Diablo

« A feast of atmospheric entertainment. While it might tire after a while, you'll likely get your money's worth long before that point, and moreso if you venture into the chaos that is Battle.net, where life takes on a whole new meaning and the hours slip mysteriously away. Diablo is a landmark game. »

« About as close to Hell as you're going to get - whether you believe in it or not. Everything about this game just rules and it will blow you away. The gameplay is the easiest I've ever come across in an RPG which is just fantastic. »

« Diablo is the perfect example of a game that transcends its genre. »

« The hundreds of beautifully rendered monstrosities, items and labyrinths will keep you on your toes for months. Blizzard is also one of the first software companies to offer FREE MULTI-PLAYER GAMING. »

« By far the shortest RPG I've ever played. Surprisingly, this may be one of its strengths. An RPG that only takes about thirty hours (or much less if you are experienced) to play is easy to play again. And Diablo has serious replayability virtues. [Grade = A+] »

« Hands-down, the best game I've seen in years...The fantastic design, intuitive gameplay, spectacular graphics, inspired music and sound effects, sheer number of monsters and unique items, and the free Battle.net service put Diablo at a high level of excellence that future releases may never reach. »

« A title that combines the elegant simplicity of an action game and the addictive storyline of an adventure game with the personalization and exploratoration of an old-school RPG... The best game to come out in the past year, and you should own a copy. Period. »

« RPG fans have waited for this one for a long time, and they won't be disappointed. [March 1997, p.102] »

« Diablo have been acknowledged for a long time as a pioneer game of the action role-playing genre, and more precisely, the hack and slash subgenre. Of course, the game is now almost 30 years old. It can not compete against modern games. But when you see Diablo through the lenses of the 90's, you understand how it came to be seen as a revolution in the role playing genre. Everything is already here, at an infant state. While turn-based role-playing games were standard during the 90's, Diablo came with a whole new gameplay, focused on instantaneous action. After 30 years, the gameplay has become rigid and limited, but for that time, it brought a sense of fluidity that had never been seen before in the role-playing genre. Besides, the atmosphere, grim and frightening, put an emphasis to the thrill you get while exploring, and, to me, it has never been equaled in the series after the first opus. The game mechanics were very basic, with simple character stats and few ways to customize your build. While the three classes felt different, only the Sorcerer would get some variety in his gameplay. A real masterclass for its time, Diablo is still quite enjoyable to play in 2026. »

« I sent Diablo feedback to make the game zoomed out to see more things in the screen and not only what's close to the player's on screen body, and they apparently didn't listen, at least being able to zoom in and out and make it work well both ways, right now the game is awful for me and not like NOX from Westwood which is epic and played it ~15 times. »

« (PS1 version) What an incredible flawless amazing experience! Still holds up today perfectly well. Better than 90 percent of the games out there. Sooo good! I just can’t express how amazing is this masterpiece! Everything is incredible . From the story to the visuals , from the voice acting to the music is just 10/10. There’s nothing I can say other than perfect. Wow just wow!! »

« The original dungeon crawler! Has a lot of really cool atmosphere. Games a little barebones but whatever. »

« The OG iso-dungeon crawler! This game is a must have for any 90s RPG player! Nothing plays quite like the original! »

« Honestly, considering the fact that this game is a year older than me (so it's basically an ancient fossil), I had more fun with it than I thought I would, but it still isn't really that outstanding of an experience in 2025. I have basically no incentive to distrust anyone that tells me this game was a game changer back when it was released. Ignoring the fact that it basically pioneered an entire new genre of game into existence, almost three decades after its release Diablo still oozes its oppressive atmosphere every second that you're playing it. From the downright demented soundtrack that only shows glimpses of levity in the hub town to the fact that you never see a single ray of sunshine, Diablo is dark, bleak, and haunting even to this day. On the gameplay side of things, a lot of this game really doesn't feel that great to play. Left-clicking on enemies a bunch while hopefully having a door to funnel them through is about the extent of gameplay variety. And the few spells that I did manage to cast with my warrior character really didn't feel all that satisfying to cast. Hell, I don't even know if I hit anything with them. Again, keep in mind that I'm saying these things in the context of an almost 30-year-old game, but you can just feel that Diablo was made in an era of games where difficulty was used to prop up the runtime. From rooms where every single square spawns an archer to the spam fest of blood knights in the final few levels, Diablo shows the player no mercy. Even if they get softlocked, the game might as well just respond with, "Too bad, time to start a new character and do all of that all over again." And while I may respect the game with all my heart, that doesn't change the fact that I didn't have a particularly good time with it, which is the basis for all of my reviews. »

« (As for some reason Metacritic cannot rate PlayStation 1 version this is a review of PS1 version. Sorry!) Couch-co-op dungeon crawling will always feel like magic.I’m not a big fan of hack & slash games, but I’ve always loved the first Diablo and playing it cooperatively on a single console. Strangely, you can play Diablo 1, 3, and 4 in couch co-op — but not Diablo 2. And for some reason, the PlayStation version of Diablo 1 has never been properly re-released. Which is a shame, because it’s a genuinely good ****, the interface is slow, and the framerate tanks when you open the map. And yes, you should ideally use a controller that emulates analog movement. But at its core, this is still the original Diablo: the horror, the atmosphere, the action built on top of proto-turn-based logic, the foundation of the **** PS1 version adds its own flavor: new visual effects, different pacing due to controller limitations, a unique co-op feel, and a quirky save system that lets you store your character and campaign separately (and exploit it if you want to). It has aged, mostly in terms of technical quality and quality-of-life features. But in story, music, and raw gameplay feel, I still consider it the best version of Diablo — and, alongside a few PC mods, the most interesting way to experience the game today. »

« A landmark game that while being dated now, popularised and set the groundwork for many of the isometric RPG's that followed. »