Action RPG/Diablo clones.

[Brendan]

With Diablo 3 on the horizon shall we talk about Diablo clones?

The only two I've played over the last few months are Titan Quest and Dungeon Seige II.

A few months ago I tried playing Titan Quest and I must admit that I wasn't overly impressed, the game was unstable on my PC for some reason (No, it wasn't a pirate copy.), the pace seemed a little off and inventory management was a royal pain. It seemed as if there were far too many crappy items being dropped and I never seemed to have enough inventory space.

My copy of Dungeon Seige II has been sitting unopened on my shelf for the last two years or so and I finally installed it yesterday. I'm really enjoying it more than I thought I would. The game seems to be excellently balanced. I've never run out of inventory space, the loot drops are spaced nicely and the option to feed items to your pet is a good way to get milage out of items you don't use. Stackable potions would have made inventory management even easier, but it's hardly a trainsmash. I even find myself switching on the auto combat because I don't enjoy the clickfest aspects of the genre. The downsides of the game is that the character customisation options seem a little limited and the graphics haven't aged well.

So what else is everyone playing, and are they having fun?

[wigglestick]

I tried Depths of Peril on Tom's recommendation; I haven't played it too much yet, but my initial impression is that it's a distillation of all the best bits of Diablo 2 and all the best bits of WoW.

Actually, now that I think about it, why aren't I playing the hell out of that thing? I had a shit-ton of fun with the demo. You should give it a go.

[Chowhound]

With Mythos effectively out of the picture, may I suggest Fate?

[Jeff Green]

I loved Titan Quest.

Another great one is Sacred, which is cheap on Steam these days...

[Nezz]

It probably doesn't qualify as a true Diablo-like in the eyes of the hardcore, but I'm currently playing Spellforce 2, and it's surprisingly well made. The RTS elements give the game a great flow, and the skill and loot systems are just streamlined enough for my taste.

[ARogan]

I posted this somewhere else on qt3 before but I can't find it right now. A little update:
- I've pretty much quit diablo 2 for now (around middle of act 2). It got pretty boring and repetitive, graphics are just way too dated for me to stand much more of it, I hate the inventory system.
- I'm still really enjoying Titan Quest (in act 2) and fixes most of the issues I have with Diablo 2. It's a rather pretty game still maxed out at 1920X1200. It's been rock solid on steam for me. For inventory just use the filter that only shows magical items/potions/gold. I leave EVERYTHING else on the ground and inventory/gold is just fine.
- I'm thinking about starting up dungeon siege 2 since I never played it but loved the first one. Too bad space siege sounds so disappointing.

-----------------------
After the Diablo 3 announcement I've been trying many of the clones again:

Diablo 2 + expansion (pc): Never did finish this (I did finish diablo 1 though) but now I have a level 20 bowazon and a level 15 sorceress. After using the the giga inventory mod it's almost playable except for the painful to look at 800X600 graphics. I was surprised how much fun I was having with this ancient game.

Titan Quest Gold (pc) - Can't beat $20 on steam. I have a level 18 earth/hunter fire arrow slinging core dweller setup. I'm having a great time and it's probably my favorite pc diablo clone right now. It doesn't look half bad with everything maxed out at 1900X1200.

Diablo 1 (psx). Wow yeah only played it for a few minutes. I finished the pc version a long time ago.

Champions of Norrath (ps2) - Out of all the snowblind engine games this one had the highest game rankings score (I haven't played any of them yet). So I finally broke the shrink wrap on this one and popped it into my ps3 (yeah my backlog is rather epic right now). It actually is a pretty fun simple diablo clone that doesn't look bad at all especially for a ps2 game. I sank maybe 4 hrs into it and I'm having a pretty good time.

Bard's Tale (pc) - I installed this on the laptop and played some while on vacation. I've only played about 45min. It's ok I guess. I didn't laugh all that much. I really like the loot system and auto conversion to gold of all the merchant fodder crap.

Untold Legends The Warrior's Code (psp) - Only spent around 30 min or so. I just couldn't get into it. I remember spending several hours in the first one (Brotherhood of the Blade) but this sequel just didn't grab me.

Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (psp) - I had finished the first dungeon siege on the pc but never the second one so I thought I would give the psp version a try. It's really plays nothing like the pc version. I spent a couple of hours on this one. I liked it more than Untold Legends but the environments are a bit bland and the camera is a bit too close and too top down so you can't see very much around you.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (ps3) - I picked this up recently for $12. I'm playing the dual wield chick it, and it ain't half bad. The combat animations are pretty good (kind of a poorman's water down heavenly sword). The essence weapon/armor upgrade vs loot drops is a nice change. I'm probably enjoying this poorly rated game more than I should.

Too Human demo (360): just finished. Man it's long maybe about 1 hr. I'm kind of meh on it. Graphics are ok, controls are awkward with the right analog stick used for melee combat. You really feel disconnected from the action. This leads to poor manual camera controls. I'll pick it up used....for cheap but it's definitely not a day 1 purchase for me.

[Tim Partlett]

Depths of Peril.

[Adam B]

God do I despise Dark Kingdom.

Both Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance console games are pretty fun hack n' slashers. Wish Black Isle had gotten the time to properly finish BG: DA II, but it's still amusing.

[Tom Chick]

Dudes, I *know* some of you would dig Monster Madness. Why does no one believe me? It's a bona fide action RPG!

-Tom

[ARogan]

Hmmm I actually own Monster Madness for 360 (picked it up for $8!!!), and I've played zombies ate my neighbors on snes. Maybe I should open it.

[Equisilus]

I've been playing TQ for my Diablo-clone fix (likewise at 1920x1200 all maxed out; yum), but if you can wait a month or so, you can get Sacred2 with all up-to-date graphics and be all Diablo-clone-like without having to revert to the old standbys.

[Kareem]

Play the Warcraft III: Frozen Throne orc campaign. It's a few fun hours of hack n slash RPG.

[John Reynolds]

Anyone try Legend: Hand of God? The reviews are pretty excoriating for the game, but it looks purty. Same goes for Fate: Undiscovered Realms. Saw the box at Best Buy today and it looks like it contains the original Fate, but I'm not sure on that.

[Dhruin]

I grabbed Legend: HoG for a change of scenery and to write a review. Can't get interested enough to to get far enough in to write anything worthwhile, which I think says a lot (at least for the opening half-a-dozen hours). It looks pretty but the quests are generic, the random area generation is too repetitive, too early, and the skill tree is sparse. Not terrible but very little going for it (so far) other than nice-ish graphics.

[Robert Sharp]

Dudes, I *know* some of you would dig Monster Madness. Why does no one believe me? It's a bona fide action RPG!

-Tom

You are taking this joke too far, Tom! You can't fool us.

[BDGE]

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is pretty solid. It doesn't quite have the 'loot' addiction(loot exists, but only to slightly beef stats and is clearly not the focus).

Instead it provides some great action with lots and lots of leveling and points to dump into superpowers that get more dramatic and fiendish throughout. The levels are diverse with lots of asskicking with the occasional puzzle(be it a boss encounter or some secrets to scour in the mazelike environs).

It's Gauntlet circa 200X but with a diverse cast of playable characters, and lots of unlockables and sidestuff to break up the main quest(plus 4p online co-op on 360/PS3)

[unbongwah]

There have been several bad-to-mediocre Diablo clones in recent years: e.g., Silverfall, The Chosen, Loki. But I think Fate, Sacred, Dungeon Siege 2, Depths of Peril, and Titan Quest have been the only good-to-great ones. The good news is all of those are fairly cheap these days: e.g., Sacred Gold for $10 on Steam (or free on Gametap); TQ Gold for $20 on Steam. I have a certain fondness for Revenant, but I'm probably the only one and I don't know where you would find it today.

If you also like Gauntlet-y button-mashing console action RPGs, there's BG Dark Alliance 1 & 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance (and X-Men Legends 1 & 2 before it), and the Norrath games.

And of course:

Dudes, I *know* some of you would dig Monster Madness. Why does no one believe me? It's a bona fide action RPG!

I own the 360 version, which I kinda-sorta liked. [No mid-level saves = FAIL, though] I'm renting the PS3 port, to see if they've improved it enough to make it good.

[tromik]

Do the X-Men/MUA/JLA have loot or is it just skill trees?

[Sol Invictus]

They've got loot. Fairly limited, though.

[tromik]

Diablo 2 + expansion (pc): Never did finish this (I did finish diablo 1 though) but now I have a level 20 bowazon and a level 15 sorceress. After using the the giga inventory mod it's almost playable except for the painful to look at 800X600 graphics.

Anyone have a link for this mod? I tried google, but the only accurate results aren't loading.

