Video games - Diablo

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	Video games - Diablo

Diablo is a Hack and slash action-adventure game released by Blizzard Entertainment and developed by Blizzard North, released on November 30, 1996.

Overview

In this hack and slash game, the central goal is to slay the many demons summoned by Diablo, the Lord of Terror, in a sixteen-level "labyrinth" underneath the small town of Tristram, and ultimately confront Diablo himself. Diablo contains replayability because of its randomly generated levels, which are in turn randomly populated with monsters that drop random items imbued with random magical properties.

Diablo in many ways resembles roguelike games, the main differences being more realistic graphics (utilizing DirectX) and the fact the game is in real time, rather than turn based.

Its popular sequel and its subsequent expansion pack extend the gameplay through additions such as new character classes, monsters, items, quests, areas, and plot. The latest installment, the expansion pack for Diablo II
, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
has a huge online gaming community, complete with a primitive gameworld economy due to the rarity of most of the popular items.

Classes

The three character classes of Diablo are the warrior, rogue, and sorcerer. Each character, following typical role-playing conventions, has his or her own particular traits. The warrior possesses physical strength, the rogue is very agile, and the sorcerer is oriented towards magic. However, unlike modern class-based games, character's abilities are not unique; a warrior can use spells and a sorcerer can use a bow.

Warrior: The warrior is a powerful melee fighter, master of weapons of war and capable of enduring more damage than any of the other classes. Seeking fortune and glory, warriors come to Tristram every day to challenge the dark unknown in the subterranean labyrinth. They are not necessarily of any particular clan or group and range from barbarians from the northern highlands to noble paladins. Warriors are able to repair their equipment at the cost of diminishing maximum durability. The amount of maximum durability lost with use decreases as character level increases. Given this lost durability, most players opt instead to pay for non-destructive repairs in town for equipment they will be using in the long-term.

Rogue: The Sisters of the Sightless Eye are the best archers in the world of Sanctuary and the rogue therefore is master of killing enemies from a distance. They can have a higher level of magic than warriors and thus are able to make good use of magic in their battles, although not nearly as well as sorcerers. Willing to test their skills against the evil in the labyrinth, where untold riches are rumored to be stashed, rogues have come from the far east to Tristram. Rogues have the ability to spot doors, chests and sarcophagi that have traps are able to disarm them. The chance to successfully disarm a trap increases with the character's dexterity attribute.

Sorcerer: A powerful master of the arcane arts, the sorcerer is the hero that is able to achieve the greatest heights of magic, so that he never really has need of physical weapons - he can kill his enemies solely with magic, whether it would be balls and walls of fire or powerful bolts of lightning. Eager to gather knowledge about demons and see them slain, sorcerer acolytes of the Vizjerei mage clan have come to Tristram - seeking to discover long lost tomes of magic knowledge under the cathedral. The sorcerer is able to recharge magic staves at the cost of the maximum number of charges. The amount of maximum charges lost with use decreases as character level increases. As per the warrior class's skill, this is less-used in late-game and with equipment used in the long-term.

Character Attributes

The four numerical character attributes in Diablo affect the characters' combat statistics which in turn determine how powerful the character is. With each level up, five points may be distributed among the "Base" attributes to permanently increase them at the player's choice. They may also be modified by elixirs and magical shrines encountered in the game. Various magical items acquired in game increase the effective character attributes "Now" (while these items are being used).

Strength affects the amount of damage the character may deal in melee combat. Advanced armor and weapons have minimum Strength requirements.
Magic affects the amount of mana the character has (see Character Statistics). Magic affects the chance of a spell striking its target. Also, many spells are affected in some way (such as damage dealt or duration) by the Magic attribute. Spellbooks, staves, and many scrolls have minimum Magic requirements.
Dexterity affects the chance of hitting enemies in combat and the chance of being hit by enemies. It also increases the amount of damage dealt by ranged attacks (for the Rogue only). Advanced bows have minimum Dexterity requirements.
Vitality affects the Life statistic of the character (see Character Statistics). It also determines how much damage a monster needs to deal in order to kill the character.

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Video games - Diablo

Overview

Classes

Character Attributes

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