Blizzard Interactive’s Warcraft franchise started off in 1994 and that's when gamers were introduced to the never-ending war being waged between the Orcs and the Humans. Soon, the lore of Warcraft and of its fictional world of Azeroth grew with the game’s sequels, adding more depth to the franchise. The game’s storyline evolved from a simple plot, to an epic saga, breathing new life into the world so masterfully conjured by Blizzard. There were even books written (most of which were really awesome) to cover parts of the vast lore and back-stories that couldn’t possibly be covered in-game. And with Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne, Warcraft secured its place as one of the most successful franchises of all time. If all that wasn’t enough they gave us one of the most involving MMORPG experiences of all times with World of Warcraft and after more than a decade of Warcraft the franchise still seems like it has a long way to go.
The first Diablo game was responsible for converting many pure action gamers into hardcore RPGers. This hack-n-slash dungeon crawler appealed to the masses mainly because it was simple to pickup and its robust and deep class system allowed users to pick a play-style that would suit them. To top it all, the game had some hypnotic cut-scenes which really made its story (which was kick-ass too, by the way) seem a lot more alive. All in all, Diablo was the complete package and definitely one of the best RPG experiences of all time. And as you all know, developer Blizzard is known for delivering awesome sequels and they didn’t disappoint us with Diablo II (2000) which was even better than the original. The game was better on all fronts – it had better visuals, a lot more content, a lot more classes to choose from, and a lot more depth. And to add to already vast content, they gave us the first expansion in the series, Lord of Destruction, which worked its charm on RPGers just like its predecessors did. Blizzard has dropped hints of releasing another game in the series somewhere after 2008 and the day the game releases it will be sacred to all RPGers out there.


