The same view in the original Halo 2.īringing Anniversary closer to a theatrical experience was also the goal of the updated cutscenes, which still hold up in 2021. A scene of the Halo in Halo 2 Anniversary. The remaster’s music sounds much more cinematic and closer to something you might see in a movie, which is representative of the wider cinematic trend and blurring of media lines in gaming today.
Anniversary‘s music was just as rockin’, but it felt a lot more modern in the way it was mixed and presented. Halo 2‘s original music reminded me of late ’90s and early 2000s rock with its chugging guitars and rough riffs. Besides the obvious visual updates, the aspect that struck me the most was the change in music. They were extremely different, it turns out. I’ve never played the original, and I wanted to see just how different things were in the misty past of 2004. We did this on almost every one of the game’s levels and cutscenes simply out of curiosity. While the cutscenes lag a little during the change, the transition is seamless overall. The way to swap between the original game and Anniversary is easy: Simply press the tilde key. In addition to refreshed visuals, it boasts updated music and cinematic cutscenes. Halo 2 Anniversary‘s remaster is more dramatic than most. It’s a feature I’d never thought to ask for, but now I wish every remastered game had it. Switching between versions of games so quickly and seamlessly gave us a dramatic look at how design, art, and sound trends have changed over the past few decades. He did the same while playing Resurrected. It was something I’d never thought about while playing a remastered game, but shortly into our Anniversary playthrough, we found ourselves swapping back and forth constantly to compare levels, enemies, and sounds. Both games allow you to swap between the original game’s visuals and the remastered visuals with the push of a button. Soon after we beat it, I watched him play through Diablo II: Resurrected‘s campaign. I recently played through the campaign of Halo 2 Anniversary, the 2014 remaster of Halo 2, with my partner. We try not to talk about remasters like the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy. Others, like Pokémon Brilliant Diamondand Shining Pearl, are mediocre or polarizing, bringing their old issues with them in the name of preserving an authentic experience. Some of them, like the recent Diablo II: Resurrected, are quite good and take the opportunity to bring a few of their gameplay systems into the current day. Many of us, myself included, grew up experiencing games before the days of 4K, high frame rates, and ray tracing, so it’s always fun to see what our favorite classics look like with a modern coat of paint. Thanks to the selling power of nostalgia and the popularity of retro titles, remastered and remade games have been big business for the last decade. So set your countdown clocks, circle September 23 on your calendar, and get ready for Diablo 2: Resurrected in all its gory glory. We even got an advanced look at the remade cinematics for Act 1 and Act 2, and they are extremely stylish. But thus far, D2R has kept to every expected milestone in late-stage development. Delays are common in the industry, especially with the added challenges to game development for studios that are still working remotely. It’s great to have a game stick to its intended schedule. There will be an early access beta happening for pre-order customers on August 13-17, followed by an open beta on August 20-23. Since D2R was unveiled, the team has been keeping pace with its planned schedule, with two chances for beta testing happening in August. So props to Blizzard and Vicarious Visions for keeping the secret for so long! These are confirmed design decisions that would only come after a lot of preliminary work in prototyping and testing.
Those specifics, such as easier player trading, aren’t topics that the developers would be discussing at the early stages of a project. The BlizzConline panels went into detail about some quality of life changes that the remastered game will have. That’s a speedy trip from announcement to launch, but Blizzard had clearly been working on this remaster for a while and keeping it under wraps. And at E3, we found out that Diablo 2: Resurrected will launch this fall, on September 23, 2021. When the game was announced at BlizzConline this February it was already tagged with a 2021 release date. Most launches from Blizzard get a lot of lead time, but not so with the remaster of the much-beloved Diablo 2.