Instead of taking place within one town (Tristram), Diablo II takes place in four themed levels that are considerably different in appearance. Yet the biggest change is the in level design. Diablo II replaces the four original characters with completely new classes and adds in an extra one for good measure. Blizzard knows well enough not to tinker too much with a successful formula, and as evidenced by the enormous success of their titles, few can argue with them. Does it offer radically different gameplay? No, of course not. In this way, Diablo felt more in common with a pen-and-paper game played with a few friends around the table than the majority of traditional computer RPGs.ĭiablo II is more of an enhancement than a new game, so those who sneered at Diablo for being too simplistic or repetitive will likely curl their lips once more. A rogue could protect a fighter from afar by slinging arrows, while the mage could conjure walls of fire or lightning bolts to wear down beasties attacking in groups. Up to four players could work together to defeat the mighty Diablo, which at its best, meant cooperation, teamwork and camaraderie. The popularity of Diablo came from two areas: an array of unique items that could be found while dispatching the creatures and multiplayer support over the free service of. While magic spells and ranged weapons could also be used for strategy, the game never deviated too far from a hack-and-slash format. Controls were intentionally kept simple, boiling down to pointing at and then clicking on the monster to attack it. Reminiscent of the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons, players could assume the identity of a hero and delve into caves, crypts, and even the bowels of hell itself gathering experience points from killing monsters and amassing wealth.

Like one of the decaying zombies found within the depths of Diablo's dungeons, the RPG was all but dead in 1995 as first-person shooter and real-time strategy titles asserted themselves in the mindset of computer gamers.īlizzard changed this trend with a return to basics.

What Diablo did for the industry was revitalize a dying genre - that of the role-playing game or RPG. Not in terms of graphics, sound or even gameplay, the latter of which was essentially patterned after the coin-op classic Gauntlet. The original Diablo was a groundbreaking game.

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