Fifteen Incredible Alternatives To Diablo 2: Resurrected
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- Опубліковано 12 чер 2024
- Old blizzard really was lightning in a bottle, and while I'm sure Diablo 2: Resurrected is decent, I just can't bring myself to set aside my distaste for modern Blizzard to play it. So instead, I've compiled a list of hack & Slash Action RPG's that I feel are equal to or even greater than the Diablo series as a whole. Or they're just novel enough to be worth playing.
Patreon: / wanderbot
Discord: / discord
Twitter: wanderbots
Twitch: twitch.tv/wanderbot
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00:00 - Intro
01:34 - Path of Exile - store.steampowered.com/app/23...
02:40 - Titan Quest & Grim Dawn - store.steampowered.com/app/47... & store.steampowered.com/app/21...
03:36 - Last Epoch - store.steampowered.com/app/89...
04:34 - Torchlight 1, 2 & 3 - store.steampowered.com/app/41... & store.steampowered.com/app/20... & store.steampowered.com/app/10...
06:29 - Van Helsing - store.steampowered.com/app/21...
07:21 - Shadows: Awakening - store.steampowered.com/app/58...
08:08 - Victor Vran - store.steampowered.com/app/34...
Similar, But With A Unique Spin
09:19 - Chronicon - store.steampowered.com/app/37...
09:52 - Slormancer - store.steampowered.com/app/11...
10:32 - Book of Demons - store.steampowered.com/app/44...
11:24 - Minecraft Dungeons - store.steampowered.com/app/16...
The Classics
12:27 - Sacred 2 - www.gog.com/game/sacred_2_gold
13:02 - Revenant - www.gog.com/game/revenant
13:39 - Nox - www.gog.com/game/nox
14:44 - Outro
If you want to try and get Nox running yourselves, grab NoXSolution from this site: noxcommunity.com/downloads.php#
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Check Out My Main Channel: / wanderbots
Wanderbot Prime is my side channel for highly edited, high effort, low output, tabletop, and VLOG content that doesn't really fit on my main LP channel. If you want to see more gaming content by me, go check my main channel out! - Фільми й анімація
For the people calling me out for never playing Diablo 2: I have played it. Extensively. My whole childhood, adolescence, and young adult life was centered around Blizzard titles, and I've beaten every one of their games (except D1 oddly enough) multiple times.
I just haven't played D2:R, and I probably never will. Sorry for not being clear on this matter.
And I posted that with the wrong channel. Oh well.
no point to pay 40$ for a 20 years old game when u can just buy grim dawn which is already 100000000000000000000000000x better.
@@BoTisHerE1 No it’s not
@@chrisnelson2948 yes it is :D
@@chrisnelson2948 IT IS o.O. After playing GD i just can not go back to D2:R or D2. Its so booring compared to GD.
Thanks for the shoutout to Last Epoch! We are very proud to be on this list and can't wait to reveal what we have planned for the game when we get to our official release!
I can't wait either.
Bought Last Epoh and i love it, got fire minions necro desintegrate mage, and i am farming heorot with my necro for a dex stacking Regin of winter build on rogue but he only drops me the helm 6 times in a row xD
@@AC1D303 it's not full release right? Lose progress on full release? I can't handle losing all that time to the ether lol.
@@nicholassauer2612 No why would i loose progress or items if that happens im not gonna play the game anymore.
@@AC1D303 its not on full release yet. Anything you have will stay on standard solo, but you won't be able to use anything you have on online multiplayer. That progress is apparently wiped and started over. You can't really guarantee you'll keep any progress on full release on any game unless Developers say you will keep it.
Grim Dawn has a mod called "Reign of Terror" that is basically D2 plot using the Grim Dawn engine. Classes, maps, and items from D2 have been recreated. The mod project took several people years to complete and it is incredible.
It's superior to d2. And I say this as a blizzard fan
@@jonathansoko5368 hell yes
Do you have a link? I see a lot of reddit threads, and other articles talking about it, but no links to the mod itself.
That sounds epic. Might have to give that a look soon
it is the best mod ever. that mod has tons and tons of class combos and you can max out more skills with more points. it is truly the best mod and better than D2. I would say play grim dawn first and then play the mod.
Grim Dawn is fantastic. Though it's more of a post apocalyptic past rather than future, with a somewhat steampunk, wild west aesthetic, so probably 1800's alternate universe.
The one major thing about Grim Dawn you passed over was the Asshole Physics. The fact that you can home run bat a zombie or lovecraftian monster and watch them BOUNCE off a nearby wall. That never gets old.
Best feature. They tried to remove it on launch. Players were unhappy ... put it back in ... player weeeeeee....
Now you got me curious. Sounds fun!
@@ggsj no. It's not. GD has the worst visceral combat of all games mentioned here. Nothing feel impactful at all, things be in slow mo all the time.
@@NovemberX Watching enemies ragdoll is the best feeling in an arpg which D2R lacks. I can tell you haven't played it at all or have extremely low standards judging from your pic lol
Lololol i love hilarious physics
As somebody who loved Grim Dawn, I can't recommend it enough and after this I'm excited to play Titan Quest
I think the most egregious part of his Grim Dawn recommendation is that he neglected to mention that there’s a free mod that rebuilt the entirety of D2 inside of Grim Dawn.
I can really recommend Titan Quest, easily one of the best ARPGs.
IDK it was too clunky for me, everything takes time to react, maybe it's just me
Titan Quest is older than GD, so your experience may vary.
@@Sasataf I think Titan Quest is better than Grim Dawn personally.
