Image: Blizzard (Diablo II)
The Curse of Tristram: Destruction’s End, a mod that takes the main campaign of Diablo II and recreates it using the StarCraft II engine, has been four years in the making. This weekend, creator Etienne Godbout finally released a playable version to the public on a test server.
The good news is, it works. While Curse of Tristram is still very much in beta, with lots of bugs and rough edges and only one person working in his spare time to fix all of it, the first six areas of the game that are currently available are pretty impressive.
10 years separate Diablo II and StarCraft II and the difference shows. Even though the former is an isometric action-RPG, and the latter is a real-time strategy game, Godbout was able to use StarCraft II‘s map editor to give Diablo II a much needed face-lift. The Curse of Tristram isn’t a perfect one-to-one facsimile, but plays surprisingly close to the original, just with better graphics.
The mod offers all seven of Diablo II‘s character classes for you to start as and two new difficulty modes. “Heroic,” the first, adds stronger enemies and equipment, but also something called “world curses” – global events in the game that randomly deactivate certain abilities like health regeneration.
The third one, “Mythic,” turns all bosses into super-powered versions and also adds “world events,” a mechanic Godbout plans to share more information about in the future.
I started playing the game as an Amazon and managed to go through the opening couple quests without any big hiccups (clearing out the Den of Evil and killing Blood Raven).
At first blush it might not look as good as you remember Diablo II looking, but that’s because you don’t actually remember how Diablo II really looked. In that regard, the StarCraft II engine actually offers a welcome facelift.
Godbout began working on the seeds of what would become this ambitious project back in 2014. Back then, his mod simply recreated Diablo II‘s Rogue Encampment using StarCraft II‘s Galaxy Editor. Years later, it’s evolved into something much grander.
StarCraft II went free-to-play last November, meaning mods like The Curse of Tristram and others are now available to everyone with a modern PC.
Currently, you can access Godbout’s homage to Diablo II by launching StarCraft II, going to the custom modes at the top of the game client, and then searching for “The Curse of Tristram” under Arcade maps. From there you can create a lobby where other people can join if you want to play the mod co-op.
Comments
12 responses to “Fan Project To Remake Diablo II Using StarCraft II Is Now Playable”
Holy shit that’s incredible???
Yeah… completely insane. How do we get it?
I found his Patreon. Will definitely pledge if its good.
Ack. Can’t believe I missed that. Cheers.
Hahahaha no problem I am guessing alot of people skimmed over the article and went straight for video and got their jollies off 😛
Came here to see this comment. Wasn’t disappointed. This is seriously insane for one dude…. I clicked the video expecting to see a marine running around shooting zerglings that were named “Blood Imp” Or something of that nature. Absolutely gob smacked.
Dear god, It’s the D3 I wanted!
HAHAHAHAHA what was that D2 with a fresh coat of paint :p
That’s pretty much the D3 everyone wanted.
Very true
For me, quite literally. It was really the art style and thematic direction of the game that drew me in the most. I mean, I can click trillions of times on anything I want in reality, D2 just made it look gooood.
Yeah I really enjoyed the washed out kind of art style made the game more atmospheric in my opinion. Also I feel they nailed the talent tree to, gave a sense of progression.