This is simply one of the best games I have ever played.
Introduction:
1997 was an awesome year. my family got a brand new car, a brand new computer (a dell dimension xps266 – pentium II 266Mhz FTW!), my bro was getting complete unrestricted/unfiltered 24/7/365 T1 internet access, so that meant the rise of piracy and all this new software/hardware that ive never heard of. well, that was because he went to an accelerated/smart people high school. anyways, i would always always always wait for him to come home on the weekends, cause i would miss him a ton, but moretheless see what new goodies he would bring home. one weekend though, my dad and he came home an hour or two later than usual and i was kind of getting antsy/worried. where the heck did they go? maybe my dad was stuck at work, or my brother had to finish stuff up at school, who knows. all i know is that when my brother came home that day, he immediately raced to the computer with a plastic bag with a huge box inside. knowing me, i followed him and he was like completely excited beyond belief. i read what the box was and strangely, it was called “diablo”. i was like “wow, this is scary and looks pretty stupid. i dont want to play it at all.” but thank GOD my brother made me watch him play. i didnt care about SNES/Sega Genesis emulators or descent or jazz jackrabbit or quake anymore..because Diablo is probably one of the best (and one my personal personal favorite) games ive ever played, and to have ever come out on the PC.
btw, i am going to write this review with a mix of a 1997 and 2008 perspective…
Graphics:
from a 1997 perspective, this game BLEW away whatever was out at the time (of a 2D rpg genre of course). everything was nicely detailed, the cinematics were superb, the dungeons were amazingly polished too. every weapon, piece of armor that you put on would dramatically change your heroes look. well, mind you there were only 3 different types of armor class and depending on which one you wore, it would redecorate your character accordingly. still, the graphics were amazing at its time.
Sound:
Town, Dungeon, Catacombs, Caves, Hell. Those 5 pieces of music would endlessly play on each respective place, and even though they would loop, i never ever got tired of it. my favorites happen to be the caves, the town, and the catacombs especially. this music perfectly fit in wherever you would go. hell sounded like a place that would quite literally scare the hell out of you, the caves sounded old, rugged, and full of undead creatures, while the dungeon/cathedral sounded exactly like a church that was taken over and the catacombs…oh man, you have to hear it to believe it. usually with most games that you play over and over again, one would get bored with the music (aka turn on your ipod, winamp, itunes, whatever you use), but with diablo, this never ever happened. simply. freaking. amazing.
Gameplay:
Click click click click click. its a simple point and click game. click to move, attack, use magic use/move/equip items, potions, scrolls. easy to play, simple to pick up, brilliant design. Keyboard shortcuts were also included so in case your fingers/wrist got tired from moving too much. absolutely perfect at the time, and the same still holds true today (WoW, starcraft, warcraft 3, etc).
Presentation:
simple to navigate menus. large, nicely written text that anyone can pick up and read, to even just the evil that looms over the town of tristram…this game is VERY well presented. everyone looks happy, scared, or simply doesnt care.
Multiplayer:
this was the best part of diablo. completely free 4 player online. anyone can just hop online and quest together to beat diablo, trade items, or even do pvp (player vs player). i spent most of my time online (hours/days/weeks/years literally) questing and collecting items (i was too young to realize that most of the “good” items were hacked/nonlegit/godly), and killing pkers (player killers). the only other game that ive spent even more time online was *drumroll* diablo 2. and if you didnt want to do battle.net, blizzard also nicely included modem (2 players only), ipx (before the current LAN/tcp-ip stuff you see in todays games), and even direct connect. games could also be raised in difficulty and even be password protected so only your friends could join. best idea ever blizzard, im SO glad you brought battle.net out with diablo.
Singleplayer:
you could pick from 3 characters, the warrior (my favorite), the rogue, or the sorcerer. the warrior would be awesome in physical combat, but suck at magic, while the rogue would be the balanced character, and the sorcerer bringing up the mage type. everytime you started a new game, you would get randomly assigned quests, which was a good thing. the only drawback is that you could never ever get every single quest, because the game would automatically predetermine which quests you get. of course most people would get bored playing the game by yourself, especially when this game was made for multiplayer. still, it was a good idea.
Extras:
There was an unofficial expansion packed called “hellfire” from sierra, but honestly, it wasnt up to blizzard quality standards and it was hard to find. i did manage to get a copy from my friend (no not torrents you fools – i actually legitimately borrowed the game from my friend in oklahoma) and play through it. to be honest, it was okay. nothing spectacular and nothing game changing..well i take that back, hellfire did give you the option of running in town, which was nice, and also editing a command.txt file which allowed for even more heroes and quests. besides that, after you beat the game with all 3 characters, and beat all the quests, there isnt much else to do except level up and collect more loot/treasure.
Conclusion:
Diablo is in my top 5 games of all time, and probably is my #1 PC game of all time. the music, the story, the gameplay, the single and multiplayer (battle.net fucking rules hands down – fuck you xbox live, it has NOTHING against diablo – at the time of course), everything about it was so perfect and SO amazing. 3 different heroes to pick and choose from, basically an infinite number of combinations regarding your equipment (godly plate of the whale and kings sword of the haste for all your battle.net peeps). obviously most people will think im crazy because “zomg diablo 2 is so much better, and starcraft just blows away diablo” or “diablo is soooooooo old” “there are WAY better games out there now”. i know all that. i know that there have been excellent games to have come out within the past 11 years…but..the facts are the facts. im not alone when all of the other gaming review sites on the web state that diablo is quite simply, the best game of the year and the best game for years to come…on the PC of course.
10/10.
