The game's four 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.

The player progresses through the story by completing a series of quests within each act, while there are also optional side dungeons for extra monsters and experience.

Act I is similar to the original Diablo; the Rogue Encampment is a simple palisade fort, with plains and boreal forests making up the wilderness area, and the Monastery resembles the typical medieval fortress.

Act II mimics Ancient Egypt's desert and tombs; Lut Gholein resembles a Middle Eastern city and palace during the Crusades.

Act III is supposedly based on the Central American jungles; Kurast is inspired by the lost Mayan civilization.

[13] Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different character classes: Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin.

[23] Several spells (such as auras or war cries) multiply their effectiveness if they are cast within a party, and although dungeons still exist, they were largely replaced by open spaces.

Blizzard cracked down on spambots which advertise sites selling Diablo II's virtual items for real-world currency.

Environment, PvE), groups of players with specific sets of complementary skills can finish some of the game's climactic battles in a matter of seconds, providing strong incentives for party-oriented character builds.

Experience gained, monsters' hit points and damage, and the number of items dropped are all increased as more players join a game, though not in a strictly proportional manner.

[28] Through the patch history, several exploits and bugs such as item duplication have been addressed, as well as major revamps to the game's balance (such as the ability to redo skills and attributes).

A band of adventurers who pass through the Rogue Encampment hear these stories of destruction and attempt to find out the cause of the evil, starting with this corrupted "Dark Wanderer."

With the corruption of Diablo's soulstone, the demon is able to control the Dark Wanderer and is attempting to free his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal.

The story is divided up into four acts: In the epilogue, Marius indicates he was too weak to enter Hell, and that he fears the stone's effects on him.

The story continues with Act V, in the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction where Baal attempts to corrupt the mythical Worldstone on Mount Arreat.

Part of this delay was attributed to Brevik's focus on gameplay from Ultima Online, and trying to improve on features from that game for Diablo.

This allowed the marketing and PR department for Blizzard North to focus their efforts in building up excitement in players worldwide for the first week of sales, contributing to the game's success.

For Act II Mustafa Waiz, a percussionist, and Scott Petersen, the game's sound designer, worked on the drum samples.

Waiz played on the dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals which gave Matt Uelmen a base upon which to build tracks around.

The instrument radically changes color from a steady mysterious drone to a harsh, fearsome noise, which gives exotic feeling and at the same time the pacing of the second town.

[41] In 2015, an unofficial port for the ARM architecture-based Pandora handheld became available by static recompilation and reverse engineering of the original x86 version.

The remaster includes updated graphics, smoother gameplay and re-rendering of the game's cutscenes, and supports cross-progression between the different platforms.

[71] It was awarded a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records 2000 edition for being the fastest selling computer game ever, with more than 1 million units sold in the first two weeks of availability.

[54] Its sales during 2000 alone reached 2.75 million globally;[72] 33% of these copies were sold outside the United States, with South Korea making up the largest international market.

At this time, this led Edge to declare it the United States' second-largest computer game hit released since January 2000.

[84] Diablo II became a major hit in the German market and debuted at #1 on Media Control's computer game sales chart for June 2000.

Speaking with Havas Interactive's public relations director, PC Player's Udo Hoffman noted that the representative "had to make an effort on the phone to avoid singing and jubilating" over the game's commercial performance.

[85] The Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) presented Diablo II with a "Gold" award after three weeks of availability,[86] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

[85] Diablo II continued to chart in January 2001, with a placement of 24th,[90] and its Limited Edition debuted in second place for February.

[93] Copies of Diablo: Battle Chest continue to be sold in retail stores, appearing on the NPD Group's top 10 PC games sales list as recently as 2010.