Diablo (1996)

One of the best games of all time and one of the most important of my childhood. I remember being so excited to play it because of how cool it looked only for my pc to not even be good enough to run it properly. I do not remember the details of whether that pc was upgraded or we got a new one. I played many characters on singleplayer but it did get old after a while seeing the same quests and unique items every game. I even played challenge characters, like not being allowed to repair or having to switch to each new weapon that dropped. Later I got into playing online and this was only the 2nd game in my life that I played over the internet; dial up back then. I played numerous characters of each class using mostly names from other favorite video games of the time; Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy 6 and 7, maybe others. Those were the years I typed in old English like Frog and Cyan, though only when playing my main warrior. For some reason I ended up hanging out in a semi private battlenet room called planetX, making friends, playing coop and goofing off. This continued into Starcraft but not into Diablo 2. Near the end of my time playing Diablo I joined a guild called the Paladins of Light, and ended up taking over from my cousin as an officer; captain of the knights of the mist, and this did continue into Diablo 2. I remember having to strip all my characters naked to have my gear inspected for cheating before being accepted into the guild. I spent most of my time playing challenge characters, like a cleric warrior that could only use blunt weapons and white magic, pure melee rogue, pure mage rogue, no shield warrior and can't remember what else. I absolutely loved the journey through Normal difficulty because of how different it could be each time, and the fair challenge. Nightmare and Hell were not balanced well because by the time I unlocked them the dungeon and catacombs levels were too easy while caves and hell were too hard. So I pretty much had to grind catacombs or go back to hell on previous difficulty.

I don't remember a lot about those ancient characters and they have all been long lost to time. I believe my main warrior was near level 40 and had enough +magic gear to use a staff of apocalypse but never beat Diablo on Hell difficulty. I have no idea what his sword was but pretty sure he had stormshield, multiple obsidian jewelry of the zodiac, and 1 of 2 pieces of sweet armor that I swiped off the ground in town from a public game. Something like saintly field plate of the tiger. My rogue got the other which I think was saintly gothic plate of the wolf. She was not even my 1st online rogue but I had so much fun playing her due to lucky drops, and she ended up being very popular for some reason. Empress Endora. Only meant to be a minor alt character ended up being my main, and a lot of people assumed I was a girl. She ended up somewhere in the mid 40s as I grinded a lot in Hell caves with sword and shield. Don't remember her sword but she had stormshield, royal circlet, massive long war bow of the stars, and full set of not perfect obsidian jewelry of the zodiac. She was the only character who beat Diablo on Hell difficulty because back then there was a lot of fear about going into Hell hell alone and potentially losing all gear. I remember it was a random public game with 2 sorcerers and we cleared the entire way to Diablo. Both of them were in the front line blasting while I hung back and sniped. Once they were overwhelmed by knights and died. I dropped a portal and lured the enemies away while slowly kiting them to death. 1 sorc dropped his gear while the other only dropped an ear so I may have shot him in the back on accident. I was always the type to take shots without worrying about friendly fire and adjust as needed. Down on level 16 we ignored the levers and went straight for Diablo with staves of apocalypse to kill the minions. 1 sorc wandered off doing something else while we teleported in to kill Diablo. I had him chain stunned with arrow fire and killed before the sorc could even cast a single spell. Then was my sorcerer Saradin who was not quite as high level. He had the best gear: dreamflange, thinking cap, naj light plate, though I don't remember the shield. I overall found sorc the least fun to play, especially against those end game enemies immune to fire, lighting and magic. Back in those days I used a trainer to set myself immune to damage from other players but never used it to cheat. Only once did I make a sorc specifically to cheat to see how it would go and I found it incredibly boring. I also played Hellfire expansion and the Abysmal mod back in the late 90s but classic Diablo 1 was always the best.

Several years ago I played through multiplayer mode 2 boxing on my 2 pcs to try and re create those old characters. I got them as far as the mid 30s then used a trainer to set the warrior and rogue to 45 to solo Hell hell. The sorcerer didn't need any help and did it at level 36. Their gear was not as good as my old bnet characters but it was a huge advantage having another character available to tag team and rescue each other, as well as mules to store supplies. I typically sent the warrior in first to see what enemies were there. If they were not annoying then he would clear them. Otherwise the sorc on my other PC would come in, unless they were immune to spells at which point the rogue swapped in. The warrior and rogue were on my gaming pc while the sorc on my worse pc hosted the game. But I need to set this up again as I retired my old pc and replaced it with a low spec media center, and my gaming pc can't even recognize the CD; I think I had it running from the old pc over network. Those characters and their gear will have to be posted later.

