Diablo II: Resurrected is officially live as of now as the remastered version of the original 2000 roguelike from Blizzard North. Resurrected, of course, was helmed largely by Activision’s Vicarious Visions, which was brought under the Blizzard Entertainment banner earlier this year. Blizzard is now helmed in part by Jen Oneal, who formerly ran Vicarious Visions itself, thanks to the toppling of J. Allen Brack following the massive lawsuit and scandal this summer that continues to shadow the company’s releases, including this one.
As we’ve previously noted, the game is launching today at 11 a.m. EDT – just as this article goes live – on PC (Battle.net), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and the Nintendo Switch, with a $39.99 pricetag. The release includes content and classes from Diablo II and the 2001 Lord of Destruction expansion, plus a long line of quality-of-life enhancements.
“Designed to take full advantage of today’s modern gaming hardware, Diablo II: Resurrected supports up to 4K resolution displays. It also includes fully remastered 7.1 Dolby Surround audio so players won’t miss a single bloodcurdling scream. All 27 minutes of the original game’s cinematics are also re-shot with stunning high-fidelity visuals. While considerable work went into bringing Diablo II into the modern era, preserving the authenticity of the experience was paramount—the original game engine is still running ‘under the hood,’ performing the same calculations and game logic as it did back in the year 2000.”
Naturally, Blizzard’s keeping the live-action trailers coming; the latest features Black Panther’s Winston Duke.
To address game creation and character issues, #D2R will undergo unscheduled maintenance at 10am PT. We expect this maintenance to last 30 minutes. Players who are online and playing should logout before the shutdown if possible.
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) September 23, 2021
We've had tons of players online, which is great but has been a challenge for servers surpassing our testing. We know many players are still affected, so we're actively adding capacity and will keep on this until it’s in a better place. This may involve more restarts as well.
— Rod Fergusson (@RodFergusson) September 23, 2021