out almost instantly and sent back to the Pandemonium Fortress (which also rocks). When I made it back to him the second time I was not as careless. I kept a steady stream of Goatmen tanking: dying and being resurrected as I ran circles around Diablo, dodging his attacks while the Goatman chipped away at his health until he was no more.
Hardly a glorious hero’s victory, but whatever. If I were role-playing this Warlock, this battle would totally be on brand. I felt absolutely no shame as I journeyed to Harrogath for Act V, the Lord of Destruction expansion.
All screenshots and video here were captured from the Steam version of the game running on my desktop PC.
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