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First
of all, the quality is better. It's noticeable as soon as you
start the game -- the entire environment is rendered in 3-D
perspective by default option (you
can turn it off later if you want).
The graphics are just better. It gets dark at night and light
in the day, and it even storms sometimes. Spells are really
quite spiffy to look at. |
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There
are five different character classes instead of three -- Amazon,
Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin, and Sorceress. Each one has
completely different skills and spells they can learn and requires
different tactics. |
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Instead
of playing in dungeons and caves, you play in vast wildernesses and
deserts and so on. It would be incredibly easy to get lost... |
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...except
that there are regularly placed Waypoints. These function like
teleporter pads -- when you find one (step
on it to activate it),
click on it to bring up a window where you can choose to teleport to
another Waypoint. There's always one in town, so if you're
near a Waypoint and run into trouble (a
swarm of Fetishes, for example),
you can dash over to it and use it to zap yourself back to town,
instead of opening a portal. |
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You
also get to play in and around four different towns instead of just
one. |
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A
complaint I had was that you can't regularly save the game.
The 'save' function is tied in with the 'exit' function, so saving
your game also exits. And when you reload, your character is
automatically placed back in town, instead of where you left
off. So you're often forced to go Waypoint-hopping -- trying
to find the next Waypoint because you don't want to give up on all
the ground you've gained. |
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Shrines
are set up differently. There are only a few different types,
and their names are self-explanatory -- a Stamina shrine would give
you unlimited stamina for a minute or two, an Experience shrine
gives you more experience per kill, etc. |
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Quests
are more elaborate, fit in more with the storyline, and take more
effort and time to complete. |
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There
are what are called 'socketed' items...items that can be modified by
placing up to three gems in them. Different types and
qualities of gems have different effects. |
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Rare
items are like magic items, except they can have from three to five
magical properties, instead of one or two. |
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Item
sets are groups of matched special unique items. When you have
collected all of the items in a set and have them all equipped, you
receive extra magic benefits. |
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Your
single player characters can be played over b.net. |
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You
can create characters on one of b.net's Realms. Realm
characters are stored on Blizzard's servers and can be played from
any computer. If, for example, you have a Realm character on
USEast, you can only play against other USEast characters. |
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