Diablo is a 1997 action role-playing game created by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows. It is the first game in the Diablo series.
The game takes place in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras, a world where the player controls a single hero trying to defeat Diablo, the Lord of Terror. The hero travels through sixteen dungeon levels beneath the town of Tristram. These levels are different each time the game is played, and the hero eventually enters Hell to face Diablo.
An expansion pack called Diablo: Hellfire was released in November 1997 by Synergistic Software. In 1998, Electronic Arts released a version of Diablo for the PlayStation. This version was made by Climax Studios and allowed players to control the main character’s movement directly using the PlayStation controller, instead of using a point-and-click method. A version for the Sega Saturn was planned but never released.
Diablo is often praised for its randomly changing quests and enemies, online multiplayer, and graphics. The game’s popularity led to more games in the series: Diablo II in 2000, Diablo III in 2012, Diablo Immortal in 2022, and Diablo IV in 2023.
Gameplay
Diablo is an action role-playing video game that includes elements of exploring dungeons. The player moves and interacts with the environment mainly using a mouse. Other actions, like casting a spell, are done by pressing keys on the keyboard. During the game, the player can collect items, learn spells, defeat enemies, and talk to non-player characters (NPCs).
The dungeon levels are created randomly, with each level having a different theme. For example, catacombs often have long hallways and closed rooms, while caves have more complex paths. Players receive a random number of quests from different levels. These quests are not required but often give powerful items and help the player grow stronger or learn more about the story. The last two quests are required to finish the game.
Diablo has three character classes: the Warrior, the Rogue, and the Sorcerer. Each class has different abilities and skills. All classes can use most items and spells, unlike later games in the series. However, each class has limits that encourage using their strengths. For example, the Warrior has low magic, so he cannot learn advanced spells like the Sorcerer.
Warrior: The Warrior is the strongest in physical combat. His main ability is Strength, which is the highest among all classes. This lets him wear heavy armor and weapons. His armor and high vitality give him more health, helping him survive physical attacks. The Warrior starts with the ability to repair items, but this reduces their durability.
Rogue: The Rogue is best at using ranged weapons, like bows. She is not as strong as the Warrior but can attack enemies from a distance. She has moderate Magic and higher Dexterity and vitality than the Sorcerer. Her main ability is Dexterity. The Rogue starts with the ability to disarm traps.
Sorcerer: The Sorcerer is a spellcaster. His main ability is Magic, which can be the highest among all classes. This lets him learn powerful spells and cast them often. The Sorcerer has the lowest physical strength, dexterity, and vitality but can use the "Mana Shield" spell to protect his health by absorbing damage into his mana. The Sorcerer starts with the ability to recharge spell staves, which lowers the maximum number of charges the staff can hold.
In the expansion, Diablo: Hellfire, the Monk was added. The Monk is good at fighting with a staff. Two other classes, the Bard and Barbarian, were not completed but were hidden in the game. They could be unlocked with a hack. The Bard uses the Rogue’s sprite and can wield two weapons at once. The Barbarian, using the Warrior’s sprite, specializes in two-handed axes.
White items are regular items. Blue items are magic items, and gold items are unique items. Magic and unique items need to be identified to use their special effects, though they can still be used as basic items. Magic items can have up to two effects, while unique items can have up to six. Unique items may have rare properties and are sometimes given as rewards for quests. Items lose durability when used. When durability reaches zero, the item breaks. Players can pay an NPC, Griswold the Blacksmith, to repair items, or the Warrior can repair items at the cost of reducing their durability.
Bows are the main ranged weapon, best used by Rogues. Staves can attack physically but are mainly used to cast spells. Spells from staves do not require learning or using mana. Staves need to be recharged after use, usually by paying an NPC, Adria the Witch. The Sorcerer can recharge staves but lowers their maximum charges. Swords are usually one-handed (some are two-handed), while axes are always two-handed. Maces and clubs deal extra damage to undead enemies. Two-handed weapons deal more damage. Shields block attacks when used with one-handed weapons. Armor is divided into light, medium, and heavy. Players can wear a helmet, two rings, and one amulet. Some high-level items require meeting minimum strength or dexterity requirements to use.
Books contain spell formulas and can only be used once. Reading a book adds the spell to the character’s list. Using multiple books of the same spell increases its power, up to level 15. Characters need a certain level of Magic to read books, especially for powerful spells that use less mana. Scrolls allow using spells not yet learned or not in books, but they disappear after one use. Potions and elixirs restore health, mana, or improve stats.
