Developer Reveals GENIUS Reason Why Diablo 1 is SO DARK

Diablo 1 earned a lasting admiration from gamers & is touted as the darkest entry in the franchise, and not just for its Gothic themes, subterranean dungeons or even knowing the Lord of Terror lie in wait beneath your very feet.

In fact, the perpetual unease & gloom is a feeling that Diablo 4 is desperately trying to recreate, so much so that its tagline on the main website is “Return to Darkness” & was echoed multiple times at Blizzcon as a main feature, no doubt to garner goodwill with disenfranchised fans.

But what exactly does darkness mean?
If we are talking purely the color palette, clearly Diablo 3 stepped away from the more muted tones of the original.

But, there’s something deeper that caused a deep seated dread for players.

See, even Diablo 2 had something of a day/night cycle, where the lightning was drastically different depending on the time of day & even the NPC’s would acknowledge this.

Combined with Desert biomes, its hard to not make the game bright under the unyielding sun.
A sun that was not present in Diablo 1 as Demons were known to fear the light.
So, with that in mind a question to ask players 25 years later is… what time was Diablo 1 set at?
Because I personally was blown away when Diablo 2 designer Phil shenk revealed the answer in an interview:

Tristram had this sort of gray, stormy color scheme to it, he said. It wasn’t day, it wasn’t night. And I was thinking how did they come up with that? Its not night & its not daytime, It felt like an in between world. I thought: those guys are GENIUSES.

Bear in mind that in Diablo 1, demons were known to attack villages at night, so to hold the sense of dread for the hero * townsfolk of Tristram, the developers leveraged that fear of feeling perpetually on the knifes edge of dusk… moments before Hells minions would burst forth & tear the town to shreds.

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[phatbassanchor]

Not day, not night... To put it a bit more eloquently, perpetual twilight...
Adventure on dear friend, Phat
PS: Love the new branding :D

[Keglanek]

Why Diablo 1 is SO DARK? because back then you had developers who would make games they themselves would want to play, todays gaming dev midset is, 'how can we make this interesting enough to hook them in, but frustrating enough to make them buy lootboxes'

[larrymayfield]

Perpetual dusk is a great way to describe the atmosphere of Diablo 1. Sort of felt like every time I came from the depths of the cathedral I prevented that next attack on the town that night. Even though those rascals still managed to steal the tavern sign.

[eternalmaggot]

As others have said, I shall echo: It's not only art style or art direction or even musical score but pacing. It doesn't matter how dark or grim you make the environment when you are the fucking Flash. If they want to capture the essence of D1, they need to slow the fuck down, tone down power, make you feel vulnerable, and cut the fucking dialogue to a minimum. Don't let the boss monsters berate and pull that kid during a fake gun fight that always has an excuse for not being "shot".

[hdckdsadd]

In my opinion, D1 was "dark" because it had the right color palette (Brevik talked about it), the right music (Cathedral soundtrack especially), it had the right pacing (lost in D2, where the player doesn't run around like mad ), it had a near photorealistic art direction and more importantly, it had incorporated judeo-christianity elements that tapped in the religious ethos of the player (elements/ideas of saints, holy war in heavens, crosses, inverted crucified bodies and inverted burning crosses, books that sounded like satanic sermons ) and also had a lore that was not moronic and it was released in titbits and not dumped onto the player through purple prose and lengthy exposition. D1 looked and felt like a non-Blizzard game, because technically was not made by Blizzard.

[zmodsomar]

Diablo 1 had to be the most scariest of the series. It's just have that sense of Dread and even the Main Menu section is scary.

[Mooshkajoe]

Ah yes, Diablo.
Even when you win, you lose.
A story where the heroes put their all into it for what seems to be a victory, only to find out it was all for nothing.
This in itself was what really sold the game for me.

[Ramon-ggbd]

The entire lore of D1 felt much more adult, almost realistic. You somewhat cared because it was your town being attacked. In D2 you were more distant from that, as a passer by. As barbarian I did care what happened to my people in Act V, I felt the urge to be that extra bit aggressive to avenge my fallen brethren.

