Some tenured developers who worked extensively on the classic Diablo games have banded together to make a brand new isometric action-RPG. Darkhaven will be the debut release from Moon Beast Productions, and it's drawing on ideas fans of the team's prior work are likely to enjoy.
Erich Schaefer and Brian Fitzpatrick, who worked on the first Diablo and the genre-defining sequel, and Philip Shenk and Peter Hu, who had prominent roles on Diablo 2, are among the devs constructing Darkhaven. Hellgate: London and the Torhlight series are some of their other credits, giving them a substantial amount of experience in this realm.
"This project represents everything we've learned about ARPGs over the last two decades, and what becomes possible when those ideas are combined with modern technology," Shenk, co-founder and CEO of Moon Beast Productions, says in a press release. "We're building a world that remembers what you've done, bears the scars of your victories and failures, and tells stories that only your playthrough can create."
Set in a post-post-apocalyptic wasteland, you roam lands where the elements have reclaimed everything from the long-gone civilizations that existed prior, according to the Steam page. Enemies from other dimensions appear through portals, and remnants of those encounters will remain in the environment.
Moon Beast is incorporating "ecological rules" for each area, according to the official description, whether it be swampy or volcanic, to cultivate a "rich implied history" across the entire map.
"In Darkhaven, we want items that open doors, gear that makes you stop and rethink your build, your strategy, or even how you play the game," Peter Hu, president of Moon Beast Productions, adds. "Finding something powerful should be exciting and inspiring, not something that gets smoothed out into tiny percentage gains." Likewise, battles emphasize clever and tactical thinking over simply grinding it all out.
Described as a "next-generation ARPG" on Steam, your surroundings are both procedurally generated and fully destructible, making every play-through distinct.
It looks and sounds exactly like the kind of ambitious take on the Diablo formula you'd expect from people extremely familiar with these mechanics and ideas. The intention is to go into early access first, and a Kickstarter campaign is due to launch soon to help fund doing so.
