Even after the dawn of World of Warcraft and Diablo II, Diablo seems to be more of a nice collector's item than it is game worth playing. However, there's more to Diablo than meets the eye. There's no doubt that Diablo is a definitely a straight hack-and-slash. The game debuted at a time where PC games were growing more complex and began having more involved yet complicated gameplay. During a time when RTS games were rising with "me too"s, Diablo was a move made by Blizzard that was risque. Nobody has ever heard of Diablo before. It was a completely new franchise. It was noted as an action RPG and the screenshots left in magazine ads were very enticing to those looking for something more than just another RTS or FPS. The story was simple, and the gameplay was simple. Now 2005 (nine years after it first debuted), I actually had the nerve to install the game and play it again before writing this review. The hacking was mindless, the graphics were decent. I didn't realize how much different games have become. Diablo was a game played on 640x480 resolution so the jaggies were there. It was also one of the last games to use CG-modeled sprites instead of the complex particle effects and polygon models we use today. There was no such thing as accellerated graphics. It was one of those games that worked specifically for Windows 95! Like every other game, Diablo looked extremely dated but for some odd reason I had played for more than an hour. I actually found myself in the second level. Before I began writing this review, I ended up killing the first boss in the game and that was enough to tell me that the game was pretty timeless. Diablo was not flashy, nor was it challenging when compared to the standards of its successor and me-too's. Diablo just felt right. Its sounds which ranged from killing a monster to arranging an item gave me a reason to play more. The design for this game was thoughtful from the beginning. Despite all the graphical flash other games have done to make themselves look better during Diablo's debut, Blizzard did something right - it had to be fun. Blizzard did their homework with other games and decided to risk its company's reputation with Diablo. Action RPG hack-and-slash was cold and dead at the time but Blizzard wanted to be a company that rejuvenated old genres. Some may say that Diablo, although simple in design, is a masterpiece. In the same way Doom put first person shooters in the mainstream map, Diablo did the same for action RPGs. However, if all I could play were games in the past, Diablo would be one of them. radcastro.com
Back in 1996, PC gaming was striving. More and more people were getting a "home computer" and getting into PC gaming. It was also a great year for PC stores and outlets, as mice were flying off the shelves at a satisfy... Read Full Review
Diablo is a simple RPG made by Blizzard, in 1996. The premise of the game is very simple, explore the depths of the church and kill all the monsters. Yet, the game manages to be very complex and satisfying, because the n... Read Full Review
