If I like Diablo 2, I'll also like...

The Game Room
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I just reinstalled my expansion Diablo 2, because I have a need to kill things. (Great stress relief.) However, I’ve played it so many times that I know the early levels REALLY well, and get bored long before I get through to any of the interesting levels.

So, I’m trying to find a NEW game to play that is of the same oeuvre as Diablo 2. I’m not particularly interested in a multiplayer game, although I’m not automatically opposed to it; I’d rather play something that gives the option of single player OR multiplayer.

Here I am, open to suggestions. Help?

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Titan’s Quest.

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Hellgate:London. Single player & multiplayer. Very much like Diablo II.

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you may also Like the Dungeon Siege series of Games.

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A friend bought me Dungeon Siege. I tried, but couldn’t get into it. :frowning:

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Titan’s Quest and its expansion. Very good games. The characters are very different and very customizable. I loved that game. The only complaint I had was that sometimes, as in D2, the loot didn’t seem to drop the way I wanted it to but oh well.

Get it. It’s great.

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If you have an xbox 360, kingdom under fire: the circle of doom is very hacky-slashy fun.

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I felt the same way about Dungeon Siege. There was just something not quite fun about it. It wasn’t terrible, but it bored me to tears.

There is nothing that is as addictive as D2 (except maybe CivII :D), but Titan Quest was a heckuva a lot of fun nonetheless. The expansion pack, if I recall correctly, introduced many bugs, and then the developers stopped supporting with patches and so forth, so if you do get it you might want to just stick with the original game. I haven’t played Hellgate, but I know a lot of Diablo 2 fans were really looking forward to it.

Personally, I’ll go to my grave cursing the name of Blizzard for failing to give me my Diablo 3.

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Dungeon Runners is a multi-player that you can easily play as single player (that’s what I did). It really felt like Diablo II to me, so I stuck with it. It’s free to play, but if you want access to better stuff, it’s only $4.95 per month. Cheap!

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And some D2 in-jokes as well.

Silverfall also has some elements that look borrowed from D2.

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I wish I had a PC that would run Titan’s Quest…

Not much to add other than what was said, but if you have a Playstation 2 or 3 the Baldur’s Gate (different than the PC version) and Champions of Norrath series are very similar…not quite as deep with the scroll magic etc but fun anyway, especially with two players.
Also, for the PC, Sacred and Divine Divinity I and II look very similar to D2. I heard Divine Divinity is pretty good (despite a goofy name).

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Should have said - Divine Divinity 2 is actually called Beyond Divinity, and I believe the retail version of that game (the sequel) contains the original.

I’m like you - b/c I liked Diablo and D2 so much I’ve been compiling a list of similar games…just need the time to play them now!

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Like Diablo 2, it really does get repetitive after a while. The BF and I played through Dungeon Siege 2 together. We barely beat it not because it was so difficult but because it had gotten so repetitive with the point-and-click syndrome that Diablo 2 has. We couldn’t even get through the EP, it was just getting too boring.
“Meh. Our guys are broken. We just upgrade the armor and weapons and click away.”
“Wanna go outside and get some sunlight?”
“Sure, I’ll grab the sunscreen.”

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You could try out fate. You can play a while for free before buying.

Brian

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OrMythos. Travis Baldree, the developer of Fate, now works for the company that makes Hellgate: London, which is composed of a significant chunk of the Diablo development team.

Mythos is free and fun. If you like D2, chances are pretty good you will like Mythos. And it’s hard to beat the price.

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Couple comments on games already mentioned…

Divine Divinity is more like the first Diablo than D2. It is a great game though, huge amount of quests, non-linear, some very funny dialogue, etc. One of the better RPG’s I’ve played for the PC, if not quite up to Baldur’s Gate/Fallout levels. Lots of neat randomly generated loot and stuff you can throw in socketed items. I have not played the sequel, Beyond Divinity but the reviews of it are almost unanimous in that it’s nowhere near as good as DD. Both are single player only.

