Diablo II: Resurrected

1. Summary

Reviewers call this the definitive way to play Diablo II, and what they praise is how faithful it is: the remastered graphics keep the original's dark tone, a single key flips back to the old sprites, and the game underneath plays the way people remember it. According to reviewers, the Steam release came bundled with the Reign of the Warlock expansion, and two of its additions get much of the enthusiasm. One is the Warlock, which some reviewers call the first new class in 25 years. The other is a set of long-requested storage fixes: stacking tabs for runes and gems, a bigger shared stash and a built-in loot filter. Some long-time fans bought the game again just to have it on Steam and play it on a Steam Deck, where owners mostly report that it runs well.

The main frustration is the account system around the game. Reviewers report that even offline single-player needs a linked Battle.net account and an online check every 30 days, and this comes up in 18% of longer reviews and 42% of longer negative ones. Some of those negative reviews are refund notes from people who never got past an error saying they had not been online for 30 days, sometimes minutes after buying. Smaller groups complain that offline characters get no Steam Cloud saves, about disconnects and crashes, and about paying $40, by reviewers' count, for a game they already own on Battle.net. Opinions differ on how well the 25-year-old design has aged. Veterans tend to treat the small inventory, potion juggling and limited respecs as part of the game, while newcomers arriving from Path of Exile or Diablo IV often call them clunky.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The new Warlock classHigh

The Warlock comes up in 21% of longer reviews, and several lapsed players say it is what brought them back. Reviewers praise the three skill trees (demon summoning, fire and shadow spells, and a melee style that floats its weapons) and the ability to bind enemy demons as pets. Several say it fits the setting, and one wrote that it "fits perfectly alongside the other classes, to the point that it feels like it could have been part of the original Diablo II launch." A few dislike the look or find it too similar to the Necromancer. Its power level is the contested part, covered under the split items below.

A faithful remaster with a graphics toggleHigh

Remastered graphics, cinematics or the quality of the remake come up in 19% of longer reviews. Players say it looks the way they remember the original looking, and that the mechanics underneath were left alone: "This is how you do a remaster. Graphics and QoL improvements without touching the core game." Reviewers like the instant switch back to the original sprites (a few mention it sits on the G key), and one called it "chefs kiss and should be in every remaster going forward." A minority dislike the new art. A few say the palette is too bright or too colourful for Diablo, and a small group (under 1% of longer reviews) object to redesigned character models such as the Amazon and Assassin.

Stash and quality-of-life upgradesHigh

The quality-of-life changes come up in 16% of longer reviews, usually by name. People single out stacking tabs for runes, gems and materials, the larger shared stash, auto gold pickup, the loot filter and the Chronicle item tracker. Veterans describe deleting the mule characters they kept for storage: "Having stackable runes and gems is truly a game changer. I have been able to delete multiple mule characters." Some want more pages or a charm inventory, some find the loot filter awkward to set up, and a few are annoyed that these features are tied to Reign of the Warlock characters rather than the whole game.

Finally on Steam, and great on Steam DeckHigh

A quarter of longer reviews talk about the Steam release itself, the Steam Deck or Linux. Players welcome achievements, tracked playtime and controller support, and some Deck owners say the Steam build runs better on the handheld than the Battle.net version did. One who had played the Battle.net version on a Deck wrote that "the native steam version just runs better". Linux players report that it works through Proton with little or no tweaking. Several point out that a Battle.net account is required but the Battle.net launcher is not, which they count as a win. Deck owners also raise several of the complaints below, about offline play, cloud saves, and crashes after some patches.

The loot chase and itemizationMedium

About 10% of longer reviews talk about loot, runes, runewords and drops. Some compare it with newer ARPGs and argue that rarity makes each drop matter: "Here, a great drop is transformative." Players enjoy hunting socketed bases for runewords and the long grind for high runes. Some find the drop rates punishing, especially solo, and a few mention that trading happens on third-party sites.

Atmosphere and musicMedium

The atmosphere, soundtrack or cinematics get praise in 5% of longer reviews. Matt Uelmen's score and the Tristram theme come up by name, along with the remade act cinematics. One reviewer called the game "one of the ultimate warm blankets of my childhood."

