I played Diablo

Diablo, another Blizzard original. Unlike their two “Craft” series Diablo is a top down dungeon crawler game. And it has a fairly simple control setup. It's doesn't take up much room, and is definitely important to the series as a whole. Though getting it to run on a modern system does require a DosBox.

You chose your class from three options (four if you got Sierra's Hellfire expansion) and are dropped into Tristram. A town that's more than down on it's luck, it's nearly dead. As you wander around you can talk to a few characters.

Deccard Cain: The lore expert, he can identify any magic and unique item for you, but he does charge. You'll probably speak to him most, and subsequently give him most of your money. If you ask about quests, he can get long winded. But if you've played the other games, you probably know this already.

Pepin: the healer. He's the local priest who sells healing potions, very important early in the game, not as much later when you start finding really good potions.

Adria: The witch, She sells mana potions, spells, magical staffs, basically your go to if you're using magic. While the Sorcerer gets a skill that restores magic charges on staffs when she does it she doesn't diminish it's total capacity, so go to her and pay the fee.

Griswold: The Blacksmith. He's your go to for most weapons and repairing. You'll want to check his stock often (particularly in the beginning) for powerful weapons and armor. Again, this usually becomes less necessary as you progress, but sometimes he can surprise you with something amazing.

Wirt: A peg legged kid who “finds” items to sell, but it'll cost you just to look at them. While he can have some amazing stuff, I generally found it's just not worth it. While many hate the kid, I pity him. He lost his leg as a result of torture by demons and was saved by Griswold. While he acts like he's over it, he's very cautious, and (apparently) cagy around people. He's short in stature and attitude and if it's not a transaction he's not interested. But that's because he want's to get enough money to leave Tristram in the dust.

Farnham: The Town Drunk. But before you think all he is is a drunk, it's made pretty clear that he has severe PTSD, which lead to his drinking. He went with the rescue group that Lazarus lead right into the lair of The Butcher (A demon that you may fight as part of a quest) before being saved by Griswold. (Seriously, Griswold's the biggest hero in Tristram.) Farnam can talk to you about quests or idle gossip, make a joke or two, or have flashbacks to his terrors. Pepin did everything he could for Farnham, but some wounds neither medicine nor magic can heal.

Gillian: The Barmaid. She's in Tristram caring for her ailing grandmother whom cannot leave. She's a good natured, caring person who's just trying to get by. She's heard a lot of stories growing up and is willing to share what she knows (or thinks) with you.

Ogden: The tavern owner. He's keeping the town together and alive as best he can, and is willing to share stories he's heard from the travelers coming through.

One big thing about this game that increases replay-ability is that it uses a random generator to build levels and populate from the available quests. Meaning that no two games are going to be the same. Sometimes you'll get a mission to kill the Butcher, sometime Leoric, occasionally both. And any number of small quests and big ones along the way.

This also goes for wells, shrines, rare and unique enemies and items. The limits are there, you're not going to get a cathedral level after you hit caves, and somethings only generate in certain areas won't show up if they haven't already. There is no standard map to use and the layout and size are different for each level. This can make it easier or really hard.

I've had the exit down to the next lever show up in the same room as the entrance to that level, and also had them pop up in the literal furthest possible locations from each other. Though I tend to play this game with a no stone unturned attitude so I clear the whole map anyway.

The classes affect how you play (I guess that's obvious.) The warrior fights fastest with melee weapons and tends to be better at taking hits. The archer, obviously, best with bows. And the sorcerer is slowest with weapons but can control areas with magic.

Now, every class can kind of do everything, it really depends on how you allocate the stat points you get at level up. Having a warrior that can heal himself, or leave a trail of fire behind him when he walks, is incredibly useful, but not what you should rely on for that class. I have beaten the game with a magic wielding warrior before, but that was much harder than using a sorcerer. However, the option is still there, and diversifying does help out more than you might miss out on if you were to specialize.

This isn't a short game either, while you start out in the cathedral you keep going further and further down. About every three levels you get to a new area and with each new area opening up a shortcut on the surface.

You continue this until eventually you get all the way down to hell. It's much closer to the surface than one may imagine, apparently. Finally, right near the end, you face off against Lazarus trying to save the king's son. Unfortunately you're too late, and the Prime Evil Diablo has taken control of the boy's body. You fight through demonic minions to get to Diablo before eventually slaying the monster. But the job is not yet done.

You pry the soulstone from the head of the creature, watching it revert back to the king's son watching him take his last breaths. And knowing that the evil must be contained in a living body, you make the final sacrifice, and ram the soulstone into your own forehead, convinced you can control that which a child could not.

You make your way to the surface, to wander.

(I know the picture is Diablo 2, but I found a better picture to use for that game. And not one really good enough for the original Diablo.)