Diablo

"Save your cash. Get the PC version."

-Visuals 6/10-

While its counterpart on the PC boasts some pretty intense and fast moving visuals, Diablo for the PSX falls short in several different categories. The first of this being the actual speed of the game, it’s a mess in terms of trying to figure out just what direction you’re facing. You may think that this is a game play problem, but once you step into the dungeon, your character looks like he/she is walking around with something stuck where it shouldn’t be.

The next major problem is the amount of detail in the game…there is just barely any. The characters have no real definition, and enemies that you face have a tendency to blend in together, so there isn’t a real way to tell just what you’re attacking and killing. Most of the weapons look the same, as do the shields and armor. However, just like its PC counterpart, it does allow you to see some character changes depending on what type of armor or weapon that you’re using.

The dungeons that you roam through look well detailed, but trying to see just how much detail there is, can be very difficult. Mainly it’s the lighting, and the other part of it is that it is so grainy, that you really have to watch where you’re going, and what you’re doing. One interesting feature that is a redeeming quality, is the fact that the enemies fade in and out of existence when they’re hit or when they swarm to attack.

-Audio 6/10-

The audio also falls short. The music track seems to keep looping over and over again with no real change in the tempo or the beat. This can become droning and quite annoying after about 20 minutes or so of listening to the same music track. What you would hope for is a little variety when you switch from dungeon to dungeon, but again, it falls short without a hope. The sound effects fall the same way too, enemies growl at you, and the swing of the sword connecting with a body come through rather clear, but you’re really not looking at much else on top of that.

-Control 2/10-

Too many buttons and too many menu’s for an action/RPG game. Your character moves on strange angles, and the pressing required to move your character will make your thumbs sore, and after about 15 minutes of trying to maneuver around a pack of enemies and getting hacked to death, you’ll see that the control is very slow. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if the analog stick had some play in this, but unfortunately, Diablo doesn’t support the Dual Shock, nor does it support the analog sticks. Double bummer.

Cruising through the menu’s takes a lot of practice, and just trying to manage your spells, inventory, and other various things can take time, and can take a lot of effort. The controller configuration can be changed, but any novice game player will have a hard time just figuring out what to do with all of the options that they give you in the configuration menu.

-Game Play 6/10-

Questing at its best, Diablo sports some pretty intense exploration. Aside from that, your goal is to complete some quests that are pre-arranged for you by traveling through numerous dungeons. Upon playing, you’ll immediately notice that the PSX version of this game does not offer you the same feature as the PC version. All of the levels pretty much stay the same, and trying to find items in a world that is literally pitch black, can be very tedious. A redeeming quality is the fact that you can save your game at any point during your journey, which is a plus.

However, the fun stops short of hacking enemies. Again, with the way that the menus are set up, and the amount of items that you can pick up and use, you’ll find yourself a little miffed that you can’t carry more items. Item placement is crucial here, and you’ll see that you may have some pretty sweet weapons, but can’t carry them all because of the lack of space. The quests themselves are very long, and could take one person a couple of weeks to play through them. Something that does offer a ray of light, is the fact that the storyline is rich, and it does have the voice over that the PC version did.

-Overall 6/10-

Diablo for the PSX isn’t all that great. It fails in several of the major categories that make a good action game great. Mainly, players will find much to be desired in terms of items, variety, and quite frankly the visuals. If you’re looking for a version of Diablo that doesn’t bite the bullet too badly, you might want to look towards the PC. If you don’t own a PC, but want to experience Diablo, then try this game out on a rental basis only. It’s not worth the money spent.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/01, Updated 01/03/01