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Reprinted from the September 1998 issue of Apple Wizards The Story of Diablo Centuries later, Diablo entered the nightmares of the Arch Bishop, Lazarus, of the kingdom of Khanduras and lured him into the deep labyrinths of the monastery where long ago, Diablo had been buried and forgotten about. Once freed, Diablo began to take control of other mortals to gain strength. With the king under his control, Diablo began wars, captured the souls of more mortals including the prince, and began using the prince as his embodiment. With complete control over the kingdom, Diablo brought terror once again into the hearts of the people. When the villagers of Tristam entered the ruins of the monastery to find the prince at the urging of the Arch Bishop (still under Diablo's control), the real slaughter began. You assume the role of a Sorcerer, Rogue, or Warrior (each with their own special abilities), who has just entered the town of Tristam. The few survivors of the slaughter tell you about the horrible atrocities that have occurred within the monastery since it was taken over by the forces of evil. Since all of Tristam's defenders have either been killed or are missing, your job is to enter the church and its sub-levels to defeat Diablo. To get there, you must also defeat the demons, and hellish creatures formed by the imagination of the prince under Diablo's control. The townspeople will tell you all that they know and great books within the monastery, long ago lost by the Horadrim, will help you on your way to destroy the Lord of Terror.
Gameplay
You will also notice that your character has the ability to resist fire,
lightning, or magic and lessen the damage done by other attacks and increase
the odds of making a hit on each strike as well depending on what kind
of weapons, shields, armor, rings, amulets, and helmets you choose to
use. Unlike many other games, there isn't necessarily a "best" weapon
for all purposes. Different creatures have different strengths and weaknesses.
By changing your clothing and weaponry, you can resist their attacks and
defeat them more effectively. All of your characteristics are intertwined
such that you must know your character well and quickly learn about your
enemies in order to survive.
More on the Weapons and Goods The same goes for other goods like scrolls and potions. You must keep them in your inventory as well to be successful. They give you the ability to improve your health, increase your Mana for magical spells, and give you the ability to perform magic that you may not normally be able to do (like launch fireballs or lightning at your foe, heal your wounds, or teleport back to Tristam). Adria and the healer Pepin will be happy to buy and sell them. Keep track of what you have, what you need, and what you should get rid of. You'll run out of inventory space sooner than you think.
Controlling Your Character
What About the Effects?
The music in Diablo is digitized and looped. Each level has its own unique music, which fits well with the surroundings and mood. In the Tristam monastery, the tunes are decidedly lighter melodies consisting of acoustic. They also range from distorted guitar and howling noises to the sound of sadistic laughter with more eerie music. I never got bored with the music, something that often happens when the music loops several times while on the same level for hours. It seemed that the deeper I got into the catacombs, the darker and more sinister the music became. Add to that, the evil sounds emanating from other creatures in the level and you get pulled into the game, heart pumping and nerves tingling.
The Death of Evil (I Think) This game is simply amazing. It's very complex as you can see but it doesn't require an hour of preparation before you fire it up; you can learn as you go. The variety of creatures, weapons, and spells alone would make this a great game. But it also has stunning graphics that change every level with accompanying music and sound effects, creating an entire atmosphere. With the quests both varied and non-linear (some quests cannot be achieved when you first learn of them and you can only attempt several quests at once), the randomly generated levels, and detailed story (which is fully described in the manual and is one of the best I've ever seen, with beautiful artwork and in-depth descriptions), I feel that this all sums up to a five-star rating. It blends both the intelligent, strategy-loving half of us with the brute "kill all of the bad guys" side.
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Title: Diablo 
Long
ago, the three prime evils: Mephisto (the Lord of Hatred), Baal (the Lord
of Destruction), and Diablo (the lord of Terror), were exiled to the mortal
earth after losing the war in Hell against the four lesser evils: Duriel
(Pain), Andariel (Anguish), Belial (Lies), and Azmodan (Sin). While on
the earth, the three prime evils brought about chaos and war to the mortal
world until the Horadrim, a secret order of mortal magi, were able to
capture them within powerful artifacts known a soulstones.
Diablo
is a real-time role-playing (not turn-based) game taking place during
medieval times. Your character's traits are based upon certain attributes:
strength, magic, vitality, and dexterity. The warrior possesses much strength,
the Rogue has a lot of dexterity, and the Sorcerer knows much of magic.
As your character gains experience, he/she will be able to increase those
attributes as you see fit. If you choose the warrior, you can continue
to increase strength and nothing else so that you can inflict more damage
with more powerful weapons. However, it may be more wise to balance out
the attributes so that you can use a wider range of weapons effectively.
The
weapons in this game are bows, staffs, swords, and clubs. Each can have
varying durabilities, requirements, magical properties, damage probabilities,
and effectiveness on different creatures. You can buy, sell, and repair
weapons from Griswold, the blacksmith in town and recharge some by visiting
the witch Adria just outside of town. Since you have an inventory of limited
size, you may need to ditch a good weapon to make room for a better one.
It's best to create a stash to which you can return to change your weapons,
armor, and shields when necessary. A hint for you: you can cut the flesh,
but you must crush the bone.
Diablo
uses a mixture of keyboard and mouse commands throughout the game. The
mouse controls movement and attack, while the keyboard contains "hot keys"
for faster navigation and special weapon controls. Since Diablo was originally
created for Windows 95 and NT, it was designed for a two buttoned mouse.
For the Mac version, you use the command key with the mouse click to achieve
the same thing. I set my Kensington Orbit for the right button feature
and it worked flawlessly. Still, gameplay with the command key isn't a
hindrance.
I
found the visual and audio effects to be excellent. While not accelerated
for 3dfx or RAVE, the graphics are stunning and only suffer from slight
pixellation when zoomed in (hot key "z"). However, Diablo doesn't have
the full 3D panorama, a là Myth, which allows you to rotate 360š around
as well as in and out. However, you don't have to have a powerful computer
to have smooth-scrolling graphics. Since the game runs on any PowerMac
with 16 or more MB RAM, just about anyone who bought a Mac in the last
few years will see quality graphics and good performance. Gameplay was
completely smooth and the only wait time was between levels as it read
from the CD (which takes a few seconds). I noticed no lagging of graphics
or skipping of music on the PowerMac 6500 that served as my primary test
machine.