For me, the only other I would add to this list is Dungeon Siege, specifically Dungeon Siege 2. The first one is decent but the second is amazing. The third one, well, I prefer to ignore that it even exists, but still. It certainly does have some CRPG elements to it, but I always felt like it was a great overlap between CRPGs and ARPGs.
DS 2 is a fantastic game and its expansion just makes the game even better.
We do not talk about DS 3.
There's a bunch of mods for it too. Nexus has what is essentially like 6 fully ported games, including a DS2 version of Diablo 1 and DS1 and DS LoA.
DS 2 was the best man
I was about to comment similar just in case someone came to the comment for more recommendations. Love dungeon siege 1 and 2. I am annoyed that when you buy them on gog or steam you cannot purchase them with their expansions and you have to pirate those as the true ending of DS2 is in the expansion, dunno why that has happened. Still recommend the games though they're really solid
Dungeon siege 1&2 are nothing like cRPGs, they're just hack'n slash games. Dungeon Siege 3, made by Obsidian is much more cRPG like, but also more like a console game.
You can turn Dungeon Siege 1 into a cRPG with the Ultima V & Ultima VI mods for it though.
Grim Dawn is the best ARPG I have ever played and I've been playing them since diablo launched way back in the day. 1463 hours on steam right now. Last Epoch I believe will be just as good in a few years when it's "done".
Really enjoyed Grim Dawn
Grim Dawn falls so flat with lackluster vfx and poor sound design. It's such a shame, there are a lot of good ideas but very poor execution
@@thisGuy481 For the $19.00 sale I got it at, was a winner as far as I'm concerned
In Titan Quest and Grim Dawn the enemies use the equip they're dropping, even legendaries. Having a gigantic Cyclops clobber you with an equally gigantic ice club is fantastic. And scary if it happens on one of the harder bosses
and the mods rock ive put 600 hrs now into dawn of amsteries the sheer classes you can use
I always found it funny when some small monster without hands dropped a sword or some other handheld weapon. Or a piece of armor it never wore.
@@glennjanot8128 if ya get grim dawn and its expansions get the mod for DAWN of MASTERIES and after that your never gonna play a single one fo these games ever again
Grim Dawn is so good.
@@davidrosensin7985 I aint religious but I gotta say, amen to that. I bought the game few years back, played it 10 hours and dropped it entirely. But few weeks ago I picked it up again and damn, I've now sunk 130 hours more into it.
Appreciate content creators stepping away from blizzard like this and suggesting better games.
Same. I'm really over Blizzard as a company.
@@lHotlHotlPwns Devs get paid a salary regardless if a game sells or not. Company will go under eventually and those people will have to find new jobs but until then they're not paid any less for their work.
Also if that's your excuse on why you want to keep supporting them, just admit you don't care about the situation and buy their game. People would respect you more if you just said "I want to play their game and don't care.".
At least you'd be being honest with people and not make up some flimsy ass excuse and delusion for yourself.
@@lixthewitch6718 Exactly. Just like how most of us don't care about the moral implications with how some companies do business in providing us the products and services we enjoy. Maybe it's just ignorance, or both.
@CyberHarleySamuraiRealiti Isn't that guy contracted or something? He's unable to say anything remotely negative about actiblizz ...
90% were not innocent. No one is innocent. Everyone knew and said or did nothing. Others worked for the company that enabled sexual assault, drugging and raping women, and more. Everyone knew what was going on and no one did a damn thing.
Finally, a Nox shoutout. Played this game until I memorized the script as a kid and still kept me coming back. Great characters, great story, loads of fun skills and even trying to find all the secret rooms with special equipment always kept the play-throughs interesting. Miss you Hecubah, baddest necromancer in the realm :D
You make me curious! I'll try it.
I stumbled on Nox when it came out and played it all the way through. I felt like I was the only one who played and enjoyed that game lol.
Sacred was fun. I mostly enjoyed all the secrets in them. Like the Jason mask and machete.
One arpg you should definitely check out is "Stories: The Path of Destinies". It's very different and a ton of fun!
Still plays well today, 1+2.
Did this game 100% not long ago, was way too grindy at the end, but the story was alright.
@@3000shifty 2 was way too grindy for leveling.. Unless you cheated on console to level 200 lol.. But damn.. Leveling wise, was onlyf un to 50-80 or so ish and trying to rush all difficulties as leveling was a chore.
Was a little disappointed that Sacred 2 got bashed so much, because up to day I havent played any other hack n slash, which had so many hilarious easter eggs and questlines (played it in german, so it might not have translated well to english). Yes, the combat system is old and not really good, but the community patch tries to fix most of the issues the game has and even lets you find lightsabers and Drizzt Do'Urdens swords, I mean hello thats just great!
Dungeon Siege one and two ( I got three and didn’t like it at all)
Not exactly Diablo clones. But defiantly Diablo inspired.
In two you control a group.(and it works pretty well)
Dungeon Siege is my first and favorite RPG because of the diversity of how to become a jack-of-all-trades destroyer. I spent over 500+ hours on that game including playing through the campaign again with my brother-in-law in multiplayer.
dungeon siege 2 was great some awesome gear to find
My main issue with Dungeon Siege 3 is that the characters/classes don't really feel different or particularly great, and when you get to tougher enemies/bosses, combat devolves into an impossible to lose loop of "block the 1 combo that the enemy does, then hit it a couple of times and start blocking again. rinse and repeat". It takes any and all fun out of things for me.
