Diablo 2: Resurrected (remastered)

[Hail The Brain Slug]

What's wrong with it? Lots of gaming personalities loved the beta. Especially established old school diablo2 speedrunners.

Unlike the disaster that was Warcraft 3 reforged, this looks to be on the right track based on several indicators.

lol ok

I already spoke about what I found wrong with it earlier in the thread. I significantly doubt they can pull off fixing everything wrong with the game since the beta.

When was the last time you played actual Diablo 2/LOD? Have you played it side by side with the remastered version? I did. The remastered version, even in legacy mode, was a disjointed piece of shit.

 

[Zeze]

When was the last time you played actual Diablo 2/LOD?

Yesterday. I love this game.

I haven't played D2R beta, but overall community response was very positive - especially competitive nerds who are sensitive to technical / nuanced behaviors of the game.

I hope it gets nicely polished.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Yesterday. I love this game.

I haven't played D2R beta, but overall community response was very positive - especially competitive nerds who are sensitive to technical / nuanced behaviors of the game.

I hope it gets nicely polished.

I can tell you right now you're going to be disappointed. You might be tempted think it's good enough. You might even convince yourself it is. It's not.

I got access to the beta early by taking advantage of the Twitch giveaway where if your watched 2.5 hours of someone streaming D2:R you got access. Not a single person I watched had issue with the game, they were all blown away by the fancy graphics.

The instant I got in the game myself I knew it didn't feel right. I immediately identified multiple things that were wrong. I launched D2:LOD to confirm and was greeted by a game that was significantly more composed, reactive, and responsive.

I literally do not believe Blizzard can make D2:R good enough.

Maybe they can refine it so a lot of people think it's "good enough". But I do not care. I saw the results myself. They aren't good.


They are selling you on nostalgia and fancy graphics. Not a coherent game.

Blizzard quite literally doesn't deserve the money.

 

[BudAshes]

Activision Blizzard is a crap company. If this game is even halfway decent it will be a miracle.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Activision Blizzard is a crap company. If this game is even halfway decent it will be a miracle.

It's being driven by hype and I can only assume paid off content creators. There's no other explanation for the glowing reviews on the literal pile of shit blizzard pooped out.

 

[Zeze]

I can tell you right now you're going to be disappointed. You might be tempted think it's good enough. You might even convince yourself it is. It's not.

I got access to the beta early by taking advantage of the Twitch giveaway where if your watched 2.5 hours of someone streaming D2:R you got access. Not a single person I watched had issue with the game, they were all blown away by the fancy graphics.

The instant I got in the game myself I knew it didn't feel right. I immediately identified multiple things that were wrong. I launched D2:LOD to confirm and was greeted by a game that was significantly more composed, reactive, and responsive.

I literally do not believe Blizzard can make D2:R good enough.

Maybe they can refine it so a lot of people think it's "good enough". But I do not care. I saw the results myself. They aren't good.


They are selling you on nostalgia and fancy graphics. Not a coherent game.

Blizzard quite literally doesn't deserve the money.

But isn't D2R basically a 3D/remake skin layer/wrapper on top, isn't it? I thought the source code wasn't touched.

That's why you can actually toggle on/off instantly between classic graphics and D2R.

Can you confirm?

 

[Zeze]

I know its' popular to hate on Blizzard now. They deserve serious punishment for sexual harassment stuff too.

Strictly judging by the quality of their products, I think Blizzard is still a-ok.

Their latest intellectual property Overwatch was a total home run. This was their FIRST FPS game from making RTS foremost (then ARPG and MMORPG). It's a very well polished strategic FPS with a state of the art engine / fluid gameplay.

I don't blame Blizzard for making Diablo Immortal (mobile game). They're a profit seeking company and numbers point to mobile market - especially overseas. They were just tone deaf to bait people into thinking it would be Diablo 4. Idiots.

Overwatch 2 is coming up - it looks like corporate overlords are forcing their hand to release a sequel with a pretty much uninspired mission. It's same engine, same heroes, some new maps and some UI QoL enhancements. What a joke. I'll be excited to still check it out since I just like Overwatch. But I'm not expecting much. I read an article that yes, they were forced to make a sequel MUCH earlier.

Diablo 3 just doesn't have the same hook and loot/strategy as Diablo 2. But it was still an acceptable AAA title, especially after they completely got rid of auction house with credit card purchases of gears. Oh yea they introduced loot 2.0.

Their Hearthstone game was a very well polished game as well - with a strong meta and competitive environment.

Warcraft Forged was a monumental f-up. Jesus. This was their first visible crack.

I still look forward to their games. Let's see on D2R.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

But isn't D2R basically a 3D/remake skin layer/wrapper on top, isn't it? I thought the source code wasn't touched.

That's why you can actually toggle on/off instantly between classic graphics and D2R.

Can you confirm?

Yes, and when you switch to legacy mode the underlying game was extremely choppy and disjointed, hitboxes didn't line up correctly like in the true original game. All the weird input and unresponsiveness problems made sense.

