At the beginning of the 2000s in the CIS, not all families had home PCs. Many spent time in computer clubs, where there was always Counter-Strike, GTA III and the constant trinity from Blizzard: StarCraft, WarCraft III and Diablo II. The hearts of the youth of those years beat faster when the latest update was announced at BlizzConline. Let’s figure out what awaits us.
Diablo II holds a special place in the memory of tens of millions of players: the appeal of a truly dark fantasy, memories of red-eye days and sleepless nights, thousands of trips to Mephisto and Bhaal, hunting for valuable items with a meager drop chance, experiments with builds, multi-page guides with descriptions unobvious secrets. A legendary game that lacks only one thing – refreshment, because most of the elements in it are perfect even now. We just have to wait a bit, because Blizzard promises the release of Diablo II Resurrected, including the original and the Lord of Destruction expansion, in 2021. And we will not forgive her if something goes wrong!
The performance video and the gameplay shown caused an uproar of approval among the fans. Most of them, thanks to rumors, knew that the project existed, but were waiting for confirmation and the first showing.
The decision to release a remaster coincides with the 20th anniversary of the series and the 30th anniversary of the company. Blizzard and Vicarious Visions, a studio that recently joined it, are responsible for the game. Their last three products were successful – we are talking about the updated Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 and the PC version of Destiny 2. In the latter case, Vicarious Visions employees became part of Bungie for a while and worked together. The studio has a lot of credibility, and a joke about Diablo II Reforged, with a hint of the failed WarCraft III Reforged, is inappropriate here. Various teams are working on the games.
During a roundtable with streamer MrLlamaSC, lead designers Andre Abrahamian, Rob Gallerani, and lead artist Chris Amaral, more details were revealed. Let’s summarize them.
The main task that faced the developers of Diablo II Resurrected was to preserve the authentic gameplay, update graphics, resolutions, adapt for current generation platforms, get rid of some archaisms and annoying elements. The design has been completely redesigned, but visually Resurrected feels like the same Diablo 2 it did 20 years ago. Users should not experience any changes other than a modern appearance. We also took care of the classic mode without Druid and Assassin (Diablo II before the release of the Lord of Destruction add-on).
The authors were guided by the “70 to 30” principle, that is, 70% old elements and 30% improvements. A new rendering module has been written, 2D sprites have been replaced with 3D models, and dynamic lighting has been replaced with dynamic effects. All items and objects of the game have been remade, and the source of inspiration was the archival documentation of Blizzard North and the source code of Diablo 1 and 2. The developers are confident that realism will contribute to better immersion. Players will see previously unnoticed details, such as hanging garlic from the merchant in Loot Holein. Thanks to the ability to zoom in on the camera, you’ll want to explore familiar places and learn a lot of new things. The creators believe that the project feels scarier.
Also, no one will stop you from instantly switching to classic graphics. The game logic is calculated by the original. The creators even kept 25 frames per second, but the project runs at 60 FPS. Modern games are based on time, so the mechanics work the same. In Diablo 2, the character was drawn from a small number of angles, so his legs often slipped while moving, now there are more directions and the animation is smoother.
Another improvement will be the item icon and how the item looks on the character. In Resurrected, the authors tried to convey this element with greater accuracy.
The authors have slightly rethought the interface, which will be more compact and neat. A logical continuation was the appearance of an expanded statistics screen – there will be no need to make calculations, for example, find out the bonus to finding magic items.
Automatic selection of gold will save the player from unnecessary clicks. The function can be disabled and each handful of precious metal can still be selected manually.
There are some challenges associated with porting the game to consoles and adapting it for controllers. Console players cannot indicate the direction of a character’s movement with a mouse click, so they direct him in the desired direction using a stick. Therefore, on consoles, for example, the teleport moves the sorceress a set distance. On a PC – where the mouse cursor points.
Minor innovations will include moving items to a cache using a key combination and a hint with a comparison of items. Before entering the game, a large figure of the character is shown against the background of the current act.
Obvious elements worthy of mention are the presence of a single-player mode without the need to connect to the network, multiplayer for eight players, the presence of PvP, the presence of the same trading and rating, cross-platform progress, the absence of microtransactions and loot boxes, support for modifications and translation into Russian. Local multiplayer was abandoned due to implementation difficulties.
Since the game will be hosted on global servers, there will be no need to register in individual regions, as before – in America, Europe, Asia. Players will be able to seamlessly join each other. To avoid repeating the problems with Warcraft 3 Reforged, Resurrected will not replace the original – they are separate games.
Seasons will be shorter (in Diablo 2 they last six months), and the authors will allow the authors to review the results of previous ones. There is no need to create a unique character name, duplicate names with a gamertag are allowed.
The developers promise that modern Battle.net security tools will help in the fight against bots, cloning of things and other problems on the network. This doesn’t mean that Resurrected is completely secure, but it will meet current standards.
Blizzard will be conducting alpha testing and closed beta testing in the near future. You can register on the official website.
Analysis
Diablo II Resurrected is in good hands. The developers are fans of the game and their business. Some got into the industry for a love of the “great and terrible.” When creating, even small details that few people know about are taken into account. If everything described is implemented properly, there is no doubt that we will have a super hit that will bring millions of players back to the servers.
Perhaps love will slowly dissolve, since Diablo 2 is a hardcore game and not everyone in 2021 and subsequent years will want to make endless runs on Meph and Nihlathak or farm runes from the Countess. But the very fact of improving the eternal classic from the same Blizzard is worthy of Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard) once again getting some of our money. Even if only a handful of classic games remain from the once legendary company.