No Rest for the Wicked Creator Criticizes Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV - Games Are Based on Outdated Ideas, While He Is Making a "Next-Gen" ARPG
The creator believes that developers should not be afraid to take risks and move forward.
Recently, the creator of No Rest for the Wicked once again decided to raise the topic of ARPGs. Thomas Mahler criticized modern representatives of the genre.
The head of Moon Studios GmbH believes that games like Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV are based on outdated ideas, and his studio strives to offer a modern project:
We are trying, in essence, to create a next-generation ARPG. An ARPG that simply could not have been made 20 years ago because it was technically impossible then. The problem, as I see it, with PoE2 is that it is still built on the same old fundamental principles of PoE1, much like Diablo IV is essentially made on the same fundamental principles of Diablo III. But sometimes, to move the genre forward, you need to take risks. And if you don't, there is a high chance that competitors will take the risk — and then they will overtake you.
According to Thomas Mahler, today it is possible to make an ARPG with full-fledged combat animations, modern network code, and rollback — you just need to decide to take a step forward:
A very strange paradox emerges with PoE2: it seems obvious that Jonathan wanted to make the combat in the game more meaningful, but it is simply impossible to achieve this if you build a new game on the same old point and click basis as the old one. Instead, you need to look at what Japanese developers have done during this time, because we no longer have the limitations that existed in the 90s and early 00s. Monster Hunter and Souls have already laid the foundation: it was perfectly clear that combat systems with animation "execution" initially provide more freedom and allow combat to cease being, in essence, just a conditional abstraction.
For him, what the studio did in No Rest for the Wicked is "the next logical step for combat in ARPGs," he suggests that other developers move away from the "outdated" point and click idea:
Just as David Brevik 30 years ago ultimately decided to make Diablo 1 a real-time game, and not another turn-based game based on the patterns of Rogue and others, we all need to admit: if we want better combat in ARPGs, it needs to be built on this foundation, because the point and click system has inherent game design limitations that cannot be circumvented.
