Original Diablo 2 devs are proud their classic is still getting love, even as it competes with their new ARPG

Blizzard recently surprised players by adding a new Warlock class to Diablo 2 and bringing the 2021 remaster to Steam. For some of the original developers, seeing their decades-old game get fresh content is a genuinely heartwarming thing – even if it means competing against their own creation while building a new ARPG called Darkhaven.

"Just the fact that people are playing this 30-year-old game, that it's worth it for them to introduce new content, is amazing to me," Phil Shenk, lead character artist on the original Diablo 2, told PC Gamer. "It's super cool. I'm very proud, I guess is the word, just at the fact that it has so much legs."

Shenk hasn't had time to try the new class himself – he and the rest of Moon Beast Productions, including Diablo 2 programmer Peter Hu and designer Erich Schaefer, have been deep in development on Darkhaven and running a Kickstarter campaign. As of writing, the studio has raised $200,000 of its $500,000 goal with 25 days left.

When asked what it's like to compete not just with later Diablo titles but with Diablo 2 itself, Hu didn't sugarcoat it:

"There's tons of conflicted feelings there. Yeah, not gonna lie about that… We're an indie company in a way, going up against a giant, and that's a tough hill to climb."

Shenk put it more simply: "Yeah, we feel the pressure, but I don't hate them for it." The team is quick to point out that Darkhaven isn't trying to be another Diablo 2 or Path of Exile – it's aiming for a blend of ARPG action and survival games like Valheim and Enshrouded, with deformable terrain, digging, building, mod support, and both solo and massively multiplayer options in procedurally generated open worlds.

On the subject of the Reign of the Warlock expansion, Shenk said he gets why Blizzard went with a new class rather than a full act:

"Having worked on Diablo 2, and knowing how much work goes into making a new act, yeah, that would have been amazing and awesome, but I can't even imagine how they would do that, because you're retconning the story and the lore, and how does that affect everything that happened after Diablo 2?"

A demo for Darkhaven is already available on Steam, and the Kickstarter page has more details on what Moon Beast is building. The studio has spent over four years on the game so far, funded by venture capital and their own money – and the demo even lets you double jump and swim, which isn't something you expect from a new ARPG.demo