Difference between revisions of "Diablo"

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[[Image:Diablo - W32 - USA.jpg|thumb|256x256px|North American box art.]]
+
{{Video Game
 +
| Title            = Diablo
 +
| Image           = Diablo - WIN - USA.jpg
 +
| ImageDescription = Windows - USA - 1st edition.
 +
| Developer        = {{VideoGameDeveloper|Blizzard North}}
 +
| Publisher        = {{VideoGamePublisher|Blizzard Entertainment}}
 +
| PublishedYear    = 1996
 +
| PublishedMonth  = 12
 +
| PublishedDay    = 31
 +
| Platforms        = {{Platform|Macintosh Classic}}, {{Platform|PlayStation}}, {{Platform|Windows}}
 +
| Genres          = {{VideoGameGenre|Dungeon crawler|Dungeon crawler}}, {{VideoGameGenre|Role-playing video game|Role-playing game}}
 +
| Themes          = {{MediaTheme|Action}}, {{MediaTheme|Fantasy}}, {{MediaTheme|Horror}}
 +
| Series          = ''[[Diablo (universe)|Diablo]]''
 +
| Multiplayer      = {{GameMultiplayer|Simultaneous co-op}}, {{GameMultiplayer|Simultaneous versus}}
 +
| Distributions    = {{VideoGameDistribution|Commercial}}
 +
}}
  
'''''Diablo''''' is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler action-RPG with a demonic Gothic theme. It was developed by [[Blizzard North]] and published by [[Blizzard Entertainment]] and released for [[Windows]] on 1996-12-31 and later ported to [[Macintosh]] and [[PlayStation]]. An expansion called "Hellfire" was released in 1997 which added more content.
+
'''''Diablo''''' is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler action-RPG with a demonic Gothic theme. It was developed by [[Blizzard North]] and published by [[Blizzard Entertainment]] and released for [[Windows]] on 1996-12-31 and later ported to [[Macintosh Classic|Macintosh]] and [[PlayStation]]. It is the first game in the [[Diablo (universe)|''Diablo'' series]]. An expansion called "Hellfire" was released in 1997 which added more content.
  
I first saw Diablo at a friend's house in 1996 or 1997. I think it was the demo version, but I'm not sure. He made a warrior and got to the Butcher but was killed. In 1997, a different friend and I bought Diablo together, each paying half of the price, and swapped the CD between us every few days. After he beat the game, he got bored with it and sold me his half. I still have the original game to this day.
+
The game's story is set centuries after a great war between demons and angels. Though the angels won, the demons have been biding their time in an effort to regain control of the world and struck a major blow when Diablo, Lord of Terror, broke free from his prison. He corrupted the Arch-Bishop Lazarus, kidnapped Prince Albrecht, drove King Leoric mad which ultimately resulted in his death. The town of Tristram was devastated in the process and mostly abandoned. You are a former resident of Tristram returning to see the town in ruins and the monastery defiled by demons, and you alone must stop Diablo from rising to power and taking over the world.
  
Playing Diablo always reminds me of the music from [[Queen]]'s [[Sheer Heart Attack]] album, which I listened to a lot while playing this game.
+
==Personal==
 +
{{VideoGameStatus
 +
| Own      = Yes. Windows CD jewel case and manual.
 +
| CantOwn  =
 +
| Won      = Yes. All classes.
 +
| CantWin  =
 +
| Finished = 2002-12-07 (rogue), 2007-04-02 (sorcerer), 2011‎-12-12 (warrior), 2017‎-01-29 (monk).
 +
}}
  
==Status==
+
I first saw Diablo at a friend Kevin's house around 1997. I think it was the demo version, but I'm not sure. He made a warrior and got to the Butcher before being killed and unable to proceed. Not long after that, my friend Eric and I pooled our money to buy ''Diablo'' for Windows 95 and swapped the CD between us every few days. After he beat the game, he got bored with it and sold me his half. I still have that version in its jewel case with the manual. I have beaten it as a warrior, rogue, and sorcerer. I've also beaten the Hellfire expansion as a monk (though I don't own it).
I own this game for Windows and have beaten it as a warrior, rogue, and sorcerer. I've also beaten the Hellfire expansion as a monk (though I don't own it).
+
 
 +
Playing ''Diablo'' always reminds me of the music from [[Queen]]'s ''[[Sheer Heart Attack]]'' album, which I listened to a lot while first playing this game.
  
