“Diablo II,” the classic Diablo game that has had fans petitioning Blizzard for a remake for years, finally saw the release of an unofficial HD version a few days ago. Built from the ground up using StarCraft II’s comprehensive map editor, Etienne Godbout has recreated “Diablo II” in his SC2 mod “The Curse Of Tristram: Destruction’s End.” While the game is still in a very early beta stage, Godbout has released a playable version which includes the first 6 areas of the original game:
- Rogue Encampment
- The Cold Plains
- The Crypt
- The Stony Field
- The Den of Evil
- The Blood Moor
All 7 of the original classes (including the Lord of Destruction characters) are already playable with this release.
Godbout managed to do a remarkable job capturing the look and feel of Diablo II. In its current state, the game has all the bugs and problems you’d typically associate with any beta version of a game, however, I personally think it’s still worth playing to get that nostalgia fix.
In addition to the classic Diablo II mode, Godbout has also added two new additional levels of difficulty: “heroic” and “mythic.” Heroic mode includes harder monsters, better loot, and a new debuff called “world curses” which randomly disable stats such as health regen. Mythic adds another layer of madness by transforming all bosses into an “uber” variant and also incorporates a new concept called “world events” which I’m assuming is something similar to how Uber Diablo
Now that StarCraft II is available free to play, anyone can download the game and play this mod by searching for “Diablo II” under custom games in “Arcade Mode.”
Here’s the launch trailer for the game if you’re interested in seeing more gameplay footage.
Godbout has spent four years of his own time to develop the game to its current state. Given that it’s just one man working on this remake, progress will continue to be somewhat slow given to what we normally expect with games today. In an effort to put more of his time towards this game, Godbout has set up a Patreon page for all those interested in helping to give him the financial ability to work on Diablo II full time.
