Diablo

aka: Diablo (Game of the Year)
Moby ID: 339
Windows Specs
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Long ago a secret war raged between Heaven and Hell, each using humanity as its pawns. While the Prime Evils of Hell were engaged in war their lesser lieutenants conspired to overthrow them. They mutinied suddenly with the combined forces of Hell, overwhelming the three Primes. Stripped of their power, they were banished to the mortal realm. Human agents of Heaven, upon discovering this, found the three Primes and sealed them within gemstone prisons, each of them sent to a different corner of the earth and kept under guard to prevent them from escaping.

As years turns to centuries, however, the power of Heaven's agents waned, until eventually not even the people of the town of Tristram knew that buried deep under their chapel was the soul of the Lord of Terror, Diablo. As the strength of his prison waned Diablo reached out into the world, corrupting the dreams of the land's good king, driving him to attack his neighbors. The nation of Khanduras fought wars with no intention of winning, desiring only slaughter and suffering. Now the lands lay scorched, home only to monsters and the dead. Rumors spread of a way to stop the demons, as well as rumors of great wealth, and both draw adventurers from far to the small town of Tristram.

Players start by choosing their avatar's class: either Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer. Warriors have the highest maximum strength and can repair weapons and armor inside the dungeon, but this will lower the item's maximum durability. The Rogue has the highest maximum dexterity and can both see and disarm traps on treasure chests. The Sorcerer has the highest maximum magic attribute and can recharge the charges on a spellcasting staff at the cost of his own mana.

Characters can equip armor, weapons, and accessories found in the chapel's shifting dungeons, but strong equipment will have minimum attribute requirements to be worn. Most equipment will have randomized stats, but some strong monsters will drop Unique weapons with set stats. Magic can be learned by finding magic tomes, and leveled up by finding multiples of the same spell tome, but advanced spell levels can not be learned if the character's magic stat is too low. Upon destroying enough monsters to level up the player is rewarded with additional attribute points to distribute to whichever attributes they wish. Occasionally the few people left in town will inform the player of a job they would like done, either an exceptionally strong monster that must be slain or a unique item found deep in the dungeon, and will reward the player in kind upon completion of the quest.

Diablo can be played cooperatively with 1 to 3 other players over LAN or BattleNet with the PC versions, or with 1 player locally on the PlayStation. Players can team up to survive the depths of the dungeons, or turn on each other to steal one another's items from their corpse. The quest unique zones are removed from the online version of a dungeon, and instead quest monsters will be found wandering the level that would normally lead to their unique area.

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Credits (Windows version)

243 People (117 developers, 126 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 67 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 381 ratings with 21 reviews)

The action rpg for those of us who hate dice rolling.

The Good
Diablo is simplicity itself to play. There is no need to fiddle with your characters stats at the beginning of the game or anything like that, just choose your class and boom, you're off. Combat is real time action based and is simple to play yet challenging. There are numerous quests to embark on throughout the game as well as loads of different weapons and armour etc to obtain. The music is very atmospheric and well done and the story is nicely put together. A real bonus is that each time you start a new game the dungeons are randomly generated. Meaning that on top of the different characters you can go through the game as, the layout of the maps is different each time so the replay value is pretty huge. As a multiplayer game Diablo really shines but this is often hampered by all the people who cheat online.

The Bad
The only thing I really hated about Diablo is that you never really go anywhere. You start in a town and descend into the catacombs then come back up to the town, go further into the catacombs etc etc etc until you finish the game. The scenery does change the further down you go, but not an awful lot.

The Bottom Line
If you're the kind of gamer who loves the idea of the more complex role playing games, but hates all the insane number of stats and moves and the randomness of turn based dice roll battles then Diablo is probably the game for you.

Windows · by Sycada (177) · 2001

Fantastic action-based roleplaying game surely ahead if its time

The Good
You can never be totally objective when it comes to rating a game, book, movie, whatever you can think of… there is always that subjective notion of whether you liked something or not. And let’s face it – tastes differ in oh so many ways. Which is quite alright, different tastes bring different demands, which results in diversity rather then boredom. But when I was reading various reviews of Diablo written by different people I found that some people who didn’t like Diablo unfoundedly criticized the game, but also (which hit me even more) other people who really liked it praised the game to high heavens also unfoundedly. Tastes differ, opinions differ, which I said – is quite alright (I for one am not the most objective person in the world), but still I was compelled to write this review to set some things right, and to try to correct some misleading about it. And in a way, I think this is my way of personal reaction to all those people who tried a game (not just Diablo, any other game in generally) for a little time - didn’t like it and stopped playing or liked it but played it a very small amount of time – and then went on writing a review thinking they understand it enough. For that kind of gamers – I dedicate my review.

