Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a 1997 action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows. It is the first installment in the video game series of the same name.
Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras in the mortal realm, the player controls 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 in order to face Diablo.
An expansion pack, Diablo: Hellfire, was released in November 1997 by Synergistic Software. In 1998, Electronic Arts released Diablo for the PlayStation. This version, developed by Climax Studios, featured direct control of the main character's direction using the PlayStation controller, as opposed to point-and-click movement. A Sega Saturn version was considered by Electronic Arts but never released. Diablo has been considered one of the greatest games of all time for its randomized assignment of quests and enemies on each playthrough, online multiplayer, and graphics. The game's success led to several sequels: Diablo II in 2000, Diablo III in 2012, Diablo Immortal in 2022 and Diablo IV in 2023.
Gameplay
Diablo is an action role-playing video game with dungeon crawl elements. The player moves and interacts with the environment primarily by way of a mouse. Other actions, such as casting a spell, are performed in response to keyboard inputs. The player can acquire items, learn spells, defeat enemies, and interact with non-player characters throughout the game.The dungeon levels are procedurally generated with themes for each level; 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 usually offer powerful unique items as rewards and help to level up the character and/or reveal more of the backstory. The final two quests are mandatory in order to finish the game.
Classes
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/skills. 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.- Warrior: The most physically able of the three classes, the Warrior is primarily a close-quarters fighter. His primary character attribute is Strength, of which he has the highest available level of compared to other classes, which maxed out enables him to equip the heaviest weaponry and armor. The armor available to the Warrior, combined with his higher vitality which gives him more hitpoints, allows him to withstand the most physical damage. The Warrior starts with the skill to repair objects in his possession at the cost of overall durability.
- 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. A jack-of-all-trades class, the Rogue has moderately higher Magic than the Warrior so she can better make use of spells, while her somewhat higher strength and vitality enables her to fare better in melee than the Sorcerer. The Rogue's primary character attribute is Dexterity. The Rogue's unique starting skill is the ability to disarm traps.
- Sorcerer: A spellcaster, the Sorcerer's primary character attribute is Magic which can be maxed up much higher than the other classes, enabling him to learn/raise spells to higher levels, and also granting him the largest mana pool so he can cast spells more often. The Sorcerer is the most physically weak of the three classes, with the lowest maximum strength, dexterity, and vitality, but compared to the other two classes he can best utilize "Mana Shield" spell so that enemy damage is directed at his mana reserve rather than his health hitpoints. 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.
Items
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, although characters can use unidentified items as they would the base item. Magic items can have a maximum of 2 of these effects, but unique items can have as many as 6. Furthermore, Uniques can have special properties, or properties not found in the usual prefixes/suffixes for that item type; most uniques have a very rare chance of being dropped, although certain uniques are guaranteed quest rewards. Items wear down through use, and have fixed amounts of durability that decrease as they receive damage; when an item's durability reaches 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.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, usually returning to town and paying an NPC, Adria the Witch, while the Sorcerer can recharge the staff which lowers the maximum number of spell charges. Swords are typically one-handed, while axes are all two-handed. Maces and clubs add a 50% damage bonus against the undead. Two-handed melee weapons allow the player to inflict more damage. 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. Many higher-level weapons and armor can only be equipped if the player meets the minimum strength and/or dexterity requirements.
Books contain spell formulae and cannot be used more than once; reading the first book will place that particular spell in the character's repository while using multiple books of the same spell will increase the spell level, up to a maximum of 15. A character needs a minimum level of the magic attribute in order to read spell books, particularly in raising spells to higher levels, where they are more typically more powerful/effective while consuming less mana for each casting. Scrolls allow use of both spells not yet learned as well as and spells not available in book form, but vanish after one use. Many potions are available for use, including health and mana restoration, and elixirs that increase statistics.
Multiplayer
is available 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 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.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.:61, 62, 64 & 72 After eons of war between angels and demons, the ascension of man prompted the three Lords of Hell to seek victory through influence, prompting their exile into the mortal realm. There, they sowed chaos, distrust, and hatred among men 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 briefly 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 Albrecht'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.
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. 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. King Leoric has been re-animated as the Skeleton King.Late in the game, the hero must defeat Archbishop Lazarus, and eventually Diablo himself. At the end of the game, the hero kills Diablo's mortal form. The hero then takes the Soulstone out of Diablo's forehead after which Diablo transforms into a lifeless Prince Albrecht. The hero then drives the Soulstone into their own forehead, and they contain the essence of Diablo within themselves.
As told in the sequel Diablo II, canonically the warrior was the hero that defeated Diablo only to become possessed. The Rogue became Blood Raven while the Sorcerer became the False Summoner, both of them NPC enemies. Diablo III further retconned the story by establishing the nameless warrior as Prince Aidan, the eldest son of Leoric and older brother of Albrecht.