In many ways this game is “solved,” in that the best builds and their precise itemization have been thoroughly sussed out over the years. There’s a ton of freedom… that is, if you're willing to discard 20 years of accumulated Diablo 2 wisdom and take your chances. How about a Barbarian focused on the War Cry skill, who just runs around shouting until everything dies? How about a Sorceress who enchants weapons rather than nukes enemies from a distance? I've always wanted to try and make a Necromancer tank, personally – maybe I’ll finally get around to it.

It's flexible enough that you can make ranged builds for the melee characters, like a crossbow Paladin that shoots explosive bolts. There’s no shortage of options for skills and abilities, and part of the delight of Diablo 2 is that it has a skill tree system you can use to build some truly strange characters. There’s a wealth of detail in every scene, in the monsters, and in character models, that really makes me appreciate the ability to dynamically switch between the old and new graphics to see the contrast. Locations like the Monastery Gates in Act 1, an outdoor area that was always a bit weird from an isometric point of view, now have visible roofs on the buildings instead of just a black sea beyond the walls. The completely redone graphics of Resurrected do so much more than a simple homage to the original game, adding a whole third dimension as well as 4K-friendly environment details that were just out of the question in the 800圆00 2D graphics of 2000.

In the face of concessions that modern games have made towards fun, Diablo 2's insistence on grind and unforgiving systems and 20-year-old bugs can just make me feel… tired.

At the same time, it's blatantly a game from an era where the demands on our time were very different than what we’ve seen in the past decade.

As someone who played more than my fair share of Diablo 2 between 20, Resurrected absolutely scratches an itch for the golden age of this genre. After a hundred hours smashing demons, I've kicked Diablo to the curb a couple times and I'm thoroughly reacquainted with the good and the bad that the most revered game in Blizzard’s action RPG series has to offer. Nothing more than a coat of fresh paint over the old masterpiece, Diablo 2: Resurrected is a curious piece of video game restoration.

Diablo 2 remake download