[wolf_]

To me, i feel like Diablo 1 successfully put out a "Dark" tone because unlike all the other diablo sequels to follow where the heroes are really quite powerful and capable, in Diablo, the characters give us this normal townsfolk brave hero vibe to it who volunteers to go down the labyrinth alone facing untold evil and dangers never faced before, the dark coloring and theme of the labyrinth just added to the spookiness of the game, combined with the eery music. And unlike the successors we cannot power through hordes of demons and it is even more terrifying to face the bosses like the butcher who has the same run/walk speed as the hero characters. Also the story and the plot was spot on, where so many former leaders of the townsfolk including the archbishop, the king's knights and the prince himself became corrupted by Diablo's evil which led to several townsfolk being mercilessly slaughtered by the butcher is just thrilling.

[HonestGuyWhoSpeaksUp]

Good point there. However, I'm afraid with all the light effects and running around like flies, it will be a D3 reskin. In D1 it actually took time to navigate through dark corridors. You had the time to see the environment, get scared (Does anyone remember their first time when the Butcher said "AAAAH FRESH MEAT!"?).
If you run around, teleport around or just rush, you miss all the details and the anxiety that a slow-steady pace induces.

[DrPluton]

I still like Diablo 1 best because it didn't play fair, and the oppressive atmosphere contributed to that. Because spells were random drops, my sorcerer really struggled. Diablo 2 and 3 gave every class defensive options and strong offensive abilities, and I didn't mind that, but it made those games fee like less of a challenge.

[henrykohver]

Diablo 1 feels even more like dungeon crawler game, this also adds this so called dark atmosphere. What makes diablo 1 good is that game is not too fast and for me I think diablo 1 graphics have aged better than diablo 2. My favorite dungeon was catacombs and in Hellfire it was crypts. I really wish they will make Diablo 1 remaster like they did with Diablo 2, but add also all cut content.

[lakdav]

I might get some negative opinions on this, but for me the most terrifying thing in Diablo 1 wasn't the darkness or the atmosphere (though they helped a lot), but the simple fact that your character was slow as heck. No running, and at times you were knocked back mid-step to where you wanted to get away from. You get in melee range with something like the Butcher, you are done for. You get in the sight of a Skeleton Archer squad, you better cast that firewall quick or have a sturdy shield because getting all the way to them will be hell. It's why I never really got into the Teleport running in any of the games. Being able to escape so easily just ruins the whole thing for me.

[badgermoon]

The sound track also added to the mood. That forlorn lute music in Tristrum set a hopeless mood. And the first time I entered hell, the distant screams and insane laughter was enough to make my skin crawl.

[CDoomer]

Don't forget the sound design. Beyond the music track itself, each area has those weird ambient noises and screams. I can still clearly hear those weird from the catacombs.

[roymcdre]

D1:dark atmosphere, dark colours
D2: dark atmosphere, board colours
D3: no atmosphere, bright colours
D4: dark atmosphere, no colours
Lol d1 reminds me of standing in a field during winter at dusk with a full moon coming. You constantly feel vulnerable

[mrbleak]

Griswald forever haunts my dreams. “Well! What can I do for ya!?”

[stanisk.]

Not just color-palette, it's the whole art style. You can pretty see the difference of equipments between D2RE and D3. They aren't a bit similiar. The textures from the environment of D3 are cartoonish drawing, no matter how hard you change light and colors.

The color-pallete being noticeable, D2 and D2RE are good example to compare. The map "Arcance Sanctuary", from original looks more like a void than RE.

[SirSilicon]

Light Radius is a real mechanic of D1 If you lower it enough you can sneak around monsters. I think the heriatage of the "net hack" games like "rouge" can be felt all over this game. Its an inbetween of old school: "you have to look for the fun" and new school "you get all the fun thrown at your face" Diablo 1 will always be in my list of games with the best atmosphere.

[The_Wild_Wolf]

I hope they keep the Diablo I and II BGM style too.