The sad thing is that graphically it not aged very well. I had tried to play it some time ago, and dont fell "right" nowadays, even being a hell good game
The first DS was my favorite right after Diablo 1-2. I liked the linear campaign, but the Utrean Peninsula was the real thing for me with a giant world, and no loading mind you, between different parts of the world (it sometimes crashed, and you wasn't able to go anywhere, now that was funny :D). Chicken dungeon? Classic. :D
I am so happy you mentioned Nox. I loved that game when I was younger, Played it sooo much. It has three playable character/classes and each one has a slightly different path through the game, With some slight differences in their story.
Nox blew me away with how good it is. I might try to do a review on it at some point if I can find the time.
Yes! Love Nox.
The most surprising part was that it was a Westwood game .
multiplayer pvp for Nox was so incredible. there is really nothing else like it.
A great list of alternatives! I would add highly recommend Divine Divinity though. It is the first game in the Divinity series (Yes, there are other Divinity games than Original Sin 1 and 2), but it surprisingly takes more a lot of inspiration from Ultima 7. You have npcs to talk to, towns to explore and quests to solve like a more traditional crpg but the combat, loot and enemy amount is very much like Diablo 1.
True and it has a bar where you can listen dam digi dam digi dam digi dare da 🎶🎶🎶🎶 😂😂😂
YES! DD is actually supercool.
Aren't the divinity games CRPGs and not ARPGs tho? Technically not even the same sub genre
This was a great list!
I would recommend the original Sacred also! Open-world monster bashing in a world that is essentially 50% Diabloish and 50% Forgotten Realmish. Pretty neat atmosphere. Not quite as over-the-top silly as the sequel though (that's either a plus or minus for different folks). Graphically it's dated in some ways but as a whole package it still looks pretty good honestly. Plus, you can be a vampire so it's an automatic winner.
A companion to Sacred was always Divine Divinity (perhaps the worst game title after Wargasm).
Jfs
Shadows Awakening is by FAR my favorite singleplayer ARPG.
Playing a demon that is not only badass but also rather well mannered and sophisticated and exploring the world through his eyes while collecting hero souls you can swap into at will...
Man, it's just such a good game.
I will tell you why I bought D2R . I bought it because I wanted to play D2 on a modern computer. That being said I have many of the games in this video. I think that Grim Dawn is most likely my favorite of them all . You can make Grim Dawn into Diablo 2 with the Reign of Terror mod and it is very close. Your reasons for not buying D2 are very valid. I quit WoW for some of the same reasons
I haven't touched bethesta ( bugthesta *cough* ) EA or blizzard for years now. I do play hearthstone as a chill once every week 2 weeks to let my brain rest ( got adhd ) and games I in part can disconnect from while still fun is a blessing for that. Do note that I am a free to play player and haven't bought anything from them in years much to their chargrin. Of the games wander mentioned I have 2 of them and had an eye on a third.
Book of demons is basicly diablo 1 but as a paper world deck builder with a few good features. It isn't anywhere close to diablo lootvice but don't really care as diablo loot tables had the rare and set items at 1% dropchance. I don't need that kind of grind and hardcore you can't reset skills/stats if you messed up now reroll. Hence why I liked D3 ALOT more, D3 scrapping the runewords and stacking talent trees was other contributing factors.
The second one I reccomend is shadows awakening ( which I played through twice ). You start with the demon and pick either the up and close melee brawler, archer or mage...from there you explore and find other souls the demon can absorb and add to his repetoair of physical manifestations. These among others include a gnolllike berserker dualwielder (melee ), a gigantic defencive zombie, a wood elemental ( mage ), a mutated giant wasp ( hunter class ), Darius ( basickly a holy warrior ), Falon ( a ranged hunter ) etc. ...and here is the funny part you can't get them all in one playthrough. The path split several times and npcs give questions with options where both option might lead to diffrent souls. Diffrent main char ( from the first pick also have diffrent interactions to the story and characters/souls you encounter.
I buy game not because of the company, but the design and quality of the game. There was a literal saying, "Regardless of black cat or white cat, as long as it catches mice , it is a good cat". But I won't be buying the stocks of this company.
My favorite became Titan Quest, weirdly enough. It’s hard but fair, especially if you increase the game speed.
Seriously, EVERY ARPG SHOULD HAVE A GAME SPEED OPTION FOR NUTSO’S LIKE ME WHO BEAT TITAN QUEST ANNIVERSARY EDITION ON VERY FAST GAME SPEED!!!!!
I love grim Dawn
My reasons are the same as yours, if I didn't want to play D2 as bad as I did, I wouldn't give Activision Blizzard (I refuse to call them just 'Blizzard') my hard earned money.
I like Grim Dawn, but I never heard of this mod before, I'll have to check it out.
Finally someone that mantion Shadows: Awakening. So underrated.
Diablo 2 is still one of the greatest games of all time but I can understand why people wouldn’t want to support the company that’s gone so far down hill it’s underwater now.
Hey. For me the problem is Activision blizzard now is not the blizzard North Studio with Schaefer and Co for years ago. The company politics are horrible in the moment. Have a great time.
right now seems that they with d2r have scammed their fans with a paid beta. Multiplayer servers capability and architecture are incapable of handling the users and they ended implementing a queue. Game is behind development for at least 2-4 months. Only thing finished is singleplayer but, because of drm it needs to call home for authentication and it completely derps out for hours
@@albe8479 not on ps4 it doesn’t need servers to verify lol
Doesn't help that their servers are trash and they made all this fanfare over a game that's essentially unplayable
It's also hard to support a company the aggressively monetizes nostalgia instead of supporting servers for a beloved game.