What could be said about Diablo that hasn’t already been said a thousand times? As everyone - except the people who lived in a cave for last ten years - knows it is action based hack’n’slash RPG. And from today’s point of view it is a classic game, almost cult game in many things it did and changed at that time, revered by many and hated by some. As it always is with this kind of games.

The game has a classic, if not unoriginal, fantasy story which includes mythical land Khanduras, precisely small village of Tristram where action takes place and it all revolves around maddened king Leoric, his missing son, treacherous archbishop Lazarus and of course the lord of terror himself – Diablo. This is a story in a nutshell, and as it is it reminds to any other RPG there is. But Blizzard took a great length to produce a deeper, background story for those players who want to know more. This tale deals with the Great conflict, or war between the forces of High Heavens and Burning Hells, which ultimately becomes the Sin War on earth. What is great is that this entire story is used (and preconceived) for the sequel. All the notes and information we get about for example the Horadrim order, the three prime evils (or lesser ones) even the Vizjerei sorcerers – all of that is hinted in Diablo and then effectively used in Diablo 2. So here we get to face Diablo, and then in the sequel and its expansion we meet finally the Lord of Hatred and the Lord Destruction – Mephisto and Baal. Also lesser known adversaries like Andariel or Duriel appear in the sequel. So to anyone who would say that Diablo has a lame story, I say it is much deeper then they think and it connects in such a fine way with its sequel Diablo 2 making it broader and more involving. Not very original I agree, but worthy of what the game represents. Very common misconception that I get irritated about is that Blizzard made the Diablo expansion Hellfire (but it didn’t, license was given to Sierra and it’s entirely their work which is obvious from the lack of Battlenet support), where there is no real connection to the story between Diablo and Diablo 2. Well, fact of the matter is – Hellfire is add-on which would function fine like a separate game (and a good game also) if it weren’t for the upgrades of Diablo. But story wise – it all starts from Diablo then continues in Diablo 2 and finishes in Lord of Destruction.

Let’s go on. You can choose three characters: Warrior, Rogue and Sorcerer. Everyone can presume what every “vocation” brings to the gameplay so I won’t go into details. Just to point out that playing with warrior is probably the easiest, rouge is very balanced also, and playing with sorcerer is the hardest at the beginning (you can die very quick) but as sorcerers become very powerful at high levels (30+), which especially reflects on PVP combat over Battlenet where sorcerer can kill everyone and everything very fast, I say it is worth of effort to try to play with sorcerer foremost when playing Diablo online.

The intro cut scene was amazing for that time, and I used to watch it a couple of times amazed at how good Blizzard managed to make it. Without a single spoken word, its is self-explanatory, haunting, gloomy… and that last shriek of Diablo brings chill to the bones. Well, Blizzard was always known for brilliant cut-scenes. And great games.

As I’ve said, the main setting is town of Tristram with its darkly and pestering mood, where you can meet (if I counted correctly) only seven NPC’s which isn’t as much as we would hope for, but I guess Blizzard concentrated more on the action part and less on creating a life-like world. Most important characters you will meet (or the ones whose services you will need the most) are Griswold, Adria, Pepin and of course Cain, who will reveal most of the plot for you. The town of Tristram is the ONLY place you can visit, but you will spend most of your time exploring and fighting in the dungeons below the haunted Cathedral. The game itself has sixteen levels divided into four main sections, each section being very different and meticulously designed. Positive thing is that when you finish each section, another way to town opens up, so you don’t have to rely on town portal spells so much (and its easier to go back when you die in a multiplayer game)

The action part is simply flawless. When you go down in the dungeon, you are thrown straight into the action, and you can manage it without a problem because the game has very fast learning curve and almost everything can be done (attacking, using magic, drinking potions) with a click of the mouse. Diablo is about action, action and guess again – action; and everything is subdued to the factor of action in a positive way: easy way of playing, no complex roleplaying statistics to be mindful about (just simple four character attributes here), and the interface… The interface is so simple and at the same time effective (8 potion slots, all spells are one click away) that many other games shamelessly copied this in the years after. The greatest criticism pointed out towards Diablo could be – there is no real roleplaying. Diablo is not hardcore RPG (nor does it pretend to), so don’t compare it to the likes. Diablo is a simple hack’n’slash, and great at it and that’s all.

