Diablo series veterans Philip Shenk, Peter Hu, and Erich Schaefer have a new studio in Moon Beast Productions, which has just announced a dark fantasy isometric Action RPG of their own in Darkhaven. In addition, the team has unveiled the Steam page for Darkhaven, as well as a new Kickstarter campaign page that will aim to see to help bring the project to Early Access.
Designed for solo play, cooperative adventures, and high-stakes PvP-enabled realms, Darkhaven is set in a procedurally generated, fully dynamic, and persistent world in the aftermath of a great and final collapse of civilization. Ancient empires have fallen, their ruins reclaimed by wilderness, monsters, and predatory supernatural forces. Players are heirs to a legacy of power that is the last hope for this dying world. As eldritch evil worms its way into the world to feed on its remains, it falls to these few to bring the land back from the brink of death.
Terrain and structures are deformable and buildable in Darkhaven, allowing players to dig through earth, tunnel through dungeon walls, drain lakes to uncover buried ruins, redirect lava flows to reshape battlefields, or rebuild shattered fortresses. Seasons change, weather alters combat and traversal, and world-altering events leave permanent scars. Every action contributes to a shared, evolving history.
Meanwhile, combat aims to enhance the balance between stat progression, build choice, and player skill. Unlike the Diablo series, players in Darkhaven are able to freely navigate the word by jumping, climbing, and swimming. Your survival in the game is not just based on a function of stats, but of movement, timing, and terrain awareness.
That being said, the game will draw heavily on Diablo and Diablo II when it comes to “bold, expressive loot”. You’ll discover items that feel powerful, and are capable of redefining character builds rather than just optimizing them. “Great itemization is about possibility,” explains Peter Hu. “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. Finding something powerful should be exciting and inspiring, not something that gets smoothed out into tiny percentage gains.”
Fans looking to get a taste of what Darkhaven has to offer will be able to do so with a playable demo that will be available alongside the Kickstarter when it goes live.
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