Diablo

Diablo made the top-down action RPG genre famous with an infinitely generated dungeon beneath the town of Tristram, where the player sets out to investigate a dark threat welling up from the cathedral and ultimately faces the demonic prince Diablo himself. Three distinct characters are available — the Warrior, the Sorcerer, and the Rogue — each with a different playstyle but a shared goal: descend deeper, collect better gear and more powerful spells, and gradually uncover what actually happened to the people of Tristram and their cathedral.

The gameplay rests on a simple, addictive loop of clicking enemies with the mouse and collecting loot, complemented by a system of randomly generated levels and items that ensures no trip through the dungeon is ever the same. The character grows by assigning points to Strength, Magic, Dexterity, and Vitality, and gradually equips weapons, armor, and magic scrolls that vary by rarity and randomly assigned properties. The dark, gothic atmosphere with its somber music and minimalist yet atmospheric storytelling creates a sense of constant threat, heightened further by the option to play online with other players through the era's Battle.net service. Technically the game ran smoothly even on the era's typical PCs and offered straightforward one-handed mouse controls, which made it a model for an entire generation of successors and an accessible entry point into the genre even for less experienced players.

Diablo, from Blizzard North, effectively defined the hack-and-slash action RPG genre, and its influence is visible in dozens of later games that copied its loop of loot collection and level progression, including its own sequel, Diablo II. Even decades later it's clear why it became a phenomenon — simple rules, a dark atmosphere, and the urge to descend just one floor further still work today just as reliably as they did in 1996.

Why play it: For fans of hack-and-slash action RPGs who want to experience the game that defined the loot-collection and level-progression loop for dozens of later titles.