Another great thing Blizzard programmers implemented are random dungeons. So every time you start new game, the dungeons and monsters in them get randomly reorganized so you’ll never know what lurks behind the wall. But not only dungeons – some quest are also randomized to increase the uncertainty and replayability of the game; sure those important ones always stay in (like Griswold’s edge or Lazarus) but lots of other smaller ones may or may not appear. What was great for me – all weapons, armors, helmets, shields, rings and amulets have randomly calculated characteristics (if they are magical of course), which is great and gives indefinite numbers of possible combinations. Naturally, there is also quite a number of unique items which can be found a lot harder (based on quality level and monster level calculations), but some of them are certainly worth of it.

Magic… spells are standard and common to most every RPG there is, but they work perfect nonetheless. From the simple charged bolt or town portal spell to the feared fireball and extremely helpful golem and stone curse spell - all spells are very well balanced especially for online playing, and graphically very beautiful to look at. Well, design of almost everything in the game shows great effort and imagination of Blizzard programmers. The graphics (considering the year 1997) was groundbreaking at that time, and Diablo, although outdated, even today looks good. Sound and music also meet the high demands – voice casting is very good, and sounds of monster are very life-like; while music is masterpiece in its own way: town theme is beautifully haunting and disturbing at the same time, and more ominous scores featured in the dungeons are also captivating. AI – although virtually non-existent for today’s standards, still offered great diversity of monsters and behaviors (we all hated those vanishing advocates or long distance running succubus) that the final effect was “wow this is great”. Technically, it was a superior game in every sense.

Gameplay is very addictive, and when you start to play it you get hooked on it very fast. I’ve heard people say it is too easy, well true, the game is easy when you play it in single player because you only have normal mode of playing, but it gets very, very challenging in multiplayer where you also have nightmare and, especially, hell difficulty. And the truth is that Diablo has so called limited replayability (as does any other game I guess); you will cross it once, maybe two or three times more and of course it gets bored then, especially if you continue to play with the same character that becomes god-like on high levels. But here is the wrong angle to the whole approach: most people think of it only in terms of a singleplayer game, while I look at it mostly as a multiplayer game. Only does the greatness and addictive gameplay of Diablo truly shine when you are playing it over Battlenet.

I have a lot of experience about that since I have played Diablo about a year and a half over Battlenet (and I’ve also crossed the singleplayer game several times with all characters) and I can say it is remarkable experience. I was in a diablo clan for a long time, formed a lot of friendships, and generally had a lot of fun. In multiplayer you can play together, enter duels, finding rare stuffs (like Royal Circlet or King Sword of haste) or simply hang around. And this is what has made Diablo such a great game – its community. Three weeks after Battlenet was operational and working – about 117000 game accounts were made. And that number says it all. There just isn’t any comparable feeling like when you are a warrior fighting in hell backed up by rogue’s bow, and by sorcerer’s healing while he is stone cursing your enemies. Teamplay has its brilliant moments and for co-op playing Diablo was really a revolution at that time. And I really must agree – the multiplayer had its dark sides but I will explain that when we (finally) proceed to the bad sides.

The Bad
Something most apparently bad about Diablo that everyone notices is that it is downright linear game. In every sense of the word. So you enter first dungeon and you go down level by level, solving some quests along the way, until you finally finish the game. Straight and narrow, no side stuff and that’s it. But as I’ve noticed that people like to compare Diablo to Nox and Revenant (truth to be told both games got out significantly later), I will do the same since I’ve finish them both: they are just as linear as Diablo – more contents, more quests true – but linear nonetheless, you go from point A to point B. And that’s OK since when you play it online, linearity looses its meaning.

For me the biggest problem in Diablo is that it is too short: if you play it constantly you can finish the game within two days without a problem. But again, playing it over Battlenet (as it was intended to), makes that fact also loose some weight. I always thought the Blizzard should have added more content into it (only one town to play in), but after I’ve played Diablo 2, where gamers wishes were fulfilled and the game is about four times bigger than its predecessor; I’m not to sure… Diablo 2 has lost some of the coherence that original Diablo possessed, but still it would be nice to see more larger surroundings.

I would hardly agree with claims that Diablo is a one-pass only game. Far from it. It was actually one of the first games (I’m not 100% sure about this so correct me if I’m wrong) that offered fully functional MODs for the game. MODs are something gaining popularity in recent years (almost every “important” title has one), but back then it was something very rare. And there were some great MODs (like middle earth mod for Diablo) where everything from statistics to weapons, armors and monsters in the game was changed, adding new spice and longevity to the game. Not to mention playing over Battlenet which is a world for itself.

As far as the game appearances, I must admit some of the graphics were just to dark (you often found yourself wearing light radius increasing equipment on purpose, or tempering with gamma of your monitor), and there are too many gray tones in the game. Some NPC’s are useless, as are some spells (like Flash) but these are just a minor things.