The german version of Sacred 2 gets a big boost because of the character voices. That Anubis guy is voiced by the german voice of Lt. Worf. Which is simply amazing.
Most of the other characters have similar Hollywood voices, like the fighter is "Russell Crowe".
This is also true for Sacred 1. My favorite there is the Barbarian voiced by "Bruce Willis".
Was lowkey kinda sad OG Sacred wasn't on this list. I suppose its combat is pretty bad in comparison to other ARPGs, but I love the open world exploration, and it looks fantastic in 1080 (even if it takes some tinkering and the SacredNL mod to get going)
The Dark Elf in the German version was voiced by the voice actor for Nicholas Cage, the Vampiress had the voice actress of Gillian Anderson. And the Dwarf was my favorite, the voice of Bud Spencer :D
I think i may be the only fan of s3 on the planet.
A game I think worth trying that is not on this list is Divine Divinity. The ORIGINAL, not the new turn based games. It was like an open world Diablo game.
the turn based game is spin off, not a main series entry, it even say divinity: original sin in both titles.
Great game, very clunky in regards to combat but original, curious and long.
Cannot recommend the OG Divine Divinity enough. One of my favourite games to this day. It has incredibly funny dialogue, an awesome actual OPEN world (as in, you could try and run into endgame territories early on...and die horribly, game can be beautifully tough at times). It also lets you do anything you want and suffer the consequences. Steal from someone, get caught and make the whole town hate you. Kill an important NPC (important as in "you need this guy to be alive to get or complete a quest"). Such an amazing game. Truly, everyone should play it and your comment needs more likes.
Cool game but more akin to baldur's gate then diablo. Sooo much reading
@@HerrFinsternis In terms of there being more lore/story to read. Totally agreed. The gameplay though is very much an ARPG than a CRPG in my opinion at least... my wife says I am always wrong so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt. ;)
It's worth noting that Torchlight took as much inspiration from FATE as it did from Diablo. The scrolls giving skills and the pet with its various functionalities were both features that FATE had already implemented (and it, too, took the one-dungeon approach)
The best thing about Torchlight is that Matt Uelmen made the music for it and Diablo 2.
Ha! Thanks for including Nox
I found Grim Dawn on a steam sale while itching for a game to fill the void that Diablo II left in my childhood self. GD blew my expectations out of the water, and is my favorite of this genre. The way you can combine two classes is so unique and fun.
grim dawn is amazing. it's endgame is terrible though, and so is it's ending.
@@threeco2350 I never minded the end, because it always turns into my buddy and I seeing how ridiculous we could make our build. We like to min - max in games, but in goofy ways, not meta ones.
I would like GD if the Devs would be half capable of producing a stable game.
Was playing in well back in the days when it launched. But the game would just not work on my PC properly with frequent disconnects and crashes to windows (wanted to play it with friends).
Few years later - new PC new luck. GD runs - YAAAY until it hard crashed to BIOS. Well not so bad just try again - hard crash again.
Sometimes it would run 5 minutes, sometimes 3-4 hours. After a crash my graphics card would glitch during bootup. Tried updating display drivers (and frankly every fucking driver I could find) but to no avail. No one on forums could help.
So I played on my laptop and we had a lot of fun. Until my laptop died of old age.
Oh yes one of my friends also had issues.
Good game. Terrible technical execution.
Frankly the devs seemed to be unable to cope with non standard PC setups like and AMD graphics card.
@@1337Jogi Weird. 1146.9 hours on record, maybe 1 or 2 crashes overall. Probably your hardware is to blame
@@1337Jogi My most played game ever, over 2k hours and I can't remember a single crash.
Great Vid Wander, had a ton of fun catching you play through all these diffrent games on twitch. Hope you do more content like this in the future, I think it will turn out to be a really great series. Maybe do crpg's next.
If you can get it to run on modern PC's, I'd highly recommend Dungeon Siege.
I can't say it's innovative in any way, but there's something deeply satisfying running around an open-ish world with a CRPG size party, and I love the leveling system. (And if you can find any of the old mods, lightsabers are hilariously entertaining)
Honestly I'm surprized that Dungeon Siege is not in the list
Dungeon Siege 2 was amazing. It's a shame 3 deviated so much from the formula and tried to follow the trends of the time, which resulted in a more generic and honestly kinda mediocre game. That's probably why the franchise was forgotten.
I'm pretty sure they're on Steam.
Ahaha holy shit you have helped me just remember dungeon siege! I've been trying to remember what that game was called for years! Me and my brother used to constantly play dungeon siege 2 legend of aranna
Dungeon Siege 1 & 2 were great. Didn't care much for 3.
Grim Dawn by far to me the best game on this list as a alternative. I have over 1000+ hours in that game and the mod support is insane. There is even a D2 mod for Grim Dawn thats amazing. I feel Grim Dawn should be much bigger in community for those who enjoy these type of games. But I understand why POE is on top of the genre. I also feel that any remake or resurrected game without any new content is a cash grab for companies to capitalize off past legacy. The increased graphics is cool and all but for those who have put in alot of hours on D2 already will get bored fast because there is nothing new.
Yep, Grim Dawn is 100% worth buying, especially on sale price. Every DLC was also good. It just lacks a bit on end-game, but it has some nice things like factions/rep grinding, enchants and similar RPG things I enjoyed maxing :) Its easy 200 hour game for anyone.
Yeh problem is nothing beats grim dawn and diablo so afterwards nothing really holds ya attention as long.
I trully love Titan Quest but I could never get into Grim Dawn for some reason... Dunno why.
@@Necropantz The start is slow but once you get a few levels in with good abilities and skills combat is pretty fun.