 
==Review==
 
==Review==
* '''Overall:''' 7/10
+
{{Video Game Review|9|5|7|7|9|Windows}}
* '''Best Version:''' Windows
+
 
 +
{{Spoilers}}
  
 
===Good===
 
===Good===
* Ignoring the cheats and exploits, the game engine is pretty solid.
+
* Ignoring the cheats and exploits, the game engine is pretty solid. Most of the released patches
* The monster AI is varied and interesting allowing for different tactics. Fallen Ones can be scared away by killing a monster in front of them, scavengers can be delayed by making corpses for them to eat, etc.
+
* The monster AI is varied and interesting allowing for different tactics. Fallen Ones can be scared away if they see you kill a monster, scavengers can be delayed by making corpses for them to eat, etc.
* The ambient music is creepy and the town music is quite nice. Good sound effects too.
+
* [[Matt Uelmen]]'s ambient music is creepy and the town music is quite nice. Good sound effects too.
 +
* The hand-drawn sprites for the items are fantastic.
 
* The palette is nicely dark and foreboding fitting the mood of the game.
 
* The palette is nicely dark and foreboding fitting the mood of the game.
 
* The prefix/suffix system for items and dungeon randomizer allows for a lot of replay value.
 
* The prefix/suffix system for items and dungeon randomizer allows for a lot of replay value.
* The dungeon generator changes based on the various environments of the game.
+
* The dungeon layout generator has unique algorithms for each of the main sections, and each feels right.
* The game has a great manual.
+
* I like how you can start a [[new game plus|new game]], but keep all your character's stats.
 +
* The game has a great manual and adds a lot of lore that is only glossed over in the game.
 +
* As a nice change of pace, the playable classes include a [[playable female character|woman]] and a [[playable person of color|black man]].
  
 
===Bad===
 
===Bad===
* The story is pretty typical.
+
* The pre-rendered 3D graphics are a bit washed-out looking. I would have preferred hand-drawn sprites for the whole game. The stream in the town look especially awful. Also, with only 256 colors to work with, a lot of the oranges and blues look bad.
* The pre-rendered 3D graphics are a bit washed-out looking. I would have preferred hand-drawn sprites.
+
* The town is mostly empty and tedious to navigate, especially trying to get to Adria and Writ. The patch which speeds up the player is helpful.
* The environments in the cut-scene animations sparsely decorated and don't look very real.
+
* You inventory is so small it requires you to have to go to town frequently to unburden yourself. However, since you've cleared all the levels above you, it means there is a lot of walking through empty rooms. Thankfully, there is a shortcut every five levels, and sometimes you can get a town portal spell, but until you get it, the frequent trek is quite annoying.
* Once you've explored the town and find it has little to offer, it becomes tedious to navigate.
+
* Like many games that use a prefix/suffix approach to items, the vast majority of them are unwanted, wasting your time. The fact that you have to identify everything slows things down even more.
* Farnham and Gillian offer only backstory. They don't give quests or clues.
+
* The Witch monster's graphic set is fan service for teen male gamers. She's topless with enormous breasts, wears a g-string and leather boots, and, when she dies, she moans and falls into a doggy-style position.
* Like many games that use a prefix/suffix approach to items, the vast majority of them are unwanted, wasting your time.
+
* The name of the shrines give them away, and, because you can [[save scum]], even the random ones are kind of pointless.
* The map generation is a little too random, sometimes placing doors where they're unneeded, creating long dead-ends, or making numerous rooms with nothing in them.
+
* The environments in the cut-scene animations are sparsely decorated and don't look very real.
 +
* Farnham and Gillian offer only backstory. They don't give quests, clues, or sell anything.
 +
* The map generation is a little too [[pseudorandomness|random]], sometimes placing doors where they're unneeded, creating long dead-ends, or making numerous rooms with nothing in them.
 
* There is a lot of recorded dialog for NPCs to talk about quests, but almost all of it is unimportant and wastes your time.
 
* There is a lot of recorded dialog for NPCs to talk about quests, but almost all of it is unimportant and wastes your time.
* The Witch monster set was shamelessly targeted for teen male gamers. She's topless, wears a g-string and leather boots, and, when she dies, she moans and falls into a doggy-style position.
+
* The path-finding algorithm is pretty bad, especially when trying to reach moving monsters.
  
 
===Ugly===
 
===Ugly===
 
* The later levels become an exercise in tedium for the warrior. A large portion of the enemies shoot projectiles at you and, when you try to near, they run or teleport away. The game's weak follow algorithm makes things worse by often failing to take you in the most direct path, giving them time to escape.
 
