Diablo is a series of action role-playing dungeon crawler video games first created by Blizzard North. After Blizzard North closed in 2005, Blizzard Entertainment continued the series. The franchise includes four main games: Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III, and Diablo IV. Expansions for the series include Hellfire, which follows Diablo and was published by other companies; Lord of Destruction, released by Blizzard after Diablo II; Reaper of Souls, which follows Diablo III; and Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred, which follow Diablo IV. Additional story content is found in other media, such as books or comics.

Background

The Diablo franchise takes place in the dark fantasy world of Sanctuary. The main characters include humans, angels, and different types of demons and monsters. The first three games in the series are set in similar areas, such as the town of Tristram and the region near Mount Arreat. Other important locations are the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, which are separate realms connected to Sanctuary. The story mainly follows the struggle between humans in Sanctuary and demon armies led by Diablo, the series' main villain. Humans sometimes receive help from angels, especially the Archangel Tyrael.

The popularity of the video game series has led to the creation of books that expand on the Diablo universe, covering many different time periods. There are also comics that tell stories set in the world of Sanctuary.

As of April 8, 2020, the series has sold nearly 100 million copies worldwide.

Premise

The universe of Diablo is divided into three areas: the High Heavens, the Burning Hells, and the human world called Sanctuary. Since their creation, the angels in the High Heavens and the demons in the Burning Hells have been fighting each other. Sanctuary was created by angels and demons who wanted to stop the war. Their first children were called Nephalem. The descendants of the Nephalem are humans, and because they share angelic and demonic heritage, both angels and demons try to influence them for their own goals.

The main character and main enemy in the series is Diablo, known as the Lord of Terror. According to Blizzard Entertainment, Diablo is one of the seven Great Evils who rule the Burning Hells. Later, Diablo becomes the Prime Evil after absorbing the other six Great Evils, including his brothers Baal, the Lord of Destruction, and Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred. Two important characters who fight Diablo are Deckard Cain, an old scholar and the last descendant of the original Horadrim who explains the story in the first three Diablo games, and Tyrael, a member of the High Heavens' ruling Angiris Council who supports humans.

After the ending of Diablo II and the events in Diablo III, some humans begin to awaken their Nephalem heritage. This awakening allows them to challenge the final Evils and eventually Diablo, who had manipulated events to become the Prime Evil. Although Diablo was first imprisoned, he escapes, and the Nephalem are seen as a threat because they fight both angels and demons.

In Diablo IV, which takes place 50 years after Diablo III, Lilith returns to change Sanctuary and stop the endless conflict. The main character, called the Wanderer, travels to stop her.

Games

The setting of Diablo is the town of Tristram, which acts as the capital of the Kingdom of Khanduras on the world of Sanctuary. The main battles take place underground, in a complex of dungeons, catacombs, and caves that lead deep into Hell.

The story of Diablo follows a player character who completes quests to save Tristram from evil creatures from Hell. The player travels through twelve levels of dungeons, with the final four levels taking place in Hell itself, where they fight Diablo, the Lord of Terror. Diablo is one of seven demon lords who once ruled Hell.

Diablo includes three character classes: Warriors, Rogues (archers), and Sorcerers. Each class has its own role in the game’s story and appears as non-player characters in the sequel. All classes share the same basic skills and spells but have one unique class-specific skill (Item Repair, Trap Disarm, and Staff Recharge). Trap Disarm is the only skill without drawbacks.

The Hellfire expansion adds three more character classes: the Monk, Barbarian, and Bard. The Monk fights best with staves or bare hands and gains benefits from wearing light or no armor. The Barbarian can use two-handed axes with one hand but cannot cast spells for most of the game. The Bard has balanced abilities and can wield two single-handed weapons at once. The Barbarian and Bard can only be played using a file tweak, as they were incomplete. These classes use the skills of Warriors and Rogues, respectively, and have no background story. Additional quests and multiplayer features (not on Battle.net) are unlocked through this tweak.

Hellfire adds two new dungeon environments: the Nest and the Crypt. These areas have new monsters but no random quests, bosses, or shrines. The final boss of Hellfire, Na-Krul, is found in the last level of the Sacred Crypt.

Hellfire was developed by Synergistic Software with help from Blizzard and published by Sierra.

At the end of the first game, a warrior tried to trap Diablo’s soul inside himself. The warrior failed, and by the start of Diablo II, Diablo had taken control of the warrior’s body and began freeing his two brothers, Mephisto and Baal. In Diablo II, players can choose from five character classes (seven with the expansion) to explore Sanctuary through four acts. At the end of each act, players face different demons, with Diablo as the final boss.