Up to four players can play together. Each player’s progress is saved regularly. Players can fight others or work together. Connection options include direct, modem, Battle.net, or IPX networks. The game does not have strong anti-cheating systems, so many online players have modified their characters using third-party programs like trainers or Cheat Engine.
Plot
The world of Diablo includes the mortal realm, where humans live, as well as the High Heavens and the Burning Hells. After many years of war between angels and demons, the rise of humans caused the three Lords of Hell, including Diablo, to try to win by influencing humans instead of fighting directly. This led to their banishment to the mortal realm. There, they caused chaos, distrust, and hatred among humans until a group of magi called the Horadrim trapped them in magical crystals called "Soulstones." Diablo's Soulstone was buried deep underground, and a monastery was built over the site.
Over time, the purpose of the monastery was forgotten. A small town named Tristram grew near the ruins of the monastery. When King Leoric rebuilt the monastery as a cathedral, Diablo tricked its archbishop, Lazarus, into destroying Diablo's Soulstone prison. Diablo briefly took control of King Leoric, sending his knights and priests to attack peaceful kingdoms. Later, Diablo possessed King Leoric's son, Prince Albrecht, and filled the caves and catacombs beneath the cathedral with creatures made from Albrecht's nightmares.
Tristram became a place of fear and horror, where people were kidnapped at night. Without a king, laws, or an army to protect them, many villagers fled.
The game begins when the player's character arrives in Tristram. Some remaining townspeople, like Deckard Cain the Elder, help the player. The labyrinth under the cathedral starts in the dungeon/church, then moves to the catacombs, followed by caves, and finally leads to Hell itself. Each area has a mix of undead creatures, animals, and demons. King Leoric has been brought back to life as the Skeleton King.
Later in the game, the hero must defeat Archbishop Lazarus and then Diablo himself. At the end of the game, the hero kills Diablo's human form. The hero removes the Soulstone from Diablo's forehead, causing Diablo to transform into a lifeless version of Prince Albrecht. The hero then places the Soulstone into their own forehead, trapping Diablo's essence inside themselves.
As described in the sequel Diablo II, the warrior who defeated Diablo became possessed. The Rogue became Blood Raven, and the Sorcerer became the False Summoner, both of whom are enemies in the game. Diablo III later changed the story by identifying the nameless warrior as Prince Aidan, the eldest son of King Leoric and older brother of Prince Albrecht.
Development
One of the goals for the game Diablo was to make it easy to play. The NHL series was known for its simple setup, where players could start playing with just a few clicks. Before Diablo, creating a character required answering many questions, naming the character, and giving it a background story. The developers wanted a simpler way to begin playing and focus on action.
David Brevik met Erich and Max Schaefer while working at FM Waves, a company that made clip art. They shared an interest in making video games and started a company called Condor Games in 1993. At first, they worked on projects to adapt games for different consoles, but Brevik had an idea to create Diablo, a game that combined elements of Dungeons & Dragons and a type of game called roguelike, especially inspired by a game named Angband. The name Diablo came from a place near his family’s home, Mount Diablo, near San Francisco. Brevik wanted to make it easier for players to start playing quickly, similar to how sports games like NHL '94 allowed players to jump into the action with minimal choices. He also wanted players to choose from classes that combined different abilities, giving them more freedom in how they played. Another change was to expand the system for finding items from defeated enemies. Brevik aimed to create a modern and simple interface, similar to console games and Doom (1993), to make the game more accessible.
One of Condor’s first projects was to develop the Sega Genesis version of the fighting game Justice League Task Force for Sunsoft. Brevik showed the game at the 1994 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and introduced his idea for Diablo to other companies. He described Diablo as a way to bring the excitement of older games like Moria, Nethack, and Rogue into the 1990s with better graphics and sound. However, many companies were not interested, believing that role-playing games were no longer popular. At CES, Brevik met Allen Adham, who co-founded Silicon & Synapse (later named Blizzard Entertainment). Adham had worked on the SNES version of Justice League Task Force and shared similar ideas about game development. He showed Brevik a prototype of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, a real-time strategy game. Brevik asked to discuss Diablo, but Adham suggested waiting until after Warcraft was released.
