Diablo 2: Resurrected, the slick and shiny remake of the original action roleplaying game, is actually able to read your save files from the original game. Neat.
This is major news when we consider what the state of the game was before the reveal of its remake. Diablo creators Max and Erich Schaefer were sheepish when they shot down the rumours of a remaster, saying that the archives are "irrevocably, fatally corrupted." Neither of them reflect on that time with fondness. "Not just our code, but all of our assets," they told GameSpot in an interview. "It's all gone. We were supposed to have a backup but neglected it. We spent a day or two in sheer panic. It would make it very difficult for Blizzard to do a Diablo 2 remaster because all the assets we used are pretty much gone. They'd have to make them from scratch."
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Against all of the odds, the company has gone to the grave of Diablo 2, started shovelling, hauled its corpse out, daubed a bit of blusher, slapped a stain of lipstick across it, and propped it up for us to adore. The same process was applied to Jeremy Bentham's body which is seen in a glass case in University College London.
I imagine that new and old players alike will find it tough to resist the allure of Diablo 2: Resurrected, which is on its way to PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Switch. With "all-new 3D graphics, brand-new cinematics, remastered audio... and the same classic Diablo 2 gameplay you remember," Blizzard clarified that this version isn't intended to replace the original acclaimed game.
"Keep your old save files," said producer Matthew Cederquist in an interview with IGN Middle East.
"Back when we were working on [the remaster], we wondered if the old save files would work, so we kind of shoved it in, and it worked! So yes, your local singleplayer save files will carry over." Designer Andre Abrahamian expanded on this, reiterating that mods for Diablo 2 will work seamlessly when the game releases. "When we first started working on the game, we wanted to keep all the gameplay aspects, like discovering the Horadric Cube recipes, or the deep itemization systems or the drop rates, and all the storytelling," said Abrahamian. "But when we approach things like the art, we wanted to push it and modernise it as much as we could."
Featured Image Credit: Blizzard