Diablo creator David Brevik doesn’t vibe with today’s rapid ARPGs – “You’ve cheapened the entire experience”

Diablo creator David Brevik may have left the series behind back in 2005, but the ARPG creator has never truly left the genre. Alongside working on games like Hellgate London and Marvel Heroes, Brevik is still an avid player and enjoyer of the ever-satisfying loot-based genre.

Now the head of amazing indie games publisher Skystone Games, Brevik sat down for an upcoming episode of the VideoGamer Podcast to discuss his career. While Brevik’s career spans almost the entire history of the medium, the Diablo creator is most renowned for his work on the creation of the modern ARPG genre.

As one of the genre’s founders, Brevik does enjoy a lot of modern takes on the Diablo formula – such as the indie game Book of Demons, but the genre veteran does have one big issue with the current form of many ARPGs. As gamers urge for rapid progression and instant satisfaction and fight hordes of mobs every second, Brevik believes that some substance has been lost.

Is Diablo 2 still the best ARPG?

Looking across the whole genre, Brevik believes the pace of Diablo 2 is still “great”. While the developer didn’t claim the game was perfect, the slower pace of progression makes the journey more rewarding than games—such as Diablo 3—that have you reach level 70 in just a few hours.

“I think that a RPGs in general have started to lean into this: kill swaths of enemies all over the place extremely quickly,” Brevik explained in an upcoming episode of the VideoGamer Podcast. “Your build is killing all sorts of stuff so you could get more drops, you can level up, so you can like, and the screen is littered with stuff you don’t care about.”

Brevik explains that the hordes of enemies take away the personal nature of the ARPG journey. While the enemy count of the original Diablo games were high for their time, the modern takes on the genre have taken the wrong lesson from those originals.

“I don’t find that as kind of personal and realistic as like Diablo 2. The pacing on Diablo 2, I think is great,” he explained. “That’s one of the reasons it’s endured. I just don’t find killing screen-fulls of things instantly and mowing stuff down and walking around the level and killing everything, very enticing. I just don’t feel like that is a cool experience. I find it kind of silly.”

“When you’re shortening that journey and making it kind of ridiculous. You’ve cheapened the entire experience, in my opinion.”

It’s not just ARPGs

While ARPGs are notorious for their move towards fast levelling and rapid progression. Alongside that genre, Brevik also claims that MMOs are suffering the same fate with many titles forcing players to rush through the opening levels, taking away that personal feeling and connection to their characters.

“I think that MMOs have definitely pushed in that direction,” Brevik explained. “How fast can you level? How fast can you kill everything? It’s all about speed and things like that, but, in reality, I just think that makes a kind of a worse experience. And I tend to shy away from that direction.”

With any RPG, especially MMOs and ARPGs, Brevik explains that the fun “actually isn’t getting to the end, it’s the journey”. While titles like Diablo 3 force players to play through 70 levels worth of experience in a few hours, that progression rips away player growth, and it tears apart the journey. In comparison, Diablo 2’s slower pace, longer grind and sparser enemy crowds make the game feel like an actual adventure.

“When you’re shortening that journey and making it kind of ridiculous,” Brevik told us. “You’ve cheapened the entire experience, in my opinion.”

For more Diablo coverage, read about developer Rod Fergusson’s take on why all ARPGs should be called Diablo-likes (okay) or read Blizzard’s comments on how they plan to stop releasing such buggy updates in the future.