Maybe they can improve it., and I know they sure trumpeted the core game running under the hood like it was a benefit to the remastered version, but I do not buy it.

I spent a couple years working on software that did something similar. I won't claim to know the exact techniques or technology they are using to run the game under the hood but from my experience I literally do not believe they can make it run as well as the standalone original game.


My criticism is of the game itself and has nothing to do with Blizzard's current situation or their reputation. It's solely based on the product I play tested in the very, very recent beta, my experience with the original game, and my experience as a software developer.

 

[shortylickens]

Activision Blizzard is a crap company. If this game is even halfway decent it will be a miracle.

well, it looks like its the exact same game, just rendered in 3D. So it should not be any better or worse than the original.
Which for me is a pass. I dont love hack n slash as much as I used to. We have much better games nowadays. Not paying 20 bucks for the exact same experience as 22 years ago.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

well, it looks like its the exact same game, just rendered in 3D. So it should not be any better or worse than the original.
Which for me is a pass. I dont love hack n slash as much as I used to. We have much better games nowadays. Not paying 20 bucks for the exact same experience as 22 years ago.

They appear to be running the original game encapsulated in the new game. They appear to be capturing all the input and then re-routing it to the original game (when they want). The original game running under the hood is performing extremely poorly compared to running the original game standalone, and the input routing does not appear to be setup properly either.

Not to mention they have to try and map the 3d rendered version to the underlying game (which they've already messed up the input to) and also somehow translate the 25fps core game update to any/all refresh rates.

None of these things seems to me like an impossible task, but based on how the beta was I have the sense they are doing this in ways that have a damn lot of downfalls or weaknesses and struggle to make up for them. Certain things should never have been messed up in the first place. I fully expected the legacy mode to play just like the original game, but it doesn't. Legacy mode was actually damn near unplayable.

I had to break out the original game to see if maybe the original game was just disjointed and choppy like legacy mode is in remastered, and maybe I had forgotten.

I hadn't.

The remastered version is a travesty.

 

[DeathReborn]

I found the D2:R beta to be sluggish & unresponsive. D2:LoD with PlugY and FSR is a better experience. D2:R is the first Diablo game I won't be playing on day 1, Immortal will be the second. Maybe Diablo really died with 3 for this longtime fan of the series.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

I found the D2:R beta to be sluggish & unresponsive. D2:LoD with PlugY and FSR is a better experience. D2:R is the first Diablo game I won't be playing on day 1, Immortal will be the second. Maybe Diablo really died with 3 for this longtime fan of the series.

Too bad you aren't a streamer, maybe blizzard would have cut you a check to say the opposite.

 

[Zeze]

It is tradition...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1441067334223998978

 

[Zeze]

Just played for about half hour - soaking it all in - chatting with all NPC, admiring the remaster, etc.

Cons:

• The lag is absolutely unacceptable and unplayable. It plays like a Diablo 1 or Diablo 0. It's very delayed in terms of exchanging blows and damages. I hope this is due to the lag, not the remake engine issue.
• Day 0 launch connectivity issues - can't complain too much. But I wonder Blizzard is worse than other gaming companies at launch day.
• THEY CLEANED UP SATANIC IMAGERY!! BOOO. NO MORE SPINNING PENTAGONS AT MENU. IT'S A BORING RECTANGLE MENU SELECTION WTF.
• I heard they also cleaned up some gore assets - namely naked women chopped up, etc.

Pros:

• Absolutely utterly gorgeous graphics. The art direction could've gone in ANY direction. They kept the gritty/no fluff/super detailed looks intact while lighting effects are just GORGEOUS. When you open a TP in the dark of Den of Evil, the blue glow encapsulates your entire screen and your dim playing room.
• Performance - I was worried about my aging 1060 6gb with several-gen old i7 and 8 gigs of ram. It runs beautifully at all max at 1080p. How do I turn on framerate?
• I love Quality of Life changes - some are HUGE
  • Auto gold pick-up. This is simply amazing. Especially for gold farm / MF / HR builds too.
  • There was a huge dev post about finally fixing the NHAM bug (next hit always miss). This occurs when you're casting spell is interrupted by enemy attack thus going into hit recovery frames. But animation would still go off (i.e. nova or fireball, etc), but it would do 0 dmg, because it was interrupted. They claim now they fixed it. Great news once this lag settles.
  • Minimap at top left is amazing
  • Better UI and character stats (stolen from the currently popular DII Pugy plugin)
• Animation - Diablo II animations are sprites in 25 frames per second. They're pre-rendered 3D images. If you did a 180 turn-around, you'd be facing next direction 1 frame to the next frame. This is just silly in the fully 3D remake here. So they added in actual shoulder-shifting animation when you turn around in any direction, thus maintaining the 3D fidelity. Now, I could see someone seeing this as being 'not crisp' or 'unresponsive'. Now I greatly hope the lag settles down, because it's obviously lag... hit registering an entire half a second late, etc. I'm very glad they added in fluid animations in 3D. Once again, visuals, animations, lighting are top notch.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Just played for about half hour - soaking it all in - chatting with all NPC, admiring the remaster, etc.

