Hi everyone, I would kindly ask you to summarize each mod for Diablo 1, which you consider to even mention, and also to let me/us know that which mod you prefer the most to play Diablo 1 (possibly with Hellfire). I searched here and there and were able to see 4 results:

1. Belzebub
2. Tchernobog
3. The Hell
4. The Awakening

I am not sure now if I missed some other mods, so if you know about more then please let me/us know. So far I saw that Belzebub is the most preferable, but I am unsure why the newer Tchernobog is not - Would you please explain why? Next thing that bothers me is that I would like to play the game with "Hellfire" as well, but for that I see that no Belzebub and nor Tchernobog is able to run this.

So right now I am stuck as I want to play as much Vanilla friendly game as possible, yet I would also like to play Hellfire.
In that regard if there is no mod in existance like that, then I would also prefer you to mention the best mod for Diablo 1 and also best mod for Diablo 1 + Hellfire.

I appreciate your valuable time and explanation to summarize these.

Play belzebub if playing first time - the quests are cool, other than that, tchernobog is best, it only doesn't have quests.

If you're familiar with Diablo 2, then Belzebub will be the best choice. Unfortunately, this mod doesn't have Hellfire content (but some HF spells are present).

If I am going to play Diablo, I only play vanilla Diablo... for me if I want more content I will throw in Diablo 2

nobody cares, he's asking about mods, vanilla diablo is crap

No, it’s not ;)

Mainly, there are 2 camps. The Hell and Belzebub.
The Hell was started in 2006 and has been in development ever since. Keeps on going heavy to this day.
Belzebub was started somewhere in 2012-2013 and died in 2014. Development has stopped more than 5 years ago.

Awakening is advertised but all the points went into advertising so to say, it has little to show for it. You can play it and see for yourself..

Tchernobog is a multiplayer version of Belzebub. Belzebub does not have multiplayer.
The Hell has both singleplayer and multiplayer. The Hell 2 is a mod that forked from The Hell.
The Hell development stopped in 2018. The Hell 2 was released in 2019 July.
Of all these mods, only The Hell 2 is still in development.

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Belzebub hints on itself being that old familiar Diablo 1 but now in HD. Not true. It's vastly different. A lot of effort indeed went into HD part but the gameplay is very different from D1.

Belzebub pro's:
- support for high resolutions, adjustable, ratio, up to 4K AFAIK
- FPS is adjustable (from 30 to 60)
- items can be highlighted with ALT
- 6 classes
- soft pixel lighting (looks smooth)
- system of crafting
- 2 weapon slots
- 4 difficulty modes
- system of character active skills (D2 like system)
- game can be zoomed in/out with mousewheel
- rare items
- bonus inventory slot (belt)
- soft music transactions when changing locations
- floating numbers that give info about damage in battle
- advanced info in spellbook and character sheet
- visual trading windows and stash
- shared and local stash
- many new spells
- extra content with quests that were not present in final version of D1
- couple of hundred unique+set items

Belzebub cons:
- balance is horrible, difficulty spikes can be unforgiving with champions and bosses
- classes are not balanced equally (sorcerer and rogue are superior)
- too many mindless D2 idea rips make it feel like you;ve already been there
- poor class variability (choices with skills are made for you)
- character control is different (not all people like it)
- highlighting objects can cause irritation
- game sometimes crashes, not very stable
- it's dead and there will be no patches to fix things that are broken

The Hell 2 steers away from classic D1 gameplay further than Belzebub.
And doesn't even make excuses about it.

