What It Takes to Remaster a Cult Classic Like Diablo II

Diablo II is a behemoth. It’s a cult classic and a fan-favorite, and one of the most important action-RPGs to ever release. So, the task of remastering it - a game that is now twenty years old - was no easy task.

In a round-table interview with IGN Middle East, Andre Abrahamian, Game Designer, and Matthew Cederquist, Game Producer, for Diablo II: Resurrected, said that they wanted to maintain the true essence of Diablo II but also give it the polish and modern sensibilities of 2021 game. To achieve this, the team came up with a 70-30 art rule that would not only improve the game’s visual design but would also allow for more storytelling without tinkering with the game too much.

But that was only one of the considerations the team had to take when approaching the remaster. The developers spoke to us about the challenges of finding the right balance in remastering an old game, improved security to avoid item duping, porting the game to consoles, and whether or not, the infamous cow level made the cut.

What’s the team’s position on the game? Is it a remaster or a remake?

Andre: Yeah, it’s always good to clarify. Diablo 2 Resurrected is a full remaster of the original game. 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. But when we approach things like the art, we wanted to push it and modernize it as much as we could. That’s where we thought of our 70-30 artstyle rule, where seventy percent is the new art that we created, which is trying to maintain the shapes, sizes, silhouettes and colors of the original game. While the rest of the thirty percent is where we can push and add embellishments and some modernization to things, so you can see more straps in how armors are connected, or environments are more decorated with storytelling. One of my favorite things I loved is for the Druid - and it might not be as clear to see at first - he has some necklace charms he wears now. And when he changes to his werewolf form, or his werebear form, he still keeps the necklace and charms which I think is a really cool thing to show that he is still the same guy underneath.

Who is Diablo II Resurrected aimed at - die hard fans of the original or new players who want more to play before jumping into Immortal or Diablo 4? Is there a secret cow level?

Matthew: [laughs] Ah! Andrew, I have no idea what’s that last question about…

Andre: [laughs] First of, there is no secret cow level, like...what?

Lies!

[Both laugh!)

Andre: Anyway, we are really targeting everyone with this game. We want dedicated Diablo II fans to come play Resurrection, and also new players to experience the game for the first time - whether be it on PC or console. It’s really for everyone, and we are always excited to have more people come and play and enjoy this legacy game.

You’ll be able to cross-save, but will you be able to cross play during multiplayer so you have both PC and console together?

Andre: We are excited to have Diablo II on consoles and we wanted to push the game to a new audience. Cross-progression is a great way to carry over a lot of that, and also help us make sure that the console version is also getting the same authentic experience that the PC players will, as well. But as for cross-play, we don’t have anything to announce at this time.

Matthew: Cross-play was a cool idea, but it just wasn’t the right fit for the game since the game has different UIs, control schemes, and stuff like that. We brought in cross-progression because it felt right, and we wanted to make sure that no matter what console, or platform a player wants to play on, they are going to get the best experience.

How tricky has it been to get the game to play on consoles, given that the game was made such a long time ago?

Andre: When we were planning on how to adapt the game to consoles, we knew right away we are not going to have the luxury of a keyboard and mouse. So, for the PC version we are still staying true to the left and right click mouse buttons because there are a lot of functionalities associated with them. And for consoles, we wanted to improve that experience as we understand that there are people who have not played Diablo II, and also they don’t have the luxury of having a lot of buttons on the controller. So, the decision was to help display all the information so it’s easily readable for them, and they know what’s binded to which button. You can also rebind buttons just like how you can on the PC version. The game plays the same way as on the PC, the characters behave the same way, it’s just that it will be a little bit different control-wise. But the game follows the same rules, however.

Matthew: This is the first time players are going to have the chance to play Diablo II on consoles. We wanted to make that experience as great as possible, which pushed us to make the UI work really well on consoles. But we still wanted to stick to the original experience for PC and not necessarily change that.

How are you going to tackle item trading to ensure players aren’t being duped for items?

