After 20 years, Diablo 2 is back. The remake Diablo 2 Resurrected was available to play in a beta. Our author Schuhmann says: What Blizzard stubbornly said 5 years ago about WoW Classic applies to me for Diablo. Some things should stay in the past.
There are three sentences that Blizzard is known for:
- “It’s done when it’s done”
- “Don’t you guys have phones?”
- “You think you want it – but you don’t”
The last sentence (“You think you do, but you don’t”) was said by former Blizzard head J. Allen Brack in 2016 at BlizzCon, when he was asked by a WoW fan if Blizzard would bring back old WoW expansions.
Brack said:
Do you remember what it was like when you were standing in a city and had to constantly spam: I need a tank, I need a tank, I need a tank. No, you don’t remember that today, because now you just press a button and you’re in the dungeon. You don’t want that time back.
Back then, Blizzard strongly resisted making a “game from the past” again because they were sure: In the 10 years since WoW Vanilla, we have made so much progress, our game is today so much better than it was back then.
Brack was heavily criticized for his statement. It was outrageous that Blizzard presumes to know better what players want than they themselves.
Diablo 2 Resurrected behaves to Diablo 3 as WoW Classic behaves to WoW
The last 2 years have shown: Brack was wrong. WoW Classic was a huge success. Many people really want what they want.
WoW Classic sparkled as a beacon during bleak years for Blizzard and shone in the financial reports as a money maker. Therefore, the leadership of Activision Blizzard has now jumped headfirst into Diablo 2 Resurrected and sent a dedicated Activision studio to Blizzard, which had previously done good work on Destiny 2, to handle the remake of Diablo 2.
Apparently, Blizzard can no longer manage internal remakes, as seen with the terrible Warcraft III Reforged. Allegedly, the team behind the real-time disaster has now been dissolved and distributed to other departments.
Diablo 2 Resurrected is well made. It behaves to Diablo 3 essentially as WoW Classic behaves to the current WoW. It is 15 years older, feels somehow more authentic and rough – and it lacks the comfort features and developments of the last 15 years.
I loved and enjoyed Diablo 2 20 years ago. This weekend, I took the opportunity to check it out again during the beta. I’ll say it right away: I didn’t last long.
For me, Brack’s statement applies completely. I cannot play Diablo 2 without missing the comfort features I got used to years later in Diablo 3.
- I find it terrible that I can no longer shoot skills directly with the F-keys, but instead map them to the mouse button and then activate them.
- I don’t want to slog through a slow early game for dozens of hours until I get the variety in skills and items that I am somewhat used to.
- I don’t want to have to identify items first to know whether they are good or not, before I can use them later.
- I don’t want to constantly have to return to town to decide which loot I take, which I sell, and which I store.
- I don’t want to have to juggle potions in my inventory when there have been much better solutions for years.
- And I don’t want a quest to consist of just killing all the monsters in a dungeon that I accidentally stumbled into.
I did all of this 20 years ago, I enjoyed doing it, but the time for Diablo 2 was already over for me back then. In the years that followed, when I discovered MMORPGs, I never again had the urge to play Diablo 2.
Only 15 years later did I get back into the groove with Diablo 3, where I was convinced by the condensed hunt for loot and the best build.
At its core, Diablo 2 is a slot machine that constantly pulls and spits out loot. This is a mechanic that works for me and that I enjoy. But I want the genre to advance, bring new ideas, excite me with fast action and clever builds.
In short: I want to play Diablo 4, Lost Ark or Path of Exile 2, and not a game I have already played to death 20 years ago.
Diablo 2 Resurrected feels a bit like when your ultra high-end television breaks in 2021 and you have to watch with a CRT screen again. Yes, it is purist and somehow slow-paced and that can also be fun and I understand everyone who says: “Everything was better back then and time goes by so fast and today everything is so colorful and loud and annoying,” but Diablo 2 Resurrected does not meet my taste.
So I can understand Brack well today. Although I would like to change his statement: I never thought I wanted it – and now I know I really don’t want it.
Anyone who wants to get their own impression of Diablo 2 Resurrected will soon have the opportunity:
Open Beta for Diablo 2 Resurrected starts soon – Here’s how to start the preload and join in