There were some great bugs not visible in singleplayer game, but rather painfully apparent in the multiplayer. Players would abuse well known bug of duping items, and there were also people who would use macro cheats for incredible strong characters or the infamous town-kill spell. PK-ing is certainly a problem of almost every online game. All of that would certainly take a lot of fun from the online gaming but the game still survived. If you had friends whom you trusted, you could play in a closed session (protected by password) and still enjoy the game. And from my experience there were a lot of player who were “pure” (didn’t cheat whatsoever), who were actually fighting PK’s and makro users, and that polarization made people bind even more. Biggest problem for me was that only four players can play at the same time, but then again it was the beginning of Battlenet and looking at it today, I’m glad it now grew to encompass such enormous worlds like in the World of Warcraft. Speaking of that, I’ve heard that some people say Diablo cannot be compared to the experience of some other online RPG’s like Everquest or Asheron’s Call. That’s true – it cannot. Firstly it’s not a MMORPG, and secondly, the Battlenet for Diablo is entirely free unlike the previous mentioned, the only cost you have to pay is dictated by your internet provider.

One of the most obvious problems that could be found both in single and multiplayer game was character building. Sadly, for some people, it all came down to building your character’s statistics, getting the best items, pursuing all your spells to magic level 15… I think about that more and more recently and it’s not just Diablo; powergaming has become a serious problem in almost every online game there is, and I’ve played a few by now to see. Such is the way of human competitiveness I guess… but still this is nothing that can diminish the qualities of a good game.

Granted, Diablo took some elements from previous roleplays like Rogue or much acclaimed Nethack. Originality as I’ve already pointed out is something that Diablo lacks, but then again evolution in the right direction can sometimes cause revolution like Diablo surely has done.

I could probably write like a dozen pages or more about Diablo, but that would be torture not a review so I’ll cut it short. I already went overboard with the length, so I tank all readers for patience. In the end I can only say that I have tried to be objective as much as I could, but it’s hard to be objective with something that you like, and if I’ve failed utterly – then at least some comfort would be if the people manage to read this review and just think about it. For me – that is success also.

If you ask me what is the greatest RPG of all time - without a second thought I would say Daggerfall. This game offered such an unbelievable freedom and the scope of the game combined with complex roleplaying that by far deserves that title for me. But if you ask me what RPG I’ve played the most – than the answer would be only one – Diablo. And there you have it.

The Bottom Line
As tastes differ – you can like this game or not. The choice is yours. But none can deny the fact that Blizzard made a small revolution by reinventing by that time very hermetic roleplaying genre, and presenting it to the masses. Diablo offered addictive gameplay, great action, innovative technical solutions (fantastic graphics and user friendly interface) but most important of all – made extremely positive push forward in the field of online gaming (it became one of the most played online games ever). Although not a perfect game (what is anyway?), Diablo became a legend among many players, and this is no small accomplishment. And for that –hats down for Blizzard.

Windows · by Darrabban (31) · 2005

Really Addictive... and SAVE OFTEN!

The Good
Diablo is the closest I've seen to a graphical Rogue/NetHack. Ultimatelly much better than SSI's Dungeon Hack, Diablo combines Isometric 3D action with some cool effects.

Graphics (for 1996) are astounding. Spells, weapons, gold, and items are produced very well. I can't tell if any of the action was motion captured, but it looks like it. Either that or the animators study humans walking for hours. The sprites used in fighting and walking are very realistic.

The sound is great. The clash of steel against steel, the creaking of doors, the phhhooooomp of the arrows, and especially the creepy "Bad guy" voice. Ambient sounds make or break a game, and this one does nicely. The voice-acting suprised me. Blizzard was smart to make the people you interact with in the village staionary sprites. Syncing Graphics and voice-overs is probably one of the biggest pitfalls of games. Blizzard's use of scrolling text/voice overs give you a chance to either listen to or read conversations. No japanese dubbed actors here. :)

The gameplay is addictive. Period. I played NetHack and Rogue for hours on end just because it was different EVERY time you played. The same goes for Diablo. The game is never the same twice. The goals will be the same (find Odgen Sign, defeat King Olrec, etc.) but the actual dungeon gameplay will be different. The replay value alone is worth it.

The Bad
The Control is mainly mouse based. This is great if you have the new IntelliEye mouses with no moving parts. But for those stuck with "old reliable" the controls can get frustrating. Left click to move, left-click to attack (when stationary), right-click to cast spells, and right click to use items off the main screen. So needless to say when you are in the middle of a HUGE group of skeletal warriors (as I was a few nights ago), if you twitch at the wrong time, you can kiss your armor goodbye.