For now I played the playstation version on my PSP, beating the game on all difficulties with all 3 characters. I originally was not going to bother because pc is superior to console, but I wanted to see how it played. There was something off about the graphics and animations and there were a number of flaws with a few things that were actually improved. Fast game speed was great for town, traveling and fighting easy enemies. Controls were good with impressive customization but the auto aim combat was far inferior to using a mouse. It severely reduced the effective range of bow and spell, and eliminated a lot of the skill based gameplay around aiming and leading attacks. It did help the warrior against those god damn succubitches though as he had a much easier time landing hits and preventing them from fleeing. A few spells (most notably fire wall) locked the character in place while the D pad moved around a targeting cursor. This got me killed multiple times as I could not move or drink potions until the spell was cast or canceled, but only 1 button canceled it. This was a far cry worse than the quick mouse cursor casting on pc. There was 1 button to cycle between 2 favorite spells, and another to bring up the quick list, but again a console cursor was far slower and less precise than a mouse. The game paused in the spellbook and inventory so that could be used to switch spells and equipment mid combat. I don't recall singleplayer pc Diablo allowing that but it was fun to swap back and forth between sword and blunt, or AC and resist gear without having to find a safe spot. Drinking potions was streamlined with 1 button for health and 1 for mana. It automatically drank from the backpack first so there was no need to tediously keep filling the belt. Enemy populations were definitely changed, with a larger variety of enemies on each floor. Even to the point of mixing much stronger types with weaker ones, which caused a few deaths on Normal. My poor warrior died to rotting carcasses on floor 2 while using a staff because they were like the 3rd or 4th tier zombie. It overall made the floors more exciting and less predictable. Floor 16 had a brand new skeleton enemy to replace blood knights, and they seemed to raise out of nothing. It implied that the advocates were using necromancy to re raise them but I am not sure about the mechanics. They did not seem infinite so no farming xp there. The balrog enemy was strangely missing though. Otherwise the game was a strange mixture of pc single and multi player. It had the persistent quests and uniques of single while freely allowing exporting to create new games and 2 player coop. This led to me realizing I could dupe stuff and transfer between characters. However if 2 characters had the same item (even elixirs but not sure about gold), it would be deleted, and unique items were always deleted after leaving a game. It annoyed me that each new game had to be started on floor 1 and the shortcuts were only unlocked by using them from inside. This made Nightmare and Hell annoying and strongly discouraged grinding. Especially that elixirs could not be purchased until hell was reached.

So I played through Normal with each character. The warrior was fun, using his free repair to minimize costs and inventory pause to switch weapons. I put most points into magic so he could read the useful books (portal, healing, fire wall, stone curse and teleport). Then I played around with 2 player coop to give the sorc a ton of gold and a book of mana shield. It was interesting playing a twink sorcerer like that because I usually struggled with them around starting caves because of their low hp. This helped offset the lower spell range. I used the staff recharge to abuse the staves I found for fun but it was completely unnecessary with the amount of gold I gave him. He put every point into magic since I did not need to worry about armor or hp. I did not twink the rogue and she suffered most from auto aim, this being one of the most difficult rogue runs I have ever done. She scrounged bows using whatever was found, even still using basic non magic bows in hell. Again I pumped magic to get the useful spells, then balanced everything so she could use better bows and was not too much of a glass cannon. After each finished Normal I put a bunch of elixirs on a mule and started new games to cheese stats by drinking elixirs and exporting while not saving the mule. I did not max out their primary stat though. I also let them share equipment and the sorc got a book of fireball to repeatedly read. Some other books to cheese would have been helpful.

