It’s been a good 20 years since Diablo 2 and its expansion, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, graced the monitors of computers around the globe. And after the positive review of StarCraft: Remastered in 2017, Blizzard’s Diablo Team and Vicarious Visions teamed up to develop the remastered version of the fan-favorite. Titled Diablo 2: Resurrected, the updated game promises to give modern-day players the experience, thrill, and excitement similar to trying their luck in Casinokokemus.
But what made this title the groundbreaking classic that it is, and why is it still regarded as one of the best action RPG titles ever? Let’s discover together as we walk the road to the East, “always to the East.”
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How Diablo 2 Broke the Mold
When Diablo 2 came out on June 200, it broke boundaries and pushed envelopes in violence, story, and gameplay. An overall improvement from the original Diablo, the sequel offered more gameplay modes like a hardcore mode, where a character’s death restarts the whole adventure. The game introduces several key features that made a lasting impression on players and the gaming landscape. Some of them are:
Character development
Players can choose from five character classes, each with their abilities and skills that they can use to face Diablo’s mounting armies. Paladin offers both defensive and offensive buffs, great for multiplayer games. Barbarian excels in melee combat, dealing significant damage while tanking multiple hits with its high health. Amazon wields bows and spears for ranged combat, overwhelming enemies with fast-paced damage from afar.
Sorceress is adept at fire, ice, and arcane magic, commanding these abilities at will for burst damage. Necromancer uses not only bone magic but also creates undead creatures and golems to aid in battle. The expansion introduced two new characters, further giving the game more depth and replay value.
Druid can call on its animal friends to fight the creatures of the dark while commanding the elements and even shifting into war-beasts for battle. The assassin makes use of its agility and cunning to lay traps and perform swift strikes on enemies.
Unique Weapons and Armors
Find equipment during your journey that will significantly enhance your character’s stats and abilities. These weapons and armor are also customizable through gems and stones you encounter during your trip, adding effects or boosting the equipment’s parameters. Players can also purchase them either through stores found in the central hub area or by pushing their luck with the local gambler.
Landscape
Heroes explore a wide range of areas during the game, from open fields to temples. Each section is filled with enemies that can easily overwhelm the unprepared and hidden treasures that could hold rare equipment.
Random Map Generator
The game boots up a different map layout for each character on solo play, making each experience fresh and entertaining. Each session offers new enemies through the randomly generated map, with some boss-type or specialized ones providing more loot when defeated. Equipment drops and enhancement parts are generated at random for each character, adding to the exciting gameplay experience.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer in Diablo 2 comes in two forms, LAN and online. Computers connected via local area networks can have a shared play session, facing Diablo’s minions together as a team. Blizzard’s Battle.net enables players worldwide to work together in a common cause or find out who is the strongest champion by fighting each other.
A Hero’s Journey
Diablo 2 picks up from its predecessor, where the previous hero defeats the titular villain and carries his stone. The screen then shifts to our hero, who starts in the Rogue encampment, where a rag-tag group of rogues found refuge after a lesser evil took their home. The intro sequence sets off a series of events for the highly-regarded Blizzard title, where the player journeys across four different locations searching for the Lord of Terror.
Divided into segments called Acts, these locations include the dark plains of the Rogue Encampment, the sandy fields of Lut Gholein, Kurast’s tropical rainforest, and the Pandemonium Fortress, where Diablo resides. The expansion adds a new Act and another location to the hero’s journey, the barbarian’s homeland: Haggorath. It also concludes the story with the final faceoff with the Lord of Destruction, Baal.
During the player’s journey, they encounter several characters that add to the game’s lore, further expounding the underlying story and adding weight to the end goal of stopping Diablo. Non-Playable characters or NPCs like the scholar Deckard Cain and the Angel Tyrael make the title more memorable with their dialogue and interactions.
Fresh Paint for a New Audience
After 20 years, Diablo 2 is now having its comeback. Back from the dead, the technical alpha testing Diablo 2:Resurrected was conducted last April 2024 in light of a September 2024 release. While the remastered game promises to keep the same story as Diablo 2 and its expansion, it also delivers significant improvements on several factors.
Graphics
The game’s graphics are bumped up to 4k resolution, with the initial trailers capturing the game’s essence but having modern graphics. However, the option to change the graphics settings back to their original quality is available for those who want to play with nostalgia.
Better sound quality
Graphics are not the only ones getting an upgrade, as the game’s audio is remastered and redubbed Dolby 7.1 Surround. This better audio quality gives a better experience for players while retaining the sounds that made this game into the legend.
Character designs
With the upgrade on graphics, the character sprites are expected to have more detail and form on them, showing off more changes during equipment upgrades. Animation and effects are also bumped up, with skills becoming flashier and more engaging.
Improved Inventory Bonus Options
In the previous game, inventory and stash place caused a severe issue among players. With the release of the remastered version, inventory space should see a significant update while offering some new challenges.
Stay a While and Listen
Diablo 2: Resurrected promises to deliver a game-changing experience for both first-time players or seasoned veterans. It keeps what made the original title great while polishing the title to suit modern sensibilities. So what are you waiting for? Play as a hero that takes on a righteous quest to save humanity and be the champion of Sanctuary.
