Anyone who finished Diablo II knew this was coming. Diablo II Expansion Set: Lord of Destruction (LoD) is the continuation of the epic battle between you and the Three Prime Evils. Fortunately, Blizzard keeps its tradition of great games and equally great expansions, by significantly adding to the replay value of this hack-and-slasher.

The story of LoD is as follows: the last of the Prime Evils, Baal, has escaped your wrath and set out for Mount Arreat, the barbarian homeland. There he hopes to take control of the WorldStone to unleash the terrors of Hell. Surprise surprise, you're the world's last hope...

There are three prominent additions to Diablo II, along with a number of minor changes. The most notable of the three is the inclusion of two new character classes: assassin and druid. Each has 30 unique spells and manages to be distinct from the existing five classes. The assassin uses martial arts, shadow disciplines and traps, while the druid makes use of summoning, elemental and shape-shifting skills. Morphing into a werewolf is particularly fun...

LoD also includes a brand new Act 5, wrapped around six new quests. The quests are quite involved compared to those of the original Diablo II, and are also quite challenging. Act 5 is the new haven to level up your characters, with the hordes of catapults, siege towers and blood lords. The new monsters are interesting, and of course, fun to kill.

Half the appeal of Diablo II was the possibility of collecting powerful equipment. In LoD, there are literally thousands of new items to find. They include class-specific items, elite items, jewels, charms and runes. Blizzard has also included more set, rare, unique, and expectional items, and ramped up the power of existing Diablo II items. Players can also create crafted items from other items found in the game. This last addition is clever, since Blizzard can simply 'unlock' more recipes in future patches.

Most of the smaller changes to Diablo II aim to streamline the gameplay. The interface is more convenient to use, there are new hotkeys, an expanded stash and your character can now instantly switch through two weapon layouts. LoD FINALLY supports a higher resolution (800X600) which reduces pixelation and changes the look significantly. These are all very welcome changes.

Only one gripe: the ending cinematic. I'll quote my own response when I finished Act 5 for the first time, "THAT'S IT?! WHAT?!". I even considered lowering the final rating because of it, but decided against it.

In short, Diablo II Expansion Set: Lord of Destruction delivers more of what the game's fans want - monsters, items and hours and hours of gameplay. If you didn't like Diablo II, buying LoD won't change your mind about the game. But if you did like it - ah hell, you probably already bought it.