The graphics are only better resolution. They ruined almost every character design and actually censored blood, gore, and nudity from the game. It's supposed to be a dark game rated M. No reason to change it so much to cater to absolutely no one that would be playing this game.
You know what? Fair enough, Wander.
If you're willing to be one of the few people willing to pay more than lip service to distancing yourself from toxic companies and offer actual advice and action, I have no excuse to still not be subscribed to you. Sorry I took so long.
The Ascent would be a great addition to this list. Sci-fi open world ARPG somewhere between hack and slash and twin stick shooter. Fun abilities, stats, and gear. I enjoyed the story as well.
With no endgame nty
kinda boring
too much red glow imo, hurts the eyes!
The ascent was my goty for 2021
Agreed, the ascent is amazing along with Killsquad
Last Epoch is great! I really fell in love with it. The skill variety with those mini-skill-trees is just awesome.
What's the best arpg to play with a controller? Work PC has been taking up my desk since covid hit and doesn't seem to be going away :( so limited to laptop on the couch for now.
Nox probably had one of, if not the best, pvp multiplayer systems I've seen in an arpg. It was so good and I could spend hours just crushing puny mages with the warhammer. Unfortunately EA did ruin it and killed the servers years ago.
I fuckin loved nox multiplayer. Its an amazing game
Those Mages didn't know their stuff well then. My cousins LOATHED fighting my Wizard. Confusion+slow+fireball were their bane of existence. The Fireball can OHK both the Conjurer and sometimes even the Warrior while the Wizard can never be OHK-ed because of the Force Field. Not to mention spells like Invisibility, Lock, (good luck getting the hammer if the Wizard locked the room where it spawns), Blink (free out-of-jail card for just 10 mana), Haste (must go faster).... And there's the Wand of Death and the traps. My favourite trap was Ring of Fire and Burn. Stand still and take damage, keep running and take damage. As a Wizard main: the class was disgustingly OP.
To this day one of the best-feeling PvP systems I've ever tried. Warriors are a party to play when you really get going thanks to the weight and precision of character movement, wizards are the scariest motherfuckers out there with a death wand and finger of death bolting you at the same time. Conjurers were always a mixed bag for me but they sure could control a room.
Nothing beats Diablo 1 imo. Had a horror atmosphere, great soundtrack, voice acting you name it also great freedom when it comes building a character
I like that game but the slow pace and disability to kill shooting enemies who were running across the rooms...Yeah, sometimes it was annoying.
Come on, diablo 1 you just kite monsters, close doors then put fire walls to kill everything in that room
I had the good fortune to get to work on Titan Quest as my first game design job. It’s so strange but satisfying to see the love for TQ all these many, many years later. :)
Revenant and Nox are forgotten gems from 1990s. I hardly find content on these two games on youtube. Great to have both in this list. You really put an effort to make a comprehensive list for us.
Loved Grim Dawn and I recently got Last Epoch which has also been great so far. Really looking forward to the up coming content in LE, it has the potential to have some of the better end game content of these games.
I also enjoy POE, but I did fall into the trappings of it being overly complicated at times and just..frustrating? Dunno. It's a great game and I definitely want to give it another go, but it's most certainly not new player friendly
I'm glad to see Book of Demons on this list. It's a hidden gem of a game and worth a playthrough.
How many of those have a substitute for my berserker build druid? And any chance of an alternatives to Lost Vikings list? Including Lost Vikings 2 (which changed the party quite a few times)?
I never played without the expansion okay?
I like how you show the art in the thumbnail being made in the intro. Really nice touch. Thank you for the video.
Nox hit a weird sweet spot aesthetically. When it came out it was a neat-looking isometric aRPG. Obviously, the game has aged. But, it doesn't really look old pe say. Instead, it just looks like a modern indie game with a retro style.
There is an awesome mod for the camera on sacred 2 that makes it sooo much more playable. I wouldn't play it without the mod.
Great video!
Good to know! I'll have to give it a shot at some point when I have a little more free time. D:
Care to mention the name of said mod?
Whats the mod called and where did you get it? I would love to try it out. The camera angle is the only thing I didn't like about Scacred 2.
i played Nox pretty well 20 years ago and have been trying to remember what it was called ever since, thank you so much for including it on this list haha!
Really great video! I like your wanderbot character. The entire time I imagined it was him talking to me.
I'd also like to recommend Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr to the list. Despite its rather unsuccessful launch, it has evolved into a really solid game as of today. As an additional plus, in the slew of utterly **horrible** games that got the Warhammer 40k license slapped onto them, this is actually one of the more noteworthy titles that also manages to capture the mood and world building in that meme-worthily grimdark setting.
I agree, I came to the comments to see if anyone had mentioned 40k:inq. It also has Seasons now and is a solid all round ARPG.
Yup. Was going to say the same thing.
Agreed! Pretty solid ARPG. It deserves more recognition imo.
But the levels become quite repetitive after some time.
@@ShadowDragon1848 You're right, but that hasn't bothered me too much. For me, the focus was on slaying xenos and heretics 🤘
Revenant and Nox were so good at the time. Revenant had a great combo combat system, super nice once you got it going. Nox had some of the coolest secrets and world exploring. As well as a pretty destructible environment from a game way before physics was a thing in games.
What is the music that starts playing on the Nox part? Sounds very familiar.
The Grim Dawn soundtrack in the background at the end really got me wanting to play the game again.
I loved TL2, which came out at a similar time as Diablo III. It is one of my favorites. I understand, that some players may be put off by the cartoony style.but gameplay is good fun.