Andre: Yes, we are very aware of the problem. But we are releasing the game on the modern BattleNet which gives us a lot of benefit around security. I cannot speak on the details on how we are going to counter [the duping issue] but there are efforts being put into it. We definitely don’t want to have botting and duping in the game.

Will the original Diablo 2 still be playable and moddable?

Andre: The online aspect of the game is very important to us, as well as the community around it. So, the original Diablo II is going to remain online with the legacy BattleNet, and will be untouched. As for Diablo II Resurrected, we are pushing it as a separate release on modern BattleNet, which as I have said previously, will help us with added security and give us new tools to build communities.

And as for modding, we are still going to allow that but with the modern BattleNet, we will also prevent any kind of hacking within the game files. Some things might be possible, and others might not in Resurrected. We are also improving how the game is built - I am referring to stuff like data files and other things that were hardcoded into the game which no longer are - so this can also allow more opportunities to change things around for the game. We are excited to see what the community is able to do with this when the game releases.

How challenging has it been to bring the game up to a level of graphical polish and fluidity that modern gamers have come to expect from games? How are you ensuring that cinematics still hold the weight of when they originally debuted?

Andre: We are happy to say that cinematics are 1:1, shot for shot remake. So the same twenty eight minutes of cinematics that you saw - on both the original Diablo II and the expansion - are all the same shots. The cinematics will be the same but with a lot more detail and fidelity. We applied the same 70:30 art rule to the cinematics as well, and they are going to look amazing!

Oh, and yes, players will still be able to access the original cinematics in the game, as well.

Will you have any plans to bring all-new content to Diablo II: Resurrected?

Matthew: As of right now, we are only focusing on Diablo II and its expansion, Lord of Destruction.

Was there anything extra that you wanted to add into the game but didn’t make the cut?

Andre: When we approached the game, there was always discussion on the smallest of features, and how to address it. All of these discussions always funnel back to one thing: we grew up playing the game for twenty years, and it has created all these stories. How can we maintain the game for what it was without affecting it in any way?

Well, that’s the short version of how things goes in development, but we have talked a lot about any kind of change. We even have people playtest the game - and some are playing the game for the first time or on the controller for the first time - so some questions come up where we have to determine that they are playing the game for the first time with a controller so they kind of have to learn how the game intends to play. Or that a particular fight is meant to be difficult. So at times we kind of look at it and realize that it’s just Diablo II telling its story, and that’s how it works. But there are times where we change things to make it more accessible, like changing the UI to make it easier to read, or something like that.

A good example of that could be when NPCs, like Decard Cain, are talking to you, we have added a scrolling functionality to the dialogue window. Before it would auto-scroll, and it still does that, but now you can move up and down the chat at your own convenience.

Are you improving performance stability and reducing visual clutter for classes such as the assassin or necromancer, that have a lot going on screen during battles?

Andre: That’s a great question! The assassin and necromancer classes are some of the commonly referred classes when we are looking at the game. There is a lot of effort that has been put into performance stability but naturally with a game that has reimagined artwork, such an issue comes up where a new lighting effect or an extra detail could be adding a lot of visual information. Our gut feeling is to stick with what Diablo II is doing - as it helps feel like the original game - but we are mindful of the readability of things and we are continuing to make improvements as we go along the development process. This is exactly where the technical alpha will prove to be useful as we are hoping to read all the important feedback from the players.

Any other quality of life upgrades that will be introduced?

Andre: There are a lot of hidden, or smaller quality of life improvements throughout the remaster. You might have seen some of them [from the Blizzcon panel], such as the item comparison feature which is just a way to select an item and see what you have equipped (although we are not recommending you any stats). We added a bit of control to help with things like when you go to your stash in your inventory, you can quickly bind items and move them between your stash and back.

We have some accessibility improvements, as well. Players will be able to scale some of the font sizes, and there are also more volume controls. There is a lot of stuff!

You can switch between the classic and updated graphics - did you have to alter anything within the game as well to accommodate this, such as hitboxes?