* The later levels become an exercise in tedium for the warrior. A large portion of the enemies shoot projectiles at you and, when you try to near, they run or teleport away. The game's weak follow algorithm makes things worse by often failing to take you in the most direct path, giving them time to escape.
* Battle.net has been shutdown for Diablo, and when it was available it was horribly broken with cheating. You could only safely play in password-protected games with friends.
+
* Battle.net has been shutdown for ''Diablo'', and, even when it was available, it was horribly broken with cheating. You could only safely play in password-protected games which kind of defeats the purpose.
  
 
==Media==
 
==Media==
 +
===Box Art===
 +
All regions and ports use this same art. It depicts the demon Diablo dimly lit with red lighting with the logo below him.
 +
 +
<gallery>
 +
Diablo - WIN - USA.jpg|Windows - USA.
 +
</gallery>
 +
 
===Documentation===
 
===Documentation===
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
Diablo - W32 - Manual.pdf|Game manual.
+
Diablo - W32 - Manual.pdf|Manual - Windows - USA - Digital.
 +
Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire v1.62.pdf|''Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire'' - Version 1.62.
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
Line 47: Line 84:
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
 
Diablo - W32 - Map - Tristram.png|Tristram.
 
Diablo - W32 - Map - Tristram.png|Tristram.
 +
</gallery>
 +
 +
===Screenshots===
 +
<gallery>
 +
Diablo - WIN - Screenshot - Unmet Requirement.png|The game uses stat requirements for equipment.
 
</gallery>
 
</gallery>
  
 
===Videos===
 
===Videos===
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscdPA6sUkc youtube.com/watch?v=VscdPA6sUkc] - Post-mortem.
+
{{YouTube|vSGOVrup4tA|Trailer.}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHV7VnWvz_o youtube.com/watch?v=lHV7VnWvz_o] - Longplay as a sorcerer.
+
{{YouTube|VscdPA6sUkc|Post-mortem.}}
 +
{{YouTube|5tADL_fmsHQ|Reverse engineering the game.}}
 +
{{YouTube|lHV7VnWvz_o|Longplay, Sorcerer.}}
 +
 
 +
==Representation==
 +
{{Representation
 +
| Media                      = Video games
 +
| StrongFemaleCharacterStatus = Pass
 +
| StrongFemaleCharacterNotes  = The rouge is strong.
 +
| BechdelTestStatus          = Pass
 +
| BechdelTestNotes            = When playing as a rogue, there is a lot of available dialogue with other women.
 +
| StrongPOCCharacterStatus    = Pass
 +
| StrongPOCCharacterNotes    = The sorcerer is black, the monk is Asian.
 +
| QueerCharacterStatus        = Fail
 +
| QueerCharacterNotes        = There are no queer characters.
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
==Download==
 +
''Diablo'' can still be purchased online. So this isn't the game. Instead, this archive includes the final official patch (v1.09b), the Direct X patch to play in modern versions of Windows, a shrine list, an MPQ viewer, and the Bobba Fett trainer.
 +
 
 +
* [[Media:Diablo - WIN - Utilities.zip|Download]] ([[:File:Diablo - WIN - Utilities.zip|Info]])
  
 
==Hellfire==
 
==Hellfire==
 
[[Image:Hellfire - W32 - USA.jpg|thumb|256x256px|North American box art.]]
 
[[Image:Hellfire - W32 - USA.jpg|thumb|256x256px|North American box art.]]
  
'''''Hellfire''''' is an expansion for Diablo developed by [[Synergistic Software]] and published by [[Sierra On-Line]] in 1997 for Windows. The expansion adds the monk class, two new dungeons (hive and crypt) each with new monsters and quests, new items (oils and traps), new spells, and new prefixes/suffixes. The expansion was supposed to add two more classes (barbarian and bard), but they were scrapped before the game was released. However, with a little configuration modification, they can be unlocked.
+
'''''Hellfire''''' is an expansion for Diablo developed by [[Synergistic Software]] and published by [[Sierra On-Line]] in 1997 for Windows. The expansion adds the monk class, two new dungeons (hive and crypt) each with new monsters and quests, new items (oils and traps), new spells, and new prefixes/suffixes. The expansion was supposed to add two additional classes (barbarian and bard), but they were scrapped before the game was released. However, with a little configuration modification, they can be unlocked (but without new character artwork).
  
 
===Review===
 
===Review===
I don't like the hive dungeon, as it seemed too insect/alien which I don't think fits with the demonic fantasy vibe of Diablo. The crypt was more fitting, but the lich monster class made it extremely annoying.
+
I don't like the hive dungeon, as it seemed too insect/alien which I don't think fits with the demonic fantasy vibe of Diablo. The crypt was more fitting, but the lich monster class made it extremely annoying. The new music isn't that great either, and the composer explained that it was just stuff left behind that he didn't think was good enough for the original game.
  
