Diablo + Hellfire

I never had the chance during my early youth to play Diablo, but was always aware of the reputation that precedes it. Due the age of the game, I perform the grave mistake (like many) in bypassing the opportunity to get ahold of the game, forsaking it in the ever-growing Wishlist. As part of the winter sale, I decide to bought it. My only regret was not buying it sooner... As somebody whose judgment is not clouded by nostalgia, Diablo exposes you to many special things. In my case: the in-depth appreciation of ARPG-genre games; the well written lore and atmosphere that prevails until present time; the music; the characters. Diablo will not make you a fan of the game, but rather of the franchise. And for that, it has my highest praise. My only negative feedback would be that was too short, leaving me for more. But, ironically, this may pertain to the old adage: quality over quantity.

Diablo 1 doesn't need a review. It's a fantastic game, worthy of five stars in its own right. But the GoG release is weak, at best, for which I'm knocking this down to three stars. High Resolution is just a blurry up-scale; there's no change to the zoom level of gameplay, and Battle.Net isn't available. IPXWrapper is provided for TCP/IP play, and there's no STUN support for NAT traversal. You'll have to configure ports on your router like it's still 1998. In terms of quality of life improvements there's virtually none to be found. You'll be clicking as much as you were in the original. Speech bubbles don't appear over characters who want to talk to you. Item names don't appear for pickups. And so on and so forth. If you already own Diablo then give this a skip and pick up Belzebub/TheHell/HellfireEnhanced/Infernity and enjoy the superior DDraw modes that they provide.

Yes, I know it's 10$ for a game of 20 years ago, with all the things this implies (old graphics, clunky mechanics, etc). Fetch yourself some gameplay video, and have a look... However, mind this: there's a reason if this game lead its sequel to sell 1 million copies in two weeks.

Deceiving first appearances. Because you're thrown, without any ceremony whatsoever, into the main town after you pick your class. You weren't told anything at all about the plot, or the world. You don't know your character's background, or their story. You don't even know where you are. You talk to the first NPC and unless you've been playing a lot of Resident Evil recently you get greeted with the worst voice acting you've heard in years. I think the only reason early players weren't led to believe this was cheap shovelware and quit on the spot is the absolutely brilliant music playing in the background. But like a brave dungeon explorer you delve deeper into what must by all appearances be a below average game and THEN it hits you, or rather you hit it, the first mob, and it all makes sense. Because even after all these years, the real-time combat, a complete novelty at the time, is simply very fun. Walk, hit, kill, loot. Even if you can't exactly see what you're hitting because of the walls in the way, even if you can't walk straight because of the character's pathing or see items on the ground, even after all that you still just want to keep doing it for hours. Get stronger, and do it faster. It's rough around the edges and rough around the sides, but it's ultimately a great classic with enduring gameplay, an insane soundtrack and well crafted atmosphere and theme that's totally worth playing today.

Diablo is not the game that invented "Dungeon Crawls," but it is the game that solidified the genre as being distinct from other CRPGs. The basic format is that of an ever-deepening dungeon to plunder. Above the dungeon is a single town with 8 or 10 NPCs and a shop or two that serve as a hub for your expeditions. There is a loose over-arching story, strung together by smaller quests that typically culminate in a boss fight in the dungeon that differ from standard fights only in the levels and powers of enemy you confront. At the time of it's release, Diablo's gameplay felt like a drastic simplification of the CRPG genre in general, but this is mostly because there hadn't been anything that hit the specific balance of hack'n'slash and stat crunching it introduced. In spite of the perceived simplicity of the game, it was enormously popular with fans of more technical CRPGs and with fans of FPS-style (like Hexen) games alike. Indeed, it was the balanced of gameplay pioneered by Diablo that makes it so fun and additive. However, this isn't saying that it is without flaws. My one biggest gripe about Diablo is how dull the game looks. Every environment in the game is a dull grey-red-brown-black covered with a hazy fog. This isn't a resolution issue or a scaling problem, it's the way the game was meant to look. I would guess that it's supposed to conjure a sinister feeling, like the town and the dungeon are infected with some sickness. It does, but it's also extremely difficult to see and it's ugly as hell. This isn't a review specifically of the GOG version, but I would like to add that the game tends to crash a lot on newer systems, even if you have been careful to follow all the advice online about setting it up. If you grew up during the birth of CRPGs, then you have probably played Diablo already, and none of this is going to be new to you. If you didn't, then play it. Regardless of how bad it looks, it's a truely classic CRPG with amazingly addictive mechanics.