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Diablo II: Resurrected Technical Alpha Review: The King is Back
Diablo II
Criado
11/4/2021 em 17:23
por
Tharid
Back in February during BlizzConline, Blizzard announced the long-awaited remake of their ARPG classic called Diablo II: Resurrected. Hype levels have been off the roof ever since the reveal, but the nostalgia-driven hopes of the Diablo community are still dampened by the traumatic experience tied to the release of Blizzard’s most recent remake, Warcraft III: Reforged.
A little less than eight weeks later, a selected group of players was invited to partake in Resurrected’s first Technical Alpha test. Over the last four days, we have been able to check out the present work of Vicarious Visions, the company experienced in creating incredible remakes and therefore acquired by Activision to create Resurrected.
Resurrected’s Best Feature? The Legacy Toggle
Remember when the first Resurrected teaser showed during BlizzConline included direct comparisons between original and remade in-game footage?
I was blown away by it. What a logical yet genius way to look at a remake! With the movement of a slider in the same picture, fans were able to analyze every single graphical change.
During Resurrected’s Deep Dive panel, principal designer Rob Gallerani talked about a single in-game button that will let you switch between old and new Diablo II. Back in the day, I didn’t think much of it. Who in their right mind would need to switch to the old version anyway if they could just enjoy the new Resurrected experience?
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As it turns out, the so-called Legacy Toggle button quickly became my most favorite feature of Diablo II: Resurrected. As soon as I learned about it by looking through the new Options menu, I wandered around Rogue Encampment, Act I’s player hub, and did one thing and one thing only: I experienced the technical wonder behind this remake of my most favorite game of all times.
Every time I used this simple button, two things happened: First, seeing Diablo II’s original graphics made me think of how incredible this game looks even in today’s video game standards. The Blizzard title which has been released over 20 years ago was truly ahead of its time.
Then, as soon as I hit the button, I am basically in shock for a few milliseconds, asking myself multiple questions within a heartbeat: Is this real life? Am I a time traveler?
I ask myself these questions because, when looking back at old games such as Diablo II, all players had one thing in common: They needed to use their fantasy to paint a complete picture of the world they were playing in because old graphics and their technical restrictions weren’t able to do so.
In Diablo II: Resurrected, the Legacy Toggle paints the picture for you -- and not only that! I would go as far and say that the picture on my screen looks even better than the one I’ve been creating in my head over the last two decades playing the original version of Diablo II.
Gameplay: Everything is Different - but Nothing Changed
But what about gameplay?
First of all, it is fair to say that Diablo II's gameplay aged extremely well. The responsiveness of your character, the translation between animations and effects of abilities, the behavior of monsters and NPCs -- the majority of gameplay features are able to compete with those of modern-day ARPGs.
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However, gameplay in Diablo II: Resurrected feels vastly different.
Why? Because gameplay is always tied to the look and feel of a game, and that completely changed in Blizzard's remake. It's the orchestrated symphony of small changes such as the new movement shuffle animation, the monsters that look so much more realistic compared to their classic models, and the reworked surround sound that engulfs the player in a whole new interpretation of Sanctuary as we know it.
And while Resurrected's beautiful effigy of Diablo II can definitely mess with our senses, it is the muscle memory that confirms that we are, in fact, playing the original game dressed in new clothes -- and it just feels so good to be home again.
The Devil is in the Details
It is mostly thanks to the incredible love to detail that Resurrected’s brand-new engine fulfills the graphical hopes and dreams of Diablo fans around the world.
Some changes introduced with Resurrected may have been made through machine learning and advanced use of artificial intelligence, but it is certain that a majority of assets have been crafted exclusively by hand. And that is how Diablo II has been made after all, right?
NPC models, ground tilesets, character animations, weather effects -- take your time to analyze one of these categories, and you’ll spend hours looking in awe at a modern 4K game engine.
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The same thing goes for Resurrected’s improvements to audio quality. The use of the Legacy Toggle button will switch between audio settings as well, and although the difference is much less noticeable, Diablo II experts will hear a definitive improvement:
Dolby 7.1 surround sound and the remastered soundtrack, now much more smoothened out so that it doesn’t steal the show of the game’s even more iconic sound effects, fully support the remastered audio experience.