Character classes in Diablo II received better reception than in the first game. Each class has a reason for fighting Diablo:

• Amazons believe a final battle will free humanity from angelic and demonic control.
• Barbarians expect to play a key role in deciding the world’s fate.
• Necromancers ally with the forces of Light to balance power between the Evils and Light.
• Paladins seek justice for Mephisto, who caused a bloody crusade.
• Sorceresses use magic to stop the Evils’ corruption.

Characters from the first game appear in Diablo II. Rogues (as NPCs) guide players in Act I, and Sorcerers appear in Acts II and III. Unlike the first game, each character has three skill sets. Some characters can summon magical helpers, like Valkyries (Amazons) or Skeletons and Golems (Necromancers). Players can hire a Rogue (Act I), Warrior (Act II), or Iron Wolf (Act III) to assist in battles.

Blizzard released Diablo II: Lord of Destruction on June 29, 2001. This expansion takes place after Diablo II and focuses on destroying Diablo’s brother, Baal. It adds a new act, new items, and two new character classes:

• Druids, descended from Barbarians, prepare for the final battle against the Evils.
• Assassins, who have policed mage-clans for centuries, attack Hell to stop Diablo and Baal.

Barbarians can also be hired in the new act. Summoned units in the expansion are called “minions.” Hirelings can be resurrected in Lord of Destruction and equipped with armor and weapons.

Diablo II: Resurrected, a remastered version of Diablo II including the Lord of Destruction expansion, was released in 2021 for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. It supports cross-platform progression and includes updated graphics and cutscenes but keeps the original item systems and game balance.

Diablo III was announced on June 28, 2008, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. It takes place 20 years after Diablo II. Five character classes are available in Diablo III:

• Barbarian: Returns from Diablo II with revamped skills based on physical strength, such as Whirlwind attacks and leaping.
• Witch Doctor: A new class inspired by Diablo II’s Necromancer but with voodoo-style skills like summoning monsters and casting curses.
• Wizard: A version of the Sorceress from Diablo II, with abilities like lightning, fire, and ice attacks, as well as time manipulation.
• Monk: A melee class using martial arts to disable enemies, resist damage, and deliver powerful strikes.
• Demon Hunter: A ranged class specializing in traps, evasion, and ranged attacks.

The combat system in Diablo III was redesigned. Players use an action bar at the bottom of the screen instead of the skill selection system from Diablo II. For the first time, players can choose their character’s gender, which affects visuals and voice. Diablo III was released worldwide on May 15, 2012.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is an expansion pack for Diablo III. Revealed at Gamescom 2013, it was developed for PC and Mac and released on March 25, 2014. It later expanded to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Reaper of Souls adds a new character class.

Development

The first Diablo game was created by David Brevik while he worked at Condor Games in 1994. Brevik was inspired by games with turn-based combat, but he simplified some role-playing game features and added a more detailed system for collecting items. The game’s name, Diablo, comes from Mount Diablo, a mountain near where Brevik lived when he first thought of the idea. At the time, Condor Games was working with Blizzard Entertainment on a different project. Blizzard helped develop Diablo because it shared ideas with their game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. However, they asked Condor to change the game to use real-time combat, add multiplayer support through Blizzard’s Battle.net platform, and remove a feature called permadeath, where characters could permanently die.

Over time, Blizzard bought Condor Games. The Condor team, based in San Mateo, California, became Blizzard North, while Blizzard’s main offices in Irvine, California, were called Blizzard South. Diablo was released in January 1997.

In 1997, Diablo became one of the best-selling games, with over a million copies sold that year. This led Blizzard to announce a sequel, Diablo II. The sequel kept many of the original game’s features but used little of the original code and had no formal design plan. Diablo II was released in June 2000 and sold over 2 million copies within 1.5 months. By the end of the year, it had sold 4 million copies.

Work on Diablo III began in 2001 at Blizzard North. However, in 2003, several important members of Blizzard North, including Brevik and the studio’s founders, Max and Erich Schaefer, left the company due to a disagreement with Vivendi Games, which owned Blizzard. While the remaining team at Blizzard North continued working on their version of Diablo III, Blizzard shut down the studio in August 2005 and stopped most of the existing work on the game. They restarted development using their own teams. Despite this, Diablo III had a long development process and was finally released in May 2012. At first, the game faced some criticism for changes from earlier Diablo games and for requiring an internet connection to play. However, over time, Blizzard made updates and improvements that helped the game gain better reception.

