The developers from Blizzard Entertainment have shared a new blog post dedicated to the remaster of Diablo II, describing the process of bringing Resurrected to consoles to provide the original authentic gaming experience. Diablo II: Resurrected brings hell to PC, Xbox One, Xbox X|S, Nintendo Switch, PS4 & PS5 on September 23rd.
Design Director Robern Gallerani describes the remaster as a labor of love, created to stir nostalgia in veteran players and introduce new players to the world of Sanctuary. The development process of Resurrected aimed to build the game as players remember rather than what it actually was. Bringing a game initially built for keyboard and mouse controls to consoles brought many questions the developers needed to answer.
“The first and most obvious change is the way a console player plays the game, namely a controller. With a keyboard and mouse, the player acts as an “eye in the sky” telling their character what to do and where to go by clicking somewhere. Do you perform a ranged ability on a monster? Do you walk over to a chest and open it? Perhaps you open a door? With the mouse, the players’ primary input is a click that conveys aiming or a specific ability or action. The game then guides the character to the place where it can perform the action, finding a path for you. However, on a controller, the player more directly acts as their character. This starts to have serious ramifications at many levels for design—but to our players, it all just needs “to work”.”
Robern Gallerani then goes into great detail about how the team approached movement, targeting, looting, abilities, and balancing when it comes to controllers. Check out the original blog post for all the details!