Grim Dawn is also quite dark in atmosphere, but not as much Story driven. But multiclassing is a staple of this game.
Van Helsing is great, as the companion Katherine is fully voiced and she makes a difference together with a more Story driven approach. The levels are nicely handcrafted. Great fun. The Final Cut is the version to go for.
I haven't played Path of Exile much, but I liked it. Just the plethora of options is too much for a beginning player, so I need to watch a few vids about good specs.
Titan Quest is cool with a mythic background. Alas I haven't played it much yet. Still it got high praise and even a late big add-on.
I would like to mention Warhammer 40000 Inquisitor as a contrast to the fantasy medieval type of action RPGs. The same developer as of VanHelsing did a good job after a rough start. That's all from me for now.
I loved D2 back in the days and the remaster is great with beautiful gfx, sound, and atmosphere. Also maybe the best story of all these games including the two other Diablos. But I won't search for the Lord of Terror any time soon. I played it back then, tried the open beta, and just for the nostalgia... I wonder. Gameplay and interface in the modern titles like TL2 is a bit more convenient, a companion who talks back like in van Helsing great.
If you don't know D2, get it in a sale if you still like Blizzard. If you know the story... For me relatively easy to skip indefinitely.
Idk if I’ld call it an alternative to D2 remastered, but “The Ascent” is also an amazing game. It’s more like an isometric twin-stick shooter, but you got loot and rpg elements in it.
The ascent is pretty good, though sci-fi looter shooter may not qualify. I could be wrong.
And the details for the stats are huge
The xbox1 port is straight up garbage.
@@eldritchthangalang8800 sorry to hear that, you would think Xbox would be like PC
Hmm I’ve been playing it on the series s and it’s been fine imo. Haven’t played the pc version so I couldn’t tell the difference.
Thank you very much for this list! I've played several on the list already, liked some, didn't like others (and that's fine), but it still helped me find a few surprises. More so, finding some games that - in today's age of bundles and how easy it is to build a huge library of games you don't necessarily know you have - helped me pick out a few games that I already obtained and didn't realize what they were - and definitely need to give a real look at.
What new things u guys think ARPG's should have? I'm making my own diablo-like game now so wondering what new things ppl wish to see in the genre.
12:52 one minor tiny nitpick. i know WHAT your referencing at the timestamp (at least, i hope so, that staff from skyrim you can get from the dadric prince of madness?) but it is technically referred to in game as the "Wabbajack"
i wish to apologize for referring to the staff as the jabberwok, that was an error on my end.
on a happier note, i do enjoy the style of commentary as always, and love that so many games that people might not know are getting some love, i didn't even know what the heck titan quest was since i only picked it up during a steam giveaway a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to trying it.
Ooops, ah well.
That speed painting in the intro was amazing
I've always wanted to figure out how to integrate my speed paintings into my work, and I think this is the perfect way to do so.
Nox was one of my favorite games. I still have my original copy and the T shirt LOL. Used to really get into the Multiplayer Death Matches. It had fantastic replayability, at least for me. The Starting Quests were different for each class but they all ended up being the same after a few levels. One feature that was really cool was not being able to see around corners.
How many of these can be played with controller? I'm loving grim dawn on my steamdeck
Grim Dawn was not made by the same people as Titan Quest, they simply bought the license to the engine to build the game. Also, I think GD is a better game than POE, mainly from a pacing perspective in combat. Also, I think they could have made a more user-friendly passive skill tree; grouping specific nodes for particular builds together rather than having to chase them across the entire map.
@@Psych6vzz saying two people from a company moved would be like saying Blizzard made Final Fantasy XIV because Square Enix (think they're the publisher?) hired two of Blizzard's employees that worked on World of Warcraft. I'd mainly mentioned this because I'd heard it was a major pain for Crate to acquire the license and that there was no love lost between the companies.
Yknow, when Crate is founded by the lead game designer and another major head from Iron Lore it is effectively the same company. The same people who were developing Titan Quest started developing Grim Dawn. It's funny how the statement was that it was "largely" made by the same people. Both teams at Iron Lore and Crate are small, and some of the same team members joined later on beyond just the two main names.
Actually creating the game is different from being a publisher so your shitty defense doesn't even have grounds to hold up.
Iron Lore no longer existed at the time Crate bought the license.
While it's much more "Linear CRPG" and less "Looter Hack and Slash RPG", I feel like mechanicaly, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain also fits the bill. But only mechanically, other than that it's very much its own beast.
I 100% agree, but it's not easily available on modern platforms, so I didn't include it.
@@WanderbotPrime It just released on GOG a couple of hours ago.
@@negative-echo3896 Absolute egg on my face moment right there. I am baffled by the timing.
There was a game from the aughts called Loki that I enjoyed playing after I finished Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. Not sure how it held up, but I do have fond memories of it.
For me the intro started at 1:16. That thumbnail art getting formed got me hooked.
While I sort of "have to" play Diablo 2 to an extent, I can wholeheartedly say, that several of these are even beyond simple alternatives - several of these, in my opinion, are hands down superior options to Diablo 2 (Nox for immersion, Shadows for gameplay, Last Epoch is 100% an upgrade of the formula, Grim Dawn feeds the more complex, Minecraft Dungeons feeds simplification better).