A whole bunch of these effects has been slightly changed, such as inventory sound effects when placing gems, or the sound effect of the Sorceress Teleport ability. Again, all these changes are very subtle -- but the extensive use of the Legacy Toggle button makes you appreciate the little details that changed for the better with Resurrected even more.
Quality of Life in Sanctuary
In terms of QoL changes coming with Resurrected, Vicarious Visions chose a very sensible approach. In the bigger picture, almost nothing changes in the remake of Blizzard’s ARPG classic.
However, playing the Technical Alpha only for a couple of days, it became evident that all of the changes have substantial impact.
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The stash improvements, for example, make early leveling a lot more bearable. Your personal stash now offers a 10x10 grid. Compared to the 6x8 grid introduced with the original Lord of Destruction expansion, the new stash offers a lot more space to store your early-game leveling or build-enabling late-game items. Besides that, quickly transferring items with a shift-left-click compared to dragging items from inventory to stash may save engaged Diablo gamers thousands of hours in the long run.
The newly introduced account stash has the same size. A stash shared with all characters of your account has been a pipedream within the Diablo II community since release, and the reasons for that become visible as soon as you have a shared stash at your disposal: Over the course of the last days, I found myself stashing a lot more items for my other characters. My loot experience increased by a lot because I wasn’t only on the hunt for upgrades for my currently played character. Found a nice bow as a Barbarian? Better keep it for my Amazon!
“Muling” items may not be entirely a thing of the past -- but the account stash definitely encourages every kind of player to keep items for other characters, which is a good thing for Diablo II: Resurrected in the long run because players then will probably play those other characters and spend more time in the world of Sanctuary.
The other major quality-of-life improvement hides behind the “Auto Collect Pickup” option. Auto-looting is a standard option in games of the modern era, and it just feels right to have some sort of it in a Diablo II rework as well.
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For me personally, the radius at which your character picks up gold hits the sweet spot. Players still have to go out of their way to interact with the gold they want to loot. During my multiple playthroughs, I recognized that the amount of gold I was getting was much higher compared to the “classic experience”. For some classes, gold is an extremely important resource, especially in the early stages of character progress, and auto-looting gold definitely helps you to get that sweet vendor staff or wand much earlier on average.
Interacting with smaller QoL changes such as the Advanced Stats page or the Reroll button for Gamble NPCs leaves behind this distinct feeling of making the life of every Diablo gamer tremendously easier without breaking the games’ core rules -- a basic principle that Vicarious Visions already talked about during BlizzConline.
A Short List of Problems
The list of problematic changes and bugs introduced with Diablo II: Resurrected is short.
Most of them involve visuals, such as the consolidation of the two Level Up buttons involving stats and talent points into one singular button, or the newly designed yet unclear mercenary vendor page.
However, behavior like characters being able to move behind longer loading screens is unacceptable, especially for Hardcore players; the same goes for problematic range increases of movement abilities such as Teleport or Leap Attack based on screen width.
We know that Blizzard is aware of these problems, though, and we are certain that the large team of Vicarious Visions will be able to take care of them.
The Mind Wanders - but Sanctuary must be Preserved
So far, the remake of Diablo II looks, feels, and plays like a complete success and a rightful heir to the ARPG throne. However, more testing involving more players playing more late-game Diablo II is absolutely needed in order to give a fully-fleshed opinion about Diablo II: Resurrected -- and that is where at least my diabolic mind started to wander:
“What if Blizzard decides to actively develop Diablo II again? I’m not thinking about major changes to the masterpiece, just a couple of small things in the modern gaming world. Auto-showing loot on the ground? Increased inventory size? Minor number tweaks on early game leveling skills? “
No. Diablo II: Resurrected is Diablo II in its pure essence, and it stays that way -- at least it feels exactly like that in the Technical Alpha. It’s a thin line between introducing smaller QoL tweaks or groundbreaking balance changes which would establish an alternate Diablo II reality, but so far the team around Rob Gallerani is walking this line with grace.
Over 20 years after the release of Diablo II, we know from other titles how much potential and additional content modern ARPGs are able to offer. But maybe that is exactly where Resurrected will hold the line as a polished old-school experience with a new, powerful engine under the hood.
While Diablo IV is not exactly around the corner yet, Diablo II: Resurrected is even more so expected to keep the beacon of Blizzard’s action-based franchise lit -- and it definitely looks like the remake will be able to spark a burning flame in the dark, cold hearts of all Diablo fans.
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