BTW, I'm really playing D2 for the first time - are there any other mods I should grab?

[Tom Chick]

I own the 360 version [of Monster Madness], which I kinda-sorta liked. [No mid-level saves = FAIL, though] I'm renting the PS3 port, to see if they've improved it enough to make it good.

Unfortunately, still no mid-level saves. You have to play the whole level to save your progress. However, the PS3 version chopped down the length of many of the levels.

-Tom

[malkav11]

Divine Divinity. You can safely skip Beyond Divinity (though it does have Divine Divinity in the box, or at least did in my copy) but the first one is really tremendously great. This may possibly be overselling it, but it's almost Diablo meets Ultima - real-time clickety combat with skill trees and such, with pretty deep RPG questing and world interaction. I love carrying around hay to make an impromptu bed in the wild, for example. I've seen a jewel-case edition of it for $10 at Target, it's no doubt around other places, though I don't know of a digital distributor offhand.

And they've announced the sequel. (Beyond Divinity is not a sequel, per se.)

[Talorc]

I'd second the recommendation for Divine Divinity. Ultima 7 meets Diablo is a fairly accurate description.

It was the first game in a long time where I made a little "lair" and piled up a whole bunch of spare weapons, jewels, upgrade orbs, cool furniture etc in a convenient storage location. (Right near a teleporter i think)

So it is definitely more open world than your traditional Diablo clone.

There have been a few retrospectives popping up around the internet lately, presumably as the result of some good PR work by whomever is promoting the upcoming sequel :-)

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article...1&ref=0&id=179

[Sol Invictus]

Nox!

Seriously. This game is old school, and it is awesome. There's some annoying aspects in it, like weapons and armor break without warning and you can't repair em if they're broken. Beyond that, it's more fun than most games these days, and it even supports high resolutions.

[Gendal]

Divine Divinity was the best of the older Diablo clones I thought, easily beating out others like Sacred.

Don't ignore Silverfall with the expansion either. It still has problems but the expansion added a complete interface overhaul along with a few camera and other minor tweaks. The original game shines through so much better with them applied.

Course I loved Titan Quest so take everything I say with that in mind.

[malkav11]

Also, one many people don't know:

Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (originally called Kult: Heretic Kingdoms in Europe). It does the Diablo-with-quests thing that Sacred and Divine Divinity do, and is somewhere inbetween the two in terms of depth of RPG experience. The storyline's unusual - you're an inquisitor attempting to stamp out religion and religious artifacts, so you're trying to track down a divine sword in order (at least initially) to destroy it. There are multiple endings, so that won't necessarily be what you do in the final analysis. Gameplaywise it's clicky, but it has some innovations like infinitely reusable health items that deplete your max HP by a percentage with each use (a lower percentage with better items later in the game) until you rest in a safe location, two versions of every area (regular and spirit world), and a skill "attunement" system that works a bit like FFIX or FFTactics Advance. Kinda.

[Equisilus]

HK: The Inquisition was one of those games that's okay enough to play once, but there is little to recommend it. Besides the dual-world and attunement system, the thing I remember most is having shadows from objects in the environment block my path, particularly when moving through doors, forcing me to walk on tangents when I otherwise should be able to go straight ahead. A game that unmemorable isn't one I'd recommend. Still, if you desperately need something new and have played every other recommended title, it might be something to pick up...if you can find it.

[Dhruin]

I think it's better than that - quite a nice story and a unique approach to skills and health. Not really suitable for someone who wants to grind over and over but worth a look as a budget story-driven ARPG.

[John Reynolds]

Nox!

Seriously. This game is old school, and it is awesome. There's some annoying aspects in it, like weapons and armor break without warning and you can't repair em if they're broken. Beyond that, it's more fun than most games these days, and it even supports high resolutions.

Played the hell out of that game when it came out back in 2000 and you rarely see it mentioned. I wonder how it runs on Vista?

[unbongwah]

Unfortunately, still no mid-level saves. You have to play the whole level to save your progress. However, the PS3 version chopped down the length of many of the levels.

DAMMIT! *sigh*

I think you mentioned this in your review, but did they also tone down the spare-parts collection? That was what really irritated me: it felt like I spent half my time running around looking for nails and duct tape and whatever else, when I ought to be just blasting monsters. You could skip hunting for items, of course, if you didn't mind gimping yourself by not being able to buy new weapons and more ammo...