A comparison I took with the old school and remastered graphics (both images cut at half way points)
With the amount of skepticism that has gone towards any Diablo-related announcement from Blizzard, you could say that I had my guard up when I heard they planned to remaster Diablo II. I was quite unhappy with the way Diablo III turned out and we all know that the mobile Diablo game announcement was ill-received. It almost seemed like the series had gone downhill, ready to halt to an end with one more bad release. Of course, Diablo IV has given Diablo fans hope again, but concern still mounts on any new release for the series.
As someone who has played Diablo II from the time I could be on a PC without supervision - meaning I was 11-years-old at the time - I can honestly say that the technical alpha for Diablo II Remaster was played with joy and ended with a sigh of relief! It felt like I was a kid again, slowly leveling up my Sorceress as I cleared fields and caves full of enemies. The balance of punishing enemies and powerful attacks, stacking my skill points into spells with plans on making future spells even more powerful, and just generally going through an RNG world of foes, shrines, and chests - it was all there as I remembered it. To put it simply, the nostalgia was real!
Gameplay
At first, I thought things seemed a little off, but the more I played the more I realized that it was exactly how I remembered it. You only get attack slots to use and they can be filled with either your melee attack or a skill you have. However, you can quickly switch between weapon set one and two which gives you two more attack slots. After remembering the setup I used to use, I suggest the same for other players, regardless of your character choice.
Basically, you have your main weapon set that you will use and the secondary set. This secondary set should focus on having a boost to your assist skills, such as shields, or perhaps one that lasts for a few seconds. For instance, as a Sorceress, the second weapon should give points towards Ice Shield so that when you switch to your second weapon set you can put on your Ice Shield with a boost before switching back to your main. Your secondary attack slots should always be your assist or long-term skills so that you can quickly switch, cast your assist skills, and switch back to your main attack set up.
Quests can be started by talking to the townsfolk, but there is also the occasional quest that is found by exploration. This is shown off in Act I as the fourth quest has to be found to start. Since it is the first area of the game, this exploration should be done naturally because of the kind of grind that it takes to level up characters. You will need to be killing as many foes as you can when you are progressing through the various quests of the game. I do not recommend skipping quests on your first playthrough of the game as they give a lot of experience, as well as require you to explore the world pretty thoroughly.
When you first get started, one of the merchants you talk to will sell a Tome of Town Portals and a Tome of Identity. Both of these tomes can hold up to ten scrolls each and save room in your inventory, so be sure to pick those up immediately. This same person will instantly replenish your stats when you speak to her, so if you are in the middle of a battle and have some items to sell plus need to heal up, just use a town portal and talk to her to handle that.
I suggest setting up your tool belt, which will hold your potions, to interact using the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys. This makes them easy and quick to use while you are in battle, but be mindful that your health still has to fill up when you use a potion. It isn’t an instant refill. Depending on your character, you will need to be mindful if you should prioritize the amount of health or mana potions in each slot, but I don’t suggest putting the better potions in there, such as Rejuvenation, because it is too easy to hit the wrong key when the game gets intense.
My favorite aspect to see working as it always had, and one of the main reasons I was disappointed in Diablo III for not having, is the way the skill tree worked. When you look over the different skills, you can see that they get bonus effects from leveling up other skills before it. If you plan your stats out properly, this skill tree can be used to make some very powerful characters with skill attacks that are far beyond what you would originally expect. From personal experience, I found that there are setups that will take the first 30 or 40 levels to get to that if done right will end up making your character a scary strong foe for those of the same level.
Thoughts
Honestly, the Diablo II Remaster feels like the game I spent countless hours in when I was younger but looks like a newer game graphically. It’s like my memories got polished and then handed back to me to continue on for more experiences. I was very amused with the way the technical alpha played and only came across one loading error glitch that was fixed with a simple restart - no progress nor items lost. I am no longer hopeful for this game’s release because now I am only excited for it! I have no more doubts that Blizzard made the right move when they decided to remaster this classic and I look forward to recreating my Druid character that I once rocked the servers with.
