World 2-30: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
~PC

Once again, I have mastered Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (at least on normal mode). This time around I decided to try a Paladin for the first time, finishing off Baal at level 34. To be more specific with my build, I tested out what is called the "Hammerdin" character by putting the skill "Blessed Hammer" up to level 20. To properly pull off this build, you need to get your offensive aurora "Concentration" to level 20, as well as the defensive aurora "Vigor", but I believe I only got both to around level 6 each before I unlocked Blessed Hammer. At that point, I switched off to offensive play, since I am naturally an attacker - not a defender. By the time I completed the game, I hadn't gained enough levels to max all three skills out, but if I continue in hell mode those will be my next steps. Although I must say, auroras feel a bit awkward to me during solo play, because the only person other than myself gaining anything from my boosts is the mercenaries I hire. Then I am left standing around waiting for him to polish all the monsters off. As I said, I like to charge enemies too much, so I was always busy mashing all the enemies around me with my awesome hammer spell rather than worrying about building up my auroras.

As a first time Paladin, I found this build pretty fun while I was building up my Blessed Hammer skill. After some time, it started to get pretty boring. I'm a Sorceress at heart, so I'm used to having a whole bunch of different spells to cast at any given moment to most effectively take down the enemies I am facing. Blessed Hammer has a huge advantage in this regard, because it seems to work just as well on one monster as it does the next, and it's also a really strong attack. Much stronger than I remember my sorceress's best spells being.

Once again, I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this game to anybody and everybody. Not only is it amazing from music to character appearance to expansions of characters and more, it also completely involves you in the game and gives you hours and hours of lasting fun. Diablo II is definitely one of my all time favourite games.

World 2-29: Altered Beast (Arcade)

Altered Beast (Arcade version) via Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection
~PS3

Altered Beast has always been a classic in my books. There's nothing incredibly special about it, but the music always gives me a great sense of nostalgia, and the game play is simple and straight forward which makes it easy for anybody to pick up and love. The story is basic, where some sort of royalty (probably a king) asks you to rescue his daughter, so you set off on a mission to save her. There doesn't seem to be any names for any of the characters, but it works well for this game.

Altered Beast features flashing beasts which drops orbs that you must collect in order to power up and transform into a new beast in each level, true to the title of the game. It's fairly short, as there are only 4 levels (and only 3 monsters to transform into - the last level featuring Gold and Silver versions of the first beast transformation).

As a side note, the arcade version is a lot more fun than the home console version. The graphics are much smoother, the colours are better, and while my favourite music sequence that plays between levels is faster than the home version, the whole game just turned out better for the arcade. I would recommend this game to anybody who likes a simple arcade classic that doesn't have much of a learning curve.