In preparation for the Darkening of Tristram event in Diablo III, I jumped back into the original to try and get some perspective on how gaming has changed over the past 20 years. The biggest thing I learned? I'm a lot better at playing games than I used to be.
I made it as far as the Butcher before giving up completely. It was years later before I played Diablo II with one of my buddies in college, and at that point I was hooked. But there's always been this nagging sense in the back of my mind that because I skipped D1, I'd missed something important.
Turns out I had. And if you haven't played D1 or the Diablo Anniversary Event in Diablo III, I won't spoil it for you. But more than just catching me up on the lore of the Diablo universe, this anniversary event I think shows us something remarkable about game development over time. Something that we don't get to see as clearly as this very often.
Video game fans are incredibly loyal.
Few game developers have been around long enough to really capitalize on that, and even fewer seem to have realized it can be incredibly effective. You can bet your yellow socks (because I know how much you like those) that id Software knows. Just look at 2016's DOOM. That wasn't a soulless reboot like we see a lot these days in Hollywood. It was a lovingly crafted ode to the genre defining original FPS's that id Software released.
Efforts like that wrap a franchise in a preservative blanket of nostalgia, bringing old fans back in and introducing new fans to the concept that hooked their parents. There is a heap of people on the D3 servers right now who only bought the third game so they could revisit the cathedral dungeon from the first game, so you can bet it's a profitable blanket as well.
But they also knew that it was important, and it still can be. And what this does is show us where we came from, allowing us to compare it directly to what we now have. Diablo 1 was a blast in the late 90's, and it paved the way for two additional games that were also both a blast. And experiencing an approximation of that old glory sets off just how brilliant the sequels are. It's made me fall in love with the Diablo games and the world of Sanctuary all over again.
I think Blizzard made a great call with this little celebration of where we've come from. No remaster, no money-grab. Just an event for all their Diablo fans to enjoy, remembering or learning about the franchise's past. It's excellent fun, and I'd recommend it to any fan of any of the three games.
And for anyone who's never played Diablo before but wonders whether twenty years of active support and development was justified, guess what? Diablo III is just as good a place to pick things up as the first game was.
I'll see you on the servers.
I noodled around in town for a few minutes before descending into the dungeon and dying almost immediately. Over and over againThat's probably not terribly surprising. When I first tried Diablo out I was a little teenager who'd never played anything like it before. I didn't have a manual to read, or anybody around to show me what I was supposed to be doing, so I noodled around in town for a few minutes before descending into the dungeon and dying almost immediately. Over and over again.
I made it as far as the Butcher before giving up completely. It was years later before I played Diablo II with one of my buddies in college, and at that point I was hooked. But there's always been this nagging sense in the back of my mind that because I skipped D1, I'd missed something important.
Turns out I had. And if you haven't played D1 or the Diablo Anniversary Event in Diablo III, I won't spoil it for you. But more than just catching me up on the lore of the Diablo universe, this anniversary event I think shows us something remarkable about game development over time. Something that we don't get to see as clearly as this very often.
Video game fans are incredibly loyal.
Few game developers have been around long enough to really capitalize on that, and even fewer seem to have realized it can be incredibly effective. You can bet your yellow socks (because I know how much you like those) that id Software knows. Just look at 2016's DOOM. That wasn't a soulless reboot like we see a lot these days in Hollywood. It was a lovingly crafted ode to the genre defining original FPS's that id Software released.
Efforts like that wrap a franchise in a preservative blanket of nostalgia, bringing old fans back in and introducing new fans to the concept that hooked their parents. There is a heap of people on the D3 servers right now who only bought the third game so they could revisit the cathedral dungeon from the first game, so you can bet it's a profitable blanket as well.
It's excellent fun, and I'd recommend it to any fan of any of the three gamesIt's important to recognize that in this Blizzard has not given us a remastered version of D1. The game plays like D3, but it's been downgraded visually and audibly to look and sound more like D2, while the dungeon and bosses have been reformed to resemble D1. I think that Blizzard devs did what I did leading up to this; they pulled out an old computer that could run the original Diablo, played through it, and realized that this game isn't as fun as its younger siblings.
But they also knew that it was important, and it still can be. And what this does is show us where we came from, allowing us to compare it directly to what we now have. Diablo 1 was a blast in the late 90's, and it paved the way for two additional games that were also both a blast. And experiencing an approximation of that old glory sets off just how brilliant the sequels are. It's made me fall in love with the Diablo games and the world of Sanctuary all over again.
I think Blizzard made a great call with this little celebration of where we've come from. No remaster, no money-grab. Just an event for all their Diablo fans to enjoy, remembering or learning about the franchise's past. It's excellent fun, and I'd recommend it to any fan of any of the three games.
And for anyone who's never played Diablo before but wonders whether twenty years of active support and development was justified, guess what? Diablo III is just as good a place to pick things up as the first game was.
I'll see you on the servers.
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