After 25 years, Diablo 2 is still played by millions of gamers, a reality that’s been exacerbated with recent remasters and the addition of new content. While Blizzard teases more new DLC for the 25-year-old ARPG, developers that worked on the original game are working on new games.
Moon Beast Productions’ new open-world ARPG Darkhaven is a project helmed by a large group of original Diablo 2 developers. While the team are working on a new type of ARPG, the team has admitted that actually surpassing their work with their Diablo sequel is simply “impossible”.
“That’s kind of been my whole career in a way, you know, always chasing Diablo 2. I gave up for a while, you know,” explained former lead designer Erich Schaefer in a recent interview. After working on other ARPGs including Hellgate: London and Torchlight, Schaefer working on sci-fi RPG Rebel Galaxy.
Schaefer explained that his foray into “the space games” were to get away from the shadow of Diablo. “I said, ‘I’m just going to make small games that reach a small audience,” he explained, although he’s now firmly back in the ARPG genre with Darkhaven.
“Here with Darkhaven, I figured this is a great shot again for a big success,” the designer explained, “but it’s impossible really to chase Diablo because, again, [after] 25 years.”
“To have a game that lasts, that you can still play, and still people make content and stream for 25 years, that’s unlikely going to happen again in my career.”
Original Diablo 2 designer Erich Schaefer
Schaefer mentions that original Diablo 2 programmer Peter Hu joked that the second Diablo game could last “25 decades”, with the designer wondering if it actually will. After two-and-a-half decades right now, players are still jumping into the game in the millions, a stat which completely shatters any other game from that era.
“To have a game that lasts, that you can still play, and still people make content and stream for 25 years, that’s unlikely going to happen again in my career,” Schaefer said. “So yeah, sort of always under the shadow, but at the same time, it’s a cool accomplishment, and people all know it, so I’m happy about it.”
Many other Diablo 2 developers have attempted to create a successor to the game, but none have managed to wrangle the game’s core fanbase away. From Torchlight to Marvel Heroes Omega to others, most of the game’s successors are fun and even good, but they just don’t match up to Blizzard’s 25-year-old game.
Nevertheless, Darkhaven does look very interesting with a procedurally generated fully-destructible open-world that is quite unique for an ARPG. Currently going through a Kickstarter campaign, you can download a free demo for the game on Steam right now. There is no proposed final release date.
