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There are persistent rumors that both Diablo II and Diablo IV could go down before the end of the year, along with the next World of Warcraft expansion Shadowlands. Blizzard has reportedly been under pressure to show a higher return on investment on a continuous basis in recent years, and this drive towards multiple simultaneous launches in the second half of the year could be the way the company is moving in that direction. .
The rumor comes from the French site ActuGaming, which has previously broken accurate rumors about Blizzard’s upcoming projects. Vicarious Visions is allegedly supporting Blizzard in the remakes, which would make some sense; That company has been involved in a series of remastering efforts in recent years. A release date before the end of the year would put Diablo II: Risen in danger of colliding with Diablo IV, which might not be something Blizzard wants to launch.
Is this Starcraft: Remastered or Warcraft: Reforged?
The problem with hearing Blizzard is coming back to Diablo II is that, as great as Diablo II was, and I loved it enough to launch my own mod efforts 20 years ago, like Warcraft III, I could use more than just one layer. Of paint. There were some significant design limitations in the original Diablo II that limited the ability of the early games to scale, thus locking the final game into a smaller set of talents and abilities than seemed to be the case, beginning.
ActuGaming notes that Blizzard is aware of the communications disaster surrounding WC3 Reforged and considers it to be a communication error. The problem with WC3 Reforged, apparently, was that Blizzard did not communicate that it would be a new version while it was actually just a remaster.
That’s true … up to a point. But only up to a certain point. What people hated about WC3 Reforged was in part the fact that the new game forced all previous owners into a new front-end, removed previous support for game modes, and generally hurt the gaming experience. people who had deliberately chosen not Buy Warcraft III: Reforged. True, Blizzard set higher expectations for a better version of the game, but there was nothing wrong with doing so. Both Warcraft III and Diablo II could use more than just a new coat of graphic paint.
I’m not suggesting that these titles be fundamentally overhauled in any way, but Diablo II would hardly suffer from a slightly more elaborate plotline, a bit of new history, or a few developed side quests. In part, that’s because Diablo II has always felt slimmer compared to other Blizzard worlds when it comes to terrain interactions with top players. Deckard Cain and Tyrael were truly the only NPCs developed in the entire game – everyone else was a character you traded some optional dialogue snippets with in-between missions. Starcraft, which dates back to around the same time, put a much greater emphasis on NPC and plot development. While Diablo II had a multiplayer component and played a lot online, it never became Starcraft’s competitive sport, and it wasn’t limited to a slavish interpretation of each original rule with no room for experimentation.
I agree with Blizzard that it miscommunicated around Warcraft III: Reforged, but I don’t think the problem is that the company did not meet expectations. I think the problem is that the company committed to a vision for the product and delivered a much lower one, which included sanctions that affected people who weren’t even interested in the game and didn’t offer anyone what was really promised. If Blizzard had delivered the game it had promised, rather than the half-baked version it released, some people might still be unhappy with the changes, but most would have recognized the strength and improvements of the product.
Warcraft III: Reforged looks like it was built by people who slavishly dedicated themselves to duplicating the wrong aspects of the game, this is how we got lavishly built re-enactments of poorly constructed cinematics that should have been left in their original forms or redesigned as fundamentally different encounters. It’s bad enough to say that the fan-made remaster of the original Arthas v. Illidan is better than the one we actually got from Blizzard.
If Blizzard wants Diablo II to be well received, it must demonstrate that it understands what people liked about the series and what it wants to return in the first place. After Reforged, that’s no longer as safe as it used to be.
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