"Good for a coupl'a weeks"

When it comes to buying video games I'm a little slow. I first played Doom after Quake came out and Warcraft was hardly cutting edge when I first popped it into my CD-ROM. Needless to say, it took about four years for me to buy Diablo. Obviously there was high expectation: I had been listening to the raving that every one and their mother seemed to be pouring from their mouths. I found it a Target for about $20.00, bundled with the strategy guide (which is completely useless). I skipped a previously scheduled engagement, raced home in my '83 El Camino, and popped the sucker in.
The opening sequence was really cool looking, but extremely misleading: it made it look like the plot mattered. Anyhow, I started up my own game as Deijoc, the Mage, the only respectable class.

Graphics: Not bad… Not great, but not bad. Yes, I know it was 1995, but I guess I've just been jaded by two Jurassic Parks and the Matrix. The levels were visually simplistic with little detail, but this was made up for by the gloomy atmosphere created by the many religious artifacts. With little slow down, the character animations are fluid and precise, and perhaps a bit comical. I don't know, it's just kind of funny when you incinerate a Viper and he slowly melts down to the floor. I'm probably just sick. The spells were cool if simple, except for those that looked repetitive and blocky like firewall. The CGI sequences are smooth and pretty, though quite superfluous.

Music. Blizzard did a good job on this. The tunes are barely noticeable in the gameplay, but just loud enough to create an atmosphere. There is nothing as settling as the opening bit to the town music after you have just escaped from a nasty fight with a bunch of vicious Sucubi. It is well composed and extremely well synthesized. Unfortunately it is so repetitive that after a while you inevitably decide to push the power button on the speakers and curse the man who wrote the extremely catchy melodious piece of crap. The dungeon ''music'' is really just a variety of unearthly drums and sighs. Combined with the adequately freaky visuals, it can make you a bit jumpy.

Gameplay. This is where Blizzard shines. The combat is wonderful, creatures literally falling to pieces under your sword, the floor becoming littered with the blood laden corpses of your enemies. Magic helps too. Unleashing a volley of high leveled fireballs into a tightly packed group of stupid imps just makes you feel good inside. While I am an admitted Mage supremacist, it isn't bad being a barbarian if you can't handle the mages weakness. The rouge, in my opinion, is the weakest of all the characters. Her skill with a bow just doesn't outweigh her weaknesses in everything else.
The levels are randomized, which is pretty cool, but it leads to a complete mess. For instance, there will be a door and a passage way, three feet from each other, that both lead to the same room. One good point though is that after you beat the game you can go back through the new levels with your buff character. Which leads me to my only real problem with this game. It's extremely easy. I had it mastered within a week. Frankly, when your mage hits 20, there's no stopping him. The first time I was about to fight Diablo I was psyched. I had my belt and inventory filled with magic potions so that I could dish out fireball after fireball until the giant fell, and release a healing spell whenever my HP got low. Let's just say that I never healed myself, and I only used 5 or so magic potions. Before I knew it the guy's chest was a fountain of blood and I was off to a CGI sequence. I felt cheap. I just kicked the crap out of Satan without getting close to my max. level. The disappointment only lasted until I destroyed the butcher for the second time in one fireball with my level 25 mage. The replays lasted about three times through when I decided to get Hellfire.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/00, Updated 04/17/00