1: What I tought where excellent choices: All the new enviroment details + reinterpretations, as the new details in Act 1 town, adding depth to the story. All the quality of life improvements done and these currently going on.
What I think went really wrong:
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Censorship in sexual content: e.g. a) Statues in Tal Rashas tomb (original) with exposed breasts. b) Harem storyline altered, harem girls corpses removed in gfx. c) Some of the player characters made more modest. Probable reasons: Chinese market rules or generally prudish mindset of the responsible persons in deciding power.
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Characters toned down: Much more attractive and true to the original interpretations do in fact exist and may be found online. At a first glance, the partly older faces may seem like a reference to the fans also being older, however some these characters do now look just old, worn down. They made the Remaster ugly.
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Mood changes: Marius in the starting video is a sad, weak old man and that made him interesting. In Resurrected this original mood is gone, he there is merely old looking, maybe physically worn down, but his character is not at all mentally weak and broken. Also without going into it too deep, the dwarf in the same video lacks his original character, just a quite normal guy, just scaled down.
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Light changes: The whole light scenario does not cut it, appears dim, with weak contrasts. They call it refined but it is just stylistically indifferent in large parts. Some places however where they decided to allow proper image contrast turned out great (e.g. mausoleum, crypt).
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Many small icon graphics like some ring details are not up to par. Town portal and quest completion aura nearly not as cool. (Well, thats the most unimportant point, 1-4 are the real deal breakers for me.)
I was extatic about the promise of a true to the original remaster. I approve all the QOL changes and can certainly live with some controversial ones. But that they failed to deliver the original artistic mood leaves me surprised. I mean it is not that it is hard to do, these are all fully deliberate choices. In my opinion, there was a concious decision to tone the game down. Some parts are really great but In its whole, I’m not sure it will stand the test of time. Various politics and interests getting in the way of a skilled remaster. However I’m giving them credits for all the stuff that turned out right.
I’m thinking about refunding (not that it matters too much) but I’m not sure I will play it. That remaster was the reason for building a new system. Looks like I will be playing other stuff on it instead.
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I agree with all despite I will definitely not refund, because the game is really good.
I have just a huge deception about models, which are definitely not faithful to the originals.
The mature content remove is really ridiculous as it is an adult game, they try to remove this, it’s an error, d2r will never please younger generation because it’s old school gameplay and progression.
They definitely should keep the cadavers, breasts, Amazon revealing armours etc.
Still I’ll enjoy the game tremendously
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Yea, I appreciate the changed looks is unfaithful to the original but I will not be refunding either as I love the game and cannot wait for launch.
Same. I will never say D2 is best game ever or so, but it is My preferred game ever, the one I played and most importantly I enjoyed the most.
Perfectly fits my needs.
I still hope they modify the game models afterwards, who knows
And here we go again… 
Can this nonsense ever stop?
I wish players actualy focus on important things to fix.
If you look closer, the game is, for me , way better in environmental graphics than models. Tbh, I have the feeling VV struggle with models.
I find every monster models I saw actually inferior to the originals, especially act2 ones, like the venom “worms” for example, same for pnj, and of course, heroes.
Not a deal breaker, just a disappointment.
(Some connexion troubles here, ignore the deletes) Fair. It could likely be that they alter some models, eg the huntress I would say is a bit off. If they would indeed redo the older looking already existing main characters that would be great but I would not count on that.
Zax :
Who said it was a priority ?
We just say it’s sad.
Graphics are not the most important things in a game, but in d2r it is important, at least for me, and some other, I guess.
It’s nowhere near nonsense.
The biggest disappointment for me is the toned down gore.
In OG D2 you apply open wounds on a target and they bleed all over the floor. In the remaster nothing. In OG d2 fire enchanted enemies explode into a pile of blood and guts, in remaster there is a flash and they just disappear.
I agree with that, too. Part of the game
I’m in a similar boat in terms of being a bit disappointed with the changes. With that said it doesn’t, to me, alter the mood enough to really impact my enjoyment so there isn’t really a reason to refund.
With that said, sure, I do wish everything was kept as it was.
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I was aware of the Open Wound issue but there was some speculation it wasn’t in yet. I did not know about the explosion/gore and that is sad as I am assuming Corpse Explosion will be well toned down. A bit sad for certain and more impacting than statues for certain
I am hoping it is a bug as some have suggested, but it seems strange that they did not fix it when it was reported in the alpha, the closed beta, and the open beta. It doesn’t seem like something that would be overly difficult to solve, but then I am not a game designer.
I’m sorry for enjoying mature themes in video games. I guess that makes me childish huh. 
Silamon, D2 would not be what it is without some juicy insults, just like monkey 1 
After all, we are not here to justify ourself for our thoughts, right? Kindergarden was some years ago
This reply kinda confuses me, what exactly are you trying to imply?
So you can see because you looking at something else. Is that hard to understand? I guess so. Move on. Get over it.
Oh is it because I need glasses that the blood from open wounds and fire enchanted enemy explosions don’t show up?
I guess it would make sense, if I were not already wearing glasses.
I agree OP, the censorship and de-beautifying of the main chars is sad. It’s an M-rated game, why again can’t we have all the interesting details? Because Blizzard has an image to keep up as a mostly teen-centric business? Probably.
I appreciate the topic though, thanks.
Thanks for your post OP, I have had some similar thoughts. Let me share about points 1-4…
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In terms of censorship, this was a concern of mine initially, but not anymore. There are some other details in dungeons where artists have in fact implemented more graphic and sexually revealing art than the original. So it may just be the way they interpreted a variety of different assets. Some more, some less, maybe it depends on the artist that handled it. Overall I wouldn’t say the game has been censored though. It looks more realistic and disturbing than it used to in many cases. Check out these posts on reddit to see what I’m talking about:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo_2_Resurrected/comments/pay052/d2r_is_not_really_censored_guess_tiddies_are_not/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo_2_Resurrected/comments/pa7jno/open_beta_i_couldnt_help_but_chuckle_at_whoever/
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I agree. The character art is slightly improved from the first time we saw them, but the Amazon still confounds me. Also the assassin going from white goth girl to Asian was an interesting decision. Diversity is big in AAA games now, so that’s all it is and there’s nothing you can do about it without being called racist by some snowflake who doesn’t understand. But I’m not going to lose sleep over it. We haven’t seen them overhaul the characters despite massive criticism. I have given up complaining about this.
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I thought the cinematics we’ve seen thus far are great. I agree with your criticism of the dwarf. He doesn’t have much of a limp in the new one and doesn’t even look like a dwarf. Not sure why they changed that.
Per Marius - I think what made him look different in the original cinematics was also a totally different, less realistic graphic style, due to technological limitations. Here, he looks more realistic and I guess a little more awake. In the original he had no expression and was nearly passed out. But a sad, weak old man nonetheless is what I see. I think they just wanted to give him a bit more personality. But still, in the new one he’s half passed out, his eyes are red, looks exhausted, but fair enough if you see it that way. Here’s what I see though… Pause it here, at 3:16:
Diablo® II: Resurrected™ | Act I Cinematic - YouTube
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I agree with you somewhat. The lighting is going to be hard to match exactly because we’re going from sprite-based, artificial lighting, to full 3d with dynamic lighting. The fire effects and many of the lighting effects look insanely good though. I think in many cases better. Just not what you’re used to.