The Great Wait for Diablo III: Series Origins

The first installment to Hellforge’s new “The Great Wait for Diablo III” feature series gives us a quick history lesson on Blizzard’s original Diablo.

The brainchild of David Brevik (who later left Blizzard for Flagship Studios), the gameplay of Diablo was heavily influenced by rogue-likes and dungeon crawlers alike, but the one key feature that would truly set it apart from all the rest would be its implementation of real-time combat. Only a minimal amount of player interaction was ever required-playing the game was a simply a matter of pointing and clicking and watching your character perform actions in real time. Though simple, the direct feedback would prove to be a draw. Each of the player’s clicks felt purposeful and driven-the click of a mouse button was equivalent to the swing of an axe that cleaved a monster in twain. Visceral could only be one of many terms to describe the experience.

As an RPG, Diablo lacked in complexity, but its simplicity was also its greatest asset. Generally speaking, role-playing games aren’t well known for their low barrier of entry. Burdened by pages upon pages of statistics and numbers, games that belonged to the genre prior to Diablo’s popularity and subsequent influence were among the most inaccessible titles. Diablo was to be the paradigm shift in the development of the genre. It took the RPG back to its roots with the introduction of four very basic character stats that governed the rest of the character’s strengths and weaknesses and built the rest of the game upon this strong, but basic foundation. Its successor and sequel would continue to build upon this foundation with the implementation of skills, customizable items and distinct character classes with unique looks and abilities, where previously the Diablo’s classes were mere templates for a base character.