There are few multiplayer series quite as beloved as Diablo. And, unfortunately, few MMOs have aged quite as poorly as Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. When the remaster Diablo II: Resurrected was recently announced, I was surprised to hear that anyone would still be interested in playing it. After all, Diablo IV is on the way, and, well, Diablo III exists. But I’m not alone in wanting to return to a simpler time in the series. Thanks to the company’s preservation of the source code, an almost carbon-copy of that experience can be achieved. But there are a few things they should incorporate from the current generation of games, small tweaks that improve but do not substantially change Diablo II at its core. Here are five things that would polish the gameplay while maintaining the integrity of the game’s original feel.
Increased Inventory Space
This is a rather obvious request from the old school Diablo II player: an increased inventory space. The limited space of the player’s personal and trunk space, plus the tiny bit afforded by the Horadric cube, is just not enough to enjoy the full breadth of the Diablo II experience. While loot scarcity and modest inventory slots add rarity and value to the game’s immense treasure system, I could do with at least a little more trunk space—maybe not the player inventory, because that feels like cheating, but at least what the player can stash back at the camp. It would make set collecting a much more tempting prospect.
Improved Loot Drops
This request might be a bit controversial if you’re the type of person that likes to suffer and takes that badge of honor very seriously. Me, I prefer to actually obtain a Stone of Jordan every once in a while without having to write a script or grind 10,000 hours for it. It’s a shame that for all the years I played Diablo II in pursuit of good loot, I rarely got to see the best of what the game had to offer, despite how much time I poured into it. There are so many fascinating and powerful Rune words, for example, that I never came close to seeing because there was no chance I’d ever obtain, say, an Amn rune in my lifetime. And did you know that an Uber Diablo can be summoned if enough Stones of Jordan are sold on a server at the same time? There are a lot of things I never knew or had a chance to discover because of the abysmal drop rate.
Improved Friends Lists
When I say I want “improved” friends lists for Diablo II: Resurrected, what I mean is, I would like a friend list. The original game did not come out at a time where we had as many multiplayer niceties as we do now. In order to even add a friend, you had to use text bar commands, which you also had to do to bring up the list of people you’d added to see if they were online. It was laborious and barely worth using. In retrospect, it seems like a miracle any of us ever found each other at all. A user interface would help a lot, especially when it comes to server hopping for Baal runs.
Instanced Loot
No fighting for loot. I’m a marshmallow, and I cannot handle PvP. On a serious note, this is an obvious tweak, and one that was made to Diablo III. No one should have to throw elbows to get the treasure they had a hand in farming. Instanced levels, on the other hand? No thank you, please.
Cross-Platform Play
This has been on all my wishlists for several games for about the past decade, but nonetheless, it stands. If Diablo II: Resurrected is coming to more platforms than just PC, then I want to play with anyone on console devices. The best way to improve the experience is to expand it to different audiences. This is a tall order and will absolutely never come true—Diablo III doesn’t have crossplay, after all—but hey, a girl can dream.
Holly Green is the editor-at-large of Paste Games and a reporter and semiprofessional photographer. She is also the author of Fry Scores: An Unofficial Guide To Video Game Grub. You can find her work at Gamasutra, Polygon, Unwinnable, and other videogame news publications.