[im3w1l]

They said they lost the source code pre-release, but managed to reconstruct most of it. Given that it was released and that there have been many patches, I think the source code is fine.

I think the only thing they really lost are the hi-def assets from which the lower-def ingame assets were created.

[taneq]

Are you sure the in-game assets were created from hi-def versions rather than just being pixel art?

[im3w1l]

They said "It would make it very difficult for Blizzard to do a Diablo 2 remaster because all the assets we used are pretty much gone. They'd have to make them from scratch."

I can't think of any other way of interpreting it.

[unicornfinder]

To be fair it wouldn't surprise me - this sort of thing was pretty common back then. You'd create high def 3D models and then render 2D sprites etc from them.

[Forgeties79]

That’s exactly what the article says.

[taneq]

Can you point to where? I can't find it, and a quick search for "resolution", "high", "quality", "def" turned up nothing. They say they lost the art assets but a bunch of pixel art tilemaps would fit that description, especially if they were composited down during the build process.