In January 1995, after Warcraft was released, Adham and Pat Wyatt visited Condor. By then, Adham’s company had been bought by Davidson and Associates and renamed Blizzard. Blizzard offered to help develop Diablo but wanted two changes: to make the game real-time and to add multiplayer features, which they had used in Warcraft. Condor agreed and signed a contract with Blizzard to create Diablo. Although Brevik was hesitant about making the game real-time, fearing it would take more time, the team voted to proceed with the change. Brevik prepared Blizzard for possible delays and extra costs. On a Friday afternoon, he began converting the game from turn-based to real-time and had a working system by Monday. He kept this progress secret from Blizzard for a short time before sharing it. Blizzard accepted the change. Originally, Diablo was planned to be made in claymation, like ClayFighter, but the team decided to use a 3D isometric style instead. Condor struggled with funding and could not finish the game by the end of 1995, leading to debt to pay employees.
In February 1996, Davidson & Associates, including Blizzard, was bought by CUC International. Condor had previously tried to be acquired by Davidson and, after the acquisition, became a part of Blizzard. Condor changed its name to Blizzard North, while Blizzard’s original studio in Irvine, California, was called Blizzard South. About eight months before the planned release, Blizzard South was working on Warcraft II and began focusing on Diablo. Blizzard did not want to use existing online services like Total Entertainment Network for multiplayer. While Blizzard North finished Diablo, Blizzard South started developing Battle.net, a new online system. When Blizzard South reviewed Diablo’s multiplayer code, they found that no multiplayer features had been added, as Brevik and others had no experience with this. Employees from Blizzard South, including Mike O'Brien, helped add multiplayer features to Diablo and connect it to Battle.net in the final six months of development.
In 2018, Brevik said he initially disliked the game’s ending, which was created by the cinematic team and did not match his story outline. However, after some time, he felt the ending was good. The music for Diablo was composed by Matt Uelmen. The soundtrack has six tracks and was released in 2011, 15 years after the game’s original release.
Diablo normally requires the original CD to play, but a shareware version called Diablo Spawn was included on the disk. This version allowed players to access the first two areas of the game, but limited two of the three playable classes and some NPCs. It could be played in single-player or multiplayer mode with these restrictions. The demo is also available for download.
Blizzard planned to release Diablo before the 1996 holiday season, but both Blizzard North and Blizzard South worked hard to meet the deadline. However, executives realized they could not finish the game on time without compromising quality. Diablo was originally scheduled for January 1997 but started shipping to retailers in December 1996. It became widely available by January 6, 1997. Blizzard celebrated Diablo’s 20th anniversary on December 31, 2016.
In 2019, Diablo was released digitally on GOG.com with small improvements.
Reception
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Max Schaefer, a member of Blizzard Entertainment, said the company had low expectations for Diablo's sales at first. He explained, "We hoped to sell 100,000 copies if everything went well." Later, after the game received good reviews before its release, the team raised their estimate to about 500,000 copies, according to David Brevik. By December 17, pre-orders for the game had reached 450,000 units worldwide. The game was planned to be released with 500,000 copies spread out over the first few days it was available. Diablo became the top-selling computer game in January 1997 on PC Data's monthly sales chart. It stayed in first place for three more months until May, when it was replaced by X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. Diablo remained in second place until September, when it dropped to fifth. It left the top 10 charts in October.
In the United States, Diablo was the best-selling computer game during the first six months of 1997. Worldwide sales reached 500,000 units by April, 750,000 by June, and 1 million by late November. By the end of 1997, the game had sold 670,155 copies in the United States alone. PC Data ranked it as the fourth-best-selling computer game of the year in the U.S. Schaefer said the game's success was partly due to its December 27 release date, adding, "There weren’t any other games released after Christmas, so we were the only game in town for a long time."
Diablo was not listed on PC Data's charts for the last months of 1997. It returned to the charts in February 1998, ranking 13th. It stayed in the top 20 for one more month before dropping out in April and reappearing in June. It entered the top 10 again from July through October, reaching third place in August. For the first half of 1998, Diablo was the 14th-best-selling computer game in the United States. Jason Ocampo of Computer Games Strategy Plus called Diablo one of the charts' "perennial" inhabitants, comparing its long presence to games like Myst and NASCAR Racing 2. The game's average sale price was $36 between January and June, but it dropped to $26 by October. In 1998, Diablo sold 354,961 units in the United States, earning $9.57 million in revenue. In August 1998, the game received a "Gold" sales award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), showing it sold at least 100,000 units in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
By September 1998, Diablo had sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide. One year later, its sales in the United States alone reached 1.17 million copies, making it the seventh-highest-selling computer game in the U.S. since 1993. Sales grew to 1.3 million copies by March 2000. GameSpot's writer Desslock called Diablo an "undisputed commercial blockbuster." The game returned to PC Data's annual top 20 in the U.S. in 2000, with 260,020 copies sold.
