The creator of the popular Diablo series is not a fan of modern action RPGs like Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2. Why he finds much of what is currently in the genre trivial is explained in a podcast.
Who is being referred to here? We are talking about David Brevik, co-founder of Blizzard North and creator of the Diablo series. In 2005, he left the company; his last Diablo was part 2. Today he works for the indie publisher Skystone Games.
Action RPGs are increasingly focusing on speed and less on duration
In the VideoGamer podcast, Brevik shares his opinion on today’s action role-playing games: He wishes for a bit more deceleration in a genre that nowadays often bombards you with hordes of enemies and lets you level up every few minutes.
While there were already many enemies in the first two Diablo games (at least by the standards of the time), new games, according to Brevik, have drawn the wrong lesson from it and have ramped up the number of enemies even further.
I think RPGs in general have started to lean in this direction: quickly killing swarms of enemies everywhere. Your build kills all sorts of things so that you get more drops, you can level up, […] and the screen is filled with things that you don’t care about.
Moreover, players often level up very quickly. He cites Diablo 3 as an example, where it takes only a few hours to reach level 70. While this gets you to the goal quickly, the journey itself feels more trivial and the experience feels “cheaper” as a result.
Brevik prefers the leisurely pace and the number of enemies in Diablo 2 over the power fantasies of many new games that he personally finds somewhat silly.
Whether the higher gaming pace and fast progress of modern action RPGs destroy the fun of gaming or not is a matter of personal taste. Many players enjoy blowing away hordes of enemies in no time at all. And not everyone wants to wait hours for the next level up. If you are currently playing a Spiritborn in Diablo 4, you can find the best leveling build here.
