Diablo

by Daniel Sassone

Created on: November 08, 2010

     Diablo, the first iteration of an iconic game franchise, was released on the 2nd of January 1997 on PC, the MAC version following just over a year later. This game, which is now about to release its 3rd, has defined its own genre of video games. It is a dark fantasy themed, hack and slash game, usually known for the rabid clicking it requires to constantly target and attack new enemies. After the enemies die, which does include a sound effect, a pile of loot may drop. This is all seen in the iconic to the franchise 2.5 person isometric view point. Which is not an over the shoulder (3rd) or a straight top down (2nd) person view point, originally unique to this game.

     Diablo, pioneered massive replayability by never having the same dungeon twice, using a fixed tile set, randomly generated into different maps for characters to explore. The original Diablo, released with 3 character classes, a caster, a warrior and a rogue type ranged character. The rogue type character was the only female character, much as the wizard was the only character of obviously different ethnic stock. These characters became a gaming staple, when incorporated into the online or lan play, a warrior up front and the caster/rogue characters in the back, hammering away at the foe.  Random loot drops, to include scaleable weapons of various values from normal to godly has permeated every other game of the RPG/MMO/H&S types. Diablo, Diablo II & Diablo II: Throne of Baal, and assuredly with Diablo III will create and change the genre that also caused Hellgate: London, and Torch Light.

     If you take into consideration the ease of gameplay, the rapid addiction, and the contribution to games overall, Diablo stands as benchmark for people to set their standards by.  Diablo which was never designed as an MMORPG, still has an steep fan base, and a number of  user created mods. While Diablo may not be an MMORPG, it has a single one time, fee, no ingame market place for things to be purchased on, and other than its initial purchase, support throught Battle.net, there are no hidden fees. The first iteration had 3 characters, the second had 4 with the expansion adding 2, and the third iteration will have at least 4 characters at release, with untold character development after its release.

     Set character classes seperate Diablo from Runescape, but Diablo since it has a single player game, needs to provide character definition for the players, unlike Runescape which is an MMORPG, whose skill based system pertains to play style choices and which trainers you visit, the well balance variety of classes in Diablo allow for the same split based on play style.  Diablo was the first Blizzard game with a the 3 tier skill tree later demonstrated to much success in their World of Warcraft MMORPG.

    To compare Diablo to Runescape is to compare apples to oranges, while the games are similar, the level of play, and the intended audiences are vastly different. Their are gamers out their who would never ever play and MMORPG, but play Diablo, and their are MMORPG players who would never consider playing Diabloe. If you set the standard as to which is better and base it solely on competency of programming, and contribution to genre, Diablo is a clear and consistent winner. Its dark fantasy theme, creative monsters and randomly generated labyrinthine map structure make for a terribly unique, dark and daring game that has yet to find a peer in its genre.

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