Hellfire: Diablo Expansion Review

Hellfire: Diablo Expansion
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System on which this was tried out: Pentium III 733 MHz, nVidia TNT 2 Pro, 128 MB RAM, Win98, with a monitor with 1024 x 768 resolution. Hellfire must be installed on top of an existing Diablo install, and requires the Diablo disc rather than its own to actually play.
Being a Sierra product, the installer will install Sierra utilities in your startup menu if you don't already have it, with no option to skip them (although you can uninstall it separately); the utilities are the Sierra-typical uninstall/readme/support/auto-update. Auto-update, if invoked, asks you to connect to the net, searches your system for Sierra products, then queries Cendant Software's site to check for any patches or other updates, including updates to the Sierra utilities package itself. (The original Hellfire release must be patched for the town characters to properly interact with you, for instance - otherwise their Gossip mode will be stuck.) The Sierra utilities wind up under Program Files on drive C, no matter where the user asked the actual game to install, and the icon for the utilities is added to the start menu.
Once you have Hellfire installed and patched, you'll see some differences from (actually, additions to) baseline Diablo right away as you start your next new character. A few new character types have been added. (For a basic Hellfire install, only Monk has been added, but if you download and apply the Purgatory modification on top of Hellfire, you'll get Bard and Barbarian as well; their icons look like Warrior and Rogue, respectively, but they have a different mix of skills.) Also, a new game can be started at any of 3 difficulty levels - but a weak character has little chance against the higher levels, so prudence is recommended.
A nice bonus is that Hellfire gives you the option of *running* in town, regardless of your character.
You'll also see new types of items to pick up.
- Oils. Some allow you to repair your weapons without running to the blacksmith, while others improve their statistics, such as Oil of Accuracy and Oil of Fortitude.
-"Runes". These aren't related to Diablo II's runes; they're plain-looking gadgets that cast a single spell when set off, like crude grenades, such as Rune of Fire, or Rune of Stone.
- New types of scrolls, such as Search (*very* helpful for locating any loot in your vicinity; Search temporarily gives them an aura and marks them on your map).
Hellfire also adds 8 additional levels. A new farmer character has been added to the town of Tristram, and he has a problem that he won't discuss with you until he knows you fairly well - that is, your character must have a minimum expertise before he'll give you the explosives you need to break open the Hive south of town. The Hive is 4 levels deep, and contains 2 new quests that you'll always receive leading to two Level Bosses. Defeating the final Level Boss in the Hive will give you the key needed to enter the remaining four new levels, via a crypt in the cathedral's graveyard.
The Hive's monsters are mostly variants of giant insects covering several different physical types with different kinds of attacks. As well as scorpions, spiders, and boar-like monsters, there are monsters that spit poison or acid, and giant floating orbs with tentacles that shoot energy bolts at you - and hunt in packs, of course. The Hive's labyrinth generates random mazes, as does the original Diablo engine, so the replay value is very high, and its atmosphere is well done - the 'walls' look like a wasp's nest, and instead of breaking open barrels to hunt for goodies, the Hive offers pods.
The Vault has an even wider range of new and interesting beasts: lichs (undead beings with a ranged attack), satyrs, Anubis-like creatures that look like animated metal statues, firebats like those who appeared later in Diablo II. The final Vault level is something of a set piece because of the Level Boss' prison. The Vault also provides the Cornerstone of the World, a place that is the same in all worlds - that is, a mechanism for allowing different single player characters to exchange items.

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Build on the terror and adventure of Diablo with this expansion set. The software adds 12 new weapons, five new spells, 29 new foes, and the Monk, a new and powerful ally. There is also a whole new story to unravel and new demons to destroy.

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