A bunch of crappy charms, stick ’em in the cube
Junk I don’t need, stick it in the cube
Fans have been waiting for a remastered version of Diablo II for a long time. And finally, the time has come. Announced at Blizzard’s digital BlizzCon event, Diablo II Resurrected is coming this year. And the best part is, it’s not just for the PC Master Race; it’s also heading to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch.
Even better? Resurrected contains all of the content from the Lord of Destruction expansion. So that means you can start with the Assassin and Druid classes, as well as a number of other great things (refining gems in the cube is kinda great).
It’s a great time to bring back Diablo 2.
[Diablo II Resurrected]’s a remaster, not a remake. We wanted the game.Diablo franchise executive producer Rod Fergusson
Aside from the obvious lick of paint the game’s getting, there are some great features. For one, there’s a layer on top that adds particle-based rendering, as well as dynamic lighting, and there are even improved visuals and sound in the appropriate places. The game will run in 4K, 60fps on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, and the PC version will support ultrawide monitors and gamepads. The game runs at a lower resolution on Xbox One, PS4 and Switch. But even then, that’s not the worst thing, as the game also features, cross-progression.
And, more importantly, since this is a remaster and not a remake, the original game is still there. As with Monkey Island 1 & 2, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and even the planned Goldeneye remaster, with the press of a button, the 800×600 original can be displayed. That said, the cinematics are being remade; after all, you can’t just upscale those and call it a day. All of the cinematics are getting the full remake treatment, which equates to about 27 minutes of pre-rendered video.
It’s like video game archaeology, learning how these things work. Because we’re using that old system to drive things forward, we keep everything the same. Since it’s not a remake, we don’t have to rebuild [anything]. It’s basically like we’re changing the oil, making sure it runs smoothly, but we’re not rebuilding everything. We are literally combing every single piece of code.
When we do fix a bug we have to be very careful because everything is interconnected.
Robert Gallerani, Vicarious Visions design director
That means that they’re embracing a lot of the peculiarities of the time frame the game was made in (like, say, animations). There are, however, quality of life improvements, though. Some of these are baked in, such as ambient noise, like wind rushing through trees, have been added, and notably a shared stash, removing the need to have a packmule character. Other changes are on an opt-in basis, like the ability to automatically pick up gold and loot so that you don’t have to click on every single item.
That said, if you’re expecting couch co-op, you’ll be disappointed (Fergussonlabeled it “a bridge too far” for this faithful remaster). That said, the original 8-player online functionality is available. What’s more, you can store characters on Battle.net, for dedicated server play. According to Gallerani, it’s more secure; back in the day, Diablo II was known for how easily it was hacked, botted, and so on.
A technical alpha test is in the works (for PC only). You’ll be able to sign up on the official Diablo site, with alpha testers chosen at random, much like how it was done with the beta for the original release.
Source: IGN
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