With Diablo II Resurrected’s remaster release right around the corner and more or less expected to carry Blizzard through the rest of the year, the developers are aiming to get it right – and that means adjusting the way players play together. In the studio’s latest dev blog, it addresses both the difficulty of joining games as well as chat.
“Following our Beta, we’ve seen many console players requesting more options to better navigate activities in multiplayer. We’ve added Bosses and Zones tabs to the Party Finder, so players can better coordinate on that front, alongside the Pandemonium event, Uber Diablo event, and PvP/Dueling. Some console players have also requested the option to create custom lobbies. That is not a feature we’re supporting at launch, but as we progress, we’ll continue to monitor feedback on this topic after the launch of Diablo II: Resurrected. […] Lastly, we’ve seen a lot of discussion surrounding the Chat functionality on console. We designed the game to be the best experience on each platform you play, for console, the primary way for players to communicate is through native voice chat on their platform. So, we’re not making any changes on that front, but we’ll continue to monitor that feedback to see if it remains a prevalent area of concern for our players.”
TCP/IP support is also still off-limits as it opened security holes for the game. And there’s a bit of bad news if you have a big honkin’ 21:9 monitor: “To protect the integrity of everyone’s experience and promote an equal playing field for all, those with Ultrawide monitors will be able to have their game screen purview extended to 19:9 (the maximum length of the in-game limitation zones) with a vignette on the sides of the game screen.”
“For this remaster, two of our core principles are protecting the authenticity of the original Diablo II experience and making it more accessible in this modern age,” Blizzard reminds everyone. “Our goal is to honor this timeless classic while also opening it to a new generation of players.” Our own Not So Massively column delved into the game last week, finding that while it definitely honored the original, whether it appeals to a new generation of players is debatable.
