Following the blog post dedicated to the changes after the technical alpha, the developers of Diablo II: Resurrected have shared a new message outlining the accessibility improvements to the game. The team pointed out that one of their priorities is to always look for ways to iterate and improve the entertainment experiences for players. The developers want to provide a smoother and more accessible gameplay experience to as many people as possible.
The original Diablo II is over 20 years old, and the longtime fans are “heavily entrenched in decades of eccentricities and quirks”. Accessibility is one major area of opportunity for this remaster to shine, and the team’s intention is to bring games to more players has evolved and is more refined now than ever before.
The team goes on to mention the recently introduced automatic gold pick-up option. The initial inspiration for this feature was for controller players to not need to click as much, but the devs were pleasantly surprised to see mouse and keyboard players with limited mobility in their hands really enjoy this feature during the Technical Alpha.
Another key piece of accessibility is key bindings. Allowing players to set their station fully is critical. The game supports a long list of bindable actions for the mouse and keyboard as well as allows for heavy amounts of modification for controllers.
In the Options menu, players can adjust the volume levels of a multitude of audio channels. These sliders allow you to adjust the audio levels of voices, UI cues, footsteps, monster hit impacts, weapon noises, ambient objects, combat gore, and so much more.
“With the options we provide, we hope that players attune their audio to their playstyle, including situational accessibility needs. Perhaps if you’re streaming or your baby is asleep in the other room, you can now enable or disable audio to ensure you’re getting the proper feedback at the level you want.”