I am very vocal about how D2 is the peak of the series (D1 the experiment, D2 the refinement, D3 the mediocrity), and the grandfather of what we consider a modern aRPG, but as with our own Grandfathers, we should always try to grow above and beyond, and a lot of these alternatives do just that, and exceptionally well. (I've been thinking about it since the streams - and sort of realized, I'd also even probably throw Bastion in on this, as controversial as that opinion may be, in addition to some of the others from the listings)
Well done video though - even introduced me to a few new games, and I thought I was fairly well versed on the genre :)
With the devs supporting mods with the official tools they used to make Grim Dawn, there's also the Reign of Terror mod. It reimagines Diablo 2 with Grim Dawns systems and mechanics and the recently added Act 6 reimagines Diablo 1 with GDs mechanics.
I'd honestly do some self-interrogation on the idea that you "have to" play a game if it means supporting a company like this though.
@@ppppppqqqppp ... I mean, being able to pay rent is kind of a nice thing to be able to do. I wouldn't ask someone to "self-interrogate" working for Nestle, Amazon, etc. if it was their main means of survival :/ (at least in my position, I can criticize the stuff, unlike those examples)
Even though I've been playing Last Epoch and Grim Dawn for hundreds of hours, and PoE for thousands, now playing D2R is the most fun I've had in ARPG since... well, Diablo 2. The item system for example is simply better (some room for opinions, sure) in D2 than in the others - in that drops actually feel like something. The others I feel are too easy (D2 is too, but only with few OP builds). Only issue I have is D2 is that it's stale, meta has been stale for decade(s). Now there are mods like PD2 and if made for Resurrected would tackle all this. Though problem I have with PD2 and Path of Diablo is the power creep, they make the game easier.
If your comparing gameplay itself or what you do in diablo 2 , u may be sorta right, but no game ever invented matches the loot system, which is the reason anyone even plays this game still, is hands down no questions asked the holy grail of all rpg loot systems....Its not even close...
I feel D2R is a throwback to Blizzard North, dont play WoW, or their other games. But bought Diablo in Holiday 96, and it quickly became my favorite.
New Blizzard aside, I felt like this is an old tie to the great developers they once had, even if it has been glossed over by new devs at Blizz.
I did not hesitate to buy it, nor would I hesitate at a D1 remaster. Your mileage may vary ofc, Cheers, Vasi.
They managed to make a 15 year old game more unstable and more buggy, its honestly impressive, the graphical remaster is great but was completely outsourced, Blizzard is garbage
Diablo 2 resurrected was made by vicarious visions. I believe this is why it's such a great remix and not that garbage that was Warcraft 3
Agree on all points
Sadly I don't think Diablo 1 will ever get a remaster
It quite simply just wasn't as popular as the second one. Even though it's actually my favorite one just because it has such a dark horror atmosphere
But D2 is an incredibly great game even to this day, and vicarious visions had to put in a lot of work to completely redo the graphics on every asset
There's a great video going into detail on just what they had to do to make sure every procedurally generated tile would mesh together with the new graphics
Lizard sucks, I hate the fact that they still make a bottom line profit off of the sales of this game, but I have been looking forward to it all year and I don't think vicarious visions should suffer for things they had no part in
Which one is the best for co-op multiplayer?
Are there any newer or upcoming games that fit into the topic?
Honestly these essays are the best part of Wanderbot's content for me, his narration, art, video structure and chosen topics match quite well.
Heroes of Hammerwatch is a worthy mention too. Captures the feel of classic Gauntlet from the 80's and mixes in an arpg progression system and upgradable town, all helping the player customize their experience. Its really good and has 3 player co-op too.
Not to mentioin that it's really easy to create mods for it. Custom items galore!
Heroes of Hammerwatch is a roguelite, I prefer the Hammerwatch Enhanced edition and Hammerwatch 2 which are actual ARPGs
from which game was the soundtrack at the NOX part ? I am kinda remembering this one
I only used Grim Dawn's OST for the video since I know it's YT safe.
How did you get Sacred 2 to work? I can only get about 5 fps. Sacred 1 crashes the second it tried to load. GOG says it'll only work up to Win8.
ps, I own all the games on this list, save the four "Similar, but unique" ones. All fantastic. Highly recommend Torchlight II with the Synergies mod. Even the Devs acknowledge it as a must have mod.
Back when Titan's Quest came out I kinda enjoyed it, because I am big sucker for history and old religions. I thought overall game was fairly descent, but one major drawback was that lot of times game felt somewhat empty, especially if you clean out areas and die and then you have to backtrack. Yeah, this was a thing in Diablo 2 as well, however D2 maps were randomly generated, while TQ had them fixed, so after couple of replays it could get super boring. Classes were mostly fun tho, and there were zillion of items to grind, and I like the idea that monsters will wear specific items, including legendaries and you could go around the map literally looking for it as those items will be on their character model.
Also in Titan's Quest the items will never wear out unlike in Diablo 1 and 2, which is very helpful since good items are rarely being dropped
Yeah that was always amazing. Something that is still present in Grim Dawn.
It's always so satisfying to kill a monster and then good loot drops and you're basically looting it off their corpses since they had it equipped. The fact that you can even sometimes clearly make out the unique item before even killing the monster is so cool too
Big fan of Sacred 2, definitely download the community patches to help it out and spend some time on setting it up for controls, but it's a huge world and is quite pinnacle mob grind killing goodness. Not a game to play for hours a day, but maybe every once in a while through the months.
I played sacred and I found that game boring and without any personality
It also has a very unique type of humour, both as comments from your characters when they interact with the game world, but also from various quests(so, so many quests), key NPCs and the just various situations you get yourself into.
So much to see and explore, that no run ever feel the same.
Also the killer metal ost!
Where is the soudtrack in the beginning of the video from? I know it's from a game I've played but I can't remember aaaaahhhh please help
Grim Dawn!
