I had heard amazing things about this game and came in with high expectations. For the first three acts, the game not only met but exceeded my expectation. This game had the potential to be one of the all-time greats. Then I got to act 4. Combat mechanics just got frustrating. Losing control of your entire party for an extended period of time from the start of the fight is not fun. Then I got to what I expect is one of the last fights in the game, which ratcheted up the idiotic combat to 11. There's one fight with the most absurdlely contrived "solution". It was the first time I broke down and just looked up a solution online to get past it and finish what was fast becoming a frustrating experience. When I realized what the devs actually expect you to do for the fight, I decided to reload my last save. Which is where the game really kicked me in the nuts. All my most recent saves were corrupted. Thanks for wasting 40 hours of my life.
Sure, this game shows its age, and if you're looking for a modern style arpg, you may be disappointed. But I think anyone looking at this knows what they're getting into. My review is based on 1) The game being fantastic for what it is, and 2) this being a fantastic package/presentation of the original material. The updated version runs really smooth and looks great on a modern monitor without comprimising the look or feel of the game. Although I only plan to use the updated version, bundling the untouched classic game with classic bnet multiplayer support a really good addition for those who would use it. Really good to have this game available without the headaches involved in getting the original to run on a Windows 10 machine. Here's hoping they do D2 next! Even without a full remaster, a bit of upscaling and tuning for modern monitors would go a long way towards making it less headache-inducing to play.
