If you’ve missed out on some old school point-and-loot action, don’t worry: Diablo 2 Resurrected will be playable for everyone real soon.
Blizzard announced that the next beta round for Diablo 2: Resurrected (or Diablo 2 Remastered as everyone seems to be calling it) will go live sometime in August. The reveal was made at the bottom of a lengthy blog post outlining all the changes Vicarious Visions are making to the Diablo 2 remake.
This August, players will be able to experience these latest changes firsthand! For a limited time, the gates of Hell will reopen, allowing players who preordered Diablo II: Resurrected to step into Sanctuary in the early access beta. Soon after, all players (on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation) will also have the chance to confront the demons of the Burning Hells in the open beta.
The open beta will give players access to 8-player parties and five classes: Druid, Sorceress, Paladin, Amazon and Barbarian. It’s not clear how long the difference will be between everyone getting access vs. those who preordered. Either way, it’ll be a good chance to see how Diablo 2 Resurrected holds up on consoles, especially the Xbox Series X and PS5. (I imagine it’ll run quite nicely on the Xbox Series S, though.)
As for the technical alpha — which was pretty damn good — most of the changes are largely around clarity. Some of the Sorceress’s spells now occupy more space on the screen, better matching the visual impact they had in the original Diablo 2.
There’s also been tweaks to gems and potions to make them more visible on the screen. It’s small touches that don’t seem like much, but it makes a large difference when you’re trying to quickly spot everything on a screen filled with enemies moving at speed, spell effects, blood and UI prompts.
I especially like the work Vicarious Visions has done with the bow here. The bow on its own is fine, but when you think about it amidst the scale of everything else on a standard Diablo 2 screen, it makes total sense for it to get a slight rework.
In more important quality of life changes, players will now have access to three tabs with 100 slots each for their shared stash. “Many players felt one tab wasn’t enough,” the developers wrote. “When it comes to a player’s personal storage chest, we understand it’s serious business.”
Well, yeah guys. It’s Diablo.
The automap has also gotten a clarity pass, and item names can be toggled with the press of a button. If you preferred the old press-to-hold setup, that’s still available: the setting can be tweaked in the Gameplay tab of the options menu.
And perhaps most generously, there’s this addition:
Characters will no longer spawn in a hostile place until the game is fully loaded, preventing characters from getting attacked or harmed during a loading screen. Additionally, the overall load times will be faster.
Big fan of not getting attacked on the loading screen.
The Diablo 2 remaster, which is hitting all consoles and PC, officially launches on September 23, 2021. It definitely doesn’t look like it’s in line for any sort of a delay, and we’ll keep you posted as to when the beta opens for everyone.
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