Blizzard Entertainment has announced its Technical Alpha test dates for its highly anticipated remake of the second Diablo game, Diablo 2: Resurrected. Players will have their first shot at trying out the HD remaster of the click-tastic classic this coming weekend.
The redux version of the genre-defining 2000 PC game was first (officially) revealed at this year's online edition of BlizzCon, aptly named BlizzConline. The Diablo 2: Resurrected announcement was one of the biggest reveals of Blizzard's annual convention, which also provided updates on the other upcoming franchise entries Diablo 4 and Diablo Immortal.
A limited number of players will be selected to participate in the Technical Alpha test, which begins on Friday, April 9 at 7 am PT. The test will be live for those lucky enough to be one of the randomly selected participants until Monday, April 12 at 10 am PT. During the test, players will be able to pick from three of the seven total classes to hack-and-slash through the entirety of Diablo 2: Resurrected's first two Acts. The three available classes are Amazon, Sorceress, and Barbarian, which looks pretty similar to WWE's Batista. The Alpha will take players through the Monastery and to the Maiden of Anguish, Andariel, in addition to the deserts of Lut Gholein to then face Andariel's twin brother Duriel, the Lord of Pain.
Blizzard has stated there won't be a level cap, so players in the Alpha will be able to power up and upgrade their characters right until Monday morning, if they so choose. The Diablo 2: Resurrected Alpha going on this weekend is actually the first of two tests, with this first one focusing solely on single-player. The second test weekend, which has yet to confirm an exact date, will act as a server stress test for multiplayer. Fans interested in trying out either of the tests can sign up through Blizzard's official website, although access to the early build of the game isn't guaranteed.
Insight into the development of Diablo 2: Resurrected has many longtime fans of the series excited. In addition to featuring completely remastered graphics, the isometric ARPG supports 4K resolution (at least for PC,) as well as cross-progression and several other new Battle.net features. There are also rumors that Resurrected will possibly include some of the cut content from the original Diablo 2, like the Guild system and a variety of monsters and items.
With testing and plenty of developmental insight, it would seem Blizzard has learned its lesson when it comes to remaking its classic IP. Last year, the gaming giant famously offered refunds for everyone for Warcraft 3: Reforged after severe near-unanimous backlash from its player base. Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 2: Resurrected won't affect the original Diablo 2, letting fans enjoy their preferred version of Hell.
Diablo 2: Resurrected launches later this year for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Blizzard