The one, the only, the king of action RPGs.
Graphics: 10
Sounds: 10
Value: 9
Tilt: 9
Actual score: 9.2
As technology improves from year to year it seems that video games are starting to get more complex as it feels that the impediment of technology must match the styles of game play. It's easy to take a look at some of the recent genres like the flight simulators and RPGs. In the late 80s and early 90s RPGs are starting to become the hobby for the elite where either you played the traditional pen and paper kind and adapt the video game realm or simply wither and die with all the myriad of choices.
An example of this is 1992's Darklands where the character creation, even though it's extremely thorough it can be tremendously imitating to those who want to experience an RPG video game. On the flipside you have 1990's Ultima VI where it really made things easier for the player to customise their characters or 1994's Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse where it's a pick-up-and-play style of game play. Yet in 1996 a company who is already well known for their Warcraft series presents the most simplistic yet very entertaining RPG to date where it suits the experienced and neophytes and as a result became one of the biggest selling names in history; I'm talking about the Lord of Terror, Diablo.
The premise behind Diablo surrounds a small and almost forgotten town of Tristram as hosted deep within their own cathedral is a demon weakened by the soulstone which was infused by an once legendry group of sorcerers called The Order of the Horadrim. This demon, hailed directly from Hell as one of the three prime evils (the other two was Baal and Mephisto) was exiled by the four lesser of the greater evils Duriel, Andariel, Belial and Azmodan due to a great conflict hence banished to the realms of man. Raged by their failures all three caused havoc to those who appose them yet eventually all were captured; Baal and Mephisto captured in the Far East whilst Diablo finally imprison deep within the cathedral's catacombs in Tristram. Considering the present's day Horadrim is nothing more than storytelling to would-be-heroes Diablo slowly regaining power and seeking a host for his next 'visit'…
Diablo's rise to fame (figure of speaking) was due to its ease of controls. Never before was the interface so easily manipulated that can be easily learnt in a matter of minutes. Naturally it was this that made Diablo the master of 'click click click' the left mouse button to attack and right click for casting spells. The player initially has a choice between three heroes being the Sorcerer, Warrior and Archer hence tailored to all players alike. Each of the characters can utilise each other skills however it's the time factor when any of the skills are put into action (e.g. the sorcerer casting ability is the fastest whilst the warrior's melee ability is the strongest and so forth).
All the graphical details in Diablo are extremely detailed and do place an emphasis on that ominous feeling when treading deeper in the bowls of the Earth. All of the foes animations are smooth, the decaying walls and the glowing lava flows and so forth brings atmosphere to this well constructed game. All the torches cast eerie shadows and even the main characters are well designed with no clipping issues at all considering that the backdrops are 2D they are all beautifully drawn. Allowing that the vast majority of big budgeted games uses FMV cut scenes, Diablo's intermissions, even though does not use 'real footage' are exceptionally well constructed and if you view the game's files there are even missing footage that wasn't placed in the game (e.g. the arrival of the Butcher).
Compliments the graphics are the sounds in Diablo. Perfectly constructed musical scores that fabricate an uncanny ability to cause dread and fear to any players as you can hear the screeches and that occasional cynical laughter makes you think twice about your next move. In addition the voice acting from the entire group of NPCs are perfectly formulate and emotions are well performed, especially when Griswold the Blacksmith describing that 'huge bloated black mushroom' will guarantee to place a smile on your face. However I'm not sure if it's deliberate that the entire cast sounds like they hailed from Scotland but nevertheless they are all entertaining to say the least (question: does Decker Cain sounds like Sean Connery…).
Diablo has a clever way of drawing people in by the way of randomly dropped magical items and loot. Basing on some formulaic concepts, there is a chance that you'll score a unique and wonderful magical item that can easily cause havoc among the fiends of Hell. This definitely entices the player to fool around some more to grab that lucky break. In addition Diablo has three levels of difficulty and the higher the difficulty, the better the items. Continuing on with this, Diablo is probably one of the first action RPGs that has a random dungeon and quest generator therefore it's fairly rare that you'll have the same experience when playing it again (e.g. one game could have the Lachdanan mission yet in another the player could have experienced the Warrior of Blood quest).
But its strength is also its weakness – because of the random factor there will be times that the game can be over-balanced tipping the scales to the fiends as your equipment will not suit well. This happened to me a couple of times especially when playing the mage as when I finally confronted the Lord of Terror himself I really had no offensive spells hence using the 1st level spell fire bolt and my only escape spell was phase. As you can imagine it was a SoB battle to say the least. In addition, during the later levels, Diablo can feel really repetitive and wishing that there is more than just a dungeon crawl.
To those who despise reading manuals I highly suggest to glance at Diablo's rule book. Not only it explains the mechanics of the game, there's an impressive section on the history of the greater evils and how it became about the time they were exiled. Extremely well written and easy to digest it's definitely something to take a look at.
Once the single player has been exhausted it's certainly not the end of the game. Blizzard Entertainment, the masters of online gaming, learned that considering the internet is the way of the future (take a look at the mega success of Quake), Blizzard created 'Battlenet' where players from all parts of the world can join in together in a co-op mode through the single player game alternatively simply clobber the hell out of each other (and collect the loot in the process). This added intense value as Battlenet is free to play and as a side note, it's because of Diablo was my very first experience for online gaming.
Diablo for me was the sole reason I started playing video games again. During the early 90s (known as the 16bit era) games were getting painfully hard and daunting due to those 100 page tomes. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that yet at times you want to delve straight into a game without any real preparation. Diablo had made this idea a fact with its simplistic controls, addictive game play and considering the 'hot topic' of belting against demons and devils, Blizzard took the bull by its horns and made a masterpiece; add this to the free-to-play online Battlenet and you'll have a sure winner.