 
==Links==
 
==Links==
* [http://www.mobygames.com/game/diablo mobygames.com/game/diablo] - MobyGames.
+
{{Link|MobyGames|http://www.mobygames.com/game/diablo}}
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)] - Wikipedia.
+
{{Link|Wikipedia|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)}}
 +
{{Link|VGMPF|2=http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Diablo_(W32)}}
 +
{{Link|TCRF|https://tcrf.net/Diablo_(Windows)}}
 +
 
 
* [http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Diablo_(game) diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Diablo_(game)] - Diablo Wikia.
 
* [http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Diablo_(game) diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Diablo_(game)] - Diablo Wikia.
* [http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Diablo_(W32) vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Diablo_(W32)] - Music.
 
 
* [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/hellfire mobygames.com/game/windows/hellfire] - MobyGames (Hellfire).
 
* [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/hellfire mobygames.com/game/windows/hellfire] - MobyGames (Hellfire).
 +
* [http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Hellfire_(W32) vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Hellfire_(W32)] - VGMPF (Hellfire).
 +
* [https://www.blizzardarchive.com/pub/index.php?id=diablo blizzardarchive.com/pub/index.php?id=diablo] - All official patches.
  
  
[[Category: Games]]
+
[[Category: Video Game Prime Order - Strategy, Action, Adventure]]
[[Category: Video Games]]
+
[[Category: Game Mechanic - New Game Plus]]
[[Category: Macintosh Games]]
+
[[Category: Game Mechanic - Playable Female Character]]
[[Category: PlayStation Games]]
+
[[Category: Game mechanic - Playable person of color]]
[[Category: Windows Games]]
 
[[Category: Action]]
 
[[Category: Role-Playing Game]]
 
[[Category: Adventure]]
 
[[Category: Fantasy]]
 
[[Category: Dungeon Crawl]]
 
[[Category: Multi-Player]]
 
[[Category: Multi-Player Co-op]]
 
[[Category: Multi-Player Versus]]
 
[[Category: Strong Female Character]]
 
[[Category: Horror]]
 
[[Category: Playable Female Character]]
 
[[Category: Beat-Em-Up]]
 
[[Category: Games I've Beaten]]
 
 
[[Category: Favorite]]
 
[[Category: Favorite]]
 
[[Category: Favorite Games]]
 
[[Category: Favorite Games]]

Latest revision as of 15:58, 12 March 2024

Diablo

Diablo - WIN - USA.jpg

Windows - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Blizzard North
Publisher Blizzard Entertainment
Published 1996-12-31
Platforms Macintosh Classic, PlayStation, Windows
Genres Dungeon crawler, Role-playing game
Themes Action, Fantasy, Horror
Series Diablo
Multiplayer Simultaneous co-op, Simultaneous versus
Distribution Commercial

Diablo is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler action-RPG with a demonic Gothic theme. It was developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment and released for Windows on 1996-12-31 and later ported to Macintosh and PlayStation. It is the first game in the Diablo series. An expansion called "Hellfire" was released in 1997 which added more content.

The game's story is set centuries after a great war between demons and angels. Though the angels won, the demons have been biding their time in an effort to regain control of the world and struck a major blow when Diablo, Lord of Terror, broke free from his prison. He corrupted the Arch-Bishop Lazarus, kidnapped Prince Albrecht, drove King Leoric mad which ultimately resulted in his death. The town of Tristram was devastated in the process and mostly abandoned. You are a former resident of Tristram returning to see the town in ruins and the monastery defiled by demons, and you alone must stop Diablo from rising to power and taking over the world.

Personal

Own?Yes. Windows CD jewel case and manual.
Won?Yes. All classes.
Finished2002-12-07 (rogue), 2007-04-02 (sorcerer), 2011‎-12-12 (warrior), 2017‎-01-29 (monk).

I first saw Diablo at a friend Kevin's house around 1997. I think it was the demo version, but I'm not sure. He made a warrior and got to the Butcher before being killed and unable to proceed. Not long after that, my friend Eric and I pooled our money to buy Diablo for Windows 95 and swapped the CD between us every few days. After he beat the game, he got bored with it and sold me his half. I still have that version in its jewel case with the manual. I have beaten it as a warrior, rogue, and sorcerer. I've also beaten the Hellfire expansion as a monk (though I don't own it).

Playing Diablo always reminds me of the music from Queen's Sheer Heart Attack album, which I listened to a lot while first playing this game.