Where players are split

How well the old design has agedMedium

8% of longer reviews talk about the game feeling dated: the small inventory, potions that do not stack, the stamina bar, two-skill mouse controls, one respec per difficulty, losing gear on death and elemental immunities in Hell. Long-time fans tend to accept this as the game's identity, and one summed up the trade-off: "The good thing is that this is the D2 we have known for 25 years; The bad thing is that this is the D2 we have known for 25 years." Players coming from Path of Exile, Grim Dawn or Diablo IV are more often put off, and one wrote that "Half your energy feels like it is spent fighting the game's interface rather than the enemies." Several first-timers say they were hooked anyway, one "with zero nostalgia attached." Some reviewers advise reading a build guide before spending skill points, because respecs are scarce.

Price and buying it againMedium

Price comes up in 7% of longer reviews. Some call $40 fair for a full remaster plus expansion, and others say it is too much for a 25-year-old game with one new class and should be bought on sale. Existing Battle.net owners object most directly. Reviewers point out that Battle.net sells the expansion alone for about $25, while on Steam they have to buy the whole game again. One asked: "why can't i just play the game I already own on battle.net on steam? Why do I have to buy it again?" A few resent that the stash and loot filter improvements came as part of a paid expansion: "they should have just been a free update to Resurrected, with the new class being a cheaper DLC." Several veterans joke about buying the game for the fourth or fifth time and say they do not regret it.

Warlock balance and later nerfsMedium

The Warlock's power comes up in 2.5% of longer reviews. In the first weeks several called it overtuned, and one said "it's a better summoner than the Necro and Druid, and a better caster than the Sorc." Some enjoy that, while others say it trivialised the campaign or made other classes pointless. Reviewers describe later balance patches that changed it, and those split the group again. Players who built around Bind Demon say the changes ruined their characters ("Trying to bind a demon is like pulling teeth"), while others think the class feels right after the adjustments. With respecs limited, players caught mid-playthrough describe the nerfs as costly.

The reworked endgameLow

Endgame changes come up in 2% of longer reviews. Terror Zones and the new Colossal Ancients fight get credit for giving max-level characters more to do, and one long-time player said "with the addition of terror zones the endgame has become extremely satisfying in my opinion." The Herald system that now gates sunder charms, the items that break enemy immunities, is mostly disliked by the players who mention it. They describe hours in a single game waiting for Heralds to spawn, with the progress lost if you log off: "you can go HOURS without seeing a Herald and if you log off/get disconnected you lose that progress." These complaints come mostly from people deep into Hell difficulty.

What frustrates players

Battle.net account and the 30-day online checkHigh

Battle.net, the required account or the online check come up in 18% of longer reviews and 42% of longer negative ones, more than any other complaint. Players object to needing a second account for a game bought on Steam, and above all to offline single-player refusing to start unless the game has been online in the last 30 days. For Steam Deck owners that means no play while travelling: one bought it "so that I could play on my steam deck during a very long flight" and could not play on the plane. Several draw the line at offline play: "Requiring Battle.net for the ladder is fine. Requiring Battle.net to play the local offline mode is dumb." Some recommending reviews list it as their one caveat, such as "The only real bad thing about it is that you have to be online at least once every 30 days".

Account linking and first-launch errorsMedium

4% of longer reviews, and 16% of longer negative ones, describe failing to get into the game at all. The common error says the player has not been online in 30 days, even right after buying, and sometimes loops until the game is force-closed. Others hit a broken linking flow ("Authentication fails with Battle.net because it says I don't own it"), verification codes that never arrive, authenticator lockouts, or a sign-up captcha that rejects them as not human: "Solving that capcha to make a battlenet account may have been one of the most agonizing things i have done". Some of these reviews end in a refund, and some players found workarounds such as restarting Steam or launching the game's own executable once.

Disconnects and online lagMedium

Connection drops, rubber-banding or lag come up in 3% of longer reviews and 8% of longer negative ones, sometimes in solo online games. Because the world resets when you drop, players describe losing progress and corpses: "I repeatedly lost connection while playing online, which caused progress loss, areas to regenerate, and portals to disappear entirely." Players outside the main server regions add their own complaints, such as "No Oceania servers? 3-400ms lag for Aussies is unplayable." Others note that switching regions means typing launch options by hand. Some advise solo players to stick to offline characters.

