History VideoGame / Diablo

* {{Fanservice}}: Unlike her basic in-game sprite in which she has leather body armor, in the manual the Rogue is wearing a [[BareYourMidriff belly-baring bustier]] whose cut makes it clear that [[VaporWear it's all she's wearing up there]] and a loincloth that only just reveals that she's wearing something under it.

* TimedPowerUp: Every game since the first ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' features Shrines, stationary objects with random effects that commonly include temporary buffs to speed, defense, offense, experience gain, etc.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIV'' (TBA)

* DungeonBypass: As a game with randomly generated dungeons, it will occasionally end up generating a floor's exit right next to its entrance. You can't bypass the entire dungeon this way, but you pretty much end up bypassing that floor. One [[SpeedRun speedrunner]] takes advantage of this feature to finish the first game in a matter of minutes, by [[SaveScumming reloading every time]] the next floor wasn't laid out this way.

* {{Speedrun}}: The original ''Diablo'' was crushed in [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?Diablo_Sorcerer_312 0:03:12]](!) through obscene luck manipulation and glitching.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: While the forces of Hell are completely vile, with a few exceptions, [[LightIsNotGood the forces of Heaven have little to no regard for humanity]]. At best, they see them as pawns in their war against Hell and at worst they want to completely wipe out Sanctuary because it is part demonic.

* ContinuitySnarl: There are several inconsistencies across the series, although most players pay so little attention to the story that they won't realise it.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: See LightIsNotGood. With a few exceptions, the forces of Heaven have little to no regard for humanity. At best, they see them as pawns in their war against Hell and at worst they want to completely wipe out Sanctuary because it is part demonic. However, the demons are completely vile.

* ContinuitySnarl / {{Retcon}}: There are several inconsistencies across the series, although most players pay so little attention to the story that they won't realise it.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: See LightIsNotGood. With a few exceptions, the forces of Heaven have little to no regard for humanity. At best, they see them as pawns in their war against Hell and at worst they want to completely wipe out Sanctuary because it is part demonic.

* HornyDevils: Diablo has an army of succubi. Albeit, they're not particularly sexual creatures, rather color-coded, fireball-flinging, batwinged, naked women.

* VendorTrash: 90% of any drops you get is worthless junk.

* SturgeonsLaw: 90% of any drops you get is worthless junk.

** When you die, the save function is disabled, but not ''immediately''. Yes, saving at this point makes the current game unwinnable. It requires timing by the milliseconds, though. A frame too late and the game disables the save function.

** Black Death in particular take away 1 hit point permanently on striking (with no indication that this is the case) and can render the game unwinnable if you are playing very badly and get hit hundreds of times, leaving you with a tiny amount of health.
** Unless you're a mage who's using Mana Shield... at which point you get to use the ludicrously advantageous "No Stun" bug.
** When you die, the save function is disabled, but not ''immediately''. Yes, saving at this point makes the current game unwinnable. It requires timing by the milliseconds, though. A frame too late and the game disables the save function. The easiest way is probably to get a +HP item and then get yourself down to health lower than said item provides you. When you remove the item, you die. If you click and press ESC almost exactly at the same moment, you get to save without having that item on you. No, there is no time to put it back on.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloImmortal'' (2022) -- For mobile devices, with PC announced for a later date.

* InvincibleVillain: The series takes this trope and run with it up to eleven: for the first two games and most of the third game, all you character does by trying to defeat the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Great Evils]] usually only ends up helping them in some way, to the point that the first game actually ends with [[TheBadGuyWins Diablo winning anyway despite his death at the hands of the hero]].

* InvincibleVillain: The series takes this trope and run with it UpToEleven: for the first two games and most of the third game, all you character does by trying to defeat the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Great Evils]] usually only ends up helping them in some way, to the point that the first game actually ends with [[TheBadGuyWins Diablo winning anyway despite his death at the hands of the hero]].

* ''VideoGame/DiabloImmortal'' (2022) - For mobile devices, with PC announced for a later date.

* ''ComicBook/DiabloTalesOfSanctuary'' (2001) - An {{Anthology}} about some of the classes introduced in ''VideoGame/DiabloII''
* ''ComicBook/DiabloSwordOfJustice'' (2011-2012) - A five issue series set before ''VideoGame/DiabloIII''
* ''ComicBook/TheChosen'' (2017) - A short story published on Blizzard's website to promote the ''Rise of the Necromancer'' {{DLC}} for ''VideoGame/DiabloIII''.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' (2015) - A {{Crossover}} {{MOBA}} featuring characters from Blizzard games.

* ''WesternAnimation/DiabloIIIWrath'' (2012) - An animated ShortFilm made by Creator/{{Titmouse}}.

