The new remake of Diablo II is coming out in just a few days, September 23rd @ 11am eastern. I greatly enjoyed playing it back in the day, I’ve played many ARPGs, I had so much fun playing this back in the day, so, I went ahead and pre-purchased the game. I’ve played many games in the genre since, but it was never the same.
From what I’ve read, it is the same game, just new graphics and some QoL improvements. I’m looking forward to trying it out, and also playing a game from the start with no bots, or dupers, maphack, or anything else. I also just so happens I have a previously scheduled 3 week vacation scheduled starting that day.
Will anyone else be playing? I’m on PC, my battle.net tag is Hirka#1677
I did and I had a great deal of fun with a Paladin until I got to the jungle area and just got bored by the swarms and swarms of tiny enemies. It became tedious.
I recall at the time feeling like the game changed from a fantasy combat adventure to a pest extermination simulation. Maybe the remake will improve things, or maybe I’d be more tolerant in my advanced age if I played again.
I’ve been going over some of the stuff from decades ago when I played originally. One thing that was interesting was an email from Chronos from July of 2005. In his search of understanding, he mapped out the entire game. This is why I was accused so often of having Maphack when I never did.
Sent by Chronos via Email 07/18/2005
P-- I’ve now checked and double-checked these, and here’s my latest
full data on Diablo II maps. Most maps have a well-defined start and
end point, and those can be easily defined as L or R, but a few maps
have more than one point of interest. For those maps, I’ve listed them
with all of the points of interest in order, clockwise around the map
(this is the same as following the left wall): For instance, in the
Underground Passage, if the Stony Field entrance is pointing southwest,
the stairs to level 2 will be NW, and the exit to Dark Wood will be NE.
Most, but not all, maps seem to be L-type. In addition to doors to
other areas and waypoints, superunique monsters and gold chests also
seem to fit into this sort of pattern, so those are listed here as well.
Act 1:
Den of Evil, The Cave 1, The Hole 1, The Pit 1: All left
Underground Passage 1: Left: Stony Field - Level 2 - Dark Wood
Mausoleum, Crypt: Left
Tower Cellar 1-4: Left
Jail 1: Left: Barracks - WP - Level 2
Jail 2: Left: Level 1 - Pitspan Fouldog - Level 3
Jail 3: Left
Catacombs 2: Right: WP-3
Act 2:
Sewers 2: Left: Level 1 - WP - Level 3
Sewers 3: Left
Ancient Tunnels: Left
Stoney Tomb 1, Halls of the Dead 1 and 3, Tal Rasha’s Tomb (real and
fake), Claw Viper Temple 1: All left
Stoney Tomb 2: Left: Level 1 - gold chest - Creeping Feature
Halls of the Dead 2: Left: Level 1 - Level 3 - WP
Maggot Lair 1-2: Right
Act 3:
Flayer Dungeon 1-2, Swampy Pit 1-2: Left
Durance of Hate 1: Left
Durance of Hate 2: Left: Level 1 - WP - Level 3
Act 5:
Crystalline Passage: Left: Arreat Plateau - Glacial Trail - Frozen
River - WP
Glacial Trail: Left: Crystalline Passage AND WP (both the same way) -
Frozen Tundra - Drifter Cavern - Bonesaw Breaker
Ancient’s Way: Left: Frozen Tundra - Arreat Summit - Icy Cellar - WP
Worldstone Keep 2: Right: WP - Level 3
Any areas I haven’t listed here either follow a different sort of
pattern (Spider Cave, Arcane Sanctuary, etc), or the pattern is
unrecognizable (Catacombs 1 and 3, WSK 1 and 3, etc.). I realize that
in some cases only certain landmarks are typically of interest, so if,
for instance, you want to go from the Halls of the Dead 2 WP to level 3,
you’d head right instead of left. But I thought it better to be
thorough, rather than leave information out. Also, I don’t have e-mail
addresses handy for our other clanmates, so feel free to forward this to
them.
And to explain that: The maps are constructed out of room tiles, and certain rooms have well-defined orientations. This is most clearly seen in Worldstone Keep 2, where both the waypoint and the stairs down are at the ends of those rooms with the bridges. And those orientations always have the same relationship to each other. So, for instance, if the WP on WSK 2 is in a room protruding to the SW, the stairs down will be in a room to the SE, and if the WP is SE, the stairs will be NE, and so on. In other words, if you leave the WP room and turn right, you’ll be going in the direction that the stairs tile protrudes in. Now, this doesn’t actually tell you where the stairs are, but if the room protrudes to the SE, it’s probably towards the SE corner of the map, and so following the right wall will probably get you there quickly. This makes WSK 2 what I call a “right-type map”.
If the entrance room to a dungeon is T-shaped, like Claw Viper Temple level 1, I consider the “missing” branch to be the direction it’s protruding in, for these types.
Also note that all of this information is from the original Diablo II. They might be using the same map-generating algorithm in Resurrected, but I wouldn’t consider it guaranteed, so this might all be out of date.
From everything I have read, the remaster is using the same algorithm. They started with the latest patch (1.14 I think), and worked from there. They didn’t change any of the underlying formulas or algorithms from the original.
Only about 30 minutes until the game goes live at 11am EDT (8 PDT). Assuming anyone is playing, and game name and creation is the same (I heard it is on PC), I’ll be playing in the same game names as we used to. sdmb, sdmb1, sdmb2, etc all with the password cecil.
I won’t be home until 7:30ish this evening, and am planning on getting in a little bit of play time.
I tired playing D2 several years ago, on Windows 7, but there was a whole Win98 compatibility mode thing, and I just didn’t get very far. I loved D3, especially after they got rid of the auction house. I’m really looking forward to getting into it more this time. Deciding between the druid, paladin or assassin. I’m also anxiously waiting for D4 and D… whatever the mobile game is called.
So I grabbed it on Switch. The controller seems to work pretty well and the game runs smooth, better than I thought it would. I kinda wish I’d have gotten it on PC/PS5 instead so I could really appreciate the full graphical overhaul. I’m playing it in docked mode right now and I’d say that it looks decent but “Switch muddy” and the low frame rate is more noticeable than I hoped. Already experiencing some rose-colored-glasses moments with the gameplay in the first 20 minutes. No two ways about it, ARPGs have come a LONG way from this in 20yrs. I suspect this will be a nostalgia trip for a playthru but I don’t see this sucking up as many hours as D3 has.
To reiterate, it plays well on Switch but there are a lot of graphical compromises which isn’t normally a huge deal on Switch but with the complete graphical overhaul being the primary selling point of this remaster I regret not buying it on a more graphically capable system.
Update: So I couldn’t help myself and picked it up on PC as well. To say it looks better than the Switch would be the understatement of the year. Game is beautiful. I’ll still use my Switch for playing when I’m travelling or whatever but will likely play primarily on PC now.