Blizzard will release a remake of Diablo inside of Diablo III as part of an upcoming “20th anniversary” patch, the company said today. It will include a 16-level dungeon and the four main bosses from the first Diablo.
The patch, The Darkening of Tristam, will be free to Reaper of Souls owners and get really, really retro. Said Blizzard in a press release:
Celebrate 20 years of Diablo by travelling back into the depths of the Cathedral where it all began in this upcoming Diablo III: Reaper of Souls content update. Get ready to explore a monster-filled dungeon 16 levels deep, and come face to face with the four main bosses from the original game – all with retro touches like special graphics filters and eight-direction character movement.
The patch will be live on the public test realm next week.
Comments
9 responses to “Blizzard Is Remaking Diablo Inside Of Diablo III”
All the bad points of playing Diablo 1 (it’s old) and none of the story, quests or characters – great…
Think if I’ll just boot up the original Diablo if I want that nostalgia hit.
Normally I would be thrilled about this. However every forgets to mention that they said this will ONLY be available during the anniversary event which will happen one month out of the year. So they release content then 11/12 months you can’t play it. Well done lads.
Plenty of games have seasonal content, most people enjoy it. I know I’m looking forward to it.
That’s true but in this case I think a lot of people were hoping for some big new content (like an expansion/new game) to be announced as Diablo 3 hasn’t had anything really new in a long time and it’s the anniversary this year.
Temporary content means it’ll be back to the same old stuff within a month – which people are already bored of now.
Personally I’m just sad that early next year will see 3 years of stalled story, with no end in sight. Was hoping the 20th anniversary would change that 🙁
Yeah aside from the whole “we’re gonna make this feel retro rubbish” which misses the whole point of why people actually want a D1 (and 2) remake a month isn’t enough time. I’ll easily play through it but I have two mates who only get an hour or two a fortnight to play (joys of work and kids and renovations). So chances are they’ll have just skimmed the surface of the remake. Should be a permanent feature.
The Wow events bugged me (when I was still playing it) for the same reason. Though they were even worse, don’t log in for a couple days and you realise you’ve missed Day of the Dead or something. What’s supposed to be a cool little bonus becomes a frustrating missed opportunity.
As for the remake, people want the “game” in an updated engine. So same characters, quests, skill trees, enemies and so on just with upgraded graphics and audio. What it sounds like we’ll get is the current D3 skills with a gimped look (“retro” graphics shaders) and controls (restricted to 8 way movement). So it’s actually the worst of both worlds, not the best 🙁
Ahh yes, another fucking bandaid patch to make it feel a little more like what people actually expected in the first place.
As a never ending player of diablo 2 all i want is a continuance but different story (lets pretend that D3 just doesnt exist) and the same look & feel i get from D2 even down to the controlls on a new engine with mod support for total conversions so i can keep playing it for the next 20 years.
Lets face it Path of Exile feels more like the real Diablo then its neon lit D3 counterpart, which as a hardcore fan of the series was a absolute joke of a game having to be repeatedly updated to seem like it was part of the same world in most cases not true to its original heritage.
So glad to see theres a dev from the original Diablo going to work on path of Exile rather then having to deal with Blizzards assholish menatlity we’l give what we think they want then what they want.
With respect, I couldnt disagree any more. Its pretty clear that you havent spent much time with D3 in recent times (if at all), but its far from what was originally released.
Before you complain, or say you played it when it first came out, try to remember how many patches it took D2 before it got it right. The same complaints, only referencing D1, were targetted at D2 when it was released as well.
D3 wasnt perfect at the start, but I’ll take D3’s current system over D2’s runs repeated 100000 times any day. Even the illusion of variety is better than knowing its the same junk time after time.
Oh I’m completely bummed. I thought this was a fresh game, something I could grab to work my way towards understanding then Diablo lore and play. Instead I read that this is a lick of paint on D3 in the ‘spirit’ of D1. Thank God there is now a glut of developers who care about the story over mechanics.
It’s not just visual, it includes the 16 levels and 4 bosses of the first game. It’s all of the content of the original except the classes. You should still get the same lore exposure from this as from the original game.