Diablo 2 Turns 20: Blizzard Gives Out Free Diablo 3 Item And More

Today, June 29, marks the 20th anniversary of Diablo 2, the dungeon-crawling game that's still seen by many to be a genre-defining experience. Blizzard is marking the anniversary with some retrospectives, special merch, and a free in-game item in Diablo 3. Here's what you need to know--and no, the much-desired Diablo 2 remaster is not among the announcements.

In a post on the Blizzard blog, the company outlines some of the ways you can celebrate the classic loot-hunting game today. Those include an animated short (below), a detailed retrospective, and a speedrun from MrLlamaSC. The company also unveiled a new Lord of Terror bust, which goes for $140. It stands 10 inches tall and features the head and torso of Diablo.

But if you just want to celebrate one classic dungeon crawler by playing another, you can log in to Diablo 3 anytime after June 29 to claim a pair of Prime Evil Wings. "Baal--as we saw in him in Diablo 2--did not have wings, but try to imagine what they would’ve looked like if he did, and if you could've fastened them to your hero's shoulders," says Blizzard. Previously, Diablo 3 was used to a special anniversary mode, Darkening of Tristram, to mark the release of the original Diablo game.

The animated short, Baal Runz 101, comes from CarbotAnimations, which has worked on Blizzard-themed videos before. This one captures the essence of the endgame experience in Diablo 2 (or, more precisely, its Lords of Destruction expansion pack). This consisted of repeated runs to the expansion's final boss, often with a group of players moving from one session to the next as quickly as possible. With loot shared across all players, it was a chaotic experience.

Meanwhile David Brevik, who was design lead on the classic game, issued his own statement via Twitter.