Globally, Diablo sold over 2 million units by mid-2000 and reached 2.3 million by January 2001. By mid-2001, the game had sold more than 2.5 million units worldwide. According to GameSpot Japan, the game was a "big hit" among Japanese players.
Diablo received high praise from critics, with an average rating of 94/100 on Metacritic. Reviewers often highlighted its addictive gameplay, randomly generated dungeons, strong graphics, and variety of enemies, items, and quests. GameSpot editor Trent Ward noted that players could encounter new enemies on later playthroughs, increasing the game's replay value. Many reviewers praised the online multiplayer feature, saying it made the game more enjoyable and extended its replay value. Bernard Yee of Computer Games Strategy Plus said Diablo gave newcomers a better chance to enjoy online play compared to games like Quake. Cindy Yans of Computer Games Magazine said the game's variety of weapons and items kept players interested, adding, "for anyone who enjoys a good multiplayer dungeon crawl, Diablo can't be beat."
Macworld's Michael Gowan wrote, "The only downside to this role-playing game is that the adventure ends too soon." Steve Klett of PC Games said Diablo was more like Gauntlet than a typical RPG, but with improvements that made it a great game. Reviews for the PlayStation version noted that while it was not as good as the PC version, it still captured the game's essential features. Most agreed the controls worked well on the PlayStation, with some even saying they were better than the PC version's. IGN's Doug Perry disliked the controls, saying they slowed the game's pace, but he acknowledged some improvements, like the option to double the game's speed. GamePro said, "If you enjoyed the PC version, you can experience it all over again on PlayStation. And if you haven't played Diablo at all, check this one out."
Andy Butcher of Arcane magazine rated Diablo 8 out of 10, calling it a "superb game." Diablo won the "Game of the Year" awards from Computer Gaming World, GameSpot, and Computer Game Entertainment in 1996. It was also named the best computer role-playing game of 1996 by GameSpot, Computer Game Entertainment, and Computer Games. While it was nominated for "Role-Playing Game of the Year" by Computer Gaming World, the award went to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.
In 1998, PC Gamer declared Diablo one of the best games of the year.
Expansions, ports, re-releases
The expansion pack for Diablo is called Diablo: Hellfire. It was released in 1997 and created by Synergistic Software, with Sierra Entertainment handling the publishing. Blizzard North did not develop this expansion. The multiplayer feature was turned off in version 1.01. New content included two extra dungeon areas in a side story, unique items, magical properties, spells, and a fourth class called the Monk. Two unfinished classes (the Bard and Barbarian) and two quests were also included but required changing a special file to access.
In 1996, Blizzard gave Electronic Arts the right to make and sell console versions of Diablo worldwide. In 1997, it was reported that Nintendo made a deal with Blizzard to release Diablo on the Nintendo 64, but this version never came out. In 1998, a PlayStation version was released by Climax Studios and published by Electronic Arts. This version did not support online play but allowed two players to cooperate. Differences from the PC version included new lighting, auto-aiming for ranged weapons and spells, and faster gameplay options. The PlayStation version did not support the PlayStation Mouse. Players could also hear the story through a narrator instead of finding books in the game. The European PAL version included translations in French, German, and Swedish.
In 1998, Diablo and Hellfire were sold together in a bundle called Diablo + Hellfire. That same year, Blizzard’s Game of the Year Collection included Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. The Blizzard Anthology (2000) included Diablo, StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War, and WarCraft II: Battle.net Edition. The Diablo Gift Pack (2000) had Diablo and Diablo II but no expansions. The Diablo: Battle Chest (2001) included Diablo, Diablo II, and Diablo II’s expansion, Lord of Destruction. Later versions of the Battle Chest added strategy guides for Diablo II and Lord of Destruction but no longer included the original Diablo.
For Diablo’s 20th anniversary, Blizzard announced at BlizzCon 2016 that Diablo III would get a free update called The Darkening of Tristram, which recreates the original game. The update includes a 16-level dungeon, four main bosses from the 1997 version, special graphics, and limited movement like the original. The test version was released on November 11, 2016, on the Public Test Realm server.
In March 2019, Diablo became available on GOG.com, the first time Blizzard sold the game through a digital platform. The release included two versions: the original 1996 version and a new version with improved graphics and display options created by GOG.