"It's a different kind of challenge," Rob Gallerani, Principal Designer on Diablo II: Resurrected tells us when asked about Diablo 2 Resurrected Items the decision to go 3D whilst maintaining the 2D core. "I will argue it is simpler than attempting to reconstruct brick-for-brick the whole game. I'd rather take the Sistine Chapel and rotoscope over it then be like here is a bunch of pictures, go build it . It will have unique challenges because we are seeing behind the curtain"

For Diablo II: Resurrected, that contains the base game and the Lords of Destruction expansion, 1 way to think about it's in that rotoscope or tracing sense. Employing the underlying assets and match as a means to drive the 3D layer. On top of taking each and every element and recreating it, animating it, including textures, and light too -- the challenge mainly derives from the very nature of moving 3D.

"It is the 2D to 3D world translation," Rod Fergusson, Executive Producer on Diablo II: Resurrected adds. "When you have a sprite-based 2D world it is a flat thing on a flat thing. And today you have stairs with altitude, you've got undulating ground a sword has to fall onto. Even simple things like readability become a challenge, like a Paladin's Aura. The way which you can see the Aura very clearly lets you know you have that specific Aura. What if you are walking through a grassy area and the aura has been blocked by grass because that's 3D now and it's physically on the ground and growing up through the Aura.

"The background could be fancy cushions, it may be piles of skulls, it might be sand dunes, but it is actually only a horizontal image," Rob Gallerani clarifies. "When you drop a sword, that's a 2D sprite. It's only a horizontal sprite and it sits on the top and you'll see it. As soon as we have a 3D sword resting on 3D skulls and tough things, we can't just have it be there since it would clip through all those items. So we need to be certain it renders on a pass that's in addition to those things. There is a good deal of loose ends that all need to be accounted for if you are bringing a 2D sprite into a 3D world."

And it's that aspect, having the 2D world drive the 3D coating that ensures that the team preserves the match as is. Even with incorporating an impressive visual makeover, control support, along with a modern widescreen presentation that supports 4K TVs and  Buy Diablo 2 Items ultrawide PC monitors, it's the same Diablo II that it has ever been.