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Diablo (video game)

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Diablo
Cover art
Developer(s)Blizzard North
Publisher(s)Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS
Blizzard Entertainment
PlayStation
Producer(s)Bill Roper
Designer(s)David Brevik
Erich Schaefer
Max Schaefer
Eric Sexton
Kenneth Williams
Programmer(s)David Brevik
Artist(s)Michio Okamura
Writer(s)Chris Metzen
Bill Roper
Eric Sexton
Erich Schaefer
Composer(s)Matt Uelmen
SeriesDiablo
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, PlayStation
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
Classic Mac OS
  • NA: May 8, 1998
PlayStation
Genre(s)Action role-playing, hack and slash
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Diablo /diˈɑːbloʊ/ is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996.[1][3]

Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras (located in the mortal realm), Diablo has the player take control of 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 itself in order to face Diablo.

An expansion pack, entitled Diablo: Hellfire, was released in Template:Vgy by Sierra Entertainment. In 1998, Electronic Arts released Diablo for the PlayStation.[5] This version featured direct control of the main character using the PlayStation controller and was developed by Climax Studios. A Sega Saturn version was also considered by Electronic Arts but never released.[6] The game's success led to two sequels, Diablo II in 2000, and Diablo III in 2012. To celebrate Diablo's 20th anniversary, a quest entitled "The Darkening of Tristram", was added in Diablo III in early 2017.[7]

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.[8] Other actions, such as casting a spell, are performed in response to keyboard inputs.[8] The player can acquire items, learn spells, defeat enemies, and interact with non-player characters (NPC)s throughout the game.

The dungeon levels are randomly generated, although they follow parameters according to their type; 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, however, are mandatory in order to finish the game.

Classes

A warrior engages in combat with a ghoul enemy. A "Level Up" button indicates the character has attribute points available to distribute. The icon at the lower right indicates that the character's head protection is damaged and in danger of breaking.

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.

  • Warrior: The most physically able of the three classes. The Warrior is a close-quarters fighter and can generally take the most physical punishment. The Warrior's primary character attribute is Strength. The Warrior starts with the skill to repair objects in his possession at the cost of overall durability.[8]
  • Rogue: A master of ranged weapons. While not as strong as the Warrior, the rogue is very effective at attacking enemies from a distance with the bow. The Rogue's primary character attribute is Dexterity. The Rogue's unique starting skill is the ability to disarm traps.[8]
  • Sorcerer: A spellcaster being the most physically weak of the three classes, but can learn the most spells at the highest levels. The Sorcerer's primary character attribute is Magic. The Sorcerer's unique starting skill is the ability to recharge spell staves at the cost of lowering the maximum number of spell charges that the staff can hold.[8]

In the expansion set, Diablo: Hellfire, the Monk was added. The Monk was meant to be proficient at melee combat with the staff, and is not related to the Monk class in Diablo III. 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.[9]

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.[8]

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 (though two-handed varieties also exist), 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.[8]

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.[8]

Multiplayer

Multiplayer can be done with 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 by one of the following: 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.[8][10]

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.[8]:61, 62, 64 & 72 After eons of war between angels and demons, the ascension of man prompted the three Lords of Hell (including Diablo himself) 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.[8]

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.[11] 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 fight Archbishop Lazarus, and eventually Diablo himself. At the end of the game, the hero kills Diablo's mortal form.[12] The hero then takes the Soulstone out of Diablo's forehead after which Diablo transforms into a lifeless Prince Albrecht.[12] The hero then drives the Soulstone into his/her own forehead, and he or she contains the essence of Diablo within himself or herself.[12]

Development

One of the things that we were trying to get with Diablo was ease of gaming. The NHL series was really good at this, where you just click and you're in the game. Before Diablo, when you created a character, you had to answer 53 questions about this that and the other; you had to name it, give it a backstory and so on. We just wanted to get in and start smashing things.

—David Brevik on the creation of Diablo[13]

Diablo was conceived by David Brevik during the development of the fighting game Justice League Task Force (1995), developed by Japanese studio Sunsoft with two American studios, Condor Games (later Blizzard North) on the Sega Genesis version and Silicon & Synapse (soon renamed Blizzard Entertainment) on the SNES version.[14] 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 pitching the idea to them in January 1995. Blizzard, coming off the success of real-time strategy Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994), 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 (1993) to computer RPGs. During development, Condor was eventually renamed Blizzard North.[15] The basis of Diablo was the 1980s roguelike game Moria;[16] 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.[17]

According to Matt Barton, the game Telengard, released by Avalon Hill in 1982, influenced the development of Diablo.[18] 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.[19]

At first, Diablo was a turn-based role-playing game, but later in development, also influenced by the previous success of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, they decided to make it a real-time action game. The game was also originally conceived to be made in claymation (much like ClayFighter), but they decided to have a 3D isometric style instead.[20][21][22]

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 multi-player with those restrictions. The demo is also downloadable.

