While the reduced autonomy of a once-powerhouse studio like Blizzard’s seems troubling, the newly-merged Vicarious Visions may be the perfect team for the job. Now, with Team 1 gone, Activision has brought in its former subsidiary Vicarious Visions, merging it with the development operations of Blizzard, and ( as we reported last year) apparently tasking it with taking on the Diablo 2 mantle. Instead, it disbanded Team 1 (which had already been pulled off ongoing StarCraft 2 development, and had seen its hero-shooter Heroes of the Storm fade to obscurity).
Team 1 had been tasked also with reviving Diablo 2, but a Bloomberg report suggests that Blizzard’s owners Activision got cold feet following Warcraft 3: Reforged’s reception. It currently sits among the worst user-rated games on score aggregator MetaCritic. But its release in 2020 was not well received, with missing features and problematic terms and conditions putting off what should have been a thriving map-making and modding community. Blizzard’s ‘Team 1’ development team had been working on the real-time strategy remaster, another beloved game. To understand why the announcement took so long, we first need to discuss another Blizzard remake – Warcraft 3: Reforged. However, BlizzCon 2021 finally confirmed the game is coming this year, and that Diablo 2: Resurrected will be available on every platform you could hope for. Rumors of a Diablo 2 remaster have been circulating for years – many hoped that it would coincide with the games 20th anniversary in 2020, but that came and went with Blizzard focusing on Diablo 4 and the Diablo: Immortal mobile game instead. There might not be long to wait before Diablo 2: Resurrected is released, but in the meantime, read on for everything we know so far. There are also a range of games that take direct inspiration from Diablo, like the Torchlight and Dungeon Siege franchises. Its kill-loot-repeat action RPG mechanics sit heavily on the likes of Destiny 2 and Borderlands, while its randomly-generated dungeons and monster hordes have been echoed in "roguelite" style games, including The Binding of Isaac and Hades. We enjoyed the time we spent with the game during its technical alpha and its recent beta so we're looking forward to seeing its final form in a matter of weeks.ĭespite the fact it’s more than two decades old, Diablo 2 (and its expansion pack Lord of Destruction) is probably one of the most influential games. There’ll also be the option to switch back and forth between the updated graphics and the original sprite-based textures, just like you can in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
But we can obviously expect hugely updated graphics, Dolby 7.1 surround sound and some key quality of life improvements. Blizzard is hoping to keep the feel of the original Diablo 2 in the new remaster.
0 kommentar(er)