While doing elixir scumming I checked Griswold and found some sweet gear. The warrior started Nightmare with: lord's bastard sword, glorious full plate of vigor, awesome tower shield, saintly great helm of deflection, amulet of harmony, 2 lightning resist rings of the stars and some extra resist gear; an obsidian ring and other stuff to swap in for fire and magic resist. By Hell difficulty I had found an obsidian great helm of deflection and jade ring of the heavens, so those 2 covered all my resists. After beating Hell I found a brutal great axe of haste for sale. Would love to try it but don't want to grind all the way from floor 1. I imagine it would devastate ranged enemies but might struggle a bit with accuracy, and the loss of blocking would be very bad for melee enemies. His stats ended with only vitality not maxed at 98. The biggest weakness of the warrior was always ranged enemies. On Normal he struggled a lot because he kept blocking succubus shots, which made it very difficult to attack them. I think he needed some magic resist to no longer block those energy balls. The big thing was using tricks to get those succubi; ambushing around corners, trapping in corners, using obstacles as cover, and fire wall. Fire wall stopped being useful on Nightmare as it took far too long to kill. I skipped floor 16 on Nightmare because advocates were more annoying than bitches, though I did try to farm those skeletons. Hell caves and hell were extremely difficult. By far the most difficult thing in the game were acid spitter boss groups because they behaved like succubi and had insane rates of fire. The warrior had great defense with the shield but he could die very suddenly when hit by too many enemies at once. I went slow and careful, using choke points and falling back as needed to avoid going toe to toe with more than 2 or 3. On Floor 16 Hell I used stone curse on every enemy for easy kills, and still had to chug full healing potions upon taking any hit. Diablo himself was not difficult as his big nuke could be blocked with the shield and he was dumb enough to close into melee. I swapped my 2 helms for resists vs AC as needed. I ended at only level 33. Sometimes he struggled a bit with accuracy but overall he hit for massive damage and killed quickly. His main weakness was that when he got hit in melee it hurt A LOT, while max resists made ranged enemies more annoying than threatening.

Next up was the rogue. I maxed out her stats with elixirs, except for dex though she maxed that before the end. She took copies of most of the warrior's gear wearing the same full plate, obsidian helm and rings. He also got her a savage short war bow. She later found a ruby ring of the heavens and massive long war bow as upgrades. She had an amulet of titans in order to wear that armor. She did very well on Nightmare and Hell, proving that rogue was the best class. I used a mix of full healing and full mana potions with the healing spell, and made short work of every enemy. Though she had less defense and health than the warrior, she killed efficiently from safe range and could kite. She had no weakness and chain stunned Diablo, killing him with minimal challenge. She also ended at level 33 and had so much gold that the game would not let me drop more in town. I kept a broad sword of haste but not sure how good that would compare to the lord's bastsrd sword.

