PhyllisHeny

The book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels the chapter that deals with the calamity that was Diablo 3's launch tells how one Blizzard producer played through the game literally hundreds of D2R Items hours until they found one piece of legendary loot. When that light in orange finally appeared from a random player, the developer walked up to the item only to find the character he was playing couldn't even utilize it. The loot system was so fundamentally flawed that the thrill to grind for hours, after which relief of receiving something unique, was broken.

This was eventually fixed to where you could only ever locate specific levels of loot that would work for your specific class, and also the rate at which early-game legendary items dropped was higher. Even though the legendary items you got did not break the game, you still felt you'd occasionally get a small hit of dopamine and keep your hands on the rope.

In the event that Diablo 2 Resurrected gets that right and offers a similar loot system as Loot2.0 and Loot2.0 in Diablo 3, then we're already concerned about how long we'll need to devote to the game. The disaster in Diablo 3 is the best chance that has ever happened to the franchise on a go-forward basis, and combine that alongside Immortal's Immortal controversy, it feels like Blizzard has a simple list of potential potholes to avoid to keep it in the good books of it's best players.

The Diablo community is vocal about what it doesn't like, and has been throughout the lifecycle of Diablo 3, so we're hoping Blizzard is taking the feedback of those fortunate enough to experience large portions of the game before its release. We'd wager that Blizzard isn't thrilled by the stream of leaked footage that has been surfacing on the heels of one of these test results.

A key element to Diablo 3 that is confirmed that it will be returning is the limited-time Seasons. They are basically post-game pieces of content that refresh the ways legendary items function and also remix the gameplay of the base game and add replayability to a game that's already extremely replayable. Seasons was supported in significant amounts throughout Diablo 3, so we're hoping that they'll be a huge focus in Diablo 2 Resurrected.

This season-long approach will also set Diablo 2 Resurrected up to be another irresistible Game Pass game, should the merger end up closing. A game such as Diablo with solid gameplay is the perfect match to provide a service that allows gamers to return to online games following a couple of months. However, with the game set to be released in June and the battle over Activision's future Activision still well underway this is one game which is unlikely to receive an Game Pass treatment on day one, unless something substantial occurs.

If we were betting, we'd say that the idea in Diablo 2 Resurrected is that, when the game is finally released those in the community who were angry and rightly so about Diablo 2 Resurrected can relax and be thinking "oh sure, it's Diablo."

Although there are some cosmetic microtransactions, and the forced online connection seems like it's destined to receive some criticism, the juxtaposition between the loot box-obsessed, incredibly negative mobile game, we're hoping this could be a refreshing breath of air. Many of buy D2R Items the players who were excited about Immortal found themselves hooked because it contained just enough of the distinctive Diablo flavor that differentiates the series from its peers, so a game full of it will surely succeed.