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I don't think I've heard Diablo called a roguelike before. It's got the dungeon crawling and procedural generation, but the permanent death seems to be one of t

I don't think I've heard Diablo called a roguelike before. It's got the dungeon crawling and procedural generation, but the permanent death seems to be one of the most quintessential features of the genre. Diablo does not have that.

kbumsik 7y ago
There is the permanent death. Though Diablo 1 doesn't have such system, there has been Hard Core mode since Diablo 2.
- elefanten 7y ago
  Yeah, fair. But that's an optional niche game mode and this piece is about Diablo 1. Another comment linked the creator's postmortem; he said he was influenced by roguelikes but specifically called out that Diablo doesn't have permadeath as opposed to roguelikes. His original design doc included permadeath, but it didn't make it far into production.
BurningCycles 7y ago
I've heard it described as a 'rogue-lite'
pixelrevision 7y ago
David Brevik’s original plan was for it to be a turn based game with permadeath.
jerf 7y ago
Diablo is basically Angband in real time, with commercial polish. If you choose to define Roguelike to include permadeath or that it must be turn based, then it is not, of course. But if Diablo is not a roguelike, its next door neighbor is.
ajnin 7y ago
In Diablo you have only one life, you don't respawn after death like in Diablo 2 or 3. You do have save games however.
mighty_bander 7y ago
I thought that was interesting as well. It seems like a fair comparison, and permanent death for a mass-market game in 1996 would have been a big non-starter. Coincidentally, I played Diablo II with a self-imposed permanent death rule several years ago. I made it to the... Desert, I think it was? and then got killed and never really got back into the game. It just wasn't designed for that.
fileeditview 7y ago
These days games like Diablo are often put in the genre "roguelite" indicating a roguelike but with some toned down or missing features (e.g. permadeath, turn-based, ascii...).
humbledrone 7y ago
Diablo II and III have hardcore mode which makes death permanent, which IMO makes the game much more fun.
ubu7737 7y ago
From the first day I played Diablo I realized it was basically the most polished and fantastic Angband I had ever played. I never considered permadeath an important part of Angband or any other roguelike because I always scummed.

kbumsik 7y ago

There is the permanent death. Though Diablo 1 doesn't have such system, there has been Hard Core mode since Diablo 2.

elefanten 7y ago
Yeah, fair. But that's an optional niche game mode and this piece is about Diablo 1. Another comment linked the creator's postmortem; he said he was influenced by roguelikes but specifically called out that Diablo doesn't have permadeath as opposed to roguelikes. His original design doc included permadeath, but it didn't make it far into production.

BurningCycles 7y ago

I've heard it described as a 'rogue-lite'

pixelrevision 7y ago

David Brevik’s original plan was for it to be a turn based game with permadeath.

jerf 7y ago

Diablo is basically Angband in real time, with commercial polish. If you choose to define Roguelike to include permadeath or that it must be turn based, then it is not, of course. But if Diablo is not a roguelike, its next door neighbor is.

ajnin 7y ago

In Diablo you have only one life, you don't respawn after death like in Diablo 2 or 3. You do have save games however.

mighty_bander 7y ago

I thought that was interesting as well. It seems like a fair comparison, and permanent death for a mass-market game in 1996 would have been a big non-starter. Coincidentally, I played Diablo II with a self-imposed permanent death rule several years ago. I made it to the... Desert, I think it was? and then got killed and never really got back into the game. It just wasn't designed for that.

fileeditview 7y ago

These days games like Diablo are often put in the genre "roguelite" indicating a roguelike but with some toned down or missing features (e.g. permadeath, turn-based, ascii...).

humbledrone 7y ago

Diablo II and III have hardcore mode which makes death permanent, which IMO makes the game much more fun.

ubu7737 7y ago

From the first day I played Diablo I realized it was basically the most polished and fantastic Angband I had ever played. I never considered permadeath an important part of Angband or any other roguelike because I always scummed.