What happens to the original 2D game logic operating underneath

 You're still restricted to only one D2R Items difficulty level - and if you have a character that you don't like following that, then tough. This solitary approach is definitely the right call, but it's an expense that is beyond the realms of difficulty and game balance.

As an example, local cooperative play on consoles, such as was a huge hit on Diablo 3, has sadly not been implemented in Diablo 3 since it would have stretched the game too far from its original. In fact it would have demanded an entirely different strategy.

To fully understand the reason you should explore the underside of this particular remake. Happily, Blizzard is allowing you do this with one button pressthat instantly shows the game as it looked in 2000 . It's pixelated grainy, isometric, low-resolution and in many ways two-dimensional.

This isn't a remaster in the most widely understood contemporary sense. It's the game's original assets, updated or redrawn for higher quality with modern hardware. This isn't it's a remake, with the contents of the original game remade from scratch, with a greater or lesser degree of faithfulness, in an entirely new engine.

It does exist as a second game, but only as a dumb 3D audiovisual overlay which mimics what happens to the original 2D game logic operating underneath. This is the game you're actually playing. Your intricate, buy diablo II resurrected items avatar reaches out to hit the monster that is next to her, but it's the chunky pixels underneath (more specifically, the math operating beneath them) which determine how the blow connects.