Okay, I realize that this is both way off topic (even for this board) and about five years out of date, but just deal with it. Anyway, I think that there are enough gamers on here to perhaps help me out without having to tread into some gamers' forum.

I've been playing some Diablo recently (the original, not that Diablo II is not behind the times as well) and I've been (I think) doing pretty well. Until I got to this most recent level. Pretty much I walk down the stairs and dozens of monsters immediately start firing acid at me -- so much that if I stand in one place, it creeps underneath me and I start taking damage. Not to mention all the fireballs that the big winged demons keep throwing at me. And since I immediately start taking damage, I can't cast any area-damage spells, not that it would do that much good anyway, since the monsters are largely magic and fire resistant.

So what I want to know is how to get out of this. I mean, is this a common occurrance? Am I just not twitchy enough? Or am I missing something obvious? Or should I just go play Mario Cart?

Mario Cart.

- i got dibs on princess

I don't know about the original Diablo (never played it), but in Diablo 2, the whole deal is that there are some areas that are simply too tough to get through unless your character has increased enough in strength and abilities.

The whole idea is that you don't blast through headlong and try to go straight to the "end" of each area as fast as possible. This gets you into situations like the one you describe, going up against overwhelming odds.

Asssuming Diablo 1 works like Diablo 2, what you probably need to do is backtrack and kill more of the easier monsters and pick up more treasure and items. Get your character built up a level or two so that he doesn't die quite as easily and has a little more power to his weapons. Then go back and try to kill the monsters that were too tough before.

What really stinks is if you wandered into a level, attracted a lot of attention and ran for the portal... then they are waiting for you each time you re-enter...

If you are really in a pinch, you can re-start the game but save your character....

Yeah - sounds like you need to pick up some xp.

Have you checked out Dungeon Siege yet? I just picked that up - I was a big Diablo fan back in the day, I missed many classes because of it. Anyway, DS is similar to Diablo but all 3d... it looks sweet... It has scratched my Diablo itch.

I de-installed Dungeon Siege after about 2 hours of play.

I knew it was basically going to be Diablo 2 going into it. And it's a great implementation, it looks like it's every bit as fun as Diablo 2. Graphically, it's quite impressive. But after a couple of hours, I noticed the following:

- It didn't seem to get any more interesting. After a couple of hours, I was still doing the same thing over and over again: repeatedly slaying the same monsters in slightly different environments.

- Camera issues. 3D is nice, but if I've got to constantly rotate and pan the camera to find stuff in the local environment, it's a pain. I found myself longing for the isometric fixed-camera world of Diablo. I actually walked right by an entire HOUSE which included a complete sub-quest just because the camera was in the wrong position and I didn't see it as I walked by. I only went back to it because I hit a linedef that triggered an onscreen hint after I'd passed it. After this moment I actually started developing a headache because I had to become obsessive about panning the camera around the environment every time I journeyed a screenful's worth of distance, just to make sure I didn't miss a crate or a barrel or a dungeon entrance or something.

- I had already gotten burned out on Diablo 2, and this was almost identical gameplay. If there were differences between this game and Diablo 2, I didn't see them in the first two hours. I figured I'd given it enough of a chance to grab me in two hours, and if it hadn't done so by then, it was NWMT.

I'm not saying Dungeon Siege is a bad game, in fact it seems like it's a better game than Diablo 2 in almost every way. If I hadn't already played all the way through Diablo 2, I probably would have loved every minute of it. It's just that I had this feeling of "been there done that" the whole time I was playing it.

I'm told the only reason I liked Diablo 2 is because I hadn't played Diablo 1 at all. Now I see why.

I can't wait until NeverWinter arrives.
None of this predefined dungeon junk...

Here's one guy's take on DS

http://www.reallifecomics.com/d/20020426.html

I've only played DS and Diablo 2 multiplayer with some friends. I would probably get bored quickly in single player. Though DS has some nice advancements on Diablo. The ability to allow your character to do some things on his own is nice. I had mine guarding one of the other members, and he would attack whatever he could. I used that a few times to get up and grab a drink, and not stall the party.

The multiplayer campaign seemed to vary the monsters quite a bit. And the ability to level a character however you want is nice. And not having to click a million times (I classify Diablo 2 as an Action game due to that) was also a good change.

I tend to play games behind the times as well, it saves me money. :-) My tip to you is don't get bent out of shape over a certain weapon or magic. you'll find that a certain weapon will start working pretty good, or a certain spell works pretty well against all sorts of monsters for many levels straight, then all of a sudden it gets really tough... just keep trying different weapons and spells than you're used to. Monsters that shrug off one kind of attack crumble under another.

Calvin

Good suggestion, but there is nothing left on any of the earlier levels at all. So I suppose I've got all of the XP, armor, and weapons I can possibly get before going to this level.

That doesn't seem to be the case. It's just that there is a big cage of spitting monsters right at the stairway and if I move at all once I come down, they start attacking, which then draws, apparently, every other monster on the level.

What class of character are you playing? Have you tried lightning? Usually creatures are immune to flame or lightning but not both. Walls of flame and walls of lightning works wonders for situations where creatures collate in one location.

Calvin