We haven’t seen much of Diablo 5 yet beyond the cinematic announcement we got at BlizzCon 2026, but Blizzard has been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs indicating a dramatic departure from previous entries in the series, and in other cases, a return to its roots. I’ve written at some length about how Blizzard is doubling down on the Diablo series’ trademark darkness and why that’s the best way to pay tribute to the original 1996 action RPG, and now Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson is pointing out a few more clues that seem to suggest Diablo 5 is taking inspiration from its early forbearers.
Of course, Path of Exile wouldn’t exist without Diablo 1 and 2, so Wilson has a thoroughly documented obsession with those iconic ARPGs. He’s also been outspoken about not having clicked with Diablo 3 and 4 for various reasons, and in a new video, he explains why he’s “tentatively hopeful” that Diablo 5 will be closer in spirit to the first two games in the series.
“I felt the Diablo series had just moved on from the type of game that I loved, but when I watched the Diablo 5 announcement, I felt a glimmer of hope,” Wilson says. “This wasn’t just due to the words they were saying, but also what they intentionally chose to show.” Wilson points out that the Diablo 5 logo features the letters of the title engulfed in flames similar to Diablo 1 and 2, and decidedly not similar to Diablo 3 and 4’s flameless logos. Similarly, inventory concepts revealed in Diablo 5’s announcement show items with distinct sizes and inventory management just like Diablo 1 and 2, something that was ditched in favor of uniform item sizes in Diablo 3 and 4.
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“These are specific signals to players like me that there’s a chance they’re taking things back to basics and learning from the original games that established this franchise to begin with,” says Wilson.
Those might seem like small details to draw any significant implications from, and indeed, Wilson says there are much bigger questions waiting to be answered that’ll decide whether Diablo 5 is the return to form he’s hoping for, or another evolution that drifts further from the core design ethos that inspired him to form his own studio and start making games for a living.
Crucially, in Wilson’s view, Diablo 5 needs to ditch the enemy scaling that ensures Diablo 4’s mobs are proportionate power-wise to the player’s leveling. He says, “In my opinion, Diablo 5 absolutely must use a traditional system where the world has progressively more powerful monsters and you can choose how fast you progress through it and where to grind based on your current capabilities.”
But Wilson also thinks Blizzard’s decision to go back to linear world structure is a positive indication that Diablo 5 will, in fact, abandon monster scaling, pointing to a PC Gamer interview in which game director Joe Shely said the sequel will take a “somewhat different approach” to level scaling.
Maybe the strongest evidence yet that Diablo 5 is embracing earlier games in the series is its confirmed return to procedurally generated environments in dungeons and the overworld, something Wilson is “very excited about.”
And yet, Wilson still has some serious concerns about the direction Blizzard is taking Diablo 5; including whether it’ll be online-only or include an option for offline single-player; how item trading will work; and whether the combat system will be designed to reward physical dexterity, i.e. via a dodge and attack system, or well-composed character builds.
Again, Wilson’s a big fan of the different sized items, but he also says the 84 inventory slots, compared to Diablo 2’s 40, could mean you’ll be returning to town a lot less in Diablo 5. And of course, by “town,” he’s referring to your mobile caravan of traveling companions, which coincidentally was inspired by narrative director Jennifer Hepler’s time at BioWare.
Wilson also says the early Diablo games were full of obscure mechanics and obtuse interactions that made them endlessly interesting to unpack even as years passed, which contrasts with the much more polished systems in Diablo 3 and 4, which he says are easier to get into but lack that same depth.
“I’m tentatively hopeful for Diablo 5,” Wilson concludes. “I wasn’t expecting to be, but they’ve said enough of the magic words and picked the right font for the logo. I have my fingers crossed that they’ll do a good job with it.”
As for why he wants Diablo 5 to succeed when he has his own unannounced ARPG in the works, Wilson says, “Every other action RPG developer” benefits when the genre’s ecosystem is thriving – and it certainly would be with a banging new Diablo game.
As someone with a similar love for Diablo 1 and 2, I agree with most of Wilson’s points, especially the stuff about monster scaling. There was an uncompromising danger in those early games’ exploration that made getting back to town thrilling and satisfying, and I’d even go further and say Blizzard should bring back open PvP outside towns, or caravans, like the Wild West that was Diablo 1 multiplayer. That last feature was left behind as early as Diablo 2, though, and I’m not expecting that level of embrace of unhinged online gaming culture.
