Which is the best Diablo game of all time?
How do you say which of the 3 Diablo games that span a massive 16 years between the first and last is the best? It's a really good question.
To put in context, the year the original Diablo was released, there were still games being released for the SNES. Even if you look at the top end PCs for gaming a year after Diablo was released, the reviewers at PC Gamer were going mental over a machine that had 128MB of RAM and twin Hard drives that could hold a whopping 4.5 gigabytes of data each...4.5 gigs, and ran Windows 95. You need to think about that for a minute. Fast forward sixteen years later and to install Diablo 3 on your machine now, you need a free 25 gigs on your hard drive and a recommended 4 gigs of RAM to play the game.
But obviously there could be no Diablo 3 without Diablo 2, and no Diablo 2 without the original. So how do you decide which is the best of all Diablo games? You make list and you measure it out.
Things to be aware of:
You can’t judge any or all Diablo games without their expansions. All Diablo games were good for their time. Saying one Diablo was better than another is like trying to figure out which one of the Spice Girls you wanted to get with back in the day. (That’s me making another point about the length of years between Diablo, and Diablo 3.)
16 levels of Hell
3. Diablo. (1996/97)
Expansion: Diablo: Lords of Hellfire. (1997)
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to slaughter we go
Back in January 1997, Gamespot declared Diablo to be ‘the best game to come out in the past year, and you should own a copy. Period.’ Diablo was something of a revolution when it was first released. The idea of randomly generated levels was completely new to me, and to most other gamers out there at the time. Blizzard were legends in the gaming community even then. Their back catalogue already included the original two Warcraft games, so they had a reputation to keep up. They didn’t disappoint with Diablo. Sure, there were only three classes, but at the time it was: ‘OMG there’s three classes!’ Not that it really mattered.
Choosing between the Rogue, Warrior, or Sorcerer didn’t really seem to affect anything. Any character could pretty much use any weapon or item, and you could respec whenever you felt like it. Diablo was a game that is perhaps best remembered for its atmosphere and the way the claustrophobic dungeons left you feeling. It was all shock and horror, and good storytelling. There was always a sense of disquiet, strange noises from all around and the way you had to step over bloodied corpses to move forward. The soundtrack was amazing as well.
Combat was frenetic to say the least, a maelstrom of frantic button clicking, potion drinking mayhem, never sure if any fight was going to be your last. There were skeletons, demons, demon dogs, and of course Succubus’s as well. But it was the loot drops and the levelling that kept me coming back for more; the feeling that your character was always getting stronger, more powerful, more able to deal out death as you progressed through the underworld.
Diablo was one of the most popular multiplayer games ever released up to that point. Playing online was still a relatively new thing back in ‘97, but Diablo was at the forefront of the multiplayer revolution. The Hellfire expansion introduced the new Monk character, a host of new monsters, and some new levels. But unlike the Lords of Destruction for Diablo 2, it merely added some improvements and eliminated some minor annoyances of the original. But it was a must for single player addicts, as multiplayer wasn’t an option for the expansion.
Potions, check! Candles...candles? Anyone?
But what was the greatest thing about Diablo?
Diablo introduced us to Sanctuary, and of course the grand evil one, Diablo himself. I practically jumped the first time I met ‘The Butcher.’
You see this game was before most of us had something like meaningful internet connections, so it wasn’t like we could browse and find out what it was all about beforehand. The bosses when they appeared were real surprises, and that’s a rare thing to find in a game these days. Oh and of course I should mention the in game movies. Gamers played Diablo as much to see them as they did for the loot. Diablo also set the standard for an army of clones in that they all to one form another tried to replicate its success and addictiveness. They mostly failed.
But, and it’s a big BUT: it’s not the same if you go back and play it now. Diablo hasn't aged well, but it was a genre defining moment in gaming.
Rating:
Diablo: 3/5*
Diablo: Lords of Hellfire: 3.5/5
Faster Bigger Harder: A new millennium, a new Diablo.
2. Diablo 2 (2000)
Expansion: Diablo 2: Lords of Destruction. (2001)
Behind you, no your other behind
It wasn’t the magnificent game many now remember with rose tinted glasses. If anything, it was an improvement on the original but wasn’t really anything all that different. It was an addictive game that improved on the original a lot time, but like the original hasn't necessarily aged all that well over the years either. The cut scenes were as good as ever though.
Blizzard created a new engine for Diablo 2 which got rid of level loading but because of the vapid slow internet restrictions of the early 2000’s the once vaunted battle.net, nixed the resolution to 640x480 which kind of sucked. The game was good though. While not as scary as the original, and definitely more fantasy based than horror, the legacy of the original ensured that over 250,000 games were pre-ordered before it was released. It was not however until the Lords of Destruction expansion that it became a great game. Lords of Destruction became the fastest selling expansion in PC history to that point.
