Blizzard’s classic RPG Diablo II has received many mods over its long lifetime, but the biggest, Median XL – Sigma, has recently been overhauled.
The Meidan XL – Sigma mod has received a 2.0 version that changes nearly everything in Diablo 2 in small or large ways. First spotted by PCGamesN, the mods update focuses on changes to the games higher difficulty while using the lower difficulties to introduce mechanics usually only seen in Hell or Nightmare.
Many of the monsters have had an overhaul with the patch notes saying, “All monsters in the classic zones of Acts 1 to 5 have been reworked. This includes different monsters on Nightmare and Hell compared to Normal, new skills, new assets, new stat scaling and more.”
“One of the problems of the original Diablo 2 campaign is Nightmare difficulty. Nothing interesting really happens here. There is no new content compared to Normal and the best items aren’t available yet. More specifically for Median, you are rushing to get to Hell and progress the added endgame quests while monsters in the first 4 acts provide barely any resistance to characters with decent gear.
“Ideally we would simply be rid of Nightmare and scale content so that one playthrough gets you to Hell where the real fun starts.” However they say that this is not possible in the Diablo 2 engine, so this is the next best option.
Diablo II’s boss battles have also received a pass, with Mephisto and Durel receive full reworks to their encounters. Andariel and Nihlathak have also had their item drops increased on higher difficulties.
Another big change is support for 2K and 4K monitor resolutions. This does require users to install and configure the CNC-DDraw video modes separate from the mod. Diablo II will also need to continue to run in the 4:3 aspect ratio to avoid unexpected problems.
Elsewhere, the Dead Space development team will be sharing an early look at the remaster in a live stream later today.
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