Diablo

"A very enjoyable game - well worth playing."

FOREWORD

I bought Diablo shortly after its release ... 2.04 seconds after its release I think. I had heard great things from the press releases prior to it hitting the market, and was keen to see what all the fuss was about ... read on ...

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

You select one of three heroes - a warrior, a rogue, or a sorcerer, and begin your journey in the town of Tristram. Tristram is a quiet little town that harbours plenty of dark secrets. Many of the townsfolk have ventured down into the depths of the catacombs beneath the church at the edge of town to beat back a horde of monsters that have started to spill forth and assail the townsfolk, but very few have returned. The only people left in the town to speak to are Pepin the Healer, Ogden the Innkeeper, Griswold the Blacksmith, Cain the Elder, Gillian the Barmaid, Wirt the Peg-Legged Boy, Adria the Witch, and Farnham the Drunk.

[!! Spoiler Alert !!]

Your objective in the game is firstly to try and find out what the HELL is going on, secondly to complete as many of the sub-quests as you can that you are presented with as you play through the game, and finally to find and slay Diablo - the Lord of Terror - in the very depths of Hell.

GRAPHICS - 7/10

Graphically the game is well done. Fortunately you can adjust the gamma correction, because it is quite a DARK game until you reach the deeper levels at least. There is plenty of shadow and if you are not careful, enemies can surround you quite fast - faster than you can react in some cases.

The characters have plenty of frames of animation and things like spellcasting are nicely dealt with. The characters themselves are a little on the small side for some people's tastes, and the game DOES feature a zoom function, but when you are playing in zoom mode, the characters look (naturally) blocky, and your field of vision is considerably more limited, so it can actually hamper rather than aid gameplay.

SOUND - 7/10

The sounds are nice throughout, but not UNBELIEVABLY amazing ... there are plenty of nice touches - from the full voiceovers for the quests you pick up to the little squeals that the imps make when they see you slaying their comrades ... the bleating of the goat men when they take a swing at you, and the satisfying sound that they make when they die ... all in all the sounds are legion and varied, adding to the ambience of the game without becoming excessively repetitive or annoying.

CONTROLS - 8/10

The games controls are very easy to get into the swing of using - you can assign hotkeys to your favourite spells and skills to make them easier and quicker to access, and the majority of gameplay can be accomplished using the mouse - left-click to attack, right-click to use your selected skill or spell - it really is that simple for the most part !

There are plenty of commands that can be accessed through the keyboard, and as you become more experienced at playing the game you will most likely look to combine both keyboard and mouse functions to make for fluid movement between the inventory screens and so on.

A very easy control method to get to grips with, definitely.

PLOT - 9/10

[!! Spoiler Alert !!]

I have to say the plot in this game is actually really good ! You have the central CORE plot, which is obviously the finding and slaying of Diablo, the Lord of Terror - one of the three Prime Evils of Hell, who is seemingly at the heart of the terror that has been terrorising the poor Town of Tristram - but in order to keep you from stagnating in your quest to stop him, you are presented with MANY many sub-quests that you pick up in a pre-determined fashion when you start the game. What I mean by this is that you will never be able to do ALL the sub-quests in one sitting, because the game randomly says "right, I'm going to load-in quests A, B, D, F and X" for example.

Each sub-quest is triggered by a defining act - for example, if you see a dying man lying on the ground outside the church in Tristram and you speak to him then you will acquire the "the Butcher" quest. If the water in the town well is brown and manky instead of blue and clear, then you will be able to acquire the "Poisoned Water Supply" quest, and so on.

Completing the sub-quests not only earns you much needed experience points that help in levelling up your character, but you ALSO get some pretty natty items for your troubles as well !! =)

GAMEPLAY - 8/10

Whilst your first 30 minutes are likely to be quite ... not exactly jaw-dropping, but very easy in terms of how quick you will pick up the ball and run ? After that you will experience a drop in enthusiasm as you realise that the game really is as easy as point, click, point, click.

HOWEVER, before your enthusiasm levels drop TOO low you will stumble upon the sub-quests and then the plot will kick in, bringing your enthusiasm back up again ... at least this is what happened with me.

The END result is that Diablo is a very enjoyable title to play indeed ! It is easy to play - you don't really need to explain HOW to play even to a newbie - you can just hand them the game and tell them to get cracking !! But at the same time, there is plenty of depth there to keep you coming back to hone even your best character's skills and slay Diablo time ... after Time ... after TIME !! =)

The ONLY thing that irritates me about this game is that your characters move really quite slowly around the map - they amble quite contentedly, but sometimes you just wanna RUN y'know ?? Hell, sometimes you NEED to run (if you're outnumbered and being picked off by archers and so on) ... =./

REPLAY VALUE - 8/10

High, considering the random generation of quests at the outset of each game, and that you can play through the game using an existing character - e.g. I complete the game with my Sorcerer Tharn, and then start the game again using Tharn to go through from the outset and see if the quests differ, and what extra items I can get for him and so on.

In addition to this there is Blizzard's "Battle Net" available for you to play on - a forum where you can compete with other users online - this has (as anybody familiar with the Diablo series of games can tell you) evolved into quite a sub-culture ... for a time people started selling their best items on e-bay !!!!!

VALUE FOR MONEY - 10/10

Considering it has been around for a fair few years now, you should be able to pick up a copy of Diablo for tuppence, and it's definitely worth it - if only to see how this VERY successful series started.

Good value for money I'd say =)

OVERALL - 8/10 (This is NOT an average)

Diablo offers good, solid gameplay in a sugar-coated shell. There is plenty to keep you coming back for more, and honing your better character's skills by playing through the game a few times can make you quite a happy bunny ...

MAIN GOOD POINTS

* Engrossing plot, interspersed with sub-quests to keep things interesting.
* Three characters to choose from helps to alleviate stagnation.
* Hours and hours of gameplay.

MAIN BAD POINTS

* Your character will walk very sloooooooooooooowly, and this can irritate, but that's a comparatively minor niggle.

SO SHOULD YOU GET IT ?

Yep, if you can get your hands on a cheap copy (which you should be able to - they practically bundle Diablo with Rice Krispies these days), then I can think of absolutely NOOOOOOO reason not to recommend it to you !! :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/04, Updated 08/13/07