D2's older sister is strange to go back to as a fan of the sequel, as its goals are jarringly different. Diablo is mechanically barebones to the point where the player rarely has to care much about what to level or what equipment to use. Equipment upgrades require very little thinking about pros and cons, you can usually easily tell if a new piece of armor or weapon is better than what you have. The drop rate is so low and the varieties of equipment and enemies is so limited that someone familiar with diablolikes at large will find themselves unchallenged and never asked to think all that much. Similarly, there's none of the involved questing or sometimes-cryptic hints that define the second. It's dreadfully simple: clear a level, go down the stairs, and repeat until you're in hell.

That sounds simplistic and dry, but the huge void left by the mechanical side of things is filled by the gorgeous gothic environments and the soundtrack which are every bit as haunting and unique as D2's. As was always the case with this era of Blizzard, passion and polish ooze from every inch of this thing. Atmosphere makes this game, but that's not to say that it's "more atmospheric" than its successor. It's very possible to play Diablo 2 in a way that brings out these same feelings just as well, there's just so much other shit going on that many will never slow down and enjoy it all. In this one, though, there's no other choice, no distractions. It's all about tone, and when you step into hell and see the cold, genuinely disturbing gore that leaves just enough to the imagination to really cut deep, you GET Diablo.

I'm glad I went back and played this. I never really got into it as a kid and would quickly go back to the sequel, but there's certainly a lot to appreciate here and it deserves its place in history.

Great fun in that classic PC game way, but man does it become nonsense near the end. Amounts of ranged enemies that feel like a joke. I fired infinite health on for the last quarter to stop me abandoning it. Lovely hammy high fantasy is gradually finding it's way into my heart.

It's a strange thing to say, but all I can think of when I look at Diablo is The Legend of Mir. That was the first time I ever saw a game that looked this way. It used to get shown all the time on a Sky channel we had in the UK called GameNetwork. An Italian channel but all presented in English. They ran LoM footage constantly. I mind the presenter was always in her bare feet, but I'm sure that awakened nothing in young me.

At night the channel became Babestation.