Diablo + Hellfire

This game is absolutely worth spending $10 for even today, it's a small price to pay for a readily available copy that works without fuss on modern Windows and doesn't require you to keep a CD in your optical drive (or to skirt ethical computing if you want to play on a laptop lacking an optical drive..) If you are open minded about the fact that this game was released in 1996 and can put aside any expectations based on Diablo II you'll find a game that is not only well ahead of its time and ground breaking, but one that is worth your time. The levels are randomly generated, the quests you get are are randomly chosen from a pool, the mobs and enemies you'll encounter are randomly chosen as well. I have replayed this game at least once or twice a year since the late 1990s and still find things that surprise me at times. The only thing that would have made this release better is if it included the Hellfire expansion.. but I'm willing to bet the rights/licensing to that old expansion pack is well.. in hell.

I was almost 9 when this came out and I still remember when my father brought it home. Everything from the dark gritty atmosphere, soundtrack and visuals still hold up today if you ask me. Sure the game is a couple decades hold but don't let that keep you from playing a great classic whether new to the series or wanting to revisit Tristram. This is still my favorite game of the series even over D2 for the reasons stated above, it just hasn't came close since. Of course the age shows by how clunky it can feel, the controls aren't exactly great but you get used to them and it'll become second nature in no time. It warrants a few playthroughs worth till you may get burnt out on it as it doesn't have as much packed into it as D2 or D3 but it's still worth to go through it even once. The multiplayer is even better if you have a friend or two to play with. Just don't do what I accidentally did and chain lightning your friends to oblivion over and over...friend's don't let friend's chain lightning...He won't play with me no more hahahaha.

The game is great and I am glad to see it rereleased, but I wish I could download it on mac. This is the only diablo game I cannot get on my mac. I just would like to be able to play the entire series in one place. The original disk worked with mac.

Diablo on it's own is a very good game, the feel of it is unmatched by literally anything, the sensation of crawling through a corroupted place, delving ever deeper into something that was once holy... It's brilliant. But without Hellfire it's not quite complete. The expansion fixes some of the few issues I have with the game and adds a few things that I personally really like, it's the type of improvement that takes a four star game and gives it a fifth. The new classes all add a good bit of variety with bard being my favourite though monk is the only one that's unlocked by default. This link ( http://www.ladyofthecake.com/diablo/howto.htm ) will let you know how to unlock all of the hidden stuff that's not there by default. If you've played diablo to death I cannot recommend doing a runthrough as a Bard enough. Having the ability to cast identify in dungeons seriously speeds up exploration and simplifies sorting equipment, and the search spell is so brilliant they made it a default feature in Diablo 2 (a lot of the features of the expansion were put in Diablo 2 actually) The two new dungeons aren't exactly perfect, but they are more Diablo, and the link I put above adds some hilarious dialogue for those who prefer a bit of sillyness.

Back in the summer of 1997, a friend of mine installed the demo version of Diablo on my computer one night. Like several demos he had brought over previously, I didn't have high expectations for this one. I'd never even heard of it at that point. But, within a few minutes of him showing me the game, I knew we had something special here. The idea of an action RPG was mind-blowing to me at the time. I replayed the demo many times over that first night until 3AM. Then I woke up about six hours later and promptly went out to buy the full game when the store opened that morning. The next few weeks or so afterwards were a complete blur. When I was away from the game, I was thinking about it constantly and how I would develop my character. I replayed this game and the Hellfire expansion pack several times over before Diablo 2 came out. While I still have my original discs for the games, I was beyond pleased that GOG was able to re-release these classics so that I now have a digital copy that is all patched and works without any sort of trickery to get either game to run correctly. This was an instant buy the moment GOG released it. And maybe it's the nostalgia in me, but I still have a blast replaying these classics and have to say that Diablo and Hellfire both remain my all-time favorite games on the PC all these years later. The pacing, graphics, setting, sound, and music are all in harmony here.