It’s Time to Return to Hell
Diablo is one of those franchises that has carved its name into the hallowed halls of video game history, and Diablo II is particularly well-regarded. This title was hailed by Time Magainze as “arguably the best role-playing game of all time, the best dungeon-crawler of all time and the best PC game of all time,” each of which would’ve been impressive enough on its own. Remastering a game like this is tricky at the best of times, especially on the heels of the infamous Warcraft III: Reforged, but Blizzard believes they’re up to the challenge. Diablo II: Resurrected promises to be the definitive remaster of Diablo II and its Lord of Destruction expansion, bringing back the original’s dark storyline and visceral hack-and-slash gameplay with new visuals and the best that gaming hardware can offer.
What does that actually mean? Well, for starters, the press release declares that they’re taking the 2D sprite game and bringing it “into the present with full 3D physically-based rendering, dynamic lighting, revamped animations and spell effects—all stunningly delivered in up to 4K resolution. All 27 minutes of the game’s classic cinematics, chronicling the journey of the mysterious Dark Wanderer, are being remade—shot for shot—from the ground up.”
That’s what we wanted from Reforged. Better yet, the audio is also being remastered. Nice. The game will offer seven highly customizable classes–Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin, and Sorceress from the core game, plus Assassin and Druid from Lord of Destruction–and plenty of ways to make each character your own. This edition will contain all four acts of the original Diablo II‘s spellbinding plot plus the additional fifth act contained by the expansion. And for those of you who don’t care about fancy new graphics and just crave that nostalgia hit, the press release states that “players will be able to freely switch back-and-forth between the modern graphics and the original experience at any time with the press of a button.”
Now there’s a remaster that sounds amazing. A technical Alpha will be making its way to PC soon, so you can pre-register for the Alpha right here.
Diablo II: Resurrected will cost $39.99 for the standard edition, though a Diablo Prime Evil Collection which includes the Diablo III: Eternal Collection is also available for purchase as well.
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