Andre: I would like to say that the Legacy toggle is our greatest feature because it has helped us through the development process as well, and allowed us to see how far things have come along. So, we didn’t really get any problems with what already existed. It’s more like how we can add to it. For example, in the original game, there might have been a stack of boxes in a cave somewhere but now we are asking ourselves how we can add some extra storytelling there. So, you might see some remnants of a living person having traversed through the cave, with bits of visual information suggesting that the person may have died because of the demons further ahead. All of the new visual additions are placed against a wall, or the side, so they are not interfering with the game play space in any way. So that’s how we are approaching this, so even if you switch between the two graphics modes, the gameplay experience from a mechanical standpoint, will be the same.

Matthew: Yeah, that’s the best part [the Legacy mode]. It kept us true to our original goals, which is to provide an authentic Diablo II experience, but with modern sensibilities. And with our ability to press just one button and see how far we went off the scale, or exact we were - whether it be a hitbox or a spell animation - it was really beneficial. From a player standpoint, the remaster still uses the same engine underneath.

Are you applying any nerfs or buffs to certain classes or enemies?

Andre: We’re committed to maintaining the same experience of the original game. We currently do not have any announcements regarding balancing at this time.

Will you be able to enjoy a resolution higher than the stunning 800x600 of the original? Will the game be able to adapt and scale easily to ensure it always looks the best on some of the crazy PC or TV setups that people have?

Matthew: Yes! [Laughs]. Currently, we are supporting 4320p resolution on PC (8K), and 4K/60fps on next-gen consoles.

Andre: We have also discussed ultra-wide screen support, and we also have a zoom feature as well which not only allows players to get a closer look at our amazing art, but also helps us adapt to different playstyles. Not many people might be familiar with it, but Diablo II had two different resolutions: 640x480, and then the expansion added 800x600, which technically involved zooming the camera out. So, our zoom feature kind of allows you to go a little bit closer than the classic experience if you want. It’s a little extra we added in there for the players, but yes, different resolutions are definitely supported.

Are you going to add in more modern things such as game achievements?

Andre: For the console version, we will be supporting achievements. But no details on what those achievements are for now but you will see them there. As for the PC, there are no announcements to be made as of yet.

What has been the most challenging part of development?

Andre: A couple of things, one of which was understanding and learning that this is a game of its time and we have to stick true to that. Many people on the team have nostalgic memories of Diablo II but it’s one thing to remember something and another to actually go back and revisit it. We learned that sticking to the original game was paying off in ways, such as the art design which is so great, and that’s where we kind of came up with our 70-30 rule. There’s a lot you can do with art design but we understood you can’t stray away from some of these iconic character and level designs because it doesn’t feel like the same game any more. I am very vocal about the campfire scene in the character creation, we have to maintain that because it’s so iconic. So, through these learnings we built our philosophy pillars on how to approach art and other things. We have come a long way and we are very happy where the remaster is right now.

Who’s your favorite monster in the entire game?

Andre: [laughs] Ah, I hate to pick favorites especially when we are recreating all this art for the game, it’s amazing to see how some of my favorite monsters that I have killed thousands of times look so much better now. But if I had to pick one monster, it will be the Greater Mummy from Act 2 - that monster is also looking amazing in the new art and it’s so cool to see it come to life.

Matthew: Back in the day, when I was playing the game as my younger self, the monster that really called out to me is the Finger Mage. That Act 5 mage that just destroyed everyone’s souls with a lightning bolt. When I saw that for the first time in the new 3D art from the remaster, I was blown away by the new spell effects or how creepy it looked.

Andre: Yeah, all of those effects add to it. The lighting now reflects and bounces off environments, and it really adds to the monsters as well.

Will voice lines be re-recorded?

Andre: They will be the same voice lines. We are very understanding of maintaining a lot of those iconic recordings, but they will be remastered to improve the quality a bit.

Can we import original save files into Diablo 2: Resurrected?

Matthew: Yes! Yes, keep those!

[Everyone rejoices!]

Matthew: Back when we were working on [the remaster], we wondered if the old save files would work and we kind of shoved it in and it worked! And we were like, ‘okay, that’s the best feature ever'. So yes, your local singleplayer save files will carry over.”

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