From Diablofans:
- The Anniversary Dungeon recreates the events, monsters, and levels of the original Diablo inside Diablo III.
- Returning Boss Fights include The Butcher, The Skeleton King, Lazarus and Diablo himself.
- The Dungeon will be 16 levels deep and accessible for all existing characters.
- It will feature special visual and audio filters to invoke all that sweet nostalgia.
- The Anniversary Dungeon will be included in “The Darkening of Tristram” patch for free.
- It will be a limited time event, occurring for the month of January every year.
- Completing the Dungeon rewards a Legendary Gem that fits into the Helmet slot, reminiscent of Diablo’s Soulstone. It will be a utility Gem, giving you a buff when you level up.
- You will also be rewarded with two new portrait frames, a Butcher pet, as well as two weapon transmogs, the Butcher’s Sickle and Wirt’s Wooden Leg.
So it is just that; a Diablo III dungeon with a Diablo I style theme along with 8 directional movements only and a graphical filter to give the dungeon a retro look. It is not the actual original game and it will be reusing a lot existing textures and tile sets (basically this is just a 16 level rift). And as noted, it is an yearly event. I guess I will try it out when it hits the PTR next week.
One reason why I believe it is time limited is that this isn’t a full on implementation which includes the way those characters worked in terms of items and skills (as this does not include leveling again with the 3 original classes, finding actual D1 style loot and skill books). It probably won’t include a lot of the NPC’s including Griswold, Farnham the Drunk, Pepin, Gillian, etc. Doing all of that would effectively take up more engineering and production resources. And allowing players to run this Diablo I themed rift continuously would effectively cheapen the original game. It’s meant to be a short nostalgic trip.
