Diablo II Remaster on the way?

txa1265

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According to this:
It'll be a long time before Diablo 4 becomes a reality, so fans have to satiate their hunger with older titles. While there is nothing inherently wrong with Diablo 3, it requires an active connection at all times, much to the dismay of those who want to play offline. That leaves us with Diablo 2. The game has high replayability value even twenty years after its release. Now, some rumors from a French website indicate that the game is all set to receive a much-needed makeover.

According to Actugaming claims that it received a tip from a 'reliable source,' which states that a Diablo 2 Remaster is in the works and slated to drop later this year. All the heavy lifting, however, will be done by Vicarious Visions of the Crash Bandicoot fame. The game is expected to drop sometime in Q4 2020, and will likely be unveiled at Blizzcon later in the year.

While Actugaming has been fairly spot-on with its previous Blizzard-centric leaks, it's best if we take this one with a grain of salt. Last year, the development team behind Diablo 2 said that the original assets of the game were 'lost' and that a remake would involve redesigning it from scratch. Diablo 2 is not a small game by any means, and redeveloping it from the ground up is an arduous task. One can only hope that Vicarious Visions does a better job than Warcraft 3 Reforged.
 
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Has anyone played the D2 remake in Grim Dawn? Wonder how that plays if you take only Diablo 2 classes. I never played D1 or D2 much at all. Those types of games didn't interest me back in the day.
 
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@crpgnut;:

Some impressions are found here: https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45086

Using only D2 classes should play well. It's probably a bit easier than using only grim dawn classes. (At least for the Normal/Normal+ campaign)

Some skills are nearly exactly translated from D2 to the mod. Some are not. For instance, there doesn't seem to be an accurate equivalent for skills that target corpses (like corpse explosion). Hence, corpse explosion is just a standard AoE spell. Which takes away some of the fun for this specific build.

Other builds should translate pretty well from classic D2 to the mod.

edit: just saw that you actually already posted in the linked thread :biggrin:
 
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As long as it's not an exclusive limited to Blizzard, I'd likely check this out. If it is affiliated in any way with Blizzard, I'll be taking a huge pass.
 
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I consider D2 to be rather archaic these days - but I'll take a visual upgrade and have a little fun with it.

That said, if it happens, it's probably just another cheap cash-grab. I mean, did you guys see what they did with the WC3 remaster? Talk about not hitting your mark.

They have more money than god - and they certainly used to have master craftsmen.

Current leadership must be really low quality for them to do so poorly with all that potential.
 
Diablo III is a pretty cool game, but my heart still belongs to Diablo II. I find it more challenging compared to other parts.
 
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There's about 3-4 open source Diablo 2 remakes in the works. I'm most hopeful for this one since it has a steady development and they've pretty much figured out the map stuff (probably the hardest part to re-implement). They're also working on a toolset with which you can manipulate the existing mpq files or import your own assets into the game.

Diablo III is a pretty cool game, but my heart still belongs to Diablo II. I find it more challenging compared to other parts.
I'm still mad about the always online requirement, but that's just me. I like the fact D2 has tons of builds (like Titan quest), it has some annoyances (Duriel) but I still love it.
 
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I avoided Diablo three just because of the online garbage. I'd be all in for a remaster of Diablo two though, assuming it would have no online stuff. Such a great game truly deserves to be revived.
 
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I have no doubt that blizzard is eyeing a "remake", just to cash in on the huge fanbase D2 has. I also don't doubt that it will be crap and that it will have this and that online.
On his (wife's) Twitch streams Brevik has multiple times voiced his support for the unofficial fan remakes in the works, including OpenDiablo2. That's a good enough reason for me to follow their progress.
 
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What's the issue with D3 being online only? I don't get it. Who doesn't have access to the Internet these days?
 
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I have a couple of issues with always online. Firstly, when the publisher decides they've made all they can they will deactivate the servers and you can't play the game you paid for anymore, secondly, privacy. Often times, always online is just an excuse to monitor your activity.
 
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I have some friends who are so stuck in the past that they continue to roll up new characters on the "hardcore" d2 ladder every 3 months. Once in a great while, I'll relent and play with them... but the game is just so damn clunky by modern standards that it feels like an effort in masochism to continue to play when there are just far better aRPG options available now - with or without any "remaster" that will likely only address 5% of said clunkiness.
 
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I have a couple of issues with always online. Firstly, when the publisher decides they've made all they can they will deactivate the servers and you can't play the game you paid for anymore, secondly, privacy. Often times, always online is just an excuse to monitor your activity.

Diablo 2 must be 20 years old and still gets season resets. Diablo 3 has been around for 8 years and there's nothing to suggest it won't be around for another 12 years and get the same level of support. Seems safe to assume these games will be playable for as long as Blizzard is still around which could be decades away. I think most of us in here would be happy to still be alive by then and not worried about whether we're still able to play a 20 year old game that we paid a few dollars for.

As for the last point: Why is this an issue? I'm intrigued as I can't think of a reason why someone would care about a game company monitoring their activity. Posting your opinion on this public forum is probably giving away more information about yourself than a game company knowing how many hours you've played in a day or how many health potions you bought off a vendor.
 
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