Moon Beast have released a pre-alpha demo for their action-RPG Darkhaven. You know, the one from the former Blizzard North devs, which harkens back to Diablo 2 while stirring in a dynamic world and terrain destruction reminiscent of Minecraft. I did a big interview feature about it. Now, you can play a very early build and decide whether I’ve been quaffing the Kool Aid.

I spent an hour with a Darkhaven build myself last week, and while it’s got a long way to go, I did have fun. It’s very Diablo, with familiar red and blue health and mana bulbs on the left, and its own version of Blizzard’s old paperdoll character equipment screen. The moment-to-moment is as you’d expect – enemies spawn like intrusive thoughts and you slaughter them for gear, using special abilities with a cooldown.

The immediate difference is that when you get into a louder fight, you often resculpt the geography by accident. Explosive spells and heavier weapons punch out foxholes and shatter walls, though certain quest-related or otherwise vital buildings are indestructible. I had a brawl that ended with myself and 10 hobgoblins trapped in a single, flaming crater.

I’ve also tangled with one of the gameworld’s vaunted dynamic events. I touched a sarcophagus in the woods that promptly spewed necro-pollen in all directions, slowly transforming the landscape into an undead kingdom. You’ll need to curb-stomp the lich at the centre of such outbreaks, or else give over your entire map to the Stygian powers. I didn’t play long enough for that to happen, but it nagged at my mind as I explored in the other direction, beating up trees with hyperactive roots that lock you in place.

So far, I think the equippables modestly bear out Moon Beast’s promise of “bold, expressive” loot that is worth holding onto and fooling around with, rather than trading to something with higher DPS every couple of minutes. I base this claim on the fact that I can actually remember a few of the dozens of weapons I acquired, without checking screens. There was a dagger that hit fast and lit things on fire. I also found some shoes that let me walk on water, the better to avoid those uppity trees.

There are weapon rarities, and you can socket gems to mod their stats. It’s a purposefully slim selection next to the myriad flimflams and boondoggles of present-day Path Of Exile and Diablo 4, though this is an early build and I’m sure the complexity will layer up. Also, you’ve got a jump and dodge button, with the ability to scramble over elevated objects, which makes this a little more immediate, closer to an action-platformer at times.

On the whole, I enjoyed my first hour in Darkhaven’s WIP world more than I enjoyed my first hour in Diablo 4, but I’m still waiting for the magic to kick in. The tactical applications of map destruction feel elementary so far: it’s mostly knocking down select dungeon walls to access treasure rooms, though I did spend a while slowly digging a moat around a boulder, so that I could aggro some toxic gnomes from safety.

Moon Beast are hoping to put together worlds in which several global calamities might intersect, forcing you to undertake mighty defensive building projects; hours later, you might wander among the ivy-bound ruins of those earthen ramparts, identifying the exact place where the horde were repulsed. I would play such a game, but the fact that there’s a Kickstarter involved makes me cautious. You could pave a road to hell with broken Kickstarter promises.

Moon Beast caution that the Darkhaven demo is at once more open-ended and ricketier than a “final quality” preview build. “The goal is simple: let you get hands-on with Darkhaven’s core gameplay and direction right now, and help us pressure-test what works as we move forward,” they write.

“Yes, you’ll see rough edges, balance will shift, some things are still placeholder, and you may hit bugs,” it continues. “But! You’ll also be playing a demo that’s closer to a real pre-alpha than a tiny curated slice.”

The demo boasts “several hours” of play, with one character class, six skills across three trees, character progression capped at level 8, and one major world event (the Lich invasion) triggered via the main questline. There’s multiplayer, too, but Moon Beast say that it’s “our most experimental feature” and they might take it offline for tweaks. Find out more on Steam.