The authors of Anthem fan servers do not guarantee that they will succeed.
Diablo Creators Unveil Darkhaven — An Action RPG with an Interactive World and Cool Loot
The studio Moon Beast Productions was founded by former Blizzard employees who contributed to the Diablo series — Philip Shenk, Peter Hu, and Erich Schaefer. Yesterday, they announced the fantasy action RPG Darkhaven.
The setting is a world after the collapse of civilization. Ancient empires have fallen, and their ruins have been reclaimed by nature, monsters, and supernatural forces. Evil is seeping into the world to feast on its remains. Players must save these lands from destruction.
Darkhaven supports solo play, co-op, and PvP. Locations are procedurally generated and boast a high degree of interactivity — you can dig in the ground, chew through fortress walls, drain lakes, redirect lava flows, and build settlements. Seasonal changes, dynamic weather, and world events are also promised.
In the combat system, Moon Beast Productions aims to strike a balance between stat progression, build choice, and player skill. Heroes can jump, climb, swim, and dash. To defeat enemies, you need not only to improve your stats but also to maneuver skillfully and use the environment.
From the very beginning, we wanted Darkhaven to be fun to play. Movement is fun. The ability to jump over attacks, climb cliffs, dash away from danger, or swim across a lake that might be teeming with river fangs — all of this changes the perception of combat in games of this genre. It's no longer just a battle of numbers against numbers, but something much more engaging. Personal skill, a sense of rhythm, and smart decisions in the moment matter more here. I haven't had this much fun creating and playing an action RPG before.
The local loot and progression systems are largely inspired by the first two Diablo games. According to the developers, equipment in Darkhaven significantly impacts your build, not just optimizes it by adding to the numbers. "If you find an unexpectedly powerful item — rejoice, it's not there by accident, and we won't nerf it," the creators claim.
Finally, this Diablo-like is being developed from the start with mod support. A built-in editor will allow adding new items, monsters, classes, and quests in real-time — even during online play. Moreover, it will be possible to script your own set of rules for an online world.
Darkhaven will be released in Early Access on Steam with Russian subtitles. In the foreseeable future, Moon Beast will launch a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.