Marathon the game one night on PC, then log in on Xbox or Switch and pick up where you left off. (Though I haven't mentioned it much in this review, multiplayer is the heart and soul of Diablo II's longevity, especially since many of its character classes can be tailored in ways that are pretty much only useful in co-op-and are a blast to play that way.) AdvertisementĬross-platform, kind ofShould you buy D2R on multiple systems, you can attach the same credentials to each, then take any of your "online" characters from one system to the next. Unplug from the Internet, and you're stuck with a character who can only play the game by themselves-no co-op, no PVP. Sadly, the catch here is that any character created in this mode is locked out of ever connecting to any form of multiplayer. Still, in the event of Blizzard's servers going kaput after your one-time login, its offline modes will work. Be warned: if you download D2R on Switch, then boot it for the first time while offline, you'll likely run into the same issue. Ahead of D2R's retail launch, 's servers refused to acknowledge that my Switch copy of the game was legit, so I couldn't get past the "press start" opening screen. This, if you're wondering, is why my review's earlier section about performance includes a big goose egg regarding Nintendo Switch. In my prerelease tests on both consoles and PC, "offline" mode worked after I booted the game at least once and attached my credentials. So I'm making zero assumptions about D2R doing better until its ladder actually ships and I can play it myself. (In the latter mode, if your character dies once, it's game over, no restarts or rushes to recover loot from your dead body.) But ladder play wasn't unlocked ahead of the game's launch, so I can't say for sure-and as a reminder, WarCraft III: Reforged still hasn't debuted its own online ladder system since launching 21 months ago. You can play D2R in three ways: "offline," "online," and "ladder." The ladder system may work the same way that it did when the original game launched in 2000, with players having their progress tracked for leaderboard purposes in either "normal" or "hardcore" modes. Activision Blizzard, simply put, doesn't seem to trust or respect how you might play its 20-year-old game, and the results are draconian and sucky. ![]() Yet the above mix of praise and complaints may be overwhelmed by one aggravating issue with D2R-an issue that could singularly tank this game for anyone who might otherwise overlook this review's entire first page: the online component.
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