"A classic that stands up to even modern scrutiny"

Oh man, it's been an eternity (by gaming standards) since Diablo first graced store shelves way back in the mid-90's. This game formed a triumvirate, buoyed by Fallout and Baldur's Gate, that sparked a renaissance in the then-declining RPG genre, that has since accelerated into becoming the most profitable money making genre in history (see successes such as World of Warcraft, Eve Online, and, to a lesser extent, Second Life). But even after more than a decade has passed, Blizzard's ingenious game design stands the test of time, and this hack and slash is, for the most part, as enjoyable now as it was then. WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD.

Story (7/10): In terms of actual game story, Diablo is fairly weak and requires a huge suspension of disbelief. Why, for example, would the Lord of Terror decide to terrorize a podunk town like Tristram that appears to have an economy based on a couple of cows and less than ten residents? Or where did your character get the idea to just suddenly plunge the soulstone into his forehead? The game, however, succeeds in creating a massive back story that would lay the framework for the much more expansive Diablo II. Here is when we first hear mention of the three prime evils, the soulstone, the Horadrim, the mages of the east, and the eternal struggle between the Light and the Dark. To anyone who enjoys pouring over the manual or hearing gossip from the small town, this game doesn't disappoint.

Sound (10/10): Even now, I find Diablo's sound design to be supreme. The music is absolutely phenomenal, eerie, and is perhaps embedded into the minds of true gamers everywhere. The somber guitar strains of Tristram's town music, the famous Cathedral dungeon music (further immortalized by being redone in Diablo II as a piece called "Spider"), the haunting Catacombs music, the unnerving panting and dissonant strings of the Caverns, to the magnificent opus of abstract harmony, punctuated by a distant, repeating flute motif, of the music of Hell, all of it is absolutely mind-blowing and atmospheric. In terms of Blizzard canon, I don't think the music of Diablo has ever been exceeded in quality.

The sound effects are excellent and serve the game well. Monsters die immensely satisfying deaths, spewing out death rattles and gratifying explosions of blood and fire that is sure to put a smile on any hack-and-slash gamer's face - the death rattles of the Hidden and the exploding screams of the Death Knights are still on the top of my list of best sound effects ever. But the sounds are also amazing audio cues, for both tactical and psychological effect. Horned Demons have a telltale roar as they charge in at you from out of sight, for example, and the Councilors have a dissonant effect when they start flinging fireballs at you from the distance, and the combined effects of so many distinct monster cues going on at once can't be underestimated, both in cuing you in for strategy as well as freaking you out. Again, even after Diablo II, Warcraft, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft, I don't think Blizzard has ever exceeded the work that they did here.

Replayability (10/10): Even though games like Rogue and Nethack had randomized dungeons and loot long before Diablo graced many a PC, Diablo was what made randomness a raison d'etre of a game. Instead of the tiny, limited dungeons generated on so many a console screen, these were huge, sprawling dungeon levels, with a massive scope of enemies, items, set pieces, bosses, and quests. With such a variety of possible treasure and spell drops, two games are guaranteed to play out differently. In one, you may be a sorcerer blessed with an early Mana Shield spell book, in another, you may be a warrior struggling to put together a decent set of gear.

The replayability is further augmented by game decisions that almost certainly would not have been put in place in a more modern, multiplayer-friendly environment. Namely, the fearlessness that the game designers had in making permanent, unalterable changes to your character outside of the normal rules of the game. Black Death zombies, for example, would permanently take away from your maximum health on a successful hit. An Enchanted shrine, in another case, would make one of your known spells much weaker while strengthening others. If these were in a game like Diablo II, I can guarantee you that many people would be complaining about how "unfair" these elements are, but its this relentless "unfairness" that gives this game its immense replayable charm.

Moreover, it can be a point of exciting challenge and a test of your ability to adapt to new situations. Whereas in more modern games like Diablo II or Hellgate: London randomness generally gets averaged over long times, the fluctuations possible in Diablo could mean that your Rogue is now a sword and shield wearing finesse fighter, or your sorcerer is now heavily reliant on heal and vitality to get progress. Of course, you can always regenerate a new game if you're not happy with your luck, a decisions which I feel dulls the fun of the game, but it's good that Blizzard gave you the choice to do so anyway.

Gameplay (7/10): Diablo's gameplay has been the subject of much discussion. At its heart, it's relentlessly and mind-numbingly simple. You click to move, you click to attack. And this becomes a point of excess, as you'll probably wear out your mouse with the frantic clicking you'll have to do to take out swarms of enemies. But its this apparent simplicity that sucks you in to a game system that is sublimely complex and interwoven, where certain mechanics evade your obvious notice and simply become intuitive.

This is, however, both a strength and a failure. The game has a deep desire to hide information away from the player. This is great early on when you're just picking up the game from scratch, but becomes terribly annoying later on, when you're sitting there trying to decide between say, spending money on an expensive spell book or a powerful weapon, but lacking the meaningful metrics to accurately decide which is best for you. For this, you have to rely on third-party sources, such as Jarulf's amazingly detailed guide to every single mechanic in Diablo.

Moreover, Diablo's emergence into a relatively young game market is readily apparent by how some certain game aspects are irrevocably broken or imbalanced. A sorcerer, for example, is almost irredeemably more powerful than the other two classes in later levels. Spells like Chain Lightning and Mana Shield are show-stoppingly powerful, while spells like Golem or the entire Magic school (Bone Spirit, Blood Star, Flash) are almost completely useless. Gear drops overwhelmingly favor the Warrior, who can use basically everything well, whereas Rogues have to rely mostly on either bows or very good melee drops, and Sorcerers simply have to hope for the right spell books to drop in earlier levels. To be fair, game play issues like these would take a long time to start getting addressed (Diablo 2 version 1.10 and World of Warcraft are good examples of forward-thinking Blizzard design), but they still detract away from the overall enjoyment of the game.

One thing that has to be said, however, is that this game is *hard*. Other, more modern games, have a tendency to baby the players, and even initially difficult games like (again) Diablo II and World of Warcraft have been rendered steadily easier by escalating levels of player power, whether by patches or through add-ons. By contrast, Diablo is relatively untouched, so the power level in Diablo 1.0 is near-identical to Diablo 1.09. This means that the Butcher on level 2 is almost always relentlessly difficult, that your first encounter with succubus is almost guaranteed to be near-suicidal, and that you'll probably always be scrounging for resist gear and, heck, enough of a profit margin per trip to the dungeon so you can keep feeding yourself potions.

Final Assessment (8/10): Diablo is, in the end, a classic. No matter what anyone says, Diablo belongs in the pantheon of the "good ol' games" and, despite any flaws, it deserves the praise that it received and the praise that it continues to receive. The mere fact that anyone is still talking about the game is a testament to its longevity and quality.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/08

Game Release: Diablo (US, 11/30/96)