While Diablo 4 continues to gain momentum with its latest season, Season of Witchcraft, one of the original creators of the series seems to think the entire genre of ARPGs is not what it used to be. The dungeon crawling, hack ‘n’ slash adventure has roots leading back to the original from 1997, but has evolved and grown over the years. In many ways, the core dynamics of the game have stayed the same, with a dark story and mobs of enemies that can quickly overwhelm a player, but much has changed.

Although Screen Rant‘s review of Diablo 4 looks favorably on the game, the creator of the original games may have a different view. David Brevik, who worked on both Diablo and Diablo 2 before leaving in 2005, was recently interviewed by the VideoGamer Podcast, and doesn’t seem happy with the modern takes on the series or genre. Brevik states in the interview, “I just don’t find killing screen-fulls of things instantly and mowing stuff down and walking around the level killing everything, very enticing. I just don’t feel like that is a cool experience. I find it kind of silly.”

David Brevik, Diablo Creator, Shares Their Thoughts On Newer MMOs & RPGs

Modern Games Took The Wrong Lessons From Original Diablo Games

The article from VideoGamer states that Brevik’s feelings apply to not only the ARPG genre, but also MMOs, with players having to just rush to the endgame content and not forming an immersive connection with the story and their character. Over the years, games have leaned into that rush but forgotten about the importance of the journey and full experience, instead encouraging players to speedrun.

“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 worse experience. And I tend to shy away from that direction.” – David Brevik

Although there is still plenty of story content in Diablo 4, it can be argued that the game is less focused on story and more about killing hordes of monsters, as Brevik points out. Even the change to allow players to jump straight to Season content without completing the main campaign of the game emphasizes this fact, taking away from any need to know why players need to kill these enemies.

The “Personal Nature” Of ARPGs Has Changed, According To Brevik

Everything Moves Quickly With Powerful Builds And Hordes Of Enemies

Even the original Diablo and Diablo 2 had a larger than normal number of monsters that could quickly overwhelm a player, yet over the years the games in the genre, not just Diablo‘s series, have continued to see how many more they can throw in.

“Brevik explains that the hordes of enemies take away from 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.” – VideoGamer

When I played Diablo back in the late 90s, there was certainly more of a pull to explore and all most all loot was valuable in some way or other. Although I love the current Diablo 4, as well as other ARPGs and MMOs, the point that Brevik makes is valid. If these games are only pushing for players to get to the endgame as fast as possible, why even have the other portions of the game at all?

Time will tell whether the genre continues to head down this direction, as it certainly has been getting a positive response from players. Currently, Diablo 4 and other games like it have been encouraging players to feel the “power fantasy” of taking out hordes of enemies as fast as possible, and that certainly is a fun way to play.