Inside the Game – Page 3 – Ms. Bella's World

2–4 minutes

Well, good morning!

Where did we leave off last week? Ahh, Act III of Diablo II.

Upon entering the jungle kingdom of Kehjistan. Finding myself amidst the ruins of what was once the city of Kurast, I knew I had to track down the final soulstone that kept Mephisto imprisoned. But where to start? The locals were helpful, so long as I helped them. Fair enough.

Among all the areas in the game, this was one of the most memorable. The city was being reclaimed by dense jungle, though hints of its past glory still dotted the landscape. From the stone docks where I arrived, I journeyed inward, discovering a world within the world of Sanctuary. Remnants of stone roads peeked through grass, mud, and roots, while ruins of tall, proud buildings stood testament to what was once a sprawling city.

And around every corner lurked danger. Whether from the vulture-like winged nightmares or the fanatical flayers, a pygmy race we encountered previously in the cathedral of the Sisters in Act I, I had to watch my surroundings carefully to avoid certain death.

Even worse perils lay hidden in underground lairs and the sewers snaking beneath the crumbling city. All of which I had to explore in order to fulfill the wishes of the people while advancing my own goal of reaching Mephisto. And to do that, I needed to recover more than mere relics. I had to track down the remains of a man named Khalim.

But why him?

It turned out that after Mephisto was imprisoned beneath the earth, he managed to corrupt the Zakarum priests. All but one – Khalim. Failing to corrupt him, Mephisto instead had the other priests kill him and tear him apart, scattering his remains across the kingdom.

A horrid way to die, indeed.

However, his will was not broken, and his spirit remained with his body parts. And it was his will I would need to break into the Temple of Light and enter Mephisto’s lair.

The search took me throughout the kingdom in search of the man’s eye, heart, brain, and his flail. A few times I found myself near death. Okay, more than a few times. However, through perseverance, I finally managed to assemble what remained of the priest. Each time, I returned to the docks to show Deckard Cain what I’d found, and he would explain what it symbolized. Each time he urged me to go faster, for we were running short on time.

Finally, I had them and, with the Horadric Cube, I combined them into a flail that could destroy the Compelling Orb blocking the way to Mephisto. Destroying it also had the effect of instilling fear into the Zakarum, as it was the orb that stoked their hatred.

Once inside, I headed to the chamber that housed Mephisto, whowas no small challenge to kill. In fact, I’m quite certain he killed me more than once before I was able to succeed, as he had a wide variety of elemental and ranged skills in his arsenal. Mephisto himself was a terror to behold, a skeletal form, partially clothed in muscles, with misshapen hands and sickly protrusions.

Yet, while he was difficult to destroy, and I celebrated my victory, he would be easy compared to the next battle I’d have to face – that of Diablo himself. And for that, I would have to step into Act IV and the Burning Hells.

But, we’ll save that for next week.

Until then, bye for now!

4–6 minutes

Spring of 2000 –

Early 2000 was a wild year for tech. Bill Gates had stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. Three months later, a federal judge ruled that the company had violated antitrust laws. The heavy metal band Metallica sued the P2P program Napster for copyright infringement.

And Blizzard North rolled out the stress test for its next big hit – Diablo II.

Yes, yours truly did participate. It was my first beta test, and I was excited, both for the experience and because it was the sequel to my favorite game at the time. What would it be like? How would they tell the tale, with Tristram destroyed and Diablo defeated? As it turned out, it would be one of the best stories they told, and no, Diablo wasn’t done with us yet. In fact, he was only getting started.

Dropped into the new game, we found ourselves faced with the choice of five characters – the hotheaded Barbarian, the agile Amazon, the studious Sorceress, the noble Paladin, or the secretive Necromancer. More choices?! Which one to pick? After a hard moment of selection, I went with the Sorceress for my first taste of the new game. And with that, I entered the world of Sanctuary to follow in the footsteps of a shadowy figure only known as ‘The Dark Wanderer’, who seemed to be sowing evil in his wake.

In the test, we only got to go as far as defeating the character Blood Raven, a rogue who’d been corrupted and was busy raising her dead sisters. I remember seeing other people running around, doing the quests I was doing. I remember the thrill of getting to Blood Raven, dying to her, then going back and trying again. And I remember thinking that wow, this was a lot of stuff we got to do in the beta.

I had no idea it was but a small part of the first of four acts, culminating in an ending that was equally as shocking as that of the first game. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

When the game released later that year, I was more than ready to dive back into the world and pick up where I’d left off. I rolled a new character, a Paladin. Or was it a Barbarian? After 24 years and several playthroughs, I can’t quite remember. What I do remember is going through Act I, with the goal to stop the evil pouring out of the rogue’s monastery. Andariel was quite the challenge too, with her strong poison-based attacks. I must have died to her four or five times before I managed to stay alive long enough to beat her. But the deed was done, and I could now move on to the next area in pursuit of the mysterious figure causing so much death and despair.

It was also in Act I that I had the opportunity to revisit the town of Tristram, now a destroyed husk. There I fought hordes of monsters to get to a caged Deckard Cain and free him. This proved to be no easy task as he was being guarded by the once-beloved blacksmith, Griswold, who had now become a ghoul. After defeating what remained of my old friend, I freed Cain and sent him to the rogue camp before wandering around the town and mourning all of the characters from the first game. Not even the child, Wirt, had been spared, although examining him did provide a decent bit of gold and his peg leg as a potential weapon.

But I grow as long-winded as Deckard Cain himself. Let’s move on to Act II.

Act II found me in the desert city of Lut Gholein, having traveled there by caravan. The residents of the fair city are beset by their own troubles, as the Dark Wanderer had recently passed that way and it’s up to me to help them out.

Along the way, I discovered a mysterious scroll, the Horadric Scroll. With Deckard’s help, I learned that it was the recipe for creating a powerful staff that was the key to opening the tomb of someone named Tal Rasha. I’d later find out that Tal Rasha had once been the leader of the Horadrim, who had sacrificed himself to contain another one of the prime evils – Baal, Lord of Destruction – within his body for eternity.

However, by the time I found all of the parts of the staff, and the Horadric Cube to combine them, and Tal Rasha’s tomb, it was too late. The Dark Wanderer had beaten me there and shown his true form – that of Diablo himself! For the Dark Wanderer was my own hero, that heroic warrior from the first game, who had fought and failed to contain the prime evil.

With his brother freed from captivity too, I had to race to Act III to stop them from their next goal – releasing the third and final prime evil, Mephisto, from his soulstone buried deep beneath the grounds in the mysterious ruins of a city called Kurast.

Next week, we’ll pick up in the mysterious kingdom of Kehjistan, home to the three mage clans and the prison of Mephisto, Lord of Hatred.

Until then, bye for now!