Of all the games we went though in search of good monsters, Diablo had the most. Every monster seemed well conceived and well executed. They looked and sounded great, and they even died in the most amazing ways. There were the great skeletons, the tenacious fallen, and the invisible,

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ever-present unseen. But when we went to hell in Diablo, we truly saw the best that Diablo had to offer. The monsters were classic terrors from myth and literature. There were the bat-winged, seductive succubi and the corrupted, reanimated armor-plated steel knights. But lurking in the darkness, its red wings unfurled and its fiery sword ready to bring down flaming death, was the mighty balrog.

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The balrog might not have been the most well-known monster in Diablo. In hell, you fought more succubi, steel knights, and vipers than you did balrogs. But these demons fit in so well in the red and gloomy underworld. A throwback to simpler times, the balrog wasn't a fancy beast or a half-human, half-animal abomination. It was a classic demon - large and red, with horns, cloven hooves, and great red wings. In many respects, it was also an homage to the demons in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which were also called balrogs.

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These creatures were big, relentless, and intimidating, both because of the feelings this traditional figure evokes and for the way in which Blizzard gave the balrog's steps weight and its fury a voice. What made the most lasting impression of these monsters, though, was the way in which they died. These creatures threw back their heads, howling in rage. Their bodies erupted into fire, as their blackened skeletons turned to ash and crumbled to the floor. Though their appearance in Diablo was brief, these monsters, like the orcs in Warcraft II, showed how Blizzard could put its own spin on a classic monster and turn it into something more.
 

The Barons of Hell