I just started today, and wow, this game is amazing. I play a Sorceror, and it is quite difficult. I'm on level 3 now.

The game is kind of different from Diablo II, it has a lot more atmosphere. And the difficulty is far higher. I was lucky enough to find 2 Charged Bolt tomes, which makes life a lot easier (Spam! Spam! Spam!)

The battle against the butcher was amazing, if somewhat excessively difficult. And the Skeleton King's tomb is great, it almost gave me goosebumps, you really feel petty while walking around in those dungeons.


Yeah, this game is really great.

Glad to hear you're enjoying this gem! Sorcerer is definitely the most difficult to start but in the long run will be the most powerful. As for the goosebumps I remember playing when I was young and being absolutely freaked out every time I was forced to go down to the next level because I constantly felt like Diablo himself could pop out of any given corner!

But I never felt any kind of fear playing Diablo 2 because it is just so chronological and repetitive (quest progression and acts) so I hope Diablo 3 brings back some of the 'darkness' and definitely more randomness. Not that I don't love Diablo 2 and haven't been killing time waiting for 1.13 since April...Here's hoping for December....or the supposedly Epic Tuesday we are going to see this week from Blizzard...

Aaahhh, fresh meat!

I completely agree, while Diablo II has other benefits (run speed!), Diablo I has a much better atmosphere. I reached the butcher when it was 1 AM, I had the lights turned off and boy, did he freak me out there.

Glad you like it! It's a game you shouldn't miss.

Hmm, its been a very long time indeed since I've played Diablo 1...
I remember It was definitely difficult and fun to play. Glad to see a new face to the crowd of D1 hope you do well. It should be well worth it. Hope to see you on many a happy return to D1.

Contrast :]

after-thought: (out of curiosity)
I may sincerely return to playing it again, but how many do play now on the "ol' bnet"? I of course would be starting fresh since this is my fifth computer and would need to re-install it. Wonder if I'm going to need a patch too, probably since Ive got DSL now I will indeed. I guess that I'll figure this out after my re-install.

Yargh, I've got a 21" widescreen, is there any way to make the aspect ratio correct?

The game is kind of different from Diablo II, it has a lot more atmosphere. And the difficulty is far higher. I was lucky enough to find 2 Charged Bolt tomes, which makes life a lot easier (Spam! Spam! Spam!)


YES! This game is better than d2 just because of that aspect. I felt i needed a bible and cross as i descended deeper into the earth.

And i think thats one thing that created this atmosphere. The fact that there were no open areas, you just go lower and lower and theres no way out. creepy.

after-thought: (out of curiosity)
I may sincerely return to playing it again, but how many do play now on the "ol' bnet"? I of course would be starting fresh since this is my fifth computer and would need to re-install it. Wonder if I'm going to need a patch too, probably since Ive got DSL now I will indeed. I guess that I'll figure this out after my re-install.I honestly would not bother with b.net. If you are really hang up on multiplayer, a better option might be to find some like-minded people (here, for instance) to play with, but last I heard, Blizzard offers almost no support for Diablo I battlenet and it is hacked to pieces.

Wonderful, fixing the aspect ratio was as simple as ticking a box in CCC.

Wonderful, fixing the aspect ratio was as simple as ticking a box in CCC.
CCC? Elaborate please, as I'm sure this would be useful for others. Does this let you play in windowed mode at all?

Anyone who has CCC should know about it. Catalyst Control Center. It's basically a huge control panel for ATI cards, it comes whenever you buy one.


I don't think you can kick it into windowed mode, though.


Whoah, Leoric's goons dealt with. Undead crown sold for a good 4.5k or so. Found some nice stuff too; a Tome of Healing, and, crazily enough, a Tome of Fire Wall. Holy crap, this spell is MONSTROUS.

Whoah, Leoric's goons dealt with. Undead crown sold for a good 4.5k or so. Found some nice stuff too; a Tome of Healing, and, crazily enough, a Tome of Fire Wall. Holy crap, this spell is MONSTROUS.Crazily enough? What's so crazy about it? :)

Anyway, gotta love opening a door to discover the room is full of monsters, casting a few firewalls in the room and then closing the door to hear the death cries and the loot drops. Ah, I am going to install the game again.

