Diablo
Usually I have about 4 or 5 games at any given moment that I am currently
playing. I like to have a few going, to keep any single one from
becoming repetitious. Right now, my current crop is: Diablo, Legend of
Zelda, Tetrisphere, and Uprising X. This is definetely a group of
top-notch games.
One way I determine which games are best, is to see which ones I play the most.
This time, between the games I have mentioned above, it was Diablo. Yes, believe it or not, I spend way more time playing Diablo, then even the legendary "Zelda- Ocarina of time"!! There's just something about this game that keeps drawing me in.
In Diablo you enter a world of dark gothic fantasy. You can play as a Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer. As you venture deeeper into the labyrinth (i.e. Pit of Hell), you'll discover weapons, armor,and magical treasures to develop your character's skills and abilities. Each of the three characters has it's certain strengths, and weaknesses. The Warrior fights with brute strength, and has very limited magical abilities. The Sorcerer is the opposite, he uses magic but is not too strong. The Rogue is in the middle. Decent at magic, and decent at hand to hand combat. An all around balanced character.
The game is very
simple actually. All you do is walk around killing monsters and demons.
At the same time you build up your characters strength, and venture deeper
and deeper into the pits of hell. There are various treasure chests to
open along the way. Each chest contains money or an ocassional surprise.
Along the way you also find various wepon upgrades, and sometimes run into
a trap. Get low on health, or need a stonger weapon, you can return to
Tristram (town) and purchase items from one of the local merchants. There
are several merchants, and each has it's own particular items for sale.
Griswold is a blacksmith and sells weapons. Adria is a witch and sells
potions, manna, and staves. Pepin is a healer, who sells (you guessed it)
healing potions. There are other townsfolk who offer advise or tell stories.
As the game progresses you discover more and more about what's going on,
as you prepare to meet "Diablo- The Lord of all Evil"!!
I'd like to say there's
more too it, but really there is not. The game is pretty basic, and straight
forward. It's quite easy to pick up and play. It may take a little time
to understand the controls, and how to equip your character, but after
that it is pretty much the same all the way through. Actually, once you
begin play it is pretty repetitious. Gameplay goes something like this:
Walk around the dungeon, prepare spell, kill enemies - open chests,
save game. It almost seems like Diablo is a boring game, but reallly it
is not. Diablo definetely has it's strengths!!
The biggest draw is the large amount of monsters to slay, and magic to perform. The game boasts 100 different monsters, and 300 magical artifacts. Plus, an additional 20 powerful spells. One of the reasons I kept (rather keep) playing is because of all the play variety this creates. Again and again, I fire up this game to see what new monsters I can kill, and what new spells I can find.
The graphics are a little average if you ask me. Nowhere near the quality of the PC counterpart, but definetely not bad either. The monsters are all animated, and finely detailed, but you get the feeling that they didn't go far enough. All like monsters act alike, and all are very predictable. Some of the spells are awesome though. Firewalls, and lightning are really a sight to behold. It's definetely the effects that make it look cool.
I can't praise Blizzard/EA
enough for the addition of a save anywhere feature. All games need this!!!
I tell you, any game I rate will definetely get a higher score if this
feature is implemented. Nobody likes being forced to re-complete areas
they have struggled with. Thankfully, Diablo can be saved at any time.
This one does have a few problems though. It is very very slow, and takes
has an awkward interface!! Prepare to spend much time, and many button
presses to complete a save. Still, I'm very glad it's there!! It
is much needed especially in a game like this.
The gameplay is well balanced and very well thought out. There are many areas to explore, and you will constantly be trying new things to get through. I have never once got so stuck I couldn't get past, but I constantly got stuck. Each time, I would try new spells, weapons, or magical artifacts, to see what would work. Eventually, something would, and it always left me with a hugh sense of accomplishment.
I didn't like the
way monsters would gang up on me though. Sometimes, I'd walk around for
awhile only to find myself being cornered by 20 or so tough enemies. I'd
alwasy get passed, but it definetely got frustrating... especially with
the long load times when starting from a save.
Returning to town was kinda boring. There was never too much new. Just a few stories, or a different path to the labyrinth. Other then that it was always un-eventful. I think the designers needed to spend much more time developing an interesting town to interact with.
I'm not too much of a lover of these demonic themed games. I did like Diablo though. Not for the theme, but more for the way the game plays.
The game has a very high replay value. Not because of the random generated dungeons (which still look alike even though random), but rather due to the depth of character building. I couldn't tell you how many nights I went without sleep to play this game.
Overall, Diablo is a pretty cool game. The spells, and enemies provide more then enough variety to keep you coming back. It is definetly one I would recommend.
