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Prerelease:Diablo II

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This page details pre-release information and/or media for Diablo II.

Diablo II had a great amount of information that was given about the game that never saw the light of day, in the end.

Screenshots

Blizzard released a ton of screenshots of the game, some of them still using old versions of the interface or showing cut features entirely.

  • Image showing older looking skeletons and flatter Sand Maggots. None of these enemies spawn in the desert in the final game.

  • An image with an older looking interface. Has the Kick skill selected as a Right Skill.

  • An image with the Barbarian, with some older looking potion graphics.

  • A Paladin with older Sanctuary graphics.

  • A Sorceress using Blaze. Notable because Misshapen don't spawn in outdoors areas normally.

  • A Paladin fighting skeletons. Note the odd button next to the ESC button.

  • Sorceress in Act 3 using Frost Nova. The graphics look different for this skill (one of many iterations)

  • Sorceress using a skill that might be Chain Lightning. The skill icon is different and feels like an icon for an AoE skill.

  • A (very old) vendor screen, dated March 1999. Almost everything in this screenshot is different, except for the skill icons. Also, notable is gold coins as an inventory item.

  • Old style waypoint menu. Dated May 1999. This feels like it's missing the graphics the finished one has.

  • Old style interface and old skeletons. Skeletons don't spawn in outdoor desert environments in the final game.

  • Another iteration of the menu, this time having 8 potion slots. Also, the barrels here seem to be using Diablo 1 graphics. The skill icons are blank. October 1999.

  • Diablo2 1999-oct04.png

  • Old interface. Claw Vipers don't spawn in outdoor desert environments. September 1999.

  • (Really) different looking skeletons.

  • Different looking zombies.

  • Red cows. The cows that spawn as part of the Secret Cow Level are always black and spawn in outdoor areas.

  • Old interface.

  • Old interface. Different enemies.

  • Old interface.

  • Old interface. Another iteration of the Frost Nova graphics.

  • Kick skill, old interface.

  • Very old, Diablo 1-like interface, different zombie graphics, eight potion slots.

  • Kick skill present, with retail interface. Different potion graphics.

  • Different town portal scroll graphics.

  • Yet another iteration of the Frost Nova graphics, although it looks like it didn't freeze anyone. The mysterious button next to the ESC menu returns.

  • Different looking player names in multiplayer.

  • Kick skill, red mercenary frames, and mysterious button in the interface.

  • Kick skill, different potion graphics, unknown button in interface.

  • Retail interface, but a very old (yet interesting) character screen. Mysterious button present and a look at how "New Skill" would've shown up in the alpha version. Also has a Sorc with 2-hand sword.

  • Different looking party member names.

  • Ice Storm (?). Different enemies and old interface.

  • Old interface, with Diablo 1 potion graphics.

  • Old interface, Kick skill. Slightly different Lut Gholein bar, with no patrons present.

  • Weird gray/white Fallen and bat enemies in Act 2.

  • Old interface. Frost Tree for the Sorceress in an old/alpha build. Some unknown skill icons, but Chill Blood and Ice Storm are both present while cold mastery seems absent.

  • Old interface. Fire Tree for the Sorceress in an old/alpha build. Hydra has a different icon and there is a skill called Firestorm whose icon is present here. There's a skill icon not in a frame. Mastery skill seems missing.

  • Old interface. Spiders don't spawn in the Palace Cellar.

  • Old interface. Kick skill. The prince and his guards don't seem to be present.

  • Old interface. Lightning Tree for the Sorceress in an old/alpha build. Some skills are missing. Charged Bolt has 21 points put into it; in the retail game skills could only go as high as 20 without items. Mastery skill seems missing.

  • Old interface. Panther women don't spawn in the Palace Cellar.

  • Old interface, Kick skill, vampires outside in desert.

  • Old interface. Sand Maggot graphics appear flatter.

  • A rather bizarre screenshot - it shows a 12-potion interface bar. In the finished game, you could have up to 16 potions in belt, perhaps in this build a max-capacity belt would have had a 16-button bar? Also notable this has hotkeys assigned for potions 1-9. Also, the tomb graphics are shown in what looks like an above-ground area.

  • Inner Sight labeled as Eye of Zeus.

  • Old interface. Warcries Tree for the Barbarian in an old/alpha build. Most of the skills don't have icons.

  • Old interface. Notable because there aren't many alpha screenshots of Act 3.

  • Old interface, with an unknown Paladin skill selected.

  • Old interface, with Diablo 1 potion graphics.

  • Old interface with the Kick skill selected.

  • Old interface with kick skill selected.

  • Yet another Frost Nova graphic iteration. Different Town Portal scroll graphic.

  • An 800x600 (not gameplay) screenshot showing an unused building.

