Diablo 2 Resurrectedis the remaster that hardcore fans of the series have been waiting for. It brings back the perfect blend of new with upscaled graphics and shared stash tabs and old with the same gameplay and builds that fans remember.
Diablo 2 Resurrectedalso brings back the hardcore nature of games that were more unforgiving than many games are nowadays such as a more punishing character death and quicker gameplay.
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Consequences for Character Death
InDiablo 1, if a player dies in single-player, the game ends and they must restart from their last save. This wasn’t uncommon with games from the past, but nowadays games have automatic checkpoints so that if players do end up getting a game over, it isn’t as punishing. Playersplaying the multiplayer inDiablo 1who had a character die will have all of their carried items drop at that spot.
Players optionally could have their friend’s character cast the Resurrect Spell to revive the player whose character died. Alternatively, they would be forced to respawn back in town with reduced health and mana, as well as no gear. This makesDiablo 1quite a difficult game to play through for players not used to games from its era. Being 25 years old, it’s even moredifficult to playDiablo 1in 2021.
InDiablo 2, dying in Softcore will have the player’s character drop all their equipped gear. Players in this position will have their character revived in the act’s town and can then attempt to retrieve their items from their corpse. Though, without any equipped items this can be dangerous as the monsters that were there when they died will still be there. Players had the option to simply restart their game, and their last corpse will spawn in town the next time they log in.
However, if players make the attempt to get their items back and die again, then more corpses will be created and the last corpse that spawns in town during a restart would not be their first corpse with their equipment. This is but a small sample size of the game mechanics players might haveforgotten about inDiablo 2 Resurrected.
Players ofDiablo 2who play Hardcore difficulty and die will lose their characters permanently whether single-player or multiplayer, losing all progression and items on that character and in that character’s stash. InDiablo 3,this same rule applies to Hardcore characters, though Softcore character deaths are much more lenient.Diablo 3allows players to revive their character on the spot for a limited amount of time under loose restrictions. Though, this may have not even been thevision the originalDiablodeveloper had forDiablo 3.
No Cooling Down
InDiablo 2,there were no cooldowns like inDiablo 3, only Casting Delay. Casting Delay was not affected by the Faster Cast Rate stat (as that only impacted the casting animation), but it was a few-second delay for a handful of skills. This only ever went upwards of 6 seconds with skills such as the Amazon’s Valkyrie skill, theDruid’s Armageddon and Hurricane skills, and a few others. Any other Casting Delay was less than 6 seconds, much less than some of the skills inDiablo 3that had cooldowns upwards of 3 minutes or more. As a result,Diablo 2was a much faster-paced game which meant, in the blink of an eye, a player could lose their character.
Diablo 2 Resurrectedwill surely bring back the feeling players had when they didn’t have a game hold their hand all the way through. Getting to the endgame areas inDiablo 2 Resurrectedwon’t reward players with a complete set of gear like inDiablo 3seasons. Comparatively, gear will be much more difficult to attain inDiablo 2 Resurrectedand players looking to build their characters quickly will find that to be a tough endeavor.
InDiablo 2 Resurrected, players build their characters through the stat distribution and skill point decisions as well as the gear they find. Players unfamiliar with the game mechanics will have to make tough decisions as, unlike inDiablo 3, their character buildisn’t dictated by simply the gear they are wearing, but more so the choices they make when leveling up their chosen class. This, coupled with the diverse range of useful items and dynamic crafting options, makesDiablo 2 Resurrecteda breath of fresh air for fans of the more hardcore playstyle.
Diablo 2: Resurrectedlaunches later this year for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
