Diablo II: Resurrected A New Remaster
One of the big highlights of this years Blizzcon was Diablo II:Resurrected. A full remaster of Diablo II and DIablo II: Lord of Destruction. This announcement was something that had been rumored and many fans have long awaited since the Diablo Immortal Blizzcon Fiasco. So what is DIablo II: Ressurected?
Full HD Remaster For DIablo?
What Diablo II: Resurrected is, is a full remaster in 3D with 4k visuals and 7.1 sound. They are also doing a shot for shot remake of all cinematics. It is also important to note that originally this was a partnership with Vicarious Visions, and Blizzard has since welcome the company into it’s classic game division.
Why Do a Diablo Remaster?
Many reasons are there for companies to revisit games and remaster them. For DIablo II and Blizzard Entertainment part of it is the 20th anniversery they just experieneced. Another good reason is how much Diablo II has captivated fans old and new and gotten them hooked. So this is a great way to bring in newer fans to expierience the Classic Diablo II story.
Enhancing the Visuals
Diablo II came out 20 years ago, it doesn’t seem that long ago. As I can remember sitting in the barracks in Germany playing this with other soldiers. It was a fun experience, and brings a lot of nostalgia when I load up the game. However, if you load it up you will note the dated graphics and cinematics, 2D Sprites. While the game is still fun the graphics hold people back.
So what is Blizzard doing about it, they want us to have an authentic nostalgic experience when we play the remaster so they are taking a huge inspiriation from the original Diablo II Art. How do they do this? Well they came up with a 70/30 visual guide. What this is is 70% should be classic and what works in the original game. That’s shapes, colors and tones that should all preserve the original design. With the remaining 30% used to eleveate the original with creating a visual step forward.
The other interesting thing is taking a step from 2D to 3D is going to create a huge challenge for them. As these characters and objects will all have to be modeled from the art to fit that classic design. That includes the textures and lighting. Unlike with what Blizzard did with Starcraft Remastered, which was essential upscaling and creating HD versions of the 2D Sprites. This is almost like creating a whole new game. Some cool stuff the abillitity to use zoom like in Diablo 3 and other 3D version of games from Blizzard to really get a feel for your characters.
The game will have a legacy toggle so you can go back to Original Diablo II visuals. While at the same time DIablo II, and Diablo II:Lord of Destruction are also completely, seperate from DIablo II: Ressurected. This was done to save themselves from the problems that occured with Warcraft III: Reforged. Movement will still respect the original game grid, just with better animations.
Characters and Cosmetics of Diablo
The goal is to be one to one with the original DIablo II. So in other words every armor piece is build for your specific character. Which means it’s connected the icon and actual art of your character. Now Unique items with special Icon Art will show on your character.
Cinematics and Sound
The entire 28-minutes of Cinematics is planned to be remasted with high fidelity art. As well as remastering the audio into Surround Sound. While I hope they follow through with this, however we have been burned before with Warcraft 3: Reforged and were promised the same. So I will be keeping an eye on this and wishing them the best to get this done!
Keeping the Fun of Diablo
While they want to keep with many of the original imperfections for example Balance, monster, spawn rates, items and drop rates will be the same. As that is what makes DIablo what it is. The want to add some Quality of Life, like a sharedv stash accross all characters. Ladder and Non-Ladder, Online and Offline characters will have seperate stashes. No more risky muling strategies. Better visuals for a cleaner UI and easier view of advanced stats, Auto-Gold Feature to allow auto pickup of gold but can be turned of for classic experience.
Consoles
DIablo II: Resurrected will be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S/X, Playstation 4/5. They are also adding controller support for both PC and the Console for accessibility reasons. While playing on console vs PC is slightly differtent. For example pathfinding is gone on consoles because you are being your character. Also movement skills like teleport will act differently. While they also plan to allow Cross progression between all platforms but does not require you to purchase it each platform.
Expansion Included
The Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion will be part of the Remastered version, however you can go back to play Classic-Mode to have a non-expansion character if you wish.
Features
But wait there are more features added! Easier to interact with stash including quick keys, item comparison tooltips by holding shift. There isn’t any gear suggestion due to stats varying. More languages localized. Front-End/Character Screen Modernized. Updated VIsuals to make the game feel darker and much more sinister.
Multiplayer and Returning Features
The game will retain 8 player multiplayer. We will also still have PvP in the original form. Trading will function the same as in the original game including chat channels. Improvements for search server games, as well as finding difficulties. Ladder season will have reduces durations. They are hoping shorter durations will incentivize play.
Characters will no longer expire, no more region specific servers. As Diablo II:Resurrected will function on Global Servers so players can play with friends in US and EU. Duplicate Names are allowed but will append Battle.net tag so players can identify you.
Some Gaming Archaelogy
The team for DIablo II:Resurrected, refers to the Blizzard North source files and concept art when updating the game assets. They are able to take these source models and use them as a stepping stone for new visuals. They are following similar design decisions like reusing character design meshes for different monsters. Some inspiration also comes from Diablo I code that was comment or certain models. They are still doing disvoeries on the old art and organzing it now.
Resolves Current Issues
By moving over to a modern Battle.net solves a lot of issues with connections, duping, bots and security. You will still be able to play ofline, however just like with Starcraft II and a few other games you have to login online every once in a while.
Release Date
While the Technical Alpha is coming soon and you can sign up on the Diablo II:Resurrected site. They have yet to confirm an actual release date only a tenative date of 2021.
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