Hi there!
I know you are expecting a movie review. Sadly, I didn't watch a movie this tuesday because I
was forced to endure a family meeting, which would have not been very bad if they actually knew
how to cook a decent dinner. Before yesterday, I thought it impossible to ruin bacon. I
actually feel very bad because of that pig that got killed so he could be turned into bad
bacon. But I digress...
Today's review is going to be about Diablo, an Action RPG which happens to be All Action and No
RPG. Specifically, I am reviewing the ORIGINAL Diablo, instead of Diablo II. For some reason,
everytime I mention Diablo, people thinks I am talking about the sequel, which actually became
extremely popular (to the point of plunging Diablo I into obscurity).
The game's plot is simple as it gets. The Hero (You) arrives to the town of Tristram, which is
a dying settlement. Demonic forces have taken over the local Church and are using it for their
their dark purposes.Once you venture into the Church, it becomes apparent that there is a
gigantic labyrinth under it, which the dark forces are using as their base.
It is your job to venture into the depths of this underground dungeon to free any of the
villagers who are said to be held captive inside, learn the origins of this evil, and destroy
it for good!
To be honest, this plot is not going to earn any award. The designers managed to make it
somehow effective because they use a mechanic similar to those of survival-horror games: they
leave written journals and cues scattered arround the dungeon, each one of them telling a
little piece of the story. Read enough of them, and you can puzzle the actual events together.
The non-player characters also give you some information in this regard from time to time.
Still, ths is definetively not a game you play for their amazing plot.
If you play this game, it is because you like the idea of a valiant hero who descends into the
deepest of hells and paves his way tearing demons appart.
The gameplay is where the juice of this game is. You venture into a labyrinth, which consists
in 16 procedurally generated levels, and kill everything that looks to have been spawned from
Hell (aka everything) in your way. You find the starways to the next level, and repeat. The
game, actually, does not feel like an action packed gorefest, but as a pot which is gradually
heating up until it explodes in your face.
Why I say this? Because the game makes use of a very grim athmostphere. The reduced light
sources, the soundtrack, the convincing (for the 90s) graphics and the fact you are alone in
your quest... they make it so the experience of delving down is a very personal trip in which
you are on your own against the unknown. You move slowly through the dungeon, because you know
you may find an horde of demons behind the next door you open. The whole thing works as an
horror game which builds up quite effectively.
Essentially, what you do in this game is move as deep as you can until you run out of
resources. Then you return to town and heal yourself, get your equipment repair, and try to
gather some information from non-player characters. The towns people may also give you quests
which are randomly generated for you, and are usually about retrieving an item for somebody,
getting some particular demon killed, or plundering some treassure room controlled by demons.
The quests are different everytime you start a new game, which is a nice touch.
The resourced that generate for a given game are finite. There is no monster respawn nor
unlimited supply of items. This means there is no monster farming in this game. If you clear a
given level, the only way to get better gear and experience to level up is to march forward.
Also,since the items and resources you find are randomly generated, it is possible for the game
to throw too good or too bad gear for you. It is possible to deplete all the stuff the game
gives to you to the point you have no resources to continue - but, IMO, you have to be very bad
of have very bad luck for that to happen.
There are three character classes you can play as. You can be a Warrior if you want to chop
heads with a big sword, a Rogue if you want to pierce demons with your arrows and cast a spell
every now and then, or a Sorcerer if you like to roast demons with fireballs. Every class can
learn to do what the others do, so if you want to be a spellcasting Warrior, you may try.
Still, the game is far from being a character building exercise, as modern ARPGs seem to be
nowadays. There are no skill trees, no complex attribute interactions or anything of that sort.
I think that is refreshing. Some people thinks this is too simple and limited. To each their
own.
The game is replayable up to a point. Since every level is generated at random every time you
restart the game, and the quests you are given are different, there is some variety to be had
by playing through the game a couple of times. Each class plays differently enough from the
others to be a different experience on its own, so there is always that. Also, the torn notes
and journals that tell you what is going on in the Church are different and tell the story from
a different point of view each time you restart. There is also an expansion, Hellfire, with an
official extra class (the Monk, for people who wants to punch things to death), two extra
dungeons with 4 floors each, and some extra items and spells.
The game supports multiplayer up to 4 players, via Blizzard s Battle.net or LAN. Perfect if you
are the sort of person who likes casting area of effect spells and roastig your friends at the
same time you roast the demons.
Diablo is old, but I think it is worth a try if just because it popularized ARPGs on its own.
It has its bunch of problems, product of the times (save scumming is a possibility in single
player mode, online multiplayer is cheatable to the point that you will need your own game to
ensure only honest friends play with you). Still, it was very effective at scaring the kids -
some monsters are LEGENDARY in this regard - and some of the bad guys are just too satisfying
to kill.
Diablo is available at GoG and also playable using the DevilutionX engine, which is a FOSS
source port which runs on Linux and BSD. So try it out!
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