Enlarge / Long rumored, finally confirmed. (credit: Blizzard)
Blizzard's latest BlizzCon event sees the longtime PC game maker at perhaps its most beleaguered yet. Game delays, notable departures, botched remakes, smartphone-gaming backlash, and an anti-protester reputation have weighed down what was once a sterling RTS/RPG reputation. That led us to wonder: Can today's streaming-only BlizzCon showcase of games and plans show that the company's recent hires and behind-the-scenes reshuffling are paying off?
In at least one respect, the outlook is optimistic, thanks to an impressive reveal of Diablo II: Resurrected. This long-rumored remake includes everything from both the base 2000 game and its 2001 expansion, Lord of Destruction. At first glimpse, this top-to-bottom remake seems to get everything right that WarCraft III: Reforged got so very, very wrong—and we won't have to wait very long to come up with our own impressions. Sign-ups for D2:R's technical alpha are now live ahead of the game's launch on PC and consoles "in 2021."
The right balance between preservation and polish?
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Old graphics.
We've grown increasingly skeptical of Blizzard's sales pitches in recent years, but so far, everything about D2:R strikes us as the right kind of "Blizzard Classic" approach, including the following sales pitches:
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