When Diablo 2 first came out, I was about 10 years old. I remembered sitting next to my older brother, watching in excitement as he whirlwinded through hapless fallen and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. After countless hours of cajoling and whining, I finally got to create my own character, a lowly Paladin, and gasped in shock when my life points ran out and my knight fell into a sad little heap.
Diablo 2's gameplay left an indelible mark on me. From that point forward, all rogue-like games I played would be unconsciously measured against its experience--and inevitably, I would find most wanting.
What my 10 year old mind couldn't absorb, however, was the story. I wasn't old enough to appreciate things like voice acting, art direction, or narrative concepts. Now that I am approaching 30, I tried actually sitting down and watching the cutscenes rather than skipping through them for the umpteenth time.
The first thing that stood out was Marius and his voice actor, Frank Gorshin. Gorshin's voice acting is simply incredible. You get an immediate feeling for Marius: he is pitiable, possibly deranged, definitely suffering from intense amounts of despair and fear. I'd never heard anything like it before or since, and it's also impressive that Blizzard North was able to hire such talent given that voice acting in video games was still seen as relatively pedestrian work. Baal and Tyrael also deliver their lines impressively, with Baal seeming impassive but with a hint of cruel humor in his voice, while Tyrael sounds impassioned and heroic. The voice acting is aided by a superb script with some really weighty lines.
To be continued...