Hellgate: London I just bought and have spent the last week or so playing. Still not sure if I like it. I think I might start a separate thread about this. Single and Multiplayer, although there’s only 1 smallish patch for SP and the 3rd major update is around the corner for MP. You could always play MP and just not team with anyone I guess, though “network errors” have given me a lot of frustration. Basic online is free, with some items and areas for subscribers.

**Titan Quest **probably comes closer to D2 than anything else out there right now. It’s got the waypoint system, Town Portals, a very similar common/magical/rare/unique item generation system, a similar skill system, the works. It revolves around the Greek gods, though you won’t be fighting any of them. Despite the similarities, its different enough that it’ll probably satisfy your D2 fix without seeming like the same game. TQ can be purchased cheap now, along with the expansion pack The Immortal Throne. Very good single player system. There is (or was at least) a multiplayer game as well (questing only, no pvp). Not played online much, but I don’t think it has secure servers like D2 did.

Dungeon Runners struck me as more of a cheap WoW knockoff than anything resembling D2. If you’re going to go that route, I’d cough up the extra cash and get the much more polished WoW. Online multiplayer only, basic game free with extra items for subscribers only. Terrible game IMO.

I’ve also played Sacred. Fairly similar to D2, made by a german company called Ascaron. Main draw there is the absolutely mind boggling size of the world map, and “combos” which are basically a series of special moves chained together. Not a bad effort, not the greatest either. There was talk of a Sacred 2, not sure if it’s out yet but I’d definitely like to check that. Single and free multiplayer. There was talk back in the day about secure online servers, not sure if that ever made it out or not.

Ok, a few games I’m going to add to this list:

Harbinger: Sci-Fi isometric diablo type game. Bit of a “B” game. Not great, but not bad for something to pass the time. Sorta reminded me of Alien and all the bad “space marine” type movies I’ve ever seen. Ok, I’ve only seen a couple of those but it seems like more. 3 playable characters, the interesting thing is they all have completely different play styles - the alien doesn’t use guns and armor but strange alien psionic powers and organic “bombs”. Single player only.

Space Hack
Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition
These are 2 diablo like games I’ve ordered from GoGamer and am waiting for them to arrive. I’ll post more when they get here and I’ve spent some time playing them.

Nox An older game (I believe early 2000’s). Had some interesting twists - the further you hold the cursor from your character the faster he runs. Also had a very annoying feature - items would eventually wear down enough to break, at which point they couldn’t be repaired. Combine with long journeys and no Town portals. Basically you had to keep at least 2 extra weapons on you as your “good” weap wore down to a nub pretty quickly. Interestingly, this also applied to staffs that just shot fireballs or whatever. Still, not a bad game. I think multiplayer was deathmatch only, and in any case I doubt the servers would still be up.

Revenant I think it came out around the same time as Nox. I do remember purchasing it (it had a weird triangular box), but I have no memory of actually playing it. That’s not a dig at how bad the game was, I honestly think I lost it or someone stole it. Hmm, going to have to check ebay…

Seal of Evil
Prince of Quin
Two Oriental themed diablo type games. I think S of E is the one I played. Very very hard, made more difficult by the fact that you had 4 characters, and only controlled one of them at a time. You could switch between them at any time, but the one you were controlling seemed to be the only one that was actually doing anything useful. The other 3 just stood there and got hit when you weren’t controlling them. Seemed like an okay game, but due to the difficulty of the mobs and the bizarreness of dragging around 3 useless characters I never made it out of act 1. Plus the swords and other weapons all have Japanese names, which I had a really hard time figuring out. What’s the difference between a Katana, Wakazashi, and a Muramsa? I don’t have a clue.

And an Isometric shooter:
Zax: Alien Hunter No actual resemblance to D2 other than the perspective (Can you tell I love isometric games?). A Budget title I picked up on a whim, I had a lot of fun with it. Long and slightly repetitive, but the scenery, mobs, and weapons change enough to keep it mostly fresh. Your character and his talking ship crash land on a strange planet. Of course the ship needs all types of gadgets and doodads to be repaired, and the next thing you know you’re saving the Abe-like locals from slavery/extermination. Move your character with the arrow keys, and aim and shoot with your mouse. A bit like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. Took a while to get the hang of but I think this game actually improved my hand-eye coordination. No item drops or armor, but you can find all kinds of fancy guns as you progress. Single player only.

