Beware all ye who enter, you might lose your humanity...
User Rating: 9.5 | Diablo: Battle Chest PC
...but not to demonic powers, rather to the addictive nature of Diablo, and this covers all the aspects of Diablo. This is a game, like most games by Blizzard, that have withstood the test of time and prove that simple gameplay, and complex character developement meld together to make an incredible journey to Hell and back. The storyline is simple: Diablo walks again as the warrior who defeated him, and now seeks to release his brothers, and only you can stop him. This story may be simple, and there are few twists, but the gothic setting and the sense that all is doomed help keep the pace moving to the end. The range of environments are diverse, to the green plains of the Roguelands, to the frozen north of the Barbarian Wastlelands. The color palette is colourful, but the dark side of colourful. The gameplay is where this game really shines. It is simple, the movement is controlled by mouse, and you click where you want to go, or who you want to attack, or what you want to pick up. The addictive nature comes in the form of what is now considered the "Level and Loot Grindfest". You basically plod on to the next level, which feels rewarding in and of itself, and you kill to collect the next best artifact, which can be anything due to the random generation of items with prefix and suffix titles, and two word names to the rare items. The artifacts and Set Pieces are pretty static, but there are so many that it feels as randomly named as that Vermillion Plate Mail of Health. The levels may be the only ones to ever be convincingly and randomly generated. They range in all sizes, and can have a bunch of decorations littering the environment, mostly the loot bins like chests and corpses, but can also have dead bodies and blood stains that each look unique. This game proves that a franchise years old can withstand the ultimate test of time. If you are looking for something to tide over for Diablo 3, what better game than the one it is based off of. All others are great pretenders to the throne.
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