When the person who helped build Diablo talks about game design, it’s worth leaning in. David Brevik — the driving force behind the original dungeon crawler and its legendary sequel — recently walked through the games living on his personal PC and dropped a spicy admission: one of the titles he genuinely adores has, in his words, the worst ending he’s ever played. It’s the kind of contradiction only a veteran designer would say out loud, and it opens a surprisingly useful conversation about how games stick their landing.
For gamers and creators alike, the takeaway isn’t the specific title. It’s that a designer with decades of hits can love a game deeply and still think it botched the one thing that stays with you longest — the goodbye.
The Man Who Built Diablo Has Opinions on Endings
Brevik’s résumé gives the comment weight. As a co-founder of Blizzard North, he was central to a franchise that defined the action-RPG loop of “one more run” — a design language the entire genre still borrows from. When someone who engineered that kind of compulsive, endlessly replayable structure critiques a finale, it lands differently than a random hot take on social media.
What makes it interesting is that Diablo itself was never really about the ending. Its magic lived in the grind, the loot, and the moment-to-moment thrill. So hearing its creator zero in on how a different game closes the curtain shows just how much endings weigh on the people who make games for a living.
Loving a Game and Hating Its Ending Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
Brevik’s framing — “I really love the game, it’s amazing,” paired with a brutal verdict on its ending — captures something every player has felt. You can pour dozens of hours into a world, adore its systems and characters, and still walk away deflated by the final stretch. The affection and the disappointment coexist, and one doesn’t cancel the other.
That’s a healthier way to talk about games than the all-or-nothing scoring wars fans often fall into. A flawed finale doesn’t erase a great journey. If anything, it proves how high the stakes are: you only feel let down by an ending when the rest of the experience earned your investment.
Why Endings Are the Hardest Part of Game Design
Endings are uniquely difficult in games because players are co-authors. Unlike a film, a game hands you the controls for hours, builds up your sense of ownership, and then has to resolve a story you helped shape. Satisfying every path is nearly impossible, which is why so many otherwise brilliant titles stumble right at the finish line.
Brevik’s own corner of the industry — the ARPG — often sidesteps the problem by making the endgame the real point, as ongoing seasons and reworks for modern loot games keep proving. Our team has tracked how one modern heir to that formula clawed its way back with a smarter, grind-friendly endgame. When the loop is the destination, a weak story ending stings a lot less.
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The Ending Is the Part You Remember
Brevik’s candor is a gift to anyone who cares about how games are built. Endings are the hardest, riskiest, most-remembered part of the craft — and even a Diablo architect isn’t shy about calling out when one falls flat. The lesson for players and studios is the same: nail the journey, but never assume the finish line takes care of itself.
