Blizzard’s Diablo 2: Reign of the Warlock DLC has been an amazing present to fans of the 25-year-old ARPG. While the DLC didn’t come with a new Act to explore, it did come with a whole new character class, and may be the start of more content to come judging by its relatively high praise from fans.
With Diablo 2: Resurrected still allowing players to jump into the untouched classic alongside the new Reign of the Warlock version, the DLC appears to be the best of both worlds, and Path of Exile co-create Chris Wilson is a huge fan of Blizzard’s willingness to support what is arguably the greatest ARPG of all time.
It’s no secret that Wilson and the rest of the Path of Exile team have a huge amount of respect for Diablo 2. After all, Path of Exile and its sequel are not-so-subtly inspired by Blizzard’s classic. In a new YouTube video, Wilson praised the new DLC for adding new content while also respecting the original version of the game.
“Diablo 2 is a common shared memory among all of us, and that’s why it must be treated with the utmost care,” Wilson said, “and it’s very clear that the D2R team does deeply care about this. This is most clear when you see how they have partitioned off the changes into a new era that you can choose on a per-character basis.”
Wilson points towards the “paygating” of Reign of the Warlock as a move that actually protects the original game. “I suspect that the intent wasn’t about selling more copies,” he says, “but about preserving a museum-piece baseline”.
“A new act would’ve pretty much guaranteed that everyone who had a chance of re-engaging with Diablo 2 would’ve purchased and played the update.”
Path of Exile 2 co-creator Chris Wilson
“To me, those features only being available in the new ara is the ultimate sign of respect to the original game,” he continued. “The team seems fully aware of the care that needs to be taken around this important piece of gaming history and is treating it with the respect it deserves.”
On the other hand, Wilson noted that with the high price of entry to the new version of Diablo 2 and its new features, Blizzard should have added more content to the game as well. Fans of Blizzard’s ARPG who do have a hunger for new content have been diving into fan projects for decades, including the massive Project Diablo 2 fan expansions with their own mega bosses.
Wilson called the lack of a new act a “strategic mistake”, adding that “without an act,it essentially boils down to a new character class, some quality of life features, and some new endgame content”. While he respects Blizzard for not piling on too much new stuff to a classic, beloved game, he adds that these features “are only really relevant” to the most hardcore fans and won’t bring casuals back.
“Most people don’t re-engage with a game just because it has a material stash tab or an uber-variation of the ancients fight,” he said. “They want new experiences from it. A new act would’ve pretty much guaranteed that everyone who had a chance of re-engaging with Diablo 2 would’ve purchased and played the update.”
While the game designer admitted that this could have meant “an extra year of development”, he also explains that he feels a new act “would’ve paid for itself several times over”. However, it’s clear that the addition of Warlock to Diablo 2 was part of a major marketing idea to promote both Diablo 2 to long-time fans, and Diablo 4 to the series’ current audience.
Blizzard’s work on Diablo 2: Reign of the Warlock reminds me of 343 Industries’ work on Halo: The Master Chief Collection. As MCC expanded, 343 added additional content, including horrific new cosmetics for Halo 3, a game with a very bespoke art style. While players had an option to hide these new cosmetics, it also meant hiding every cosmetic outside of the base Mark VI armour.
While Reign of the Warlock is on the pricer side for what it offers, Blizzard has done well to not mess with any of the pre-existing content that was praised so much when Diablo 2: Resurrected launched. And I’m very excited to see what Blizzard does next considering the new DLC appears to be a pretty big hit.
