Darkhaven Pre-Alpha

You already know that I’ve come around on Diablo II, it’s currently one of my favorite Diablo games. They’ve upgraded and updated and made the game playable in 2026 with amazing new HD graphics… and recently added a new Warlock Class. That got me excited about Diablo II again.

The original Diablo 2’s original developers (lead character artist Phil Shenk, programmer Peter Hu, and designer Erich Schaefer) recently launched a new Action Role Playing Game called Darkhaven. The game launched on Kickstarter a few weeks ago (Feb 17) and made available, as a good-faith effort, a demo of the game for anyone to download and try out.

According to their Kickstarter Message, the game developer Moon Beast Productions, said that some of the team worked on Diablo, Diablo II, Torchlight I & II, and Hellgate: London. Remember Hellgate? I remember buying it and can let you know that the game is not great.

So, I tried out the Darkhaven pre-alpha demo, and I have to say it’s a bit like Diablo and a bit like Minecraft (thanks to its destructible environment). Since the first demo release, the developer has released several updates, and as of February 23, 2026, I think it’s pretty good for what it is. Not amazing, but playable and I can see casual Diablo-ish players will be interested in this game.

Again, I’m only talking about the pre-released demo, and what I am seeing is that I wasn’t really happy with the loot or rarity of the items I was getting. I am always searching for better gear, and I feel like it’s taking forever to get something decent.

The other thing that I didn’t like was that the environment was changing, as I’m walking through an area. I’m not sure if it is because I’ve leveled up and so the environment had to adapt to my character or that the world was just randomly changing. At a mine, I found that I could destroy and shape a map, which sounds fun at first… but it quickly got old (especially because I was always running out of mana).

Creatures and respawns seem random. Sometime I will be in an area that is overpowered and sometime a boss would appear that I have a very difficult time trying to take down. All that is cool, it just feels so random. There doesn’t seem like there is a penalty for dying, you just respawn at the entrance.

So far, I like the game enough to keep going until they shut down the demo. Will I pay for the game? It really depends on the price, but from what I’ve experienced, I feel like it’s a $20 game… anything more and I’ll just play Diablo II.

One of the biggest features is that there will be an Offline version. Everybody is asking if there will be an offline version, which is what I prefer. I’m not alone, I don’t want to play online. The developer said it will be 98% sure you will get an offline version. I don’t know why they don’t just say, ‘yes’ to offline. I guess they aren’t 100% sure.

The demo is free…. so, give it a spin and let me know if it’s any good.