Last month was an exciting one for both Diablo fans and Blizzard fans in general. For starters, BlizzCon Online took place in February, which revealed exciting announcements and updates for a variety of Blizzard games. One of the games that was highlighted during the online event was the highly anticipated Diablo 2: Resurrected.
The event revealed what fans can expect in the remaster, including new and improved visuals and graphics, along with new functionality that transforms the classic game into a more modern one. Despite all the new features, however, the developer assures fans that Diablo 2: Resurrected will still offer the same authentic gameplay and feel that the original Diablo 2 had.
Some fans were skeptical about how serious Vicarious Visions was when it comes to remaining authentic. However, given the information revealed recently, it appears that the developer is dead serious. In fact, the studio even confirmed recently that the remaster won’t have any form of microtransactions, as the original game didn’t have these either. Not only that, it seems that even the players’ original save files can still play a role.
Matthew Cederquist, the producer of Diablo 2: Resurrected, said in an interview that the upcoming remaster will be able to support the save files of the original title. Meaning to say that fans will be able to import these files and continue where they left off, while taking advantage of the enhanced graphics of Resurrected.
Although, it’s worth mentioning that this feature doesn’t apply to multiplayer characters, as these need to be verified online. However, save files with singleplayer characters will have no problem—even the hacked save files, apparently. Cederquist explains in the interview with IGN Middle East the studio’s reasons for adding this feature, which is fairly simple.
According to him, the team at Vicarious Visions already started working on the remaster and simply wanted to see if introducing this kind of feature to the game would work—and it did. Specifically, Cederquist said, “we wondered if the old save files would work and we kind of shoved it in and it worked!”
That being said, it’s unlikely that every player would be excited about the addition of this feature. Diablo 2 is old—over 20 years old, in fact—so fans both old and new would most probably start a new game with no second thoughts. However, it’s still nice of Vicarious Visions to add something like this, and it just goes to show that the team working on the remaster genuinely cares about the experience Diablo 2: Resurrected offers.
Being able to import the old game’s save files also opens up the opportunity for fans to start playing now. After all, the original Diablo 2 is still available on the Blizzard shop for $9.99. If a player is itching to start Diablo 2 and can no longer wait for Resurrected, they can go ahead and play the original game now and just import the save files later. They’d have to deal with the old graphics though, but it’s still a good game nonetheless.
