Why Diablo 2: Resurrected is so good?

Posted by ZOE on January 19th, 2022

Diablo 2: Resurrected is back, and it remains one of the best action RPGs of all time. It may be a bit clunkier than I remember it to be, but not off-puttingly so, and once you’ve taken your first steps and started developing your character of choice, it’s hard to not be totally consumed by the game’s dark world and all that it offers.

1. Visually, it\'s a bit brilliant. You\'re given the option of a performance mode and we strongly suggest you enable it, as the locked 60 frames per second makes up for any miniscule graphical shortcomings. We played in this mode throughout and the game looked great; it appears as though everything has been done that we could possibly ask for. Spells look spectacular, environments are robustly atmospheric and the monsters, most crucially, look suitably nasty. Some will gripe that there is a minor loss of personality in some of the choices - Diablo is a campy game, and the loss of certain more vivid colour tints and some modified monster poses do reduce that aspect of the experience a little. That, though, is the definition of nit-picking, as Vicarious Visions have done a sterling job recreating a classic here.

2. The music is as wonderful as ever, ditto the monster\'s various \"aargh!\"s as they are dispatched, but the storyline is a bit bobbins. That might be heresy, but we couldn\'t get invested in it, as well-voice-acted as it is. You can skip through the text quite efficiently, and this game is entirely about the gameplay loop so we opted mostly to just get on with it. That\'s no knock on the hard work that\'s been put into this — every single cutscene has been remade and they look tremendous. We\'re just here for the loot and gold.

3. Control-wise, it\'s pretty impressive. The interface has been transplanted to console beautifully and assigning skill points (and, indeed, the subsequent unlocked skills) is extremely simple and efficient. Movement around the maps is speedy, attacking is suitably responsive and nothing in the meat-and-potatoes mechanics gets in the player\'s way, which is precisely what loot games need to be like; they\'re effectively a conveyor belt of stuff and the last thing you want is some bizarre design choice throwing a spanner in the works. In this case, some sort of legendary +3 spanner, natch.