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Hunter: The Reckoning for Xbox

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The game has satirical spoofs of MMORPG themes but is hardly a WoW knock-off or really an attempt to emulate any MMORPGs. There’s no economy, no tradeskills, only one central town hub, one race, etc. The game involves going into dungeons and killin’ stuff. Then you kill more stuff.

The game is easy to solo (most people solo) and entirely instanced outside of Townston (the afore mentioned hub) and some dungeon “lobbies”. They’ve moved to an ad-supported model for free players and given them access to most items (75% of uncommons and 25% of rare and mythic items), stacking potions, bank space, etc.

The game’s not perfect (for one thing, if you don’t like hack 'n slashing waves of monsters, it gets old in a real hurry) but for a free download, free play and a voluntary $5.00/month subscription I’ve had fun with it and don’t feel any obligation to play it. Hell, I’ve played it for more months (and spent less money) than I played WoW or LoTR:O – and that’s just counting box costs, not the $15.00 they each wanted per month.

If you’re interested, you can see my old first impressions (from when free play was a lot more restrictive) here.

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance for XBOX360 is basically a Diablo-style button-mash hack-em-up. It starts a bit slow and bland, but there is some very good level design and fun in the later levels.

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Ok, I’ve spent some time with Space Hack and Heretic Kingdoms: the Inquisition. Here’s the lowdown:

Space Hack The front of the box proudly proclaims “non-stop Diablo style action”. Don’t be fooled. This game is boooring. There’s a detailed review over at Gamespot that pretty much says everything I would say about this game. Summary: I think there’s around 15 or so Biodomes, each with 2 largish areas to explore. I got to Biodome C. I don’t feel like playing this game anymore. Rating: 3/10

Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition Not really much like diablo. I’d classify it as an action RPG, but not as arcadey as the Diablo games. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a pretty decent game, especially for 15 bucks. The storyline is fairly interesting - you play a member of the Inquisition charged with destroying religion (this is not based on any historical inquisitions, spanish or otherwise). The main storyline revolves around tracking down a stolen sword named the Godslayer. There’s some cool unique aspects to it, such as the ability to phase into a “dreamworld”. Dream state is basically the same thing as the normal world except normal people only exist in the normal world and “rift creatures” (demons) only exist in the dream world. Really powerful beings can be in both at the same time. You can also “equip” skills called attunements. Bit complicated but basically attunements are gained by equipping items and gaining experience while using those items. For instance, brigadine armor pieces have an attunement called Luck of the Rogue. Equip one or more pieces, pop over to the dreamworld, kill a few critters and suck up their essence, and you gain some points toward gaining that attunement. Once you have learned the attunement, you can’t lose it, so you can then swap your brigadine stuff out. You can only equip a specific number of attunements at a time, but you get more slots for them as you level. Attunements have a requirement on them, some work only if your wearing heavy armor, some only if your using fast weapons, etc. So you can customize your attunement set to your playing style.
One issue I had problems with was the way heal items work. You have an unlimited bag of healing herbs that can be used as often as you like, and fully restores your hit points. However, using it lowers your max HP (blood points) by a small amount. Resting for the night restores your blood points, but this can only be done at a campfire or a bed. Your blood points go down pretty fast from fighting and healing, so you’ll most likely have to leave an area at least 2-3 times to rest up, especially if you want to clear out the dreamworld element as well. However, I did get an find an item around level 9-10 that has an attunement that makes you lose less blood points when you heal. This plus an upgrade to my started heal kit helped a great deal and enabled me to go much longer without resting. So it’s something you only have to put up with at the beginning of the game.
Summary: Cool budget RPG with an interesting storyline and some unique elements to it. Rating: 7 and 1/2 out of 10