Welcome to Day three of Blizzard week at ROG Retro. Due to unforeseen circumstances, this series will be split in two with three more entries at a later date. In the meantime, we will take a look at one of the more interesting Blizzard console ports. Diablo 1 was an excellent game on computers, but it also received a port for the original PlayStation which has received a degree of infamy over the years. Whereas StarCraft 64 has its highpoints and a number of unique features , some of which were adapted for StarCraft II, Diablo on PS One doesn’t have the same redeeming qualities to it.
To begin, the framerate of the game tends to lack at times and slowdown is an issue as the game progresses. This is more annoying than frustrating, and it is rather minor compared to the other big issue. This major issues is that the game requires 10 blocks on the PS One memory card just for a single character profile. This is a major issue when you realize that there are only 15 blocks available on a card. Aside from this, there are a number of other minor issues such as collision detection and some audio issues here and there. This is due to the PS One not being able to handle the game in full, but thankfully there are not many more issues.
The game does have its own positives that help make up for shortcomings. The PS One version has options for speeding up the gameplay and auto aiming attacks. These are welcome, but as I said before, there are issues with hit detection in this port. A much better addition in my opinion was the ability to learn the game’s story through a narrator instead of finding in game texts. Some may disagree, but I like that the option is there.
Overall, I find that this was a port that did the best it could at the time but the technology wasn’t there yet. Unlike StarCraft 64, it plays far better and has intuitive controls. However, it also doesn’t have enough to set itself apart from the PC version to offset the drawbacks. The auto aiming is neat but with hit detection issues, it can be rendered unhelpful. In the end, both games were simply better on computers, although this one is far more playable than StarCraft’s N64 port. At the very least, we can be thankful that Diablo III had amazing console ports, s Blizzard got the hang of porting the series.