Gameplay

Maps in the game world are created randomly each time, making the game more fun to play again. As the Diablo series grew, the maps became larger. Diablo has some similarities to early roguelike games because of its randomly created maps and fast action gameplay, but it also has real-time controls, pictures, and sounds. The game was first planned as a visual version of a roguelike game. The idea of a character starting in a town above a dungeon and using "scrolls of town portal" was inspired by the game Moria. Playing Diablo involves constantly looking for better weapons and armor, called loot. These items are created randomly and often have many special features. Because Diablo games were designed for point-and-click controls, players usually use a mouse to move and use abilities in the PC versions.

• Diablo includes the expansion Diablo: Hellfire.
• Diablo II includes the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the remake Diablo II: Resurrected, and the DLC Diablo II: Resurrected – Reign of the Warlock.
• Diablo III includes the expansion Diablo III: Reaper of Souls and the DLC Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer.
• Diablo IV includes the expansion Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred and the expansion Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred.

Other media

Tales of Sanctuary, a comic book created by Phil Amara, Dave Land, and Francisco Ruiz Velasco, was released on November 9, 2001, by Dark Horse Comics. The comic includes three stories:

• Rage follows Azgar, a Druid, as he fights against followers of Baal.
• The Hand of Naz tells the story of Renit the Dark Stalker, a Barbarian who teams up with the Necromancer Cairo to find a special artifact.
• Hatred's Bride follows Hale, a Paladin, as he rescues a girl named Bay from demons and works to keep her safe.

In November 2011, DC Comics began producing a five-issue miniseries titled Diablo III: Sword of Justice, written by Aaron Williams and illustrated by Joseph LaCroix.

An animated series based on Diablo was being developed after Netflix acquired the rights to the property from Blizzard in 2020. However, the project was canceled after Blizzard filed a lawsuit against Netflix over the hiring of Spencer Neumann, Blizzard’s chief financial officer.

Action figures of the Barbarian character class, the Unraveller monster, and the Diablo character were sold in Blizzard’s online store and at retail stores to support the release of Diablo II.

An 18-inch collectible statue of the Barbarian class from Diablo III was produced by Sideshow Collectibles for sale.

In 2015, Blizzard launched Heroes of the Storm, a crossover multiplayer online battle arena game. Players can control over 15 characters from the Diablo universe, including all classes from Diablo III, popular classes from Diablo II, and notable figures like Deckard Cain, Diablo, Malthael, Mephisto, and Tyrael. The game includes two Diablo-themed battlegrounds: Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines. Background music in the game features soundtracks from the Diablo franchise, such as Jungle (Act III) from Diablo II and Reaper of Souls from Diablo III.

Characters from the Diablo series also appear in World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Blizzard. These characters often appear as Easter egg references or as in-game "pet" companions. Examples include small versions of Diablo and Tyrael, a flying mount called Tyrael’s Charger, and a character named Murkablo, who combines traits from multiple Diablo figures.

Reception

The games in the Diablo series on all platforms have received mostly good reviews from critics. Both Diablo and Diablo II are considered some of the best video games ever made, and each game in the series has been financially successful. Diablo II sold 4 million copies during its first year. Diablo III sold 3.5 million copies on its first day and 6.3 million copies in the first week. An additional 1.2 million copies were given to people who had Blizzard's Annual Pass service. The release of Diablo III was the fastest-selling PC game ever recorded.

The main villain of the Diablo series, named Diablo, has been widely praised. Time magazine listed Diablo as the second most influential video game character of all time, describing him as a character that takes a lot of damage and requires players to prepare carefully by collecting items, managing their inventory, and using abilities effectively. In 2013, Diablo was ranked #44 on a list of the top 50 video game villains by Guinness World Records. GamePro placed Diablo at #14 on its list of the most evil video game villains, noting that he corrupts the hero of Diablo I to return in Diablo II. IGN ranked Diablo 74th on its list of "Top 100 Video Game Villains" and named him the third best Blizzard character in a 2017 list. Complex staff ranked Diablo 7th on their list of the 50 coolest video game villains, describing him as a symbol of evil in the form of a large red monster that looks like the classic image of Satan from Judeo-Christian art.

Other characters in the series, such as Deckard Cain and Tyrael, have also been well-received. In 2016, Glixel staff ranked Tyrael as the 39th most iconic video game character of the 21st century. His consistent resistance against the Prime Evils after they are accidentally released was considered his most memorable moment.

Legal issues

In May 2021, Blizzard Entertainment started legal action against Fox Media over a disagreement about the rights to use the name "Diablo." Fox tried to register the name "Diablo" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to sell merchandise related to a character named Diablo from the adult animated show HouseBroken, which first aired on May 31, 2021. Blizzard's lawyers opposed Fox's request and stated in their document that using the name "Diablo" for the HouseBroken character could lead to confusion or misunderstanding among people.