Review

Video Game Review Icon - Enjoyment.png Video Game Review Icon - Control.png Video Game Review Icon - Appearance.png Video Game Review Icon - Sound.png Video Game Review Icon - Replayability.png
9 5 7 7 9

Best Version: Windows

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • Ignoring the cheats and exploits, the game engine is pretty solid. Most of the released patches
  • The monster AI is varied and interesting allowing for different tactics. Fallen Ones can be scared away if they see you kill a monster, scavengers can be delayed by making corpses for them to eat, etc.
  • Matt Uelmen's ambient music is creepy and the town music is quite nice. Good sound effects too.
  • The hand-drawn sprites for the items are fantastic.
  • The palette is nicely dark and foreboding fitting the mood of the game.
  • The prefix/suffix system for items and dungeon randomizer allows for a lot of replay value.
  • The dungeon layout generator has unique algorithms for each of the main sections, and each feels right.
  • I like how you can start a new game, but keep all your character's stats.
  • The game has a great manual and adds a lot of lore that is only glossed over in the game.
  • As a nice change of pace, the playable classes include a woman and a black man.

Bad

  • The pre-rendered 3D graphics are a bit washed-out looking. I would have preferred hand-drawn sprites for the whole game. The stream in the town look especially awful. Also, with only 256 colors to work with, a lot of the oranges and blues look bad.
  • The town is mostly empty and tedious to navigate, especially trying to get to Adria and Writ. The patch which speeds up the player is helpful.
  • You inventory is so small it requires you to have to go to town frequently to unburden yourself. However, since you've cleared all the levels above you, it means there is a lot of walking through empty rooms. Thankfully, there is a shortcut every five levels, and sometimes you can get a town portal spell, but until you get it, the frequent trek is quite annoying.
  • Like many games that use a prefix/suffix approach to items, the vast majority of them are unwanted, wasting your time. The fact that you have to identify everything slows things down even more.
  • The Witch monster's graphic set is fan service for teen male gamers. She's topless with enormous breasts, wears a g-string and leather boots, and, when she dies, she moans and falls into a doggy-style position.
  • The name of the shrines give them away, and, because you can save scum, even the random ones are kind of pointless.
  • The environments in the cut-scene animations are sparsely decorated and don't look very real.
  • Farnham and Gillian offer only backstory. They don't give quests, clues, or sell anything.
  • The map generation is a little too random, sometimes placing doors where they're unneeded, creating long dead-ends, or making numerous rooms with nothing in them.
  • There is a lot of recorded dialog for NPCs to talk about quests, but almost all of it is unimportant and wastes your time.
  • The path-finding algorithm is pretty bad, especially when trying to reach moving monsters.

Ugly

  • The later levels become an exercise in tedium for the warrior. A large portion of the enemies shoot projectiles at you and, when you try to near, they run or teleport away. The game's weak follow algorithm makes things worse by often failing to take you in the most direct path, giving them time to escape.
  • Battle.net has been shutdown for Diablo, and, even when it was available, it was horribly broken with cheating. You could only safely play in password-protected games which kind of defeats the purpose.

Media

Box Art

All regions and ports use this same art. It depicts the demon Diablo dimly lit with red lighting with the logo below him.

Documentation

Maps

Screenshots

Videos

Trailer.
Post-mortem.
Reverse engineering the game.
Longplay, Sorcerer.

Representation

Strong female character?PassThe rouge is strong.
Bechdel test?PassWhen playing as a rogue, there is a lot of available dialogue with other women.
Strong person of color character?PassThe sorcerer is black, the monk is Asian.
Queer character?FailThere are no queer characters.

Download

Diablo can still be purchased online. So this isn't the game. Instead, this archive includes the final official patch (v1.09b), the Direct X patch to play in modern versions of Windows, a shrine list, an MPQ viewer, and the Bobba Fett trainer.

Hellfire

North American box art.

Hellfire is an expansion for Diablo developed by Synergistic Software and published by Sierra On-Line in 1997 for Windows. The expansion adds the monk class, two new dungeons (hive and crypt) each with new monsters and quests, new items (oils and traps), new spells, and new prefixes/suffixes. The expansion was supposed to add two additional classes (barbarian and bard), but they were scrapped before the game was released. However, with a little configuration modification, they can be unlocked (but without new character artwork).

Review

I don't like the hive dungeon, as it seemed too insect/alien which I don't think fits with the demonic fantasy vibe of Diablo. The crypt was more fitting, but the lich monster class made it extremely annoying. The new music isn't that great either, and the composer explained that it was just stuff left behind that he didn't think was good enough for the original game.

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png  Link-VGMPF.png  Link-TCRF.png