Last was the sorcerer who took the jewelry from the rogue plus that obsidian helm. He kept that amulet of the titans equipped even though he did not need it to wear the blessed field plate of brilliance, which was the armor the rogue finished Normal wearing. His weapon was an incredibly lucky arch angels short staff purchased on Normal. He maxed out str and magic, had nearly maxed dex and I put 0 points into vit other than what elixirs he found. Again he was more difficult than on pc because of the limited range of the auto aim and extreme awkwardness trying to aim manually. I breezed through the dungeon floors using fire bolt and lightning, gradually switching to fire ball and chain lightning as the enemies got stronger in catacombs and caves. The sorcerer's critical weakness was enemies immune to fire, lightning and magic damage, forcing him to rely on his pathetic physical damage. Stone curse + melee with the staff was the way to go, and I found it ironic that the warrior and sorcerer had to use the exact same tactics on floor 16 Hell. He definitely could have used a king's war staff of haste or similar. A few other enemies were difficult. Steel lords were immune to fire and magic while being resistant to lightning, so they took a long time to nuke. In fact it was faster and cost less mana to stone curse and melee them provided there was only 1 or 2. Illusion weavers were always a terror because of their invisibility and how deadly they could be. I did not die to them this time but I took every precaution, shooting blind and not standing still for long because they were the most common cause of my sorc deaths back in the day. Diablo himself was not difficult, just blast fireballs point blank while chugging mana potions. I cast a flame wave to get his attention. The sorcerer had much more engagement with the spells and enemy resistances than the other 2 classes, and he relied far more on spending gold and farming dungeon and cats for books. Stone curse was the most essential spell for all classes and his ended at level 8. Fireball was the best nuke, doing straight forward massive damage with some splash that made short work of every enemy not immune to fire. His was level 8. Chain lightning was the best electrical spell because it did more base damage than lightning and auto aimed towards multiple targets. It worked best when the enemies were in single file and all bolts went in the same direction. The damage range was very random though so sometimes it performed terribly. His was only level 2, which did not help. Lightning was fun to use and cheaper than chain, being a great way to inflict a lot of damage into rooms and down corridors due to the piercing bolt. On pc I would use hotkeys to switch between the spells for maximum efficiency, but it was too much trouble on PSP. Lightning was level 9 and still only did half the max damage of his low level chain. Mana shield was level 5. I knew about the bug preventing staggering while at low hp and under the shield but I never bothered to take advantage. Fire bolt was level 15 and had the advantage over fireball of faster projectile. But its significantly lower damage made it useless after the dungeon. Holy bolt was level 6 and great for dealing with undead in the dungeon. It fell far behind fireball though. I did try using it on the skeletons of floor 16 but fireball was better. I could see it being niche for an undead boss immune to fire. It worked on Diablo himself but was far behind fireball. I always hated charged bolt because of its random trajectory and only used it if absolutely necessary. Inferno was another odd spell which I almost never used. Why use a short range flamethrower when I could snipe from far away. It was decent on PC early on to provide some multi target damage but I never bothered with it at all this time. Fire wall was level 6 and still one of the best spells. It was somewhat less useful to the sorcerer though as blasting with fireballs was faster. Flame wave was level 4 and functioned like a mix of firewall and lightning. It was excellent to clear out long hallways if there were enemies not immune to fire. It had high damage like fireball but I did not bother to use it on PSP. Elemental was a homing fireball that was slower, weaker and more expensive than a standard fireball. I always considered it a novelty that was not worth using. Sure I could potentially shoot it around a corner but the extra mana and time costs would outweigh the mana damage from risking enemy attack. Maybe it has a niche for poorly prepared sorcs that did not find mana shield or resist gear. Guardian was similar as a way to shoot around corners and potentially lure enemies out 1 at a time. I don't recall seriously using it on pc and never bothered on psp. Flash was another spell I never used. Why use a point blank nuke and risk getting smacked? I could see it being an option when struck in melee range but far better to play safely enough to never get in that situation. Telekinesis could be used to safely retrieve gear after dying on PC and was useful for triggering the levers on floor 16. I never used it at all on PSP. Phasing was a random teleport that could potentially allow escape from a difficult situation, or make that situation worse. Not something I used. Teleport was great for zipping around looking for books, shrines and other points of interest, and for bypassing walls that only opened after certain triggers. Unfortunately only my warrior and rogue found any teleport books on PSP, but the sorc got along just fine without it. I got 2 books of blood star from Adria but there was little point in using it as I seen no enemies that were immune to everything except magic damage. It was another novelty. He had only level 1 golem and it proved nearly useless. It killed some soul burners on Nightmare but could barely even hit enemies on Hell. Perhaps if I had more books for it I would not have had to melee so much. I also found it to always run into a corner instead of following me. I do remember golems being more useful on pc so I wonder if this version made them worse. Even if the golem followed though it was so much slower and could be killed by my own spells such that it was largely a waste to use.

Overall the playstation version was fun but I would not play it again due to how much better the game is on PC. The combat was in general worse while the more mixed enemies made each floor more exciting. The PC game is a legendary masterpiece that I actually slightly prefer over Diablo 2, despite the sequel's greatly expanded content. The original had a great survival horror vibe which was not really present in D2 with its brighter outdoors areas and faster movement. I also preferred the simpler loot where it was all about going into the depths to kill for random drops, and purchasing from the shops. As opposed to stuff like gambling, horadric cube crafting, sockets, sets, rune words, items with spells and more complicated classes that made D2 somewhat tiring. I do fully intend to play more in the future on PC, including Hellfire and mods. Diablo is one of the very few games that comes close to a perfect 10/10.

After more than 20 years, I finally played and finished with Sorcerer for the first time. I didn't know that there were that many spells in the game and that makes the Sorcerer the most interesting character in the game by far. However, playing with the Sorcerer was also a bit annoying in some parts, because of immunities. Thankfully you don't have to kill every monster, and you can always Save & Load in front of Adria to reroll the items that she's offering until you find what you're missing.

With just a few quality of life improvements, Diablo's lifespan could be much longer. I wish Blizzard had made the effort to do it while working on D2 Resurrected.

Unlike Diablo II, which kept you on your toes but was extremely approachable on Normal, I think this one may be a bit too punishing, slow-paced, and clunky for my tastes.

That being said, the music and vibe are great. I do find the game pretty exciting on paper. It feels almost horror-like. If there were an easy difficulty, I would probably stick with it.

Maybe one to return to later down the line, when it inevitably gets some kind of modernized remake/rework, particularly if there's better controller support like Diablo II Resurrected since I am not big on point and click.

The good old days, before storage chests existed. I feel a bit bad for the residents of Tristram; leaving my empty beer bottles and plastic straws everywhere:

Haven't played this since the 90's but it's holding up really well. Enjoying it more than Diablo 3 at least. Really solid game, I expected it to be a janky antiquated mess.