The hack n slash genre is renowned for its impressive fast-paced combat, challenging levels, and often overpowered characters. But there is more to it than you could ever imagine!
To understand the entire Diablo series phenomenon, all curious should first discover the genre’s historical origins. Button mashing is so much fun when we know everything about the title’s creation!
Especially since Diablo IV is joining this successful family to enrich the genre with a new story and an innovative approach to proven mechanics. Today we will trace the fascinating history of this addictive title and learn more about its relatives, surprising twists, and how hack-and-slash classification became a thing.
Understanding the Hack and Slash Genre
Let’s start with the basics – a game must provide combat involving melee weapons to become a part of the genre. The hack-and-slash category is all about slicing hordes of enemies in battle madness!
What is quite interesting, it started as a beat ’em up subgenre. The differences between the two remain pretty fluid and challenging to define. But hack and slash features more planning, story, and character progression (like Devil May Cry, God of War, or Ninja Gaiden), while beat ’em up focuses on a linear fighting-focused adventure (like Mad World or Streets of Rage games).
The hack-and-slash heritage reaches back much further than the video games’ origins. It all started with the classic tabletop Dungeons & Dragons game.
Players focused on spectacular combat, character progression, and story, which made the classic RPG more action-oriented. Soon, video games took over some of the mechanics from D&D, and that’s how the first hack-and-slash games like Prince of Persia came to life, followed by console Magic Sword or Ninja Gaiden. But the significant boom in the genre arrived with the release of the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation consoles.
Video games entered the 3D era, which was all a hack and slash needed. The 3D environment, increased interaction possibilities, innovative traps, and stunning animations led to the creation of many epic video games like Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Dynasty Warriors, and Bayonetta. The subgenre was heavily influenced by Hideki Kamiya, who was partly its father. But the iconic role of a more recognizable parent took Blizzard with its first Diablo.
The Diablo Legacy
Initially, Diablo was meant to be a single-player turn-based action RPG inspired by UFO: Enemy Unknown video game. However, David Brevik — a game designer from Blizzard — decided to introduce real-time combat, which transformed the nature of the genre forever.
The never-ending battle against the mighty Demon invading the enchanting yet dark Sanctuary world garnered worldwide recognition. The official release of Diablo II in 2000 was therefore doomed to success. Presenting five playable characters, improved eight-player multiplayer, refined graphics, and three difficulty levels, Diablo II became the best game in the series played to this day.
Did the third part have a chance to shine in the face of such successes? Constantly delaying the release date of Diablo 3 initiated the audience’s dissatisfaction, but eventually, its launch took place in 2012. The title introduces seven classes (with a choice of gender for each), and the story reveals further details of the Sanctuary and its inhabitants’ fate in the fierce fight against diabolic Azmodan and Belial.
Regarding the special effects, the third part looks much better than its predecessor – but somehow it didn’t receive such enthusiastic reviews as the previous installations. The following years delivered new expansions, console editions, and a remaster. And everything was lovely until the release of Diablo Immortal – a widely criticized mobile game with microtransactions. Ultimately, Diablo II sold 4 million copies in its first year, and Diablo III reached 3.5 million units in its first week – no wonder many critics consider this series one of the best.
The Anticipation for Diablo 4
The Diablo IV trailer showcases delicious bits of a story that looks much darker and more engaging than anything previous installments had to offer. This time, players will confront a new female opponent – Lilith.
The title introduces a complete lack of an offline mode, as many groups can travel in the massive online world at the same time. PvP zones encourage them to fight with each other, and all dungeons function as closed, randomly generated instances. To learn more about the legendary lore of this universe before the Diablo IV launch, players can watch a series of videos released by Blizzard in recent weeks on YouTube.
All this makes the expectations of loyal fans massive, and everyone counts the days until the launch of the next part in their favorite series that defined the hack-and-slash genre. And as in the case of similar significant releases, the years of waiting and the multitude of promo materials make everything much more intense – including audience reactions to a really great or extremely disappointing product.
The Future of the Hack and Slash Genre
Hack and slash include many video games featuring surprisingly varied combat mechanics. Some of them — like Demon’s Souls — are slower and require more precision. Others focus on adrenaline-fueled action, with Devil May Cry being a leading example. But they all fall into the same category of satisfyingly varied fun. And what is the possible future of the genre?
We can be sure that Diablo IV will encourage other developers to design similar or heavily inspired titles. It is not the first time Diablo has become a reliable source of encouragement, setting visible trends even for other video game genres. Increasingly advanced gaming technology contributes to the development of this particular genre, enabling a smoother and more immersive experience with each passing year and a new console generation.
Conclusion
Released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, Diablo IV is an excellent opportunity to experience all the fundamental changes this series has ever encountered. Players can choose from three editions: Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate.