Diablo II was initially released in 1996 and immediately spread like hellfire! Diablo I left people wanting more, and Diablo II delivered. The Diablo series is considered a holy grail for all action RPG gamers and rightly so. ARPGs have made a place in every gamer’s library and Diablo II has been an inspiration to modern RPG games like Divinity: Original Sin, Path Of Exile, and most recently, Hades.
In 2021, Blizzard Entertainment released a remaster of Diablo II that included the Lord of Destruction expansion. The old game got a coat of fresh paint from the developers, improving the graphics and sound design. The remaster overhauled the models to look realistic by tweaking them from 2D sprites to 3D models. The frame rate got a bump too, and the game can run at 4K resolution. The old audio files have been scrapped in favor of a new 7.1 surround audio and a similarly remastered soundtrack. Although the core gameplay mechanics were kept intact to appeal to the existing fanbase, some new features were added.
Diablo 2 resurrected allows the player to toggle the automatic gold-grabbing system. The game has now the feature to store the loot, dropped from enemies, and distribute it among the player’s characters.
Why is the game still considered a masterpiece?
Diablo 2 resurrected is just as amazing as the original due to its replay value, the freedom it gives players to mix and match between different build types, and a sense of satisfaction after finding rare loot like runes and unique items. Runes can be arranged in a specific order to make a runeword. Runewords give items godly bonus stats and buffs that are permanent.
Diablo 2 has a high replay value at its core. Gamers who are completionists will want to reach the much-coveted Level 99 which can get extremely tiresome but very rewarding. The game is divided into five acts where the player can choose between seven-character classes.
The enemies at higher levels drop rarer items with sockets to fit in runes. The boss fights at the end of the game, like Mephisto, are very difficult to beat so grinding for gear makes sense.
There are a few areas in the game like Travincal which players can farm for items like runes and charms. Each run in this area is different from the last and can make the chance of finding rarer items easier.
The different character classes in the game that a player can choose from are Paladin, Druid, Sorceress, Amazon, Necromancer, Assassin, and Barbarian. These seven classes can be classified into three archetypes: Ranged, Melee, and Caster.
Though three may sound limited, the build combinations can be endless. For example, teleportation is an inherent stat if someone chooses the Sorceress character type, but choosing a different class will not give the player the option to teleport initially.
The player can, later on, equip the character with armor that has three sockets. Runes “Ja”, “Ith”, and “Ber” can be put into the sockets to make one of the most sought-after Diablo 2 resurrected runewords called Enigma. Enigma gives the character classes the power to teleport. This gives the player the freedom to try out all the classes, to know which suits their playstyle.
Diablo II: Resurrected gives the player a rewarding feeling after the end of a bossfight every time. The boss can drop some rare and unique items at higher levels. But the best items in the game are Diablo 2 resurrected runewords. Runewords were first introduced in the Lord of Destruction expansion pack. These are ranked higher than legendary items in the game. But the runes making a certain runeword can be tough to find and needless to say, time-consuming. A player has to spend hundreds of hours of log-in time to get them. But once acquired, the runeword grants the player’s items a huge buff, making handling endgame bosses a cakewalk.
The power spike is what makes the grinding worth it and gives the player satisfaction. One of the hardest out of all Diablo 2 resurrected runewords to make is the Breath of the Dying reward. This runeword needs the Zod rune, which is the rarest rune in the game, and players who have grinded for years are still nowhere near finding it.
Diablo 2 has not had any substantial content update since 2010. In Diablo 2 resurrected, the devs made some changes, like rebalancing certain classes but haven’t nerfed beyond repair. Some areas are now better for farming loot. The game is available on all consoles and PC. Controls are now optimized for consoles, and all the minor bugs since the launch have been ironed out.
Final Take
Diablo 2 resurrected is still the great game that was released in 1996, but with upgraded graphics, minor content addition, and tweaked content.
