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)

Diablow

The Good
Argument taken from "How to get a marketing degree in any of the major Mongolian universities":

  1. Ultima 8 and Doom are very cool games that don't, however, seem to fulfill their potential.

  2. Wouldn't it be a great idea to make a cross between these two games that would fulfill the potential of each and become greater than the sum of its parts in the process?

  3. Yes it would.

  4. So let's: a) borrow from Doom the highly-appealing braindead no-plot gameplay of kill a bunch of slightly different no-particular-reason-to-be-there monsters on a bunch of nonsensical maze-like no-particular-reason-to-be-there levels, for no particular reason;

b) borrow from Ultima 8 the isometric perspective where you can't see stuff if you drop it too close to a wall or a box;

c) drop all the shitty, unoriginal crap that kept people from fully enjoying the above two games, most particularly the jaw-dropping gorgeous state-of-the-art 3d graphics of Doom and the dark atmospheric background and sophisticated artistic world-creation of Ultima 8;

d) oh yeah, and since Origin forgot to copyright it, put Pyros from Pagan on the cover.

Voila, she is done! Two great games made to suck in one single package! Therefore, "dia-" (German for "two" or something) "-blo" (Old English for "not so good")!

(plays the game non-stop for 3 days)

grunt -no you dont- grunt grunt -not with these 40 health potions I have with me- grunt grunt grunt SPLASH

wimp.

My finger hurts.

The Bad
Walking around the village takes forever, the stupid legless kid only offers stuff that I either can't afford or don't need (and where does he get the stuff from ANYWAY), the barmaid is TOTALLY useless, the barrels blow up all the time, the controls aren't very responsive, the teleporting mages are annoying as HELL, the grunts sound like somebody's having sex next door and the graphics SUCK. The color palette is the same muddy Doom-ish brown-dull-green all over, and, stunningly, most of the time you can't actually tell where you are! Walls fade out on you, there's some sort of a fog all over the place and everything's drawn by a bunch of light-hating moles. And that's not to mention the fact that due to the perspective you can only see things 3 meters ahead of you, even if the "things" are a group of brightly glowing fireball-casting sorcerors.

The Bottom Line
No idea, fantastic implementation. The gameplay here is absolutely perfect! Thanks to the (brilliant) random generator, there is no "look I'm so smart" level design in the form of hidden rooms, switch puzzles, jumping puzzles, running puzzles, invisible sadistic bosses, fireball generators, scary monsters jumping out of the ground when you pick up your first health potion in years, mines, holes, kamikaze explosive-carrying rabbits, mazes, locked doors, keys, keyholes and the clicking sound you get when "the door is locked". And the wonderful (and to some perhaps surprising) thing is that even without all of these annoyances the gameplay never ceases to be challenging and totally involving, as the hunt for the better armour and weapons and the better stats is firmly grounded in excellently-calibrated experience point and gold gathering - rather than throwing at you monsters that are too hard to fight at your current level, the game arranges things thus that you actively seek out these monsters! Pussy careful micro-management cowards might as well look elsewhere in the Blizzard catalogue - this game is about throwing caution to the wind and going into hell and back in the form of a level where you have to fight and gulp down bottle after bottle of health potions to survive just for 15 seconds - but enough to gain the priceless experience points and maybe a 10 000-worth shield.

The addictiveness of this game comes from the fact that it is one of those rare game where you have to show INITIATIVE - where you have to push your character to the limit not because the game makes you to, but - uhm, because the lonely wind is howling over the innumerable bloodied bones strewn throughout the now-empty hallways, and you have to go on. Ah, Diablo - poetry in full motion video.

And not to make too fine a point of this, but I can't exactly say that the lack of a plotline, characters and a "moral" is a huge drawback. Because, well, most RPG plotlines, characters and morals suck. Diablo replaces them with something intangible, with a feeling in the air, with something critics can't readily put in the "pros" section as "movie-like", "complex" and "philosophical" - with a nothingness. Nada. No meaning, no guidance, no sense of accomplishment, no one to pour your soul out to except the man who sells the life-giving potions - nothing. Empty endless hallways, death, desolation, depression, a bunch of cowardly scared people on the surface who wouldn't raise a finger to help you unless you pour out the gold - and your only kicks are in the frantic, chaotic, strategy-less fighting, the knot in your stomach as the health-bar goes down and you know there's no way out, the screeches and the screams, the killing. Because there's nothing else there.

Windows · by Alex Man (31) · 2003

A graphical NetHack for the 90's

The Good
Many years ago, there was a game called 'Rogue', where you were in a dungeon and romped about it collecting gold and fighting monsters. It was immensely addicting. From it descended the famous 'NetHack', which followed suit, allowing one to enter town and upgrade. It, too, was immensely addicting. Down through the ages (and mixed with the blood of the arcade game 'Gauntlet') comes their spiritual descendant: Diablo. And, yes, it is immensely addicting. There is something inherently appealing to most people in constantly improving something and a character in constant danger of death in the dungeon seems to be a perfect choice. Whether they're having outright fun, or are even frustrate a bit, people will find themselves returning to the game. Most people who sit down for one session of Diablo want to play it again and again, just to improve their character. It's almost scary.

