There aren’t many video game series that have lasted for decades, outliving console generations and even copycats of their original works. Blizzard’sDiabloseries has done precisely that. The first game in the franchise was released back in 1997, while the latest entry -Diablo 4- was released in June 2023. Blizzard has iterated a lot on the original formula that made the series a success, but at the end of the day,Diabloconsistently sets itself apart from the competition.
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One factor that makes theDiablogames so appealing istheir swings in difficulty.They can make players feel like an unstoppable force of destruction one minute before throwing a tougher enemy at them just a few moments later that clears out their health pool in seconds. Not allDiablogames are created equal in this regard; some are almost too easy to breeze through, while others will test players from moment one.
5Diablo 3
While some debate can be had about the other games in the franchise, there is little disagreement thatDiablo 3is the easiest entry in the series by a wide margin. There were a number oflogistical issues and poorly thought-out mechanicsthat went into much of the economy and late-game aspects ofDiablo 3, but even after years and years of updates from Blizzard, the game continues to be a breeze to play through.
Blizzard introduced a ton of new classes toDiablo 3’s cast of characters, and every single one can be built up into a wrecking machine with very little planning on the player’s part. Enemy mobs come fast and furious and are usually loaded to the brim with both regular enemies and elites, and yet players will rarely feel the need to glance at their health pool because of how quickly those enemies can be dispatched. There are a couple of boss fights that up the intensity somewhat, but it’s still rare for players to feel like their skills are truly being tested.
4Diablo Immortal
Blizzard’s ill-advised mobile releaseDiablo Immortalcould make the case for being much higher on this list. It supports four difficulty levels (the hardest of which players can only unlock after hours of play) and several significant difficulty spikes that can go beyond the realm of challenging into outright frustration. However, the absurd levels of monetization that are included in the game make any degree of difficulty that players face feel disingenuous on the part of the developers.
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That’s because, for the most part, any challenge players face can be overcome through the simple act of spending money. While yes, players can complete almost all of the game without spending a dime; it will be a grind to do so, particularly when the game shoves its monetization features in their faces at every opportunity. Add to that the roadblocks it throws up every step of the way, forcing players to grind for unnecessarily rare upgrade materials or the near-impossibility of reaching the game’s level cap of 60 without buying the necessary upgrade materials to do so.
WhileDiablo Immortalmay be difficult for free-to-play players,it’s hard to call it a truly difficult game when those same players can breeze through it just by pulling out their credit cards.
3Diablo 2
There are arguments to be made for bothDiablo IIandDiablo IVin this spot. At the end of the day, what nudges the series' second entry slightly further down this list is the simple fact that the game is much, much older.Diablo IIoriginally launched in 2000, withits remasterDiablo II: Resurrectedhitting the market in 2021. In both cases, the game retains much of what made it challenging in its heyday. Those difficulty swings mentioned off the top, and the variety of challenges it presents to the players, remain as effective as ever.
However, the game’s difficulty is dampened somewhat by the ability for any player to do some brief research to identify the multitude of overpowered builds that exist withinDiablo II.Builds like that exist inDiablo IVas well but are being patched out at a fairly consistent rate. That is no longer the case forDiablo IIand hasn’t been for some time.
Then, there’s the “crapshoot” nature of the game’s loot drops. Some players can put 50 hours into the game and struggle to find a single Legendary item that fits their class, while other players will find them after every other dungeon. The availability of Legendary items significantly affectsDiablo II’s difficulty, and a player with several of them will have no problem reaching the game’s credits.
2Diablo 4
The latest entry in theDiablofranchise has taken the series back to its roots in a number of ways, one of which being its difficulty levels. Right from the outset, players have access to two difficulty levels - Adventurer and Veteran - with the Hell and Torment difficulties available once players progress far enough through the game. Torment, in particular, can make the game truly punishing, but there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface that makesDiablo IVone of the tougherDiablogames around.
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For one, character builds are more important than ever, more so than evenDiablo II.An ineffective build will have players struggling against even the game’s weaker enemies, and that’s before even considering the many elite enemies and bosses that exist in the world. WhileDiablo IVmakes it easy for players to respec their characters on the fly, those players still need to have a plan for that respec to pay off.
Then there’s the late-game, which introduces Nightmare dungeons, some of the stiffest challenges players will face in anyDiablogame. All this without mentioning that Blizzard isconsistently retooling the game’s inner workingsto make characters more balanced. Players will be hard-pressed to find an overpowered character build that will last through more than a single patch update.
1Diablo
When the originalDiablofirst came out, Blizzard was breaking into uncharted territory. Whiletheir high-fantasy seriesWarcraftwas highly-regarded,Diablo’s dark-fantasy world and mature themes were a departure not just for the developer but for most of what the ARPG market had to offer. The blood-soaked fields surrounding Tristram were a frightening place to begin a journey, and fear, as it turns out, was more than justified.
Unlike pretty much any otherDiablogame, the first entry in the series was not about making the player feel like an uber-powerful hero. Just the opposite, in fact. Mobs of enemies could not be tackled head-on, even from the game’s early stages. Instead, players had to lure out two or three enemies and fight them on their own, slowly chiseling away at the larger group.
Build construction was paramount, as enemies were fierce and powerful, more than capable of taking down an unprepared player who ventured too far into the wilds. It’s a degree of challenge that still holds up today, and while the otherDiablogames are better at creating a power fantasy, only the first game succeeded at making every enemy feel just as terrifying as they looked.