[[folder:A - F]]

** A sense of isolation is particularly present in the single-player - there are no NPC companions, in contrast to the sequels, and the number of friendly NPC in the entire game in general can be counted on one hand. Once your character descends to the dungeon, it's you alone against the [[{{TheLegionsOfHell}} demonic horde]] [[{{ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight}} in the darkness]]...
** The early game in ''Diablo'' is [[{{EarlyGameHell}} considerably more punishing]] than in both sequels, making your character -at early levels- look less like the archetypical world-saving hero and more like the average guy (well, [[{{BadassNormal}} average adventurer]], at least...).
** Even ''further'' enhanced by the more "realistic", dark art style of the game, which would not look out of place in a game like ''[[{{VideoGame/Darklands}} Darklands]]'', had the latter been made a few years later - in contrast to the varied and colorful locations of D2, much less the even more colorful, slightly cartoonish signature art of [=WoW=]-era Blizzard found in D3.

[[folder:G - L]]

* GodIsDead: It doesn't come up much, but Anu and Tathamet - local stand ins for [[God]] and the Devil respectively - battled eons ago until they achieved a mutual kill. Anu's corpses became the High Heavens and Tathamet's became the Burning Hells, which gave rise to the angels and demons respectively. Though neither had a hand in creating Sanctuary or humanity except indirectly. They were initially one being until Anu decided to purify himself of all evil, creating Tathamet.

[[folder:M - R]]

[[folder:S - Z]]

* VillainousBreakdown: In the backstory, King Leoric is [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by [[BigBad Diablo]] and effectively starts having a Villainous Breakdown while he's still a good guy. He doesn't remain good for long when that happens. He starts getting increasingly paranoid and less sane, until finally when Diablo leaves him, unable to take over completely, he's a raving madman. When Lazarus takes his son as a more fitting vessel for Diablo, it goes even more downhill from there - he randomly tortures and kills villagers he suspects of abducting the prince and finally has to be killed by his own most loyal knights.

* WakeUpCallBoss: TheButcher, who is an extremely tough opponent for the part of the game he appears in, being [[LightningBruiser very fast and capable of dealing huge amounts of damage in close combat.]] He quickly becomes ThatOneBoss to lower level characters because the only way to beat him safely depends on the randomly-generated terrain spawning in such a fashion to let you plink him to death at range, or to level up your Dexterity to at least 55 so that you can trade blows with him in melee while taking fewer hits. Thankfully, he only has a 50% chance of appearing, drops a nifty unique axe when he finally goes down and you can just ignore him if you don't want to fight him yet - his room is a dead-end and its unique shape and ''decor'' make it obvious who resides there.

* WoundThatWillNotHeal: The Butcher's cleaver has GameplayAndStorySegregation - while it is said that the wounds inflicted by it can't be healed because of infection, you can heal them as much as you like.

--> "Alas, poor adventurer - he accidentally put on the Necklace of Self-Decapitation."

* NiceHat: The Harlequin Crest. It has a drawback of -3 to your Armor class, but the +2 to all attributes is tempting.

** Diablo 4 is returning to its roots as a 'Dark Diablo'. The trailers imply that civilization has ''backpedaled'' from its post-medieval days in D3, to a near-dead wasteland of isolated, dying communities.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloImmortal'' (TBA) - For mobile devices, with PC announced for a later date.

* VendorTrash: Played straight with the copious amounts of low-quality weapons and armor to pawn for gold.

* ''VideoGame/DiabloImmortal'' (TBA) - For mobile devices

Notorious for having [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory an elaborate backstory which nobody follows]] concerning a [[HeavenVersusHell war between Heaven and Hell]], ''Diablo'' is a huge {{dungeon crawl|ing}} consisting of [[BuildingOfAdventure 16 floors of increasing difficulty]] under [[CreepyCathedral the old cathedral]] of Tristram, [[HubLevel the only town in the game]], where {{NPC}}s provide you with quests, healing, or equipment. The player has three characters to choose from: [[FighterMageThief Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer]]. The goal is to reach the FinalBoss, Diablo, at the very bottom of the dungeon and kill him.

The game spawned a heap of {{Sequel}}s and ExpandedUniverse including:

* ExplodingBarrels

* EyeScream: In the intro, you see a close up of a crow picking out the eye of a decaying body. While not looking too realistic by today's CGI standards, that was a pretty unpleasant scene at the time of release.

* An adaptation of ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' in 2000; both a boxed set and three sourcebooks (one for ''[[TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons Advanced AD&D]]'', the other two for 3rd edition) were produced.

* ExpansionPack: ''Hellfire'' was an official expansion, but it was made by a third party and was pretty sloppy in quality.