"How did Diablo II ever get out???"

Yes, nowadays, we are all hearing about that one game, Diablo II, but what about it's predecessor, Diablo? It could have been a great game, but was seriously hampered by several problems...

The good
-shows some definite promise
-the game is simple to exit

The bad
-pick a feature, any feature...

Storyline 3/10
Pretty typical--Evil forces have destroyed a town and now you are the only one that can save everyone. That's about it. There aren't really any twists of plot or surprises in the plot. Once you have read the description on the back of the box, you are basically set for the rest of the story. I didn't have those ''OMYGOD now I get it!''
revelations such as in more developed plots like Chronotrigger (SNES)

Gameplay 4/10
click, click, click, click... Need I say any more? I goes like this: You click a monster, you hit it, it dies. The entire town is very far from lifelike, as they are all there to serve you. Even their gossip often has to do with your quests! It must be an amazing coincidence that the only people that survived are the ones that can help you. Also, sometimes it is just too hard. You open a door and a swarm of monsters comes out and murders you on the spot. There is no strategy to combat, it's just a matter of who can outlast the other. Some rooms are filled to the rim with monsters and it is pretty much impossible to win. Just hack, hack, hack, hack until either you or they are dead. Usually you.
However, a sense of exploration and adventure is always there in a dungeon. I always got a little kick from finding an unopened door, knowing that the solution to a quest may be inside. Not enough to outweigh the flaws, though.
And isn't an RPG supposed to have ''sprawling, massive worlds''? Especially a CD-based one? Apparently, the folks at Blizzard didn't know that, because the map is tiny. The only dungeon is the temple or church or whatever it was. They went for deep rather than wide here--the dungeon is 16 stories down! Jeez!

Sound 5/10
I believe there was one track in the entire game: the town map. It had a catchy little tune, though. Unfortunately, that was about it. I absolutely HATED the dungeon ''music''. It was simply a groan here, a creak, there--my dead granddaddy can play better music than your undead zombies!
On the other hand, the voices were quite nice and you could tell who was talking just by what they sounded like. Not exactly voice-acting, but close.
Killing a monster evokes an exceptionally disgusting moan or scream. Pretty good, but lacking in variety. All the magic spells sounded the same to me.

Graphics 5/10
Terrible. It wasn't just the lack of detail, but all the dungeons were so damn DARK! All you could see was a little ring of light around you. Unbelievably monotonous and boring. Turning up the gamma makes the town way too bright. It doesn't really do much in dungeons, either.

...So why did I give it a 5?

Well, the monsters looked very good, and the death animations were great! I loved shooting the heads off that one monster and watching it bleed all over itself! Too bad it was so dark that you could barely see it...
I also liked the inventory art.

Multiplayer 6/10
Fun--If you are lucky enough to get it to work. I couldn't on my computer, the patch kept screwing up my game. Tech support seems to be ignoring me, and I've tried all of their ''solutions''. There is a broken link to the ''Report a broken link'' page, so that isn't going to work, is it? Too bad, I really enjoyed it before that new patch came out.
There are a whole lot of cheaters online, though, and your so-called friends will kill you for your money and weapons. Fun, fun.

Overall: Like I said, this game showed a lot of potential, but fell short in almost every category. I gave it a 3.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/01, Updated 07/02/01