Hands on with Diablo 2: Resurrected - Preview

By the light, I know this vile demon! Diablo is resurrected and brought to a modern audience with a modern look. How does it hold up? We were lucky enough to have a look.

Diablo II: Resurrected recently had their multiplayer beta, which gave players access to the first two acts, and all but the most exciting of characters in the Necromancer, and the Assassin. I was very upset that I couldn’t test out the Necromancer at this stage, and that to me personally is a concern. If it wasn’t for the fact that I played with a friend who was playing Druid, who filled the screen with minions, I would have assumed it was fears of the skeletons overloading the servers.

I do not know why the Assassin and the Necromancer were unavailable, and it makes me worried that they weren’t. Perhaps they are just holding out because of the popularity, I was instantly concerned about what I was going to go in to. Thankfully, the game seems solid. You can switch between modern day and legacy graphics with a hit of a key, and it goes to show something very important with this. This is not a remake. This is a remaster, a visually updated version of the D2 that we remember and love. The legacy graphics compared to the updated visuals are, garish in comparison.

I would often swap into legacy mode, just to see how wildly different an area looked, how an enemy model once was, or whether or not the shrine actually existed in the original version, because I didn’t remember it. Most people would be quite happy to know that Diablo 2: Resurrected is essentially the 2000 game with a new coat of paint. For the most part, I found little issue with the game.

I was having fun, I was enjoying bashing skeletons and demons with my dual axes on my Barbarian, and was just really enjoying replaying a game that I was a little to young to really be any good at, when it first released.

Worryingly, the servers seemed, unstable. This is not an uncommon problem with Blizzard, particularly if you’ve ever experienced any patch day, or expansion release with World of Warcraft. Blizzard just can’t seem to get their servers right at release. I had several moments of horrendously notable lag. I would warp back through several doors. Or I would be swinging at an enemy who was taking no damage, before they’d simply just teleport back to where I had been 10 to 20 seconds earlier.

My hope is that with this being an exclusively multiplayer beta, that they’ll be able to fine-tune these server lag spikes. I’m hopeful, but not confident. Thankfully, this lag never seemed to result in any danger, but in the latter parts of act 2, I would find myself having to panic drink potions when this occurred, because I was taking a slightly more dangerous amount of damage. If this issue still occurs at launch, this would be incredibly dangerous and problematic for anyone looking to level a hardcore character. Losing a character to a server issue would make me want to refund on the spot.

My only other gripe, is something that I’ve had with a lot remasters, which are a 20xx game, with a 2021 coat of paint. Some game mechanics that were acceptable in 2000, are frustrating in 2021. With the amount of time I spend going back to town, having a dedicated hotkey for home teleports, would be a life saver. I accidentally bound my home teleport to an FN key, so I ended up with home teleport bound to my right click, and it cast it every half second the button was held, rather than just the once upon the click.

Functionality upgrades I think are hugely important, even in these remasters. A hotkey for home teleports, a shift-click/ctrl-click option that works for both selling items and moving items into the stash. Currently, it only works for selling items, but not moving them into storage. There doesn’t need to be many functionality additions, but just those two alone would be a life-saver. Things that weren’t as important in people’s mind 21 years ago, but are almost a guarantee in the modern day.

The Diablo 2: Resurrected beta is promising. There was crashing issues, server lag and a concern with two characters being unavailable. But it’s the same D2 we remember. It’s fun, it’s gritty and gothic. It’s sleek and smooth, and it’s the ultimate way to experience the game.