Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

¡Viva la resurrección!

Back in the mid-1990s, my brothers and I discovered the Warcraft series of computer games, starting with the first sequel, which had us hooked and gave us interest in developer Blizzard Entertainment’s other titles, among them the Diablo action RPG franchise, which we had the chance to play from its inaugural installment. The turn of the millennium marked the release of the original Diablo’s first sequel, which would receive the expansion Lord of Destruction, and with which I would spend a ton of time, given the myriad character classes. A little over two decades later, Blizzard released a remaster of the second Diablo and its expansion, Diablo II: Resurrected, allowing modern generations to experience the classic roleplaying game.

When starting a new game, online or offline, the player has a choice from seven classes, each with its own set of three skill trees consisting of passive abilities and spells that consume mana. All characters have four primary stats: strength, which determines attack power and dictates what type of equipment, including weapons and armor, one can wear; dexterity, which determines weapon accuracy and is often necessary for being able to equip specific weapon types; vitality, which determines maximum health; and energy, which dictates maximum mana. Characters also have stamina that drains whenever they run and recovers whenever they have it toggled off or are standing still.

When starting a new game, online or offline, the player has a choice from seven classes, each with its own set of three skill trees consisting of passive abilities and spells that consume mana. All characters have four primary stats: strength, which determines attack power and dictates what type of equipment, including weapons and armor, one can wear; dexterity, which determines weapon accuracy and is often necessary for being able to equip specific weapon types; vitality, which determines maximum health; and energy, which dictates maximum mana. Characters also have stamina that drains whenever they run and recovers whenever they have it toggled off or are standing still.

As in most RPGs, the player’s character obtains experience whenever they kill enemies, and upon leveling, they can invest five points into the mentioned four base stats and one point into a skill in their respective tree, with higher-level abilities unlocked at certain levels provided the player has at least one point in a lower-level passive or active ability. In the PlayStation 4 version of Resurrected, players can assign ten action shortcuts (including attacking normally), which really becomes handy especially with classes that have a variety of useful actions in their skill trees, such as the Druid, which can shapeshift, cast elemental magic, and summon creatures to his side.

Stonehenge, eat your heart out.

Should the player die in offline gameplay, they lose all current equipment and items yet can retrace their steps to where their character died to loot their own corpse and get everything back, a fair penalty. The default offline difficulty is fair, with players seeking a different challenge able to scale the toil of combat to higher levels, meaning greater rewards but more risk in that they lose everything their character has if they die. The game mechanics are enjoyable, although the remaster lacks quality-of-life features such as a suspend save and the ability to pause the action, even in offline gameplay, and the finite inventory space will irk some, given the balance they need to consider about things such as keeping stat-boosting charms their item space and what exactly to keep and sell.

The issues with inventory management and the lack of pausing and a suspend save are the primary strikes against control, although there are plenty positives such as teleportation back to town at fixed points within each of the game’s five acts, not to mention the ability to summon portals back to town at any time within each area so long as players have the respective scrolls to do so. There’s also little difficulty in figuring out how to advance the central storyline, although the PlayStation 4 version can crash at points (which happened to me chiefly in Act IV), and there is a fair bit of loading. Regardless, Resurrected does decently in interaction.

The second Diablo’s narrative picks up where the first left off in the world of Sanctuary, the nameless character of the first game trying to contain the franchise’s eponymous demon within his/her body, the Lord of Terror corrupting him/her and allowing demons to wreak havoc. Cutscenes between acts focus on the Dark Wanderer, while each act has its substories, dialogue often varying depending upon which class the player has chosen. There are links to the first game, the fate of the town that served as a hub in the first game highlighted, and the mythos and backstory are excellent, but whichever character the player creates lacks development. Regardless, the storyline mostly glues the sequel well.

The soundtrack has several solid tracks such as the title screen theme, not to mention other orchestral pieces that shine the most in Act V, though not a lot of the music is memorable. The voice acting is mostly good as well, and the sound effects are never out of place, resulting in a decent-sounding game.

A lot of loot in flames.

The remastered visuals are in many respects breathtaking, keeping the same style as those in the original version and its expansion, with an isometric perspective like the first Diablo game, with a general aura of darkness about the environments, the lighting effects and shadows being superb and realistic, alongside photorealistic upscaled CG cutscenes in between acts. Other positives include different equipment affecting the appearance of the player’s character, though this doesn’t apply to whichever mercenary they have. There are a few other issues such as occasional choppiness and many reskinned enemies, but otherwise, the remaster’s graphics look great.

Finally, the sequel ranges from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, with the myriad classes, replay mode received upon completion of the main quest, and other things such as PlayStation Trophies very well enhancing lasting appeal, though mileage will vary as to the heavy inventory management.

Overall, Diablo II: Resurrected is mostly a solid remaster, the graphical upscaling being most notable whilst other aspects largely remain unchanged, which is certainly not a bad thing. Other positives include the excellent gameplay with endless variations, both online and offline whichever the player decides, the good continuation of the original game’s storyline, and great soundtrack. Granted, there are a few issues regarding the possible difficulty balance that can vary among classes, the absence of pausing or a suspend save feature, the sizeable inventory management, the lack of memorable music, and a few issues with the visuals that existed in the sequel’s initial incarnation, but new generations of gamers will likely be more than happy to experience the classic for the first time.

This review is based on a single playthrough of the digital PlayStation 4 version as the Druid offline.