Diablo 2 Resurrected is one of the most anticipated titles of what remains of this year 2021. Both in the case of nostalgic people like us, who played the original title in its day, and for new acolytes, who seek to enjoy a new title of the saga before the long wait for Diablo 4, this remastering has attracted the attention of all kinds of players, and it is no wonder.
Unlike the failure of Warcraft 3 Reforged, the remastering that not only disappointed all fans, but somehow even managed to screw up the original game by making it impossible to play it again, Diablo 2 Resurrected started from the beginning with better foot. Why? Because those in charge of its development are none other than Vicarious Visions, who have earned the trust of the public by bringing us such outstanding remasters as Crash Bandicoot Nsane Trilogy and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Does Diablo 2 Resurrected manage to rise to greatness from its workers’ previous jobs, or does it fall from the disgrace of other projects like the Warcraft 3 remastering? Stay to read our Diablo 2 Resurrected beta impressions and decide yourselves. However, we already tell you that you have nothing to worry about.
The classic from 2000 as you remember it in your head
The beta that we have tested allows you to choose between the 6 classes of Barbarian, Paladin, Sorceress, Amazon and Druid. In this way, we have been allowed to test 5 of the 7 classes that the final game will have, with a great balance between characters that fight melee and ranged. It has been allowed to play the first two chapters of the title with total freedom, without any type of level limit or restriction when facing them.
The first thing that jumps out when playing this remastering is the new introductory kinematics, totally faithful to the original but this time recreated from scratch with the highest quality, putting it face to face with the best CGIs used today in the industry. All the scenes have been recreated from scratch and are a real treat for the eyes.
As to the graphics Within the game itself, from Vicarious Visions they have remained totally faithful to the original graphic style, which is present both in the interface and in the settings and characters. Fans of the original title will be happy to know that the setting is very far from the one used in Diablo 3, of a more casual and colorful cut. In this case, Diablo 2 Resurrected maintains its grim settings and trademark gloomy foes, only with a sleek facelift. The remastering shows a great graphic quality, which together with the fidelity with respect to the original material creates an effect on those who have played the 2000 title at the time of its release, that it looks just like you remember it in your head (although the technical quality of the original game was undoubtedly much lower), an effect that some of us already feel when playing the Nsane Trilogy from Crash Bandicoot.
The textures and modeling are of a great quality, the panoramic image format has been incorporated and the game feels much more fluid thanks to the 60 FPS that it enjoys in its performance graphics mode. By comparison, the original title ran at just 25 frames per second.
Of course, they have also been added some details that make the title considerably more pleasant for the player without modifying the original experience. Broadly speaking, the most notable changes are an option to collect the gold that enemies drop automatically and a substantial expansion of the size of our stash of objects, also incorporating sections of stash shared between our different characters.
Blizzard sent a private investigator to the home of a Diablo II: Resurrected beta hacker
A common doubt is how the remote control has been adapted, taking into account that the original title was exclusive to PC and only allowed keyboard and mouse control. We are glad to have verified that the adaptation to controls has been very good, having readapted the interface and achieving a usability similar to that of Diablo 3, despite the extra complexity of Diablo 2. We can assign the different abilities of our character to the buttons A, B, Y, X, RT and RB; while by pressing the LT button we can modify our list of skills for 6 different ones in the previous buttons, forming a total of 12 shortcuts to different skills.
Finally, with the crosshead we will have 4 shortcuts to potions, which are essential for our survival in this RPG. The only downside we have found is that sometimes it can be difficult to focus on a specific enemy, or our character may decide to move to attack another enemy when what we want is to stay still. It is not a very serious problem, and in general it will not be a great detriment to us, but we hope that facing the exit of the final game it can be improved, since in the case of Diablo 3 this problem does not exist at this level.
The most negative aspect that we can find in this remastering in its version of consoles, and it is an important issue, is the absence of text chat and the impossibility of creating online games with names chosen by the players. A very important part of the Diablo 2 experience is its community and aspects such as exchanging items with other players, fighting player versus player and creating games to carry out specific missions or jobs, such as Baal runs to reach as soon as possible. level 99.
As is the matchmaking on consoles in this beta, the only way to join online games without inviting friends is by selecting a specific chapter of the game, but without being able to put specific names and without being able to communicate by chat with other players is impossible to be able to exchange objects or to know specifically their objectives. It should be noted that in the PC version these features are available in the beta. We hope that Vicarious Visions will listen to player feedback and add these important features to the console versions.
Our impressions of the Diablo 2 Resurrected beta
Our impressions of this beta are very positive. Vicarious Visions once again proves that they are one of the best studios when it comes to remastering great classics, maintaining in this case a fidelity to the original title that should satisfy older fans, while also serving to introduce new users to the title. The adaptation to the control by command is very successful, although it could be improved, and the small additions to improve the gaming experience are well received. However, we hope that text chat and the ability to create online games with names to choose from will be added towards the end of the final game, as these are truly important features for the Diablo 2 multiplayer experience.