Moon Beast Productions today announced Darkhaven, a new action RPG that aims to return to the genre’s roots. At the same time, the game aims to push the genre forward with a fully dynamic, persistent world.
Moon Beast Productions is founded by Diablo veterans Philip Shenk, Peter Hu, and Erich Schaefer. So, if you were fans of the old Blizzard games, you might find this new ARPG interesting.
Darkhaven takes place in a world that changes every time you play and remembers everything you do. The land and buildings can be shaped by the player. You can dig through the ground, break through dungeon walls, drain lakes to reveal hidden ruins, or even redirect lava to change the battlefield. You can also rebuild destroyed forts. The world has seasons, weather that affects combat and movement, and big events that permanently change the map. Everything you do will become part of the world’s ongoing story.
Combat in Darkhaven mixes character stats, build choices, and player skill in a smoother way. Your hero can jump, climb, swim, dash, and move around the world freely, adding fast action that most games in this genre don’t have. Winning fights isn’t only about your stats. It will also depend on how well you move, time your attacks, and use the terrain. This will make the action feel much deeper and more exciting.
Darkhaven’s items and progression will be inspired by the classic ARPGs Diablo and Diablo II. Instead of small, boring upgrades like many modern games use, this game will focus on big, exciting loot. You can find items that feel truly powerful — sometimes even shockingly strong — and they can completely change how you build and play your character, not just make small improvements.
It’s also worth noting that Darkhaven will be fully moddable from the ground up. Players will be able to create their own items, monsters, classes, and quests in real-time, even while playing concurrently with others. You will be able to design a single set-piece. Or, you can create an entirely new ruleset for a persistent online world. The modding tools will let you create new and cool stuff.
There is currently no ETA on when Darkhaven will come out. However, Moon Beast Productions plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign for it soon.
Enjoy the game’s debut trailer and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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