  • Necromancer with the cut Familiar skill selected.

  • Sorceress with the cut Kick skill selected and different looking potions.

  • Yet another Barbarian screenshot with the cut Kick skill selected.

  • Want another Barbarian screenshot with the cut Kick skill?

  • Sorceress with the cut Kick skill and different looking potions.

  • Paladin, Act 3. Slightly different looking interface.

  • Sorceress using Enchant. Slightly different looking interface.

  • Barbarian with War Cries tree open. Note the different icon for Grim Ward (if it even was that, back then) and different looking Close button. The party button and mysterious button are greyed out, which indicates that the mysterious button might not work in Multiplayer.

  • Barbarian with Combat Masteries tree open. Slightly different looking interface.

  • Barbarian with Combat skills tree open. Slightly different looking interface.

  • An Amazon in Act 3, with a slightly different looking interface and blood you won't see in the final game, unless an enemy was affected by a bleeding debuff.

  • Guild Halls. This was a screenshot taken very close to release, judging by the interface.

  • A promotional render of Lut Gholein.

  • An old image of Lut Gholein. The interface was very different and had the old D1-style potions display.

  • An old image of Act 2. The interface was very different and had the old D1-style potions display.

  • An old image of Act 2, with the Amazon's Bow and Crossbow Skills tree open. A lot of very interesting things in this screenshot - notably the different looking hover-over for skills, and that the Passive and Magic tree is called Healing, Movement, and Repair Skills in this build. Also the interface is older and uses the D1-style potion display.

  • E3 1999 image. A very old interface, with D1-style potions and no buttons that lead elsewhere.

  • E3 1999 image. Old zombies.

  • E3 1999 image. Unlit torches - a cut object - are present in this build.

  • E3 1999 image. Charsi looks different and the Kick skill is present.

  • E3 1999 image. The rogues guarding the camp look a lot like the Rogue character in Diablo 1.

  • E3 1999 image.

  • E3 1999 image. A weird looking dead body on the right side of the screen.

  • E3 1999 image. Different enemy spawning patterns.

  • E3 1999 image.

  • E3 1999 image. A different looking Scroll of Town portal and some very blue corrupt rogues.

  • E3 1999 image. The Amazon has some kind of healing ability selected.

  • E3 1999 image. All of the player's abilities appear on one row, instead of multiple rows in the final game.

  • E3 1999 image. A different looking graphic to indicate that the player is almost out of arrows, and it shows up in the upper left corner, instead of the upper right corner.

  • E3 1999 image.

  • E3 1999 image.

  • E3 1999 image. A black-looking Wendigo.

  • E3 1999 image. Different enemy spawning patterns. Normally this area would be only full of undead monsters, but it's got a quill rat here.

  • E3 1999 image.

  • E3 1999 image. Unlit torches and golden looking enemies.

  • E3 1999 image.

  • A GIF of Lightning using some old looking graphics.

  • A image showing a minimap in the bottom center. Graphics for this kind of minimap still exist in the game.

  • An older screenshot showing the Convert button. Also of note are the different looking buttons, different item (club, ring, amulet) icons, organs that are present, and the unknown book item.

  • A (very old) buy/sell page. Notably has gold coins as an inventory item.

  • A screenshot showing gems being buyable from merchants. Also present are some unknown green(thrown poison?) and grey potions(Stamina or antidote?).

  • A blurry screenshot showing some different-looking text.

  • A blurry picture of the player's inventory. The unknown book appears(possibly a Tome of Identify as a 2x2 item?), as well as organs. The convert button looks different than in the other screenshot. Also, ORANGE potions(thrown fire bombs?) can be seen.

  • A very old screenshot.

  • A very old screenshot with D1-looking barrels.

  • A very old screenshot. Where is Gheed?

  • A very old screenshot, with some nice stained glass windows that didn't make it into the final game.

Videos

A highlight reel of alpha videos and screenshots. Note the old look of town portals and waypoints, the various changes in logo, and the substantially different user interface.

Gamestar Special

Part 1

The German PC gaming magazine GameStar toured the Blizzard North offices and a lot of very old footage was taken. Of note in the first part is the old user interface, different Lut Gholein layout, different Fallen sound effects, a debug feature that let the developers change time of day and weather, different zombie animations, and a radically different set of Paladin skill trees, with Auras all in one tree, and a "Healing and Undead" tree. The Healing and Undead tree is shown with many skills that don't appear in the final game:

  • Blessing - "Heal others"
  • Pray - "Heal yourself"
  • Cleanse - "Reduce duration of poisons". Requires Pray.
  • Cleanse Other - "Reduce duration of poisons on others.". Requires Blessing and Cleanse.
  • Block - "Increased chance of blocking (passive)"
  • Retreat - "Reduces damage and stops [unintelligible]". Requires Block.
  • [Unintelligible] - "Removes a curse." Requires Cleanse.
  • Purify - "Cures poison." Requires the skill above.
  • Resurrect - "Brings target to life." Requires Purify and Cleanse Other.
  • Meditation - "Bonuses for faster [unintelligible] nearby players." Requires Retreat.

