Diablo (video game)


Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in January 1997.
Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras in the mortal realm, the player controls a lone hero battling to rid the world of Diablo, the Lord of Terror. Beneath the town of Tristram, the player journeys through sixteen randomly generated dungeon levels, ultimately entering Hell in order to face Diablo.
An expansion pack, , was released in November 1997 by Sierra Entertainment. In 1998, Electronic Arts released Diablo for the PlayStation. This version, developed by Climax Studios, featured direct control of the main character's direction, as opposed to point-and-click movement, using the PlayStation controller. A Sega Saturn version was considered by Electronic Arts but never released. The game's success led to two sequels: Diablo II in 2000 and Diablo III in 2012.

Gameplay

Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game. The player moves and interacts with the environment primarily by way of a mouse. Other actions, such as casting a spell, are performed in response to keyboard inputs. The player can acquire items, learn spells, defeat enemies, and interact with non-player characters throughout the game.
The dungeon levels are procedurally generated with themes for each level; for instance, the catacombs tend to have long corridors and closed rooms, while the caves are more non-linear. The players are assigned a random number of quests from several tiers; these quests are optional but help to level up the character and/or reveal more of the backstory. The final two quests are mandatory in order to finish the game.

Classes

Diablo has three character classes: the Warrior, the Rogue, and the Sorcerer. Each class has a different level of assigned attributes along with a unique skill. Each class is capable of using almost all of the same items and spells, in contrast to later titles in the Diablo series which have class-specific items and spells. However, the limitations in the attributes for each class reward play that utilizes them efficiently; for instance the Warrior's low maximum level of Magic prevents him from learning the higher levels of powerful spells like the Sorcerer, instead the Warrior is best suited to melee with a faster weapon swing plus a "critical strike" for bonus damage.
In the expansion set, , the Monk was added. The Monk is proficient at melee combat with the staff. Two other classes, the Bard and Barbarian, were unfinished but remained hidden characters in Diablo: Hellfire, and could be enabled using a hack. Using the in-game sprites of the Rogue and Warrior, respectively, the Bard is capable of dual-wielding weapons while the Barbarian was a two-handed axe specialist.

Items

Many items have attribute minimums to be used effectively. White-colored items are normal items, blue-colored items are magic items and gold-colored items are unique items. Any items that are not white in color must be identified to make use of their magical effects, however, characters can use unidentified items as they would the base item. Items wear down through use and only have a certain amount of durability. When an item's durability is zero, it is destroyed. Players can return to the town and pay a fee to an NPC, Griswold the Blacksmith, to have the items restored, while the Warrior can repair objects in his possession at the cost of overall durability.
Bows are the ranged weapon of the game, best used by rogues. Staves, while capable of physical attacks, are mainly used for the spell charges that they contain, as casting from a staff does not require the player to learn the spell or use mana. A staff's spell can only be cast a certain number of times before it requires a recharge. Swords are typically one-handed, while axes are all two-handed. Maces and clubs add a 50% damage bonus against the undead. Shields, when paired with single-handed weapons, allow attacks to be blocked. There are three classifications of armor: light, medium and heavy. Characters are also allowed to wear a helmet, two rings, and one amulet.
Books contain spell formulas. Spell books cannot be used more than once, but multiple books of the same spell will increase the spell level, up to a maximum of 15. Scrolls allow use of both spells not yet learned, and spells not available in book form. They vanish after one use. Many potions are available for use, including health and mana restoration, and elixirs that increase statistics.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is available up to four players. Multiplayer characters' states are saved periodically. Players can either be aggressive towards, or play co-operatively with, other players. Players can connect direct connection, modem connection, Battle.net connection or IPX network connection. The game lacks the stronger anti-cheating methods of Blizzard's later games and as a result, many characters online have been altered in various ways by common third-party programs known as trainers and/or game editing programs such as Cheat Engine.