For future reference, when a Lord of Hell comes to your front door, don't open it, and pretend you're not in.
Lords of destruction turned Diablo 2 from a decent game into a really good one. This was the fabled fifth chapter that Diablo 2 had been missing. It made Diablo 2 now feel truly epic in its creation. The full on orchestral music soundtrack made a welcome return as well, replacing the almost subdued music that had come with the original. It also added two new player classes, which was nice. It even allowed for the resolution to go up to 800x600! Woo hoo! The expansion also did a lot of in game tweaking with what seemed most notable at the time, the doubling of inventory space. You could also ‘socket’ items which gave your weapons elemental effects too, which was a nice touch. By far the thing I remember most about the expansion however was the increased difficulty setting Blizzard included. Nightmare and Hell difficulty were a joy if sometimes frustrating road to travel down. There were new monsters, and a new end game boss to fight, There was also a skills overhaul which balanced the system better.
It was a big game at the time and rose tinted glasses seem to have people forgetting the issues that came with it. Diablo 2 wasn’t as original as the original, but it was an improvement, and gave the fans what they wanted. Fans played it for years after it was released. Diablo 2 had many competitors, but none matched it and when anything similar popped up over the years, Diablo 2 was always the benchmark against which they were measured which is testament to just how good this game was
Rating:
Diablo 2: 4/5
Diablo 2: Lords of Destruction: 4.3/5
After years of waiting, Diablo returned…..and gamers were ready.
3. Diablo 3 (2012)
Expansion: Reaper of Souls (2014)
Man goats, the eternal plague of fantasy gaming
When Diablo 3 was released it became the fastest selling PC game of all time. How much was expectation. How much was reality? Give the players what they want. Blizzard did. They gave them loot. Lots of loot. It is the heart of Diablo 3. It’s just a shame players were made to wait eleven years for it. The hype surrounding Diablo 3 was intense. It had to live up to expectations. And in many respects, it has. Graphically, it’s good, and multiplayer is the best it’s been in any of the games, and combat is reminiscent of the previous two games, if more tactical. One type of attack can’t get you through the entire game anymore though but the game still feels like it was designed to keep you up until after 2 am every night. I think as well Blizzard finally managed to get the inventory and skills management just right. It’s no longer the chore it sometimes used to feel like in its predecessors to keep on top of everything. The movies are still there as well, which as you’d expect from Blizzard, are fricking incredible and some players may even find themselves trying to gain progress just to see them. I know I did.
Sonic Boom! Damn, wrong game, sorry, I'll get my coat
But there were two things about DIablo 3 that almost ruined the game. The need for having to always be online has really annoyed me and my friends, and in fact anyone I know who’s ever played it. And that was the real money Auction House. You have to wonder what Blizzard were thinking. It was pay to win, and it cut to the core and incensed many of Diablo’s fans. The essence of Diablo 2’s success was farming for the famed legendary rare items that you wanted. The Diablo 3 Auction House ruined that. Using the Auction House became a way for anyone with spare real world $$$ to progress ahead of others in game. Diablo 3 lost many of its long term fans due to the inequities of the Auction House, and while it’s been consigned to history now, it’s still a bone of contention. My friend spat when I mentioned the ‘Auction House’ yesterday. He’s still bitter about the experience. It’s been 12 months. Let it go.
Reaper of Souls became the first expansion for Diablo 3, and now you have to fight a new bad guy, Malthael, the angel of death. The most notable thing about Reaper of Souls is the new Crusader class, a nice addition to the selectable heroes. The adventure mode is also good, especially if you only have fifteen minutes to spare. Reaper of Souls hasn’t been the genre game changer that Lords of Destruction was for Diablo 2. It’s more of the same, with a few improvements, but it does include the best chapter in any of the games so far. The additions that Reaper of Souls finally transformed Diablo 3 into something close to what I wanted in the game all along. The atmosphere is more sinister, and with no Auction House any more, the game is better than ever.
Diablo 3: 3.5 / 5* (Stupid always online necessity and f***** Auction House.)
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls: 4.8 / 5 * (Finally, the game everyone wanted.)
No, I refuse to have my picture at the bottom of this article
Conclusions:
It was a tough choice to make.
When I started this I thought instantly I would end up with Diablo 2: Lords of Destruction would be the best of all Diablo games, but it just isn’t, anymore. When I dug into my gaming past, I realised, if anything, the reason Diablo2 is so revered is because there was over a decade between it and Diablo 3: That was ten years of Diablo fans waiting and replaying the same game over and over. Each game was also an improvement over its predecessor, so each release was better than the last.
But in the end, I had to go with Diablos 3. Of course I did. Yes the Auction House had issues, and always online is a real b**** to contend with, but most games these days require that. It’s the world we live in. But that’s the point. If I had to choose the one I want to play tonight, it’s Diablo 3, and that’s all there is to it…
