Speaking to VideoGamer, Blizzard co-founder and Diablo programmer/designer David Brevik expressed a dim view of the current state of Diablo-like ARPGs, arguing that inflated enemy numbers and a deluge of loot and experience have robbed the genre of the friction and weight present in the first two Diablo games.
“I think that ARPGs in general have started to lean into this: kill swaths of enemies all over the place extremely quickly," Brevik told VideoGamer. "Your build is killing all sorts of stuff so you could get more drops, you can level up, and the screen is littered with stuff you don’t care about.”
By contrast, Brevik argues that Diablo 2 had a more "personal and realistic" feel with the amount of enemies onscreen and the powers you could bring to bear against them. “The pacing on Diablo 2, I think, is great. That’s one of the reasons it’s endured," said Brevik. "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.”
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Brevik criticized the way players of newer ARPGs like Path of Exile or Diablos 3 and 4 are incentivized to level up their characters as quickly as possible to reach an endgame that constitutes the real draw of the experience, and argued that the true fun of ARPGs “actually isn’t getting to the end, it’s the journey." Brevik concluded by saying, “When you’re shortening that journey and making it kind of ridiculous. You’ve cheapened the entire experience, in my opinion.”
This 100% hits the nail on the head of what puts me off these games: I'm just built for a slower paced, probably more singleplayer-oriented action RPG along the lines of classic Diablo, Torchlight, or FromSoftware's Soulsborne games. The current field of top-down, Diablo-derived ARPGs, by contrast, is geared towards seasonal, repeatable play and leveling up a character as quickly as possible to engage with it. I was honestly shocked when a coworker explained to me that you have to make a new character for each League (season, basically) in Path of Exile, with the "real game" being the endgame mapping experience after you hit max level.
PCG contributor Len Hafer really put a fine point on this feeling back when Diablo 4 first released: "The way I used to enjoy Diablo games has been replaced, and it sucks." At the same time, this definitely seems like a generational thing, or at least a question of taste: Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 are bigger than Jesus and maybe also the Beatles.
I also can't deny the raw lizard brain thrill of clearing waves of throwaway sickos Dynasty Warriors-style with Diablo's dark fantasy aesthetics, but I get those kicks from the wonderfully bite-sized, Diablo-coded Vampire Survivors riff, Halls of Torment.
