Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras in the mortal realm, the player controls a lone hero battling to rid the world of Diablo, the Lord of Terror.

Beneath the town of Tristram, the player journeys through sixteen randomly generated dungeon levels, ultimately entering Hell in order to face Diablo.

[11] Diablo has been considered one of the greatest games of all time for its randomized assignment of quests and enemies on each playthrough, online multiplayer, and graphics.

However, the limitations in the attributes for each class reward play that utilizes them efficiently; for instance the Warrior's low maximum level of Magic prevents him from learning the higher levels of powerful spells like the Sorcerer, instead the Warrior is best suited to melee with a faster weapon swing plus a "critical strike" for bonus damage.

Using the in-game sprites of the Rogue and Warrior, respectively, the Bard is capable of dual-wielding weapons while the Barbarian was a two-handed axe specialist.

Players can return to the town and pay a fee to an NPC, Griswold the Blacksmith, to have the items restored, while the Warrior can repair objects in his possession at the cost of overall durability.

When King Leoric rebuilt the monastery as a cathedral, Diablo manipulated its archbishop, Lazarus, to destroy his soulstone prison.

Diablo III further retconned the story by establishing the nameless warrior as Prince Aidan, the eldest son of Leoric and older brother of Albrecht.

[20] Brevik also wanted a "modern and cool" interface intended to bring the quick directness of console games as well as Doom (1993) to computer RPGs.

[21] One of Condor's first contracts was through Sunsoft to develop the Sega Genesis version of the fighting game Justice League Task Force.

Bill Roper said that the team's "initial pitch, in a nutshell, was to take the excitement and randomness of games like Moria, Nethack, and Rogue, and bring them into the 1990s with fantastic graphics and sound".

[18][21] While at CES, Brevik encountered Allen Adham, co-founder of Silicon & Synapse (later named Blizzard Entertainment) after learning they had done the SNES version of Justice League Task Force.

[18] Adham and Pat Wyatt came to visit Condor in January 1995, after Warcraft's release, by which point his company had been purchased by Davidson and Associates and rebraned to Blizzard.

[24][25][26] Despite the contract, Condor Games lacked funds to fully complete development by the end of 1995, leading to debt to keep their employees paid.

Following the game's positive press coverage before its release, estimates by the team were increased to roughly 500,000 copies, David Brevik later said.

At the time, Jason Ocampo of Computer Games Strategy Plus called Diablo one of the charts' " 'perennial' inhabitants", and compared its longevity to that of Myst and NASCAR Racing 2.

[62] One year later, its sales in the United States alone had grown to 1.17 million copies, which made it the country's seventh-highest computer game seller since January 1993.

[72] Most praised the game's addictive gameplay,[77][74][81][87] randomly generated dungeons,[77][74][81][87] superior graphics,[74][81][87] moody musical score,[77] and great variety of possible magic items, enemies, levels, and quests.

[77][74][87] This last aspect was noted by GameSpot editor Trent Ward in his review: "Similarly, although a set number of monsters is included, only a few will be seen during each full game.

"[77] Reviewers commonly cited the online multiplayer aspect as one of the strongest points of the game, with it being described as greatly extending its replay value.

Yans finished her review, "Despite the rather pale storyline, [...] watered-down quests and a fair amount of necessary repetition, Diablo is a must for anyone interested in 'just plain fun.

"[80] Steve Klett's review for PC Games, which was reprinted in sister magazine GamePro, commented that "Diablo's definitely not your typical dungeon hackfest.

"[87] Next Generation similarly remarked that Diablo is more of a modern incarnation of Gauntlet than an RPG, "but with enough changes and improvements to make it a completely new experience, and one of the best titles so far this year.

"[81] Reviews for the PlayStation version generally remarked that while it is clearly inferior to the PC original, it is a much better translation than might have been expected and carries over the essential elements that make the game enjoyable.

[79] GamePro remarked, "Diablo was graphically stunning on the PC, and some of that sparkle has understandably dulled; the smaller palette and lesser frame rate are PlayStation-port necessities.

Blizzard sold exclusive worldwide rights to develop, publish, and distribute console versions of the game to Electronic Arts in 1996.

[99][100] Notable differences to the PC version include new lighting effects,[101] auto-aiming for range weapons and spells, and an option for increased game speed.

1998's Blizzard's Game of the Year Collection contained copies of Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

The patch contains a 16-level dungeon, four main bosses from the 1997 version and special graphics filters and 8-directions limited movement like the original game.

[104][105] In March 2019, Diablo was made available for sale on GOG.com, which marked the first time Blizzard had released the game on a digital distribution platform.