Former Diablo devs aim to shake up the ARPG space with Darkhaven, and you can see how they're getting on in its new demo

An ARPG "unlike any other," spearheaded by a handful of former Diablo 1 and 2 developers? That's a prospect that I'm sure will make loot goblins everywhere sit up and take note. Well, that's what the team behind Darkhaven is setting out to achieve. Shaking up the action RPG space with a procedurally generated world featuring an unprecedented amount of environmental destruction and evolution for the genre, hopes are understandably quite high. Despite only being revealed at the end of January, a new "pre-alpha" demo for Darkhaven has just hit Steam, so you can already go and see for yourself how developer Moon Beast Productions is getting on.

It's pleasantly surprising to see such a rapid turnaround between announcement and playable demo. Usually, you get the announcement trailer, the quotes that promise the world, and the tantalising resumes of the developers in one hit of hype, and then things will go dark for a while. However, Moon Beast wants Darkhaven in your hands as fast as possible.

"Closer to a pre-alpha than a highly polished, bite-sized teaser, Moon Beast have decided not to water down their ambition with a narrow vertical slice, instead allowing players to experience the full, unfiltered version of what they are building," a press release announcing the new demo reads. Despite being an incredibly early version of the game, "the demo offers several hours of open-ended ARPG gameplay inside a persistent sandbox world. Players can progress the Witch class to level 8, experimenting across three skill trees focused on mobility, positioning, and resource management."

"Our goal with this demo is to demonstrate two things at the same time," says Erich Schaefer, the co-founder of Moon Beast and one of the main creative forces behind the original Diablo. "First, we're staying true to the addictive core of classic Diablo-style gameplay - progression, itemization, and build synergies. Second, we want to deliberately break from the pack in how worlds evolve, how replayability works, and how much agency players have over the land itself."

As I mentioned, the main way Darkhaven is differentiating itself is with its ever-evolving world. Its dynamic and persistent open world can literally be shaped by players as they break through terrain, drain lakes, and redirect rivers. Moon Beast also said when it revealed the game that "world-altering events leave permanent scars." I'm yet to try the demo for myself, so I'm unsure just how sophisticated the map manipulation system is in this early build. But the promises being made about the finished product are certainly ambitious.

The new Darkhaven demo is live and playable for free right now on Steam. You can download it here. If it impresses you, and you can see yourself coming along with Moon Beast for the ride, the studio has also launched a Kickstarter campaign today to help it accelerate development and hit its target of an early access launch in Q4 of 2026.

Admittedly, there's a pretty high goal here of $500,000 / £366,577, which Moon Beast is trying to hit before Saturday, March 21. However, if Diablo (and wider ARPG) fans really resonate with the demo and overall concept, there's no reason why a cool half a million couldn't be hit.