Cons:

• The lag is absolutely unacceptable and unplayable. It plays like a Diablo 1 or Diablo 0. It's very delayed in terms of exchanging blows and damages. I hope this is due to the lag, not the remake engine issue.
• Day 0 launch connectivity issues - can't complain too much. But I wonder Blizzard is worse than other gaming companies at launch day.
• THEY CLEANED UP SATANIC IMAGERY!! BOOO. NO MORE SPINNING PENTAGONS AT MENU. IT'S A BORING RECTANGLE MENU SELECTION WTF.
• I heard they also cleaned up some gore assets - namely naked women chopped up, etc.

Pros:

• Absolutely utterly gorgeous graphics. The art direction could've gone in ANY direction. They kept the gritty/no fluff/super detailed looks intact while lighting effects are just GORGEOUS. When you open a TP in the dark of Den of Evil, the blue glow encapsulates your entire screen and your dim playing room.
• More to come

I assume you noticed the same input issues even in legacy mode? Switch to legacy mode and carefully inspect hitboxes to click on items/monsters/attack/etc.

This is my complaint, and I can't believe youtubers were doing nothing but singing praises for the remaster six months ago when these issues would have been just as apparent or even worse due to the alpha state of the game.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

@Zeze I recommend requesting a refund from blizzard. I highly doubt they can fix these problems.

If you want to hold out hope, I look forward to you letting me know if they ever manage to make D2:R play correctly.

 

[Zeze]

I assume you noticed the same input issues even in legacy mode? Switch to legacy mode and carefully inspect hitboxes to click on items/monsters/attack/etc.

This is my complaint, and I can't believe youtubers were doing nothing but singing praises for the remaster six months ago when these issues would have been just as apparent or even worse due to the alpha state of the game.

Ok back from work meeting.

check out my updated post.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Ok back from work meeting.

check out my updated post.

Unless you've switched to legacy mode and can confirm the game feels and plays exactly as smoothly as diablo 2, my points still stand.

As far as any of us can tell, the 3d game is just a wrapper on the underlying legacy mode. If legacy mode doesn't play right, the wrapper won't. It'll just sort of cover up some issues, and it'll never "feel right".

 

[Zeze]

Unless you've switched to legacy mode and can confirm the game feels and plays exactly as smoothly as diablo 2, my points still stand.

As far as any of us can tell, the 3d game is just a wrapper on the underlying legacy mode. If legacy mode doesn't play right, the wrapper won't. It'll just sort of cover up some issues, and it'll never "feel right".

Let's find out when I can actually join/start a game in 2034. Apparently my level 5 sorc is back to 1 again. Clap clap.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Let's find out when I can actually join/start a game in 2034. Apparently my level 5 sorc is back to 1 again. Clap clap.

Another big failure on blizzards part, requiring D2:R to be online play only.

If you do end up spending some time investigating whether legacy mode plays right or not, you might try a melee class. It was painfully apparently when I was playing a Paladin that it was not good. It was less obvious on a caster, but still didn't feel right.

 

[shortylickens]

Another big failure on blizzards part, requiring D2:R to be online play only.

If you do end up spending some time investigating whether legacy mode plays right or not, you might try a melee class. It was painfully apparently when I was playing a Paladin that it was not good. It was less obvious on a caster, but still didn't feel right.

I still have my D2 discs, including the expansion.

With a no-cd patch I can play offline and disc free.

 

[Zeze]

Ok so they rebooted the servers twice.

I'm very pleasantly surprised to report that it's running very smoothly. Every fireball hits, even the distant ones. Melee attacks register instantly and enemy falls down at the precise moment in a satisfying way.

There's a setting now which has a visual if you swing and miss (due to enemy armor or your attack rating). So you know if your attack misses, it was working as intended.

I also lowered my setting to High from Very High. Now it's even smoother.

De animations are way too smooth and glossy. It's creepy and I love it.

Yes very very responsive so far. Thank the hell. Played for 75 mins much to my wife's chagrin.

And I can't believe how pretty it is. They didn't just wrap the game with a broad stroke. It's gorgeous... I keep getting surprised.

There's still a lag especially when you shop or wear armor. That's acceptable. Hope it settles down further.


9/10 so far.

 

[shortylickens]

I watched a bunch of people playing on twitch.
it is exactly the same thing as before. just 3D. This is what I expected. Its nice they did a 3D update but I still dont wanna play.
For hardcore fans I guess. And maybe kids who never played the original and are willing to put up with always online nonsense.

 

[Zeze]

I watched a bunch of people playing on twitch.
it is exactly the same thing as before. just 3D. This is what I expected. Its nice they did a 3D update but I still dont wanna play.
For hardcore fans I guess. And maybe kids who never played the original and are willing to put up with always online nonsense.

Now that the servers are up, always-online is not a big deal. You don't even think about it.

Yea it sucks.

But always-online has been around for more than a decade now for many many games, including Diablo III (2012)

 

[quikah]

I played WAY too much D2 back when it first launched. Everything I have seen so far looks exactly the same except for nicer graphics. No desire to go back to the same game.