Diablo

"A sense a gamer, in search of opinions..."

One of Blizzard's finest acheivments, Diablo brought you into the world of Tristam, a world cursed by the evils of a demon known as Diablo. Choose the weapon-savvy Warrior, the balanced Rogue or magic-savvy Mage as you head down 16 levels of demon slayin' action to meet the big red machine, and I'm not talking about Kane here. =)

The graphics were created very well, with each character looking very realistic... as realistic as a dog that shoots acid can, I suppose. The environments add much to the dark mood of the game, with dark catacombs, infested churches and even Hell itself being parts of the game. Each weapon looks intricate and detailed, but of course that's only on the status screen. In the game, each type of weapon looks different but you couldn't tell the difference between a Windforce or an Eaglehorn.

The music and sound effects are all very good, music atmospheric of a medivial village and dungeons dark and moody. Sound effects are an important part of the game, the groans and final grunts of the demons fit well but what I meant was that treasures like rings and amulets are hard to find, but when they drop and you here that *ding*, you search frantically.

Controls are simple, left-click is your hand weapon and right-click is an assigned skill or magic spell. Blizzard has made RPGing easy with the numbers 1-0 being your belt, where you can put potions or scrolls on so you won't have to enter the equipment screen to use items. Keys f5-f8 are magic hotkeys, so you can assign magic spells and change them with a press of a button, instead of entering the magic screen.

So how is the gameplay you may ask? Fun. You'll have hours of enjoyment this game, but not in the Single Player mode. The part where this game excels is it's multiplayer mode. You can play modem-to-modem, on a network or on Blizzard's own FREE multiplayer network. That's right, all you need is an internet connection (you have one, since you're reading this =), and a copy of the game. Unfortunatly, hacks have been floating around so many people on battle.net (Blizzard's free multiplayer network) are cheating. The best way thing to do is: join a guild, many are anti-cheat and very helpful. They are usually friendly and add much to the game. Another thing you could do is pay for a multiplayer service like Kali, I heard they are filled with friendly gamers, but not as many as guilds usually.

Blizzard provides fun gaming and now that this game is old, you may find it in discount bins for as low as 10 dollars!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99