Plot

Setting

The setting of Diablo includes the mortal realm which is the world of Man as well as the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.:61, 62, 64 & 72 After eons of war between angels and demons, the ascension of man prompted the three Lords of Hell to seek victory through influence, prompting their exile into the mortal realm. There, they sowed chaos, distrust, and hatred among the humans of Sanctuary until a group of magi, called the Horadrim, trapped them in enchanted crystals called "Soulstones". Diablo's soulstone was buried deep in the earth and a monastery was built over the site.
Generations passed and the purpose of the monastery was forgotten. A small town named Tristram sprang up next to the monastery's ruins. When King Leoric rebuilt the monastery as a cathedral, Diablo manipulated its archbishop, Lazarus, to destroy his soulstone prison. Diablo subsequently possessed the king, sending out his knights and priests to battle against peaceful kingdoms, and then possessed the king's son, Prince Albrecht, filling the caves and catacombs beneath the cathedral with creatures formed from the young boy's nightmares.
Tristram became a town of fear and horror, where people were abducted in the night. With no king, no law, and no army left to defend them, many villagers fled.

Story

The game starts when the player's character arrives in Tristram. Several of the remaining townsfolk assist the player such as Deckard Cain the Elder. The labyrinth under the Cathedral descends from the dungeon/church, to the catacombs, followed by the caves, and finally Hell itself, each with a mixture of the undead, animals, and demons. Leoric has been re-animated as the Skeleton King.
Late in the game, the hero must defeat Archbishop Lazarus, and eventually Diablo himself. At the end of the game, the hero kills Diablo's mortal form. The hero then takes the Soulstone out of Diablo's forehead after which Diablo transforms into a lifeless Prince Albrecht. The hero then drives the Soulstone into his/her own forehead, and he or she contains the essence of Diablo within himself or herself.

Development

Diablo was conceived by David Brevik during the development of the fighting game Justice League Task Force, developed by Japanese studio Sunsoft with two American studios, Condor Games on the Sega Genesis version and Silicon & Synapse on the SNES version. Condor, Brevik's studio, was initially unaware of the SNES version, but eventually became acquainted with that version's co-developer Blizzard, who they found to have a similar interest in PC gaming. Condor's proposal for Diablo, then a turn-based role-playing video game, was turned down by other publishers on the grounds that "RPGs are dead" before Blizzard took an interest after the idea was pitched to them in January 1995. Blizzard, coming off the success of real-time strategy , requested two major changes, to make it real-time and to have multiplayer. Brevik also designed a "modern and cool" interface intended to bring the quick directness of console games as well as Doom to computer RPGs. During development, Condor was eventually renamed Blizzard North. The basis of Diablo was the 1980s roguelike game Moria; Bill Roper later said that the team's "initial pitch, in a nutshell, was to take the excitement and randomness of games like Moria, Nethack, and Rogue, and bring them into the 1990s with fantastic graphics and sound". The switch from turn-based to real-time gameplay occurred roughly six months into production.
According to Matt Barton, the game Telengard, released by Avalon Hill in 1982, influenced the development of Diablo. Barton and Bill Loguidice also cite The Legend of Zelda series as an influence on Diablo, particularly its move towards real-time action, away from the stat-heavy, turn-based gameplay of earlier computer RPGs.
David Brevik derived the name from Mount Diablo.
At first, Diablo was a turn-based role-playing game, but later in development, also influenced by the previous success of , they decided to make it a real-time action game. The game was also originally conceived to be made in claymation, but they decided to have a 3D isometric style instead.
Around eight months before the planned release, Blizzard South at the Irvine, California location, were finishing up Warcraft II, and began focusing on the upcoming release of Diablo. Blizzard wanted the game to have multiplayer but did not want to rely on existing online gaming services like Total Entertainment Network for matchmaking. While Blizzard North finished up Diablo, Blizzard South began development of the basis of Battle.net. According to Brevik, when Blizzard South came up to start to see how Diablos multiplayer code would incorporate with Battle.net, they discovered then that Diablo had no multiplayer code as Brevik nor others had any idea how to write such code. Blizzard South sent employees up to Blizzard North, including Mike O'Brien, at that point to incorporate multiplayer for Diablo and interface with Battle.net over the last six months of development.

Music

The music of Diablo was composed by Matt Uelmen. The soundtrack consists of six tracks. It was released after 15 years, in 2011.