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.[23] 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.[24] Diablo debuted at #1 on PC Data's monthly computer game sales chart for January 1997.[25] It held the position for another three months,[26][27][28] before being displaced to #2 by X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter in May.[29] Diablo remained in second place until September, when it dropped to fifth.[30][31][32][33] It exited the top 10 that October.[34]

In the United States, the game was the highest-selling computer title of the first six months of 1997.[35] Its worldwide sales surpassed 500,000 units by April,[36] 750,000 by June and 1 million by late November.[37][38] 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.[39] 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."[23]

After being absent from PC Data's charts during the final months of 1997,[40][41] Diablo took 13th place in the rankings for February 1998. It remained in the top 20 for another month,[42] dropped out in April and reappeared in June.[43][44] It returned to the top 10 from July through October,[44][45][46][47] rising to #3 in August.[45] 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.[48] The game's average sale price during the January–June period was $36;[48] by October, it had fallen to $26.[47] 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.[49]

Diablo's global sales reached almost 2 million units by September 1998.[50] 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.[51] 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".[52] The game returned in 2000 to PC Data's annual top 20 for the United States, with 260,020 copies sold.[53]

Worldwide, Diablo broke 2 million sales by mid-2000 and reached 2.3 million by January of the next year.[54][55] Ultimately, the game sold over 2.5 million units by mid-2001.[56]

Critical reviews

Diablo has received critical acclaim, with an average rating of 94 on Metacritic.[67] Most praised the game's addictive gameplay,[58][63][65][68] randomly generated dungeons,[58][63][65][68] superior graphics,[63][65][68] moody musical score,[58] and great variety of possible magic items, enemies, levels, and quests.[58][63][68] 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."[58]

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.[58][63][65] 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.[69] Computer Games Magazine's 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.'"[63] Ward stated: "Diablo is the best game to come out in the past year, and you should own a copy. Period."[58]

Macworld's Michael Gowan wrote, "The only downside to this role-playing game is that the adventure ends too soon."[62] Steve Klett's review for PC Games, which was reprinted in sister magazine GamePro, commented that "Diablo's 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."[68] 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."[65]

Diablo won the overall "Game of the Year" awards of Computer Gaming World, GameSpot and Computer Game Entertainment for 1996,[70][71][72] and was a runner-up for Computer Games Strategy Plus's award in this category.[73] The editors of Computer Gaming World wrote, "For this year, Diablo is the game that everyone will remember."[71] It was also named 1996's best computer role-playing game by GameSpot, Computer Game Entertainment and Computer Games.[70][72][73] While it was nominated for Computer Gaming World's "Role-Playing Game of the Year" award, the publication gave the honor to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.[71]

Legacy

In 2005 GameSpot chose Diablo as one of "The Greatest Games of All Time".[74] It was placed at No. 20 on Game Informer's "Top 100 RPGs Of All Time" list.[75]

The official expansion pack made for Diablo was Diablo: Hellfire in 1997. The expansion 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 (the Bard and Barbarian) and two quests which could be accessed only 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.[76] 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 fully 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 Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. The Blizzard Anthology (2000) contained Diablo, StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War and WarCraft II: Battle.net Edition. The Diablo Gift Pack (2000) contained Diablo and Diablo II, but no expansions. The Diablo: Battle Chest (2001) contained Diablo, Diablo II and Diablo II's expansion, Lord of Destruction. Later releases of the Diablo: Battle Chest also have a strategy guide for Diablo II and Lord of Destruction,[77] though subsequent releases do not include the original game, instead featuring Diablo II, its expansion, and their respective strategy guides.

For Diablo's 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 1996 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.[78][79]

References

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  11. ^ Cain the Elder reveals to the player that his full name is Deckard Cain toward the end of the game. After picking up the Staff of Lazarus from the Vile Stand in dungeon level 15 for the Archbishop Lazarus Quest, the player can talk to Deckard Cain back in town to hear him say, "This does not bode well, for it confirms my darkest fears. While I did not allow myself to believe the ancient legends, I cannot deny them now. Perhaps the time has come to reveal who I am. My true name is Deckard Cain the Elder, and I am the last descendant of an ancient brotherhood that was dedicated to safeguarding the secrets of a timeless evil. An evil that quite obviously has now been released." In a video that was published to YouTube on October 6, 2008, this quote by Deckard Cain starts at the 0:10 mark of the video, and the quote ends at the 0:45 mark of the video. In a different video that was published to YouTube on January 11, 2012, this quote by Deckard Cain starts at the 15:57 mark of the video, and the quote ends at the 16:32 mark of the video.
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