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Diablo Revealed
written by Raven
Contents:
|
Analysis
Reading through all the secret information concerning Diablo, its hard not
to notice just how much was left out of the game. Amazing quests, exciting
spells, hidden features and more unused items then you thought were possible,
have all been chopped off the game. Even though Diablo was a great game,
with all of these features missing, Diablo wasn't as good a game as it could
have been. Or it wasn't as good a game as it should have been. Blizzard
cut out some of the most exciting and interesting aspects of the game, and
in the end, the Diablo environment is limited compared to the environment
that would have existed with these features.
When I was writing this article up, I quickly polled 10 friends online.
Firstly I showed them some background notes for this article. I then asked
them what they believed Diablo would have been like, had some more of
these secrets been implemented. Here are a few responses:
Kush from Gamefoolz:
"Upon reading your article, I came to realize that the amount
left out of Diablo is staggering. The amount listed in your article could
have proved to be a plethora of gaming replay-ability and uniqueness.
Those 15(?) quests left out including the "Fleshdoom" make the current
Diablo game seem 'gipped' so-to-speak, because of the fact that an individual
could have spent that much more time conquering another quest or becoming
familiar with a spell."
Our esteemed webmaster Falcon had this to say:
"Woulda been damn cool if those things were implemented, but
it may have made the plot more complicated. D1 was still cool for the
time, but I would have liked to see some of these features put in."
Gangrel from Diablo.org contributed:
"Diablo would have been ten times better had Blizzard took
the extra time to get these features they have left out fixed and working
properly in the game. It would have added a lot of extra replay time to
an already astounding game. I feel that the Tremayne quests would have
greatly improved Diablo. These quests, along with the others, would have
given Diablo that Heaven vs. Hell, epic battle feel to it that one got
from reading the back story in the Diablo manual. It would have had that
grand, exalting scale of magnitude that it so much deserves."
Finally Cryptic a good friend of mine had these suggestions:
"I guess that the saddest thing about the features removed
from Diablo, are that a lot of time and effort must have gone into them.
Even though they were never put it, it looks like Blizzard spent a hell
of a lot time working on them. The game was definitely worse off, after
they were removed. Still I can't help but think about how much fun the
Shadowfang quest would have been, maybe we will see some signs of these
quests in Diablo2... who knows."
These quotes sum up pretty much everything I wanted to cover in this section.
However I will quickly highlight something. Diablo even without all these
features was a great game, and years ahead of its time. Nothing written
in this article is meant to take the shine off Diablo. However Diablo could
have been a better game. Consider all the work Blizzard put into Diablo
it should have been a better game. Maybe in the end gamers were robbed because
of the fact that Blizzard stuck to a timeframe and dropped features, in
order to help make that time limit.
Blizzard learned from Diablo
Blizzard games have always been ambitious titles. Blizzard tries to creates
wonderful games, with great graphics, good storylines, addictive gameplay
and an immersive environments. Usually they succeed. However, recently Blizzard
has been constantly slammed because they have failed to meet deadlines.
Instead of chopping off features, Blizzard has increased project time. Gamers
from all points of the industry have criticized Blizzard because of this
move.
While I was writing this article, something occurred to me. I realized
that the one time when Blizzard did try to meet its release date, it ended
up cutting features left, right and center. Diablo was a game with massive
potential that would have benefited greatly from a few more months of
development. In the end, Blizzard robbed gamers and themselves, by trying
to meet release dates. There were probably other reasons for Blizzard"s
decision, but the fact still remains that because Blizzard released Diablo
on time, gamers were robbed of an amazing game and instead they were only
handed a great game.
I think that Blizzard's move to hold back StarCraft and Diablo2, allowing
for more time to develop these titles, was a great move. I am personally
glad, that I had to wait an additional year to play Diablo2, because I
know that Blizzard have made Diablo2 an amazing game, and not just a great
game. Simply put, Blizzard's decision to hold back titles such as Diablo2,
was made for the benefit of gamers. Because they did this you, the gamer,
were not handed a under developed product. Had Diablo been held back another
six months it would have been a true classic, worth far more then it is
today. Thankfully Blizzard learnt their lesson and since then, they have
gone on to constantly create amazing games.
Summary
In summary, there isn't really much left for me to say. I hope you enjoyed
reading this article and I would love to hear comments or feedback.
This article is the result of research from about 50 other WebPages.
A lot of this information is based on rumor, and as such could be wrong,
I however believe that most of it is accurate. You are more then welcome
to use anything from this article, but give credit to GameSurge.
Special thanks goes out to: Solaris, Kush, Cory, Falcon, Sim, Thundra
and Week-endanger for comments and feedback. Any questions can be e-mailed
to me here. Also if you have additional information about anything mentioned
on this page please contact me.
As a final note I hoped your enjoyed "Diablo Revealed" and will join
GameSurge. in the future as we look at other titles in the gaming world.
Article written by Raven. This article was edited by shiva and Kali.
Comments may be sent directly to the author by E-mail to Raven@gamesurge,
or to the webmasters at webmaster@gamesurge.com.
The screenshots used for this article are available as a gallery
page. To view other Diablo related images, please visit our Diablo
Gallery Page.
- Diablo 2 Items @ d2legit.com
- Diablo 2 Top 200
- Diablo 2 Guide
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