Better yet, you might play it with modern enhancements, previously unplayable characters, and more.
Why Play Diablo Now?
Within two years, it had sold two million copies.
With all those options, why play the original version now?
You could certainly skip it and dive right into Diablo IV after its June 6, 2023 release.
Or perhaps only play Diablo III to feel like you’re getting up to speed to enjoy Diablo IV.
Blizzard Entertainment
Despite the 1990s-era graphics, however, Diablo is still worth taking for a spin today.
And, all told, it’s not that long of a play experience.
How did this cross-development-studio expansion come to be?
Blizzard had opted to focus on Diablo II, rather than an expansion pack for Diablo.
Thus Hellfire became an official but non-canonical addition to the Diablo universe.
(you’ve got the option to read more about this on theDiablo Wiki.)
The secret sauce isDevilutionX, a port of the original Diablo game engine.
But it’s a completely overhauled way to initiate the game that introduces a laundry list of welcome improvements.
The full-screen high-resolution support is vastly better than the GOG version too.
Additionally, there are tons of bug fixes that smooth things over behind the scenes.
And there’s a stash!
Officially, the stash function didn’t appear in Diablo games until Diablo II.
If that sounds awful, I can assure you it was.
But it’s all we had, so we did it.
With DevilutionX, you’re able to access your stash by talking to the townswoman Gillian.
Blizzard Entertainment
But enough hyping DevilutionX, here’s how to take advantage of it on your Windows PC.
First things first, you’ll need to install Diablo usingthe GOG installerso we can access those crucial assets.
Without those assets, the port won’t work at all.
After installing the GOG version of Diablo,load the latest windows-x86_64 version of DevilutionX.
If you used the default GOG installation directory, all the files are located in
.
When you’re done, the directory should have the five highlighted MPQ files, as seen below.
Here’s a fun bit of trivia about the MPQ file format.
The file jot down was developed for Diablo and used in all subsequent Blizzard games.
With your Mike O’Brien Packs in place, you’re able to run
to launch the game.
Talk to everyone.Quests are triggered by conversations.
If it feels like nothing is happening, you didn’t talk to enough people.
Everything happens in town.You might be used to expansive modern games, but Diablo is more compact.
The entire game takes place in the town of Tristam and the dungeons and catacombs under it.
But the map only shows basic stuff like wall borders, doors, and stairways.
Unlike modern games with active quest markers, Diablo requires you to poke around to find everything.
Don’t overlook cracks in the wall or things that look out of place.
back up your game frequently.Quick save, when playing with DevilutionX, is F2.
There are no auto-saves.
If you forget to save for an hour and die, that’s an hour of progress lost.
Super frustrating if you found a good weapon, as weapon drops are random.
Use town portals liberally.Always keep at least one town portal scroll handy.
Don’t let Wirt hustle you.On the north side of town, there’s a young merchant named Wirt.
He charges you 50 gold to see his newest and greatest find.
Looking at his inventory ten times in a row hoping for something new will waste 500 gold for nothing.
It’s nearly 80 pages of game instructions, tips, artwork, and extensive Diablo lore.
In the end, if you finish the original Diablo, great.