The Hell 2 pro's:
- optimized for modern software
- resolutions from 800x600 up to 4k are supported
- window, borderless, unusual ratios supported as well
- adjustable FPS (from 20 to 1000 - supports modern high refresh rate displays)
- interpolation of movement of characters / monsters / spells/ effects - things look smooth in static and motion
- adjustable custom shader effect support
- ALT item highlight
- rich system of options that allow configuring many aspects of the game through configuration file
- automatic gold pickups
- running in town enabled and running in dungeons enabled (when not engaged in combat)
- hellfire content
- 6 classes with 4 class kits per class and 2 kits have specializations, overall 29 class variations
- great variativity in class builds thanks to the following systems...
- 7 game modes (easy, normal, hard, hardcore, ironman, soft iron and nightmare)
- system of common and class-specific traits that alter gameplay
- system of common and class-specific perks
- stability (no freezes or crashes), sometimes after a big update it can happen but things are fixed ASAP
- game balance is actually there
- 3 weapon slots for quick switching
- bonus inventory slots (belt, gloves, boots)
- increased inventory size: 40 slots -> 70 slots
- battle info through floating texts
- system of item segregation and affix segregation (you don't get items you cant use and affixes are useful)
- better quality music and randomized music selection
- more than thousand unique+sett items
- quest unique item rewards are varied for class and difficulty mode
- minimap support, with transparency, size and movability control
- extra quests (more than in Belzebub) + some maps have a limited randomization
- more spell types and class-specific spells
- improved visual look of dungeons achieved through custom level palettes, with many variations
- visual trade windows and stash
- system of trade restocks

The Hell 2 cons:
- stash is not shared among players
- multiplayer loot is only accessible by the player it drops for (can't trade items)
- UI provides insufficient info on spells and character statistics (yet)
- no soft music transactions
- there is no zoom in the game (yet)
- active skill system is not supported
- there is no crafting system
- there is no soft pixel lighting (yet)
- hotkey adjustability is limited to F5 - F8 and other hotkeys are not customizable
- gameplay is very different from original D1, for whom it may concern

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The rule of thumb is always try and see what you like better.
Whoever says play this and don't play that have an agenda.

At least your agenda is not subtle ;P

If you like a chalange there is also Crucible

Haha mordor strikes again with bullshit

- too many mindless D2 idea rips make it feel like you;ve already been there
- said mordor while ripping more and more d2 graphics and sounds and putting them into his mod
Belzebub/Tchernobog don't do that

- poor class variability (choices with skills are made for you)
- said mordor while having 40 classes that are basically copy/pasted and the only difference is the color of the cloak they are wearing

- game sometimes crashes, not very stable
- lies

- it's dead and there will be no patch
what a coincidence he forgot to mention that the multiplayer version is being actively developed

- highlighting objects can cause irritation
- what :D maybe you need new glasses or something, tchernobog even adds the ability to write custom loot filters and being able to hide/rename/recolor all the loot you see

to sum up, never listen to anything this guy says at least I'm smart enough to keep my posts relevant to the topic

as for the most vanilla friendly mod, it'd probably be
https://github.com/qndel/Infernity
no hellfire content but otherwise should be perfect, you can read the changelog on github if it wasn't, there would be no need for mods :>

Some people don't think there is a strong need for mods

only religious D1 purists think D1 doesn't need mods

Brevik was playing D1 last year during celebration of D2 release day with his spouse

and while playing he facepalmed numerous times
his wife was like: "David, what the hell were you thinking?", in a joking manner but still
an hour into playing and he was talking how it's irritating that archers are brutal and there are no means of closing distance, how he is missing ALT item highlight, walls are not transparent always when you want the m to be, etc.

by the end of that stream he said if his last game sells like million copies he will create a mod for D1

when told about mods that actually fix the issues he complained about, he totally ignored these messages. somehow denies mods for D1 completely.

that leads me to believe that creator of D1 himself is sure that this game needs improvements and is obsolete in design

in short, without mods D1 sucks, but WITH them - it can be awesome

a rare moment when I agree with mordor :D

Thanks a lot guys for all of your responses.I tried Belzebub and Hell 2 and I will probably stick with Hell 2 mod. Still not favor of mini bosses as it locks me down and cannot leave the dungeon until all monsters I woke up are killed - not fun of that. Belzebub...well it looks awesome, however a lack of Hellfire and also fear of difficulty spikes is giving me creeps. Even The Hell 2 under "Normal" difficulty is hard and I barely cleared 1st level of that dungeon.