Several of the skill icons appear as Sacrifice (probably because they may have been unfinished at the time). The Combat tree is shown with skills in the wrong spots, but the video doesn't show what those skills are, unfortunately.

Part 2

Part 2 starts with the older logo. It shows an Amazon in the Rogue Encampment with a much different looking Waypoint system. These waypoints look more like Stargates and has a transparent menu instead of a marble one that is in the final game. Next, we see a Paladin in the Act 2 deserts using the cut Kick skill (the player has this skill as Level 3, somehow). There's a couple of unknown items (a potion and a scroll?) on the belt. The player kills a Sand Maggot, which is notable because they don't spawn in the desert in the final game. The player opens their skill bar and there are many unknown icons which don't appear in the final game.

  • Some kind of shield with an explosion (?)
  • A person with a sword above their head (this skill icon can also be seen in Part 1)
  • Some kind of person over top of a shield
  • A sword over top of a shield
  • Praying hands with a star over them (visible in Part 1)
  • Praying hands clasping a cross (visible in Part 1)
  • Two different Meditation hands
  • Two concentric circles

After the player kills a few monsters with the Smite ability, we then see a different scene, taking place in a tomb. The player has an unknown skill selected, which has an icon that looks like a shield with an explosion over it. The player activates a Resist Fire Shrine which looks unlike the ones in the final game, with an obviously broken smoke effect. The player kills a mummy with their sword, which then spews a poison effect that looks different from the one in the final game.

Another scene, this time a Sorceress in maggot caves. They need to check their Quest Log, which is using a different icon. The player shoots a firebolt, which looks slightly more colorful than in the final game. They open their quest log, which has a different, transparent look than the one in the final game. They click on the entry for Tainted Sun (the only entry), which brings up a scrolling text dialog, similar to the one in Diablo 1. The video cuts and the player is seen using the Blaze skill, which has more colorful graphics. The video cuts again and the player is fighting Andariel. They cast Meteor a few times, killing Andariel. The video cuts and the player is fighting Dark Ones, which are red in this version, instead of black. The player fights a few Ghouls and returns through a (different looking) town portal, which takes them to a different part of town in this version.

The video cuts again and the player this time is a Necromancer. They are fighting several Overseers and appear to have a skill equipped whose icon looks a lot like Plague Javelin (an Amazon skill). They cast this skill and it summons a Wendigo that takes a few hits before dying. This skill is apparently Blood Golem, because the player picks a new skill. Once again, there are several icons which are either out of place, or don't exist in the final game:

  • The icons for the Amazon skills Immolation Arrow, Strafe, Guided Arrow, Ice Arrow, Exploding Arrow, Multiple Shot, Cold Arrow, Magic Arrow, Charged Strike, Lightning Strike, Fire Arrow, Fend, Dodge, Evade, Plague Javelin, Poison Javelin, Jab, and Impale.
  • The icon for the Sorceress skill Lightning.
  • Two different icons that look like they pertain to healing (the Red Cross logo, one inside a filled circle, and one inside a hollow circle)
  • An icon that looks like a sniper's scope
  • An icon that looks like lightning going through a noose (?)
  • An icon that looks like scissors over top of an atomic blast (?)

The player hovers over a few skills with unreadable descriptions before selecting Teeth (which is apparently using the Fire Arrow icon) and firing a few shots at the Guardians. There's also apparently a Carver that shows up, which is odd considering they don't appear in the final game at this location. The player then uses the "show dropped items" hotkey and we see two cut items - a Brute Spleen and a Carver Heart. The player ignores them and switches to Corpse Explosion (which is using the Lightning Strike icon). The player blows up a corpse, killing the Guardian.

Then there is a montage. Notable in the montage is the use of Ice Storm, a cut ability, and more Kick footage. There's also a Sorceress casting a really old looking Nova.

Video list

ECTS 1997 (September 8, 1997)

Earliest(?) Gameplay Video (April or early May 1998)

E3 1998

May 28-30, 1998[1]

January 1999

March 1999

April 1999

Early May 1999(?)

E3 1999 (Mid May 1999)

June 1999

July 1999

December 1999

Battle.net Beta (2000)

E3 2000 (Mid May 2000)

Director's Commentary

Misc. Videos

References

  1. ↑ E3 1998 organizer by MCV http://kultcds.com/Upload/Charts/E3/E31998/1390728820.or.29728.jpg
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