I never really used flamewave much when I used to play D, mainly because I played multiplayer and flamewaves speed, gappy behaviour, lower damage and higher mana made it inferior to high slvl fireballs.

However flamewave is very effective in single player, where the monsters all have 1/2 the HP of MP (technically MP monsters have 2* HP). You can clear out the entire chamber of bone with 1 flame-wave - much faster than firewall or any other method, including chain lightning.

Crazily enough? What's so crazy about it? :)

Anyway, gotta love opening a door to discover the room is full of monsters, casting a few firewalls in the room and then closing the door to hear the death cries and the loot drops. Ah, I am going to install the game again.

Well, it dropped off a random monster rather than a book stand. But otherwise, nothing in particular.

On dlvl 10 now. Finally ended up powershopping a book of Mana Shield. Somewhat frustratingly, she also had an Arch-Angels Staff of Wizardry (+25) in the stock, but at three times my current gold. Grr.

Current gear:
Cap of the Jaguar (+20)
Arkaine's Valor
Axe of the Stars (+9)
Ring of the Moon (+6)
Ring of the Mind (+10)

Spells of note: Fireball (Bought), Chain Lightning (Got from Zhar, well, more like forced), Fire Wave, Mana Shield.


EDIT: Whew! Big D himself dealt and done with. Wasn't too difficult, I just had to spam Fireball. Final gear was something like this:
Weapon: Jade Staff (+29%)
Armor: Garnet Armor of the Wolf (+54%, +30something, IIRC)
+magic rings
Still +20 health cap

One of the more interesting items I found was an Obsidian Shield of the Wolf. Might come into use.
Also, I found not one single amulet. Shame.

Re-edit: Ugh. Should have bought Teleport when I could. Now I'll have to trek down to 12 by foot to get it...

Its always great to see new people back to Diablo. I was still playing it for two years after DII was released. Just reading the posts here and that creepy feeling overwhelmed me again. Yes, the atmosphere is much darker/better than DII and I really hope DIII will bring it back...at least in some respect.

OP, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I have a friend who's more of a DII fan than I am, I got him persuaded to play D1 and he initially liked it, but ultimately, the lack of all the neat DII specific features turned him off :/

So it's nice to actually see a DII fan give the first game a try and falling in love with it - welcome to the Dungeon brother! ;)

I came across a PS1 version of Diablo today in Computer Exchange.

I may go buy tomorrow - always wanted to play the first game.

edit: got it. Griswold tries too hard to sound like braveheart. :P

I came across a PS1 version of Diablo today in Computer Exchange.

I may go buy tomorrow - always wanted to play the first game.

edit: got it. Griswold tries too hard to sound like braveheart. :P

Griswold easily has the best voice acting and dialouge in the game.

"If I could bend steel as well as Cain could bend yer ear, I could make ya a mighty fine armor!"

I'm a DII fan that finally got D1 to work on Vista. I'm hooked. Also, I haven't found any tomes on Level 1 as a rogue...am I just missing the bookcases? or is it normal to not find any. I'd kill for a TP tome right now...

Level 1 usually contains no tomes from my experience.

It's entirely possible to get books/tomes on Dlvl1. However, having said that, there are never any boss monsters on dlvl 1, which are a source of books. Also dlvl 1 is smaller than all other levels in the game, around about 60% the size of the rest of the church levels, so the number of rooms that spawns is lower, hence a lower chance of getting libraries to spawn than later dungeon levels, particularly if the level spawns with 2 or 3 of the large rooms with the 4 pillars in them.

Also you won't see town portal books until about dlvl 4 or 5, certainly not dlvl 1 (firebolt, holy bolt and possibly charged bolt and healing only on dlvl 1).

There's a quest that can get you as much as 3 spell books, too. I generally manipulate it until I get chain lightning or Fireball.

Really? Which quest is that?

Zhar the Mad. He gives you a book when you talk to him, a book when you kill him and book from the bookcase he guards.