A minor complaint are the dungeon walls. It's very difficult to maneuver around with the "partial" walls that allow you to see in corners. You almost ALWAYS have to play with the automap feature on, and even that becomes distracting in a melee round.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Diablo is a fun, addictive dungeon hack. If you liked Rogue or NetHack, this '90s version is right down your alley.

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

[ View all 21 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Diablo appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bosses

The game treats the Dark Lord (Diablo), the final boss, as a regular enemy rather than a boss monster. He has no catchphrase (e.g. the Butcher's 'Fresh Meat'), his name appears in white instead of gold, and if the player kills him enough times (by starting a new game with the same character) the game will even show the player his stats.

Cheats

At one time, cheat programs for Diablo were sold in stores that allowed the player to obtain special objects, increase levels, and such.

Development

  • Blizzard North was originally going to make Diablo a turn-based game;
  • Outlined in the game's original pitch document were plans for releasing cheap expansion pack discs, containing, as an example, a handful of weapons, items, and/or room types, which would be sold like Magic: The Gathering card packs to appeal to collectors. While expansions were eventually made for Diablo, none were developed by any Blizzard studio.
  • There were persistent rumors about a special quest that had to do with the cows (the player had to click on it X time in a special way at certain time of the day after doing so and so and things like that). It's false of course, but it didn't stop the newbies from asking. Blizzard was so amused, that Cow Quest was officially added to Diablo II.

Gags

In most (if not all) Blizzard games, the player can get a quick laugh from repeatedly clicking on certain objects. In Diablo, try the cow outside the city.

Messages

The Diablo art team were fans of Natalie Portman. Embedded in the menu image are messages that are only visible if you capture the image and reduce the image to 16 colors.

Novels

Numerous published novels have been inspired by the Diablo campaign setting, among them: * Moon of the Spider (2005) by Richard A. Knaak. * Kingdom of Shadow, The (2002), by Richard A. Knaak. * Black Road, The (2001), by Mel Odom. * Legacy of Blood (2001), by Richard A. Knaak. * Demonsbane (2000), a Robert B. Marks' e-book.

Online Multiplayer

As of 2016 Diablo's online peer-to-peer matching remains officially supported by Battle.net.

References

Cain's real name is Deckard Cain the Elder. It may be a reference to Rick Deckard played by Harrison Ford in the movie Blade Runner.

Shareware Version

There was also a shareware version available on CD which featured a fair amount of gameplay including all three classes and even multiplayer. The player could buy it for a small amount of money in many stores around the time of the release of the full game.

System Compatibility

This is one of the few games that will run natively on Windows NT. Diablo requires DirectX 3, but the installation CD comes with DirectX 5.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • May 1997 (Issue #154) – Game of the Year.
    • October 2001 - #7 in the "Top 50 Games of All Time" list.
    • May 1997 (Issue #154) – Role-Playing Game of the Year (Readers' Choice).
    • December 1999 (Issue #185) - Introduced into the Hall of Fame.
    • March 2001 (Issue #200) - #8 Best Game of All Time (Readers' Vote).
    • April 2005 - #6 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list.
    • Hall of Fame member.
  • GameSpy

    • 2001 – #6 Top Game of All Time.
    • GameStar (Germany)

    • Issue 12/1999 - #11 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking.

    • PC Gamer

    • April 2000 - #3 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll.

    • PC Player (Germany)

    • Issue 01/1998 - Best RPG in 1997.

    • Power Play

    • Issue 02/1998 – Best Game in 1997.

French SELL Rating

Diablo first SELL rating was 12, which was later changed to 16

French Version

The Windows version of Diablo was never localized in French. Though the box included a coupon which was meant to be mailed in order to receive the localized version as soon as it would have been completed, it was actually never released. The 2nd edition of the game (which claimed to be the "definitive" one) only included a booklet with the translated dialogues written inside. Oddly enough, a fully localized French version of the game (even including a full professional cast for the voice acting) does exist but was released only for the PlayStation.

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Alan Chan, Isak, Entorphane, Kalirion, Kasey Chang, kbmb, Patrick Bregger, PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Scott Monster, Sicarius.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

PlayStation added by Kartanym. Macintosh added by Xoleras.

Additional contributors: Indra was here, Jeanne, Sciere, jean-louis, Vaelor, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Lain Crowley, FatherJack, MalenkiyPoslannik, RetroArchives.fr.

Game added October 31, 1999. Last modified March 18, 2024.