Diablo (1997)

It took me a very long time to finally complete this gem, but one night, it just had to be done. The classic Diablo is the embodiment of nostalgia and one cannot deny that it can be labeled as one of the greatest foundations of video game history.

That being said, I will focus on the game from the perspective of the time it was released and how it holds up today.

Story wise, Diablo is full of lore and sequel material. Something the developers did very well. It made a solid foundation to create more games, what, of course, happened.

You play as a hero returning to her/his hometown and finding that strange things are happening. The dead rise from their graves/tombs and a unknown evil has taken over the land. You investigate the cathedral, where it all starts and dig deeper into the labyrinth, eventually ending up in hell itself.

Through the story, you learn that all the events and evil can be traced back to the demon lord Diablo. By speaking to Deckard Cain, you learn the gruesome history of his origin and backstory and he must be stopped at all cost. Deckard Cain is not your stereotypical wise man, but actually a Horadrim, a member of an ancient order that always fought against the forces of hell.

Gameplay wise, Diablo is easy to understand and plays smoothly. You pickup weapons, armor, and spells to improve your character, level up to increase your stats and become stronger. You just kill stuff for experience and jug health potions like they were cold beers.

The variation in enemies and environments is nicely done. Every four floors, the setting changes and become darker and more vile. You really get the feeling that you are progressing towards something really disturbing and evil.

The graphics are amazing for its time and, even today, I had no problem looking at the “aged sprites”. Animations are smooth and the enemy designs are very cool. In a time like today, it is hard to imagen that you encounter some sexy succubae with massive juggies that shoot flaming stars at you. As a kid, this would be something else. The piles of gore and blood when you slay the spawns of hell are epic and give a nice stimulating presentation of your hard work.

In the sound department, I still think Diablo is one of the greatest I have ever experienced. The sound of hitting enemies, the grunts and screams, the sound of casting spells and the dreadful music is a piece of art. Everything feels violent and disturbing when it comes to the sound.

There are some small issues in Diablo, like the snail pace movement speed. Moving around town and in the dungeons feels so incredibly slow that my skin crawled in pure agony sometimes. An other small annoyance is that you can get very rich, very fast by selling unique and rare items. This does not sound like a problem, but every five thousand gold takes up a square in your small inventory. So when you sell an epic chest armor that you don’t need for two hundred thousand gold, your inventory is full.

The biggest irony in Diablo, is that the game has a reputation for being relentlessly hard, which is true, but only when you reach the Butcher. If you kill him (by luck, prayer and running), the game turns around and is actually really, really easy. This is mainly because of the unique items you receive from the four main bosses in the game. With those items alone, you are so powerful that the game becomes laughable, especially when you kill the big man himself. Sure, there are still some areas in which enemies bombard you with a million projectiles at the same time, but with some strategy, you can outsmart them by luring small groups at you at a time.

The Butcher is the ultimate beginners trap and, by far, the hardest boss in the game. Mainly because of his “animation stun lock”, in which you cannot move and have to endure hit after hit after hit (which does not end well after hit number 4). After that, it is smooth sailing. The realization that this asshole was the whole reason that I never finished this game before is stunning and funny. I just wished Diablo himself was somewhat more of a challenge. I just put on the unique, and unmissable, Constriction Ring which grants max resistance to fire (while slowly losing health) and blasted him away in seconds.

I would definitely recommend Diablo, even to this day. It is an experience that you must have completed at least once in my honest opinion.