Diablo II: Resurrected Review – Another Warcraft III: Reforged?

Blizzard is a studio with several classics to its credit. A lot of PC gamers grew up on Blizzard titles like Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft, and I’m one of them. Despite the toxic work environment, which means you’re more likely to be mistreated than to be offered a cup of coffee, I can’t help but deny the caliber of their titles. It’s a shame the company is seemingly rotten to the core, guilty of unequal harassment, facing several ongoing investigations and lawsuits – the game anyway. After Warcraft III: Reforged, Activision doesn’t did not trust Blizzard to develop Diablo II: Resurrected, entrusting it to Vicarious Visions, leaving Blizzard in charge of the backend and integration of Battle.Net.

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Unsurprisingly, when the game first launched, the backend and connection to Battle.Net was completely chaotic. Complaints circulated on the internet about the inability to maintain a stable connection to the online mode of a 21-year-old game, remembering that connection issues were not an issue for the original unless my memory serves me. fail me. This is not unusual, most modern versions have server issues at first, but it is not something you can forgive big developers and publishers. The Indies do not have the financial clout to prepare thoroughly; these do.

Now, a few weeks in advance, the server issues have calmed down a bit. It’s not quite ideal yet. I’ve had a few times where I’ve timed out due to work or other issues, and Battle.Net threw a strop and won’t let me reconnect unless I close the game. Maybe it’s a problem only on playstation 5, not sure if the same is happening on the pc, but this is something that has hit me twice now. Is it major? No of course not. Is this irritating and a Blizzard error? Yes it is.

Enough backend issues; let’s talk about something else. I can’t help but praise Vicarious Visions for its development of Diablo II: Resurrected and its goal of staying as close to the original as possible. Just like a lot of things you see in the game, it’s a relic, a fossil, a spirit from a bygone era, and he’s proud of it. Diablo II is the Action-RPG that defined the genre and still does to a large extent. Although there have been some changes in the quality of life, it is still the game we all love.

We loved it, don’t deny it. That or you are one of those young people who never got to play the original when it came out. If you’re one of those people, I’m the one telling you to stop wearing your baseball cap inside out, stop listening to trash space music, and stop playing. wear your pants halfway up your ass. Play this too. While Diablo III was decent, it shows you what Diablo really is, and it shows you on a level you’ve rarely, if ever, seen before.

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Diablo II: Resurrected is a game with a lot of content, but it’s also a game that makes you work for that content. Most ARPGs will now have great protection for you and your character. If you die, you may lose some of your hard-earned gold, or your equipment will take a significant durability impact. Sometimes both. You rarely find a game that will bar your character and throw you back which is often quite far. Checkpoints in Diablo II: Resurrected make the bonfires in Souls games user-friendly and plentiful. This is how I love and remember it.

The original, and by extension this one, is full of grinds. I would say it’s grind before we view it as negatively as it is now. It was a level of work that was rarely tedious thanks to a wide variety of skills and spells across a handful of characters who felt unique. It’s almost pointless for me to go through each character and have multiple trees to descend, allowing you to choose your path. It is unnecessary for me to tell you that I have reverted to the same kind of character that I played almost two decades ago, a necromancer who enjoys raising little skelly buddies to molest all the creatures and demons around.

With Diablo II: Resurrected, you’ll find yourself battling through five massive acts: the four from the original, then Lords of Destruction acts as the fifth and final act. There can never be an argument that all acts are equal – some parts of the game are more interesting than others. If you think of it as an extended story, not separating the Lords of Destruction expansion from the original, this is a fantastic package. It offers as much, if not more fun than most modern titles, with the excellent gameplay that came with the original, chock-full of storytelling, quests, and world-building.

This is when you come to see the bosses and get back to work. Quite often you can feel like you are rushing into the game and then find yourself hitting a brick wall. This is especially true as you advance to the higher difficulty levels and death sends you packing, your inventory left behind by your decaying carcass.

This is all about something that you probably already know. Diablo II is one of the best ARPGs of all time; it wouldn’t make sense to change the basic components that made this game. Knowing that, let’s talk about what this version, what Diablo II: Resurrected, does different. The first significant improvement in quality of life is, at least for me, a hot bar. I played it on PS5, which I thought was profanity, but I have to admit it’s been a good time. The original is an old game before hot bar sensitivities were a thing, so this implementation makes perfect sense.

Other quality-of-life improvements include shared storage, meaning there are no more alternate bank characters. You also collect gold automatically, which has always been necessary for a game to arrive on consoles. I sincerely wish they took a few more steps with quality of life changes. I had really forgotten how tiny the bag space was in the original. I remember it now, and it’s maddening. Of course, you can use a scroll back to town, but I want more space in the bag. I also think it could have worked without breaking the balance of the game.

As you look at more changes, the main thing you will notice is a huge change in the visuals. You can go back to the old school view at will, which I love to do to see all that can be done with such an archaic title. It’s just great, kind of like in the Command & Conquer Remastered collection, to be able to switch to awesome new visuals at will, and knowing that they’re essentially a plating on the original.

If there’s one difficulty in playing Diablo II: Resurrected, it’s that … well, every square inch of the game has been meticulously documented. If you want to know the perfect build for a classroom, the internet has sorted you out about a million times. You can still play it like you don’t know anything about the original, maybe you just don’t know, or you’ve never heard of GameFAQ. It’s not something I can hold against the game, it’s a legend. It’s a real artifact and worth any place in the gaming hall of fame.

Would I recommend Diablo II: Risen? Yes. Do I think they are charging too much for this, especially when you remember EA (yes, EA) charging half the price of the Command & Conquer Remastered collection? Yes too. Still, a hefty price tag for this extended remaster (not just a remaster, but not a remake) doesn’t mean it’s not a great title.

Playstation 5 version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.