Quote:
Originally Posted by The Fifth Horseman
Let's approach the matter from a different angle, then: what makes Diablo an RPG?
Apart from the sticker on the box.  |
I don't really know what more I can add here. Diablo has everything classic CRPGs have, minus turn-based combat.
That was the major controversy upon Diablo's release --
that was the initial, "Is this really an RPG?" debate -- the combat. Action/RPGs like Oblivion, Mass Effect and Fallout 3 weren't the norm, so any amount of action was held suspect.
The fact that you couldn't greatly affect the outcome of Diablo's storyline didn't bother people as much as the simplified classes and fast paced combat, because the memory of classic RPG series like Wizardry and Might & Magic were still fresh in people's minds. And like I've said before, the original CRPGs had little in the way of choices & consequences. All that came later, after some people began to retroactively hail Fallout as the "first" RPG.
So, again, if you care to define RPG as "Games made by Troika," more power to you.
But a lack of choices and consequences doesn't disquality Diablo as an Action/RPG, it just gives it that much more in common with the original Wizardry, Ultima and Might & Magic games.