Release

Diablo normally requires the original CD to play, however also included on the disk is a shareware version of the software that could be played without the CD called Diablo Spawn. This version of the game allows access to the first two areas of the dungeon, and locks out two of the three playable classes and many of the NPC townsfolk. It is playable in both single- and multiplayer with those restrictions. The demo is also downloadable.
In 2016, David Brevik stated that a dispute existed as to whether Diablo had been released in 1996 or 1997. In 1997 and 2000, Blizzard reported Diablos release date as January 1997, and issued a press release on January 3 to announce the game's availability in stores. At the time, CNET Gamecenter reported that Diablos wide release occurred on January 6. Conversely, Brevik argued in 2016 that the game was available in certain western U.S. retailers by December 31, 1996. Blizzard marked Diablos 20th anniversary on December 31, 2016.
In 2019 Diablo was released digitally on GOG.com with minor enhancements.

Reception

Sales

According to Max Schaefer, Blizzard's initial sales estimates for Diablo were modest. He remarked, "We were thinking that if everything went well, we would sell 100,000 copies." Following the game's positive press coverage before its release, estimates by the team were increased to roughly 500,000 copies, David Brevik later said. Pre-orders had surpassed 450,000 units globally by December 17, at which point the game was set to launch with a shipment of 500,000 units staggered across its initial days on shelves. Diablo debuted at #1 on PC Data's monthly computer game sales chart for January 1997. It held the position for another three months, before being displaced to #2 by X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter in May. Diablo remained in second place until September, when it dropped to fifth. It exited the top 10 that October.
In the United States, the game was the highest-selling computer title of the first six months of 1997. Its worldwide sales surpassed 500,000 units by April, 750,000 by June and 1 million by late November. By the end of 1997, Diablo had sold 670,155 copies in the United States alone. It was declared the country's fourth-best-selling computer game of the year by PC Data. Schaefer attributed the game's success in part to its December 27 shipment date, and noted that "there weren't any other games released after Christmas, so we were the only game in town for a long time."
After being absent from PC Data's charts during the final months of 1997, Diablo took 13th place in the rankings for February 1998. It remained in the top 20 for another month, dropped out in April and reappeared in June. It returned to the top 10 from July through October, rising to #3 in August. For the first half of 1998, it was the United States' 14th-best-selling computer release. At the time, Jason Ocampo of Computer Games Strategy Plus called Diablo one of the charts' " 'perennial' inhabitants", and compared its longevity to that of Myst and NASCAR Racing 2. The game's average sale price during the January–June period was $36; by October, it had fallen to $26. Diablo finished 11th for the year in the United States, with sales of 354,961 units and revenues of $9.57 million in the region. In August 1998, Diablo received a "Gold" sales award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland, indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Diablos global sales reached almost 2 million units by September 1998. One year later, its sales in the United States alone had grown to 1.17 million copies, which made it the country's seventh-highest computer game seller since January 1993. This number rose to 1.3 million copies by March 2000. Remarking upon these sales, GameSpot's writer Desslock hailed Diablo as an "undisputed commercial blockbuster". The game returned in 2000 to PC Data's annual top 20 for the United States, with 260,020 copies sold.
Worldwide, Diablo broke 2 million sales by mid-2000 and reached 2.3 million by January of the next year. Ultimately, the game sold over 2.5 million units by mid-2001. According to GameSpot Japan, the game was a "big hit" among Japanese players.

