Diablo: Hellfire

Diablo: Hellfire is an expansion to the original Diablo that in 1997 was not made by Blizzard North but by Synergistic Software, commissioned by publisher Sierra On-Line. Blizzard was fully occupied with developing StarCraft at the time, so it entrusted the expansion's license to an external team - and the result differs from the original in many respects. Hellfire adds a new monk character, who fights with martial arts and a staff instead of a sword or spells, and expands the world with two separate underground areas: a crypt full of undead and a hive inhabited by insect monsters. At the end awaits a new boss, Na-Krul, a powerful necromancer tied to the original story of the cathedral beneath Tristram.

The game ran on the same engine as Diablo and could be installed as a standalone title without the original game, but it also brought practical technical improvements - automatic health and mana regeneration at difficulty level, its own reusable Town Portal instead of a one-time scroll, and an expanded spell system with new attack and support spells. It lacked Battle.net support, however, so Hellfire remained a purely singleplayer, or at most LAN, experience, while the Diablo community was moving toward online multiplayer on Blizzard's servers at the time. This still makes it an odd detour in the series' history today - an official expansion that was never part of the game's main online community, and one that many fans to this day regard as outside the canon. Nevertheless, Hellfire got its own digital re-release on GOG.com, which made it accessible even to players without the original installation disks.

Why play it: Hellfire is for players who have finished the original Diablo and want to see where the story and game systems could be taken outside of Blizzard North - a new monk class, two fresh locations, and an improved spellcasting menu offer extra content without waiting for a full sequel to the series.