Diablo's isometric graphics were beautiful for when it came out, and if people were not so used to 3-D graphics these days, it would still be considered good today. Low resolution aside, even today the graphics are pretty to look at and provide the perfect combination of atmosphere and storytelling qualities. The backgrounds are detailed and dark, the characters scary, gruesome, or heroic when needed to be, and the magic spells quite interesting to watch.

The learning curve is nearly perfect and one only gets overwhelmed early on when it is intended (such as the first mini-boss or the second mini-boss's skeletal hordes). There are enough spells, weapons, and armor to keep making people come back to see them all and as you play you learn the easier methods of performing actions (such as the wonderful quick-use tool belt).

The addition of a multiplayer cooperative mode makes for many an enjoyable dungeon romp if one can find compatriots who aren't out for your gold and your life (all too frequent when playing on Battle.net). While adventuring alone in the single player mode is fun, nothing compares to having a party of two or three playing as a team.

The actionis often intense as your character opens a door and is nearly surrounded by the angry hordes of Diablo, all bent on destroying you. The pace of the game under normal circumstances (when no going through a cleared dungeon looking for an item you left behind) is usually fast and can provide enough entertainment for fans of first person shooters.

Eerily beautiful music is the perfect accompaniment in your travels, and the sound effectively tells you what is happening.

The more-or-less random dungeons provide a new challenge each time you restart the game, making each crawl seem like new.

The Bad
Sometimes the action is too intense. Rests are recommended between trips to the dungeon, as you can easily develope repetitive stress syndrome from the hundreds of times you will be clicking your mouse in any particular excursion.

There is only a bare bones story and your true interactivty with it aside from performing quests is negligible. You basically talk to someone and listen to what they say and move on. The townsfolk give hints for the quests, but there's little personality or life in them. They're basically living billboards. One can play the whole game without ever doing more than talking to those people required for any given function.

There is many arguments over the validity of the ending. Whether or not one likes it, however, everyone must admit that it's not worth the time going through the entire game again just to see the final sequence with one or two slight (and I do mean slight) variations.

Much like the lack of story, there is also a lack of true role-playing. Most Diablo players don't care about their characters and their personalities as much as they care about their character's numbers. They seek to constantly upgrade their stats and equipment and little else. Anyone expecting a true role-playing game should steer clear. There's also little logic between the stats and what they represent. If a rogue can only have 'x' amount of strength, that's understandable for one of her light build, but explain to me how heavy an object must be for its strength requirement to be three times the maximum a rogue can carry normally? You can't...in the end, the stats aren't a way to describe your character's abilities...it's merely another 'score' to keep adding to.

Some items, like rings, are depicted so small that it's hard to find them if you drop them. While realistic, it makes for frustrating searches.



The Bottom Line
An addictive action game with role-playing game undertones, Diablo is a game that anyone who doesn't mind a lot of mouse clicking can get into. Take a warrior, a rogue with a flair for archery, or a mage into the bowels of the earth in order to put an end to an evil that threatens a town. Like many a vice, it is addictive and will draw you away from your normal activities, though you may walk away with a shallow feeling when all is said and done.

Windows · by Ray Soderlund (3501) · 2000

Pure Hack and Slash

The Good
At first Diablo seems like an excellent and addictive game, the music is very cool, the graphics are great, and the sound effects are great.

The game's intro is excellent, if not confusing, but manages to give a creepy environment about the surroundings of Tristram. You create a character from 3 classes each with their own advantages and disadvantages, the interface is easy to use and very clean, people new to the RPG gaming scene will find it very easy to create their own character.

You begin the game in Tristram with very little equipment and barely enough gold to buy anything. You wander around for a while then begin pick up on quests from talking to the NPCs, soon enough you enter the cathedral and start bashing down level after level of skeletons, demons, and other evil monsters.

The Bad
I didn't like many things about Diablo, instead of going into a large amount of detail about each of them, I will just list them off.

  • Lack of a feature to make your character run (you have to walk away from monsters, and walking around Tristram gets annoying)

  • Battle.net is full of PKs, cheaters and liars (this does not make multiplayer very fun)

  • The game is pure hack and slash and is considered an RPG by almost everyone

  • Besides getting quests for new things to kill, and purchasing from, the NPCs have very little importance.

  • The hack and slash gets redundant and tedious after you reach level 4 of the dungeon.

    The Bottom Line
    For it's time Diablo was pretty good, a lot of other gaming companies tried to clone Blizzard's success with a hack and slash adventure game, but failed. Today Diablo can't compete with real RPGs that offer everything it didn't.

If you've never played an RPG before, and want to start with something easy with simple RPG elements try Diablo. If you want something with a great plot line, memorable characters, and more.... try something else.

Windows · by ZombieDepot (40) · 2001

[ 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 19, 2024.