Critical reviews

Diablo has received critical acclaim, with an average rating of 94/100 on Metacritic. Most praised the game's addictive gameplay, randomly generated dungeons, superior graphics, moody musical score, and great variety of possible magic items, enemies, levels, and quests. This last aspect was noted by GameSpot editor Trent Ward in his review: "Similarly, although a set number of monsters is included, only a few will be seen during each full game. This means that players going back for their second or third shot at the game will very likely fight opponents they haven't seen before. Talk about replay value."
Reviewers commonly cited the online multiplayer aspect as one of the strongest points of the game, with it being described as greatly extending its replay value. Columnist Bernard Yee commented that compared to contemporary online multiplayer games such as Quake, Diablo gives newcomers a much better chance of enjoying themselves, as they can either cooperate with other players or build their character so that they can hold their own against hostile players. Computer Games Magazines Cindy Yans said that "weapons, armor and items are so numerous that you're always acquiring something new to try... not to mention the game's multiplayer universe"; she went on to say that "for anyone who enjoys a good multiplayer dungeon crawl, Diablo can't be beat". Yans finished her review, "Despite the rather pale storyline, watered-down quests and a fair amount of necessary repetition, Diablo is a must for anyone interested in 'just plain fun.'" Ward stated: "Diablo is the best game to come out in the past year, and you should own a copy. Period."
Macworlds Michael Gowan wrote, "The only downside to this role-playing game is that the adventure ends too soon." Steve Klett's review for PC Games, which was reprinted in sister magazine GamePro, commented that "Diablos definitely not your typical dungeon hackfest.... In fact, its closest rivals are games like Gauntlet and Loaded on the PlayStation, but they really don't compare." A Next Generation critic similarly remarked that Diablo is more of a modern incarnation of Gauntlet than an RPG, "but with enough changes and improvements to make it a completely new experience, and one of the best titles so far this year."
Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "If you were addicted to the PC version, you can experience it all over again on PlayStation. And if you haven't played Diablo at all, check this one out."
Diablo won the overall "Game of the Year" awards of Computer Gaming World, GameSpot and Computer Game Entertainment for 1996, and was a runner-up for Computer Games Strategy Pluss award in this category. The editors of Computer Gaming World wrote, "For this year, Diablo is the game that everyone will remember." It was also named 1996's best computer role-playing game by GameSpot, Computer Game Entertainment and Computer Games. While it was nominated for Computer Gaming Worlds "Role-Playing Game of the Year" award, the publication gave the honor to .

Legacy

In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 42nd-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "a nearly flawless gaming experience". Akira Nishitani ranked it number 1 on his personal list of the greatest games of all time in 1997.
In 2005 GameSpot chose Diablo as one of "The Greatest Games of All Time". It was placed at No. 20 on Game Informers "Top 100 RPGs Of All Time" list.
The expansion pack made for Diablo is ', released in 1997. It was produced by Sierra Entertainment rather than an in-house Blizzard North development team. The multiplayer feature of the expansion pack was disabled with version 1.01. The added content included two additional dungeon segments located within a new side storyline, several unique items and magical item properties, spells, and a fourth class, the Monk. There are also two unfinished "test" classes and two quests which could be accessed through a configuration file modification.
Blizzard sold exclusive worldwide rights to develop, publish, and distribute console versions of the game to Electronic Arts in 1996. In 1998, a PlayStation version of Diablo was released, developed by Climax Studios and published by Electronic Arts. The game lacked online play, but featured a two-player cooperative mode. Notable differences to the PC version include the auto-aiming for range weapons and spells and an option for increased game speed. It features an option to learn the story through a narrator without having to find the books in the game. The European PAL version is translated and dubbed into French, German and Swedish in addition to the original English. The PlayStation version was infamous because of its need for 10 blocks on a PlayStation memory card; the standard size of memory cards for the platform was 15 blocks.
The game was re-released alongside Hellfire in a 1998 bundle, called Diablo + Hellfire. 1998's Blizzard's Game of the Year Collection contained copies of Diablo, StarCraft and '. The Blizzard Anthology contained Diablo, StarCraft, ' and WarCraft II: Battle.net Edition. The Diablo Gift Pack contained Diablo and Diablo II, but no expansions. The Diablo: Battle Chest contained Diablo, Diablo II and Diablo IIs expansion, '. Later releases of the Diablo: Battle Chest also have a strategy guide for Diablo II and Lord of Destruction, though subsequent releases do not include the original game, instead featuring Diablo II, its expansion, and their respective strategy guides.
For Diablos 20th anniversary, it was announced during BlizzCon 2016 that Diablo III would receive a free patch called The Darkening of Tristram that recreates the original game. The patch contains a 16-level dungeon, four main bosses from the 1997 version and special graphics filters and 8-directions limited movement like the original game. The test patch was released on November 11, 2016 on the Public Test Realm server.
In March 2019, Diablo was made available for sale on GOG.com, which marked the first time Blizzard had released the game on a digital distribution platform. The release featured two versions of the game: The original 1996 version and a new DirectX-based version built in-house by GOG that features additional display and graphical options.

Citations