Crashes and patches that broke the Steam buildMedium

3% of longer reviews, and 9% of longer negative ones, report crashes, launch failures or freezes, on desktop and on Steam Deck. Several reviewers single out a patch at the start of April and say it broke the Steam version specifically ("A new patch was released that broke only the steam version"), and some Deck players were still waiting for a fix weeks later. Others complain about 25 to 40 GB updates and patch notes that are posted on Blizzard's site rather than on Steam. Some crash reports were later resolved with driver updates or by disabling overclocks.

No cloud saves for offline charactersMedium

Players who switch between a PC and a Steam Deck have to copy offline save files by hand, because offline characters have no Steam Cloud support. That comes up in 3% of longer reviews and 7% of longer negative ones: "There's no cloud saves at all, so your offline characters don't get transferred from pc to deck." Several say this was the reason they bought on Steam, and a few refunded over it.

Legacy graphics locked out of the expansionLow

1% of longer reviews complain that the classic-graphics toggle does not work for Reign of the Warlock characters. Players who loved the toggle feel a headline remaster feature was taken away: "You are not able to switch to the legacy graphics in the new expansion." Some accept that new sprites would have been a lot of work, while others simply want it back.

Expansion and base characters can't play togetherLow

A handful of players found they could not join friends whose characters were on the base game: "We both get the same message saying you can't join an RotW character with a non-RotW character." A few others mention losing items when converting characters or shared stashes to the expansion.

Wrongful bansLow

A few reviewers say they or friends were banned after normal play such as repeated Countess runs, one with a "Permanent ban for playing the game like anyone would." Two say the ban was later reversed, one only after a month of appeals.

Missing LAN, crossplay and ultrawideLow

Small groups miss LAN play from the original, expected crossplay with console players, or want proper ultrawide support, since the image and cinematics are letterboxed on 21:9 and wider screens.

3. The player conversation

Much of the conversation is affectionate and short. Launch week brought a flood of excited, often one-line reviews ("rare Blizzard W", "finally on Steam") from long-time fans who bought the game again for Steam, achievements or a Steam Deck. 1,062 reviews were written in the first five days, 90% positive. Many of the longer reviews come from veterans describing two decades with the game, and a smaller group from first-timers who either understand the fuss or bounce off the dated systems.

Negative reviews fall into two groups. The larger one is people who could not get past the account step or object to the online check, some writing a few lines before refunding. The other is invested players, usually deep in Hell difficulty or ladder, whose complaints are about game design: Warlock balance and nerfs, the Herald and sunder charm grind, drop rates, and disconnects that cost them a run. Complaints about inventory space, potions and respec limits often come from newcomers and players used to modern ARPGs.

The weekly positive share stayed between 83% and 94% for the first two months. It fell to 59% in the week of 18 May, about three months after launch. Close to half of that week's 37 negative reviews describe the Battle.net or 30-day errors or object to the online check, and a few blame the latest patch. Weekly review counts were much smaller after the spring, so later weeks swing between 67% and 100% without a clear trend.

4. What the developers could do

1. Let offline characters play without the 30-day check. This is the most common reason for negative reviews, and Steam Deck owners describe the game refusing to start on flights and trips even though they only play offline.
2. Fix the first-launch account flow and put linking inside the game. Refund notes describe a false "You have not been online in the last 30 days" error on a fresh purchase, linking that fails, codes that never arrive and a captcha that rejects real people.
3. Turn on Steam Cloud for offline saves. Players who move between a PC and a Deck ask for it, and several say cloud saves were the reason they bought the Steam version.
4. Make online play survive brief disconnects, and add region choice in the menu. Players lose progress and corpses when the connection drops, Australians report unplayable ping with no Oceania servers, and switching regions currently means typing launch options.
5. Test patches on the Steam and Steam Deck builds before release. Several reviewers say the early-April patch broke the Steam version for weeks, and some crash reports start right after an update.
6. Give Battle.net owners a fair upgrade path to Steam, and offer the quality-of-life features outside the paid expansion. Existing owners object to paying full price again, and a few think the stash and loot filter should have been a free update.
7. Rework how sunder charms drop. Endgame players say the Herald system forces hours-long sessions in one game and wipes progress on logout, which hurts the elemental builds that need the charms most.
8. Bring the legacy graphics toggle to Reign of the Warlock characters. Fans of the original sprites feel a headline remaster feature was taken away.