Diablo II: Resurrected Beta Issues, Updates, & Cinematics

The Diablo II: Resurrected Beta went live today, allowing participating players to journey through the game’s first two acts. With the launch came (not unexpected) issues, including problems with the servers as well as with ultrawide support.

With the launch of the beta, the official Diablo Twitter account shared the remastered Act I and II cinematics:

⚔️ Act I & II Cinematics Revealed ⚔️

Watch the remastered #Diablo2Resurrected cinematics.

Now live on YouTube: https://t.co/QEXtmyKjW6 pic.twitter.com/TrC2lLncz5

— Diablo (@Diablo) August 11, 2021

The server issues don’t seem to be widespread, but several players have made posts on Reddit regarding their struggles logging in, issues with the game freezing, while some users have been unable to get the game to launch at all. This is a beta test, so issues like this were bound to occur — the true test will be in whether or not Blizzard is able to patch these issues between now and the September 23rd launch.

Players have also that ultrawide monitors have black bars on the edges of the screen. During the technical alpha, ultrawide support was present, and concerns had been raised regarding fairness in PvP. This has lead some players to speculate that the black bars are there to mitigate any potential advantage that ultrawide resolutions might give players.

Other controversial decisions by Blizzard include their decision not to sell physical copies of the game, and the removal of TCP/IP support. TCP/IP was used to connect to other players via a peer-to-peer connection, side-stepping Blizzard’s Battle.net. This has upset some speedrunners, who used TCP/IP multiplayer to reroll maps.

While you can still connect to other players locally over LAN, TCP/IP to people not on your network will no longer be possible. Blizzard stated that “After careful deliberation, we will no longer be supporting this option as we identified potential security risks and are committed to safeguarding the player experience.”

It’s day 1, so hopefully Blizzard will take the data from this beta test, as well as next week’s, and iron out the rough spots that have already begun appearing. As a reminder, this first beta test runs until August 17th, and then the Open Beta will launch August 20th (which will be available even to players who haven’t pre-ordered).