Diablo Review (no fat)

Game Description

Take the fast-paced action from Doom, throw in some great reflexes and a good mouse and add the name Blizzard for a little spice and “Voila!” – You characterized Diablo-one of the most addictive, fun and widely played games around. The birth of Diablo from the studios of Blizzard, a company known to produce, meant a massive earthquake to the heart of the gaming industry of the time. Although it was criticized by some for its simplicity, this same exact factor which won the game too many awards to count.

Diablo Storyline

Diablo engages the gamers in a Gothic tale of a land filled with magic and monsters. With a mad King, his missing son and a dubious character for an Archbishop, the people of the Kingdom of Khandaras are in frightened and miserable under the spell of an ancient evil.

It is up to you to dig up the past and travel to Tristam’s Cathedral. The town’s Cathedral, built over the ruins of an ancient Monastery, seems to be the source of the spreading evil as ghostly sounds are heard from within the abandoned building.

Diablo Gameplay

You can choose from three classes at the beginning of the game. Firstly, there is the Warrior who depends on his muscles to win his fights. The Rogue fights mostly with ranged weapons and the Wizard has access to a wide variety of spells that help keep him alive.

Each class will play differently, but you will find them to be a bit unbalanced, the Warrior is visibly easier to play, as he will sustain more damage without dying then. The other two classes require more strategy and planning and the use of hit-and-run tactics along the line.

Diablo Random Leveling

The level-up system lets you put points in one of four statistics: Vitality will raise your hit points, Intelligence will raise your Mana points and Regeneration, Dexterity will raise your “to hit” factor and Strength will raise the direct damage that you deal.

You can raise these stats when you level-up or through special potions that are quite rare or with the help of items that give you stat bonuses. Beside stats, items also give you resistance's to magic which is always handy.

Diablo Random Factor

The random factor gives this game its actual genius. The game’s engine generates new dungeons with the help of a not-too-complex algorithm. This ultimately means that all levels and special dungeons will be totally different every time you will start a new game. Items are also randomly found on monsters, in crates or barrels.

As for quests, some of the sub-quests are also random, so you won’t be able to complete them all in a single game. All this gives the game an immense replay value, not mentioning the fact that once you finish the game you can take your character and start over on a whole new difficulty level, with bigger foes, more powerful weapons and tougher bosses.

Diablo Multiplayer

Those who finished the game on all difficulty settings and want a new approach to the game, will find a whole new challenge in Diablo’s multiplayer system. You can play Diablo through a local area network or online through Blizzard’s famous battle.net servers and you can work with, or against, three other players. Playing as a team is a great experience, because the number of monsters is a lot higher than in single-player games.

While nothing can beat playing Online, its always handy to remember what mum told you its jungle out there!!!…there will be players out there looking to kill for the sake of getting their hands on your items, and just when you think you got things under control, they will be scavenging for your items when you suffer losses to the monsters.

Diablo Graphics & Sound

Diablo sounds great with every quest and sub quest having a different rhythm to it. The Graphics also confirm to the high standards Blizzard entertainment is used to setting. The developers chose an isometric view on the game, combining it with artistic landscapes, creating a different atmosphere on every set so the graphics become al the more impressive.

However, the monsters seem a tad repetitive at times and you might find the same monster on two different levels. Of course they don’t repeat the names of the monsters and they differ in color as well (perhaps being tougher than the monsters on the previous level qualifies them to change their name and color).

Diablo Conclusion

Diablo still has its fans today and it is considered one of the founding fathers of the modern day, action-packed RPG's. Blizzard showed us that they mean business through Diablo and that nothing that’s not smashing the standards will ever come from their studios… we haven’t been able to prove them wrong as yet.

Diablo Cost

The retail price for Diablo is now $19.99 although not many stores sell it as a single item. Most likely, you’ll find it inside a Diablo Battlechest Box, which, for only $39.99, includes Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction and a Strategy Guide.