From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

On 2022-01-03, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, 02 Jan 2022 16:37:41 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

https://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&boardid=1&threadid=243910

I still remember downloading and playing its 50 (EXE)/56 (zipped) MB
demo file that took several hours in my college dorm back in
(19(96/97)). It was worth it since I got addicted! And then, I had my >>suite mate buy it for me from Fry's Electronics (RIP :~() store! Again, >>worth it and oops addicting again. ;)

I only played "Diablo" some time after its release. It wasn't a 'real'
CRPG, after all; it was just some 'dumbed down' action-RPG hybrid.
When I finally did pick it up, it was in part to see what all the hype
was about, but probably more because of its procedural-generation
technology.

I can't say my opinion of the game was changed much by actually
playing the title; its superficial narrative, lack of any real
character interactions and bewildering (to me, anyway) focus on loot collecting just didn't make for a very enjoyable experience. Worse,
its success seemed to indicate that 'traditional' CRPGs were dead in
favor of the rush of Diablo-imitators, which left me rather sore about
the whole thing. These days, I'd like to think I've become a bit more
mature and can accept that different people can like different things
(and, anyway, traditional CRPGs have had their own resurgence), but
for a while I was rather outspoken in my dislike of the game. ;-)

So it's great that "Diablo" has reached its silver anniversary, even
if I can't really share in the joy. I'll get a bit more excited in a
couple of years when "Planescape: Torment" hits its 25th, though. Now
THERE was a game worth remembering. ;-)

Diablo it's just a dumbed down Moria roguelike in the end, with real
time mechanics and no permadeath. Also, on roguelikes, Nethack/Slashem
and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup have far more depth than Diablo I.
Diablo II is not that bad at least, but still far inferior to TomeII,
which is a boosted up Angband set in the LOTR universe.
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