@@WanderbotPrime thank you 🙏
Edit: Great video btw! I found your channel through it ( if that helps you with figuring out what attracts people ). I will recommend it to my friends!
I like depth to my progression mechanics, which of these games excel at that? Note that I have already played PoE, Torchlight 2, and Titan Quest.
Victor vran combat was so good that it made it hard for me to go back to other ARPG’s that I once loved without noticing their clunkiness and how unsatisfying the combat was. Haven’t even watched the vid yet, but that is my random tid-bit for the day that no one probably cares about 🤷♂️
I played VV on Xbox and loved the combat. I almost can't play ARPGs with the click to attack combat.
@@kentrose2520 ditto
VV is fantastic, as i played a lot of arpgs and when i first started VV it was different, it was a few stepps up because of jumping and platforming in an isometric arpg, a lot of fun, need to pick it up again.
Wander, I've been watching for what feels like a long time. I really appreciate the reflection of your feelings and thoughts. Just as a viewer it makes you more personable: ) keep it up
Which action RPG do you recommend to play with my GF in local cooperative? She is NOT into videogames and also not good with gamepads or mouse/keyboard. So it must be EASY.
Minecraft Dungeons is probably your best bet for easy + accessible + local coop. There's also Diablo 3 on consoles, if you're fine with playing Blizzard games.
Most of the rest of these games require multiple computers for coop, which is a bit of a downer. That said, Torchlight 2 is probably your best bet in that regard.
Which of the van helsing games is wander recommending there's like 4 of them?
The most recent one, final cut is all of them combined into one game, so get that one.
Sacred 2 low key had one of the best side quest rewards in the form of an in game, heavy metal performance.
Im sad it didnt get more love in the video. The PC interface is definitely awful and its very slow at the beginning but goodness the massive world FULL of easter eggs and awesome lore was a blast to explore.
Grim Dawn should be on top of the list. The game, even with positive reviews on Steam, is still very underrated. The tons of content and hours you can get out of it makes Grim Dawn a hidden gem. The devs are awesome too. You can tell they're passionate about their game.
That’s because it came from the creators of Titan Quest which, while it didn’t age that well and feels pretty clunky, is probably my overall favorite ARPG of all time. Not just due to nostalgia either, it’s because of the environment and the unique character building. Though there wasn’t really an endgame it didn’t quite need one as making new characters was so fun and you had so many unique builds to try.
Grim Dawn does a pretty good job of building upon it and being a good spiritual successor.
The biggest problem I have with grim dawn is its pacing.. it feels so awfully slow.
I tried it. It's trash. Clunky and unpolished. Gameplay is nothing special.
@@kubasniak Yea TQ aged pretty bad.. same as D2. a TQ relaunch could probably do the game more justice.
@@zarekodynski9077 You should really look into the Dawn of Masteries mod. It added most of (if not all) of the classes from TQ (as well as a bunch of other classes) to Grim Dawn. It felt really nice playing those old classes again.
Super glad to see the shoutout to Sacred 2....Blind Guardian made a song for it and there's a quest where you find their instruments for them. Was an absolute blast....one of the last games I bought a hard copy of.
you get to attend a digital concert in game played by Blind Guardian
Cool video. I've already played through most of these, but I'm really glad about the inclusion of the super indie stuff at the end. Book of demons looks really cool. Edit: accursed farms' video on revenant is the best on UA-cam
Nox is basically 40% of my entire gaming experience as a kid, i remember having a blast playing it, totally recommend!
sacred 2 is the goat. introduced me to blind guardian
Yup, me too
Hansi is the Best
Sacred 1 is goat
You missed Hero Siege.
Revenant, I played that about 20 years ago, would stay up all night with it. It was so fun, maybe I should try to play it again.
Hero Siege's dev has issues, so hard pass for me.
i never played shadows awakening but its about transforming yourself into things? because i loved the vampire of "Sacred 1" and the druid on diablo 2 also
Couldn't care less about D2: Remaster BUT i'm still waiting for Diablo IV.
understandable, D3 was such a great game 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😉😉😉😅🤣
I thought the same thing but played the beta.I couldn't not buy it after that...One remaster that actually made sence to do....Looking at you capcom..
I feel you missed Wolcen. Which had a rocky start but they've really turned around since then.
ahhaahahahahahahahahahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahha wolcen is the worst piece of shit
Agreed, I personally love Wolcen
Are any of these available for console AND also support 2p couch co-op? My wife doesn't like PC games and we only have one computer anyway. We already own Victor Vran on Xbox and like that one.
The work on the skull in the beginning of the video.... Chef's Kiss!!
Thanks! I'm really proud of how it turned out, and it really works as the perfect background visual for the intro.
I started playing path of exile recently, and it makes me feel like I'm playing the true successor to D2.
Had several attempts to "like" this game since +10 years back (since beta). Can never like it.
@@weizhen77 it lacks the story of D2, but the gameplay is nice, and if you follow a guide it cuts down on the absurdity of the skill tree. Torchlight 1 and 2 were decent as well, but nothing compares to D2. Somewhat tempted to buy it, but blizzard can suck on an egg.
@@joshua7426 No. Its a better game with 100 times the content of D2 and a true endgame
Had started D3 in the beginning hoping it was the succesor to D2. Was really surprised how different the builds worked (hated that you could just toggle a bunch of skill mods). The RMAH really killed it for me. When I started POE, I missed the production value and story, cutscenes, etc. But I felt like there was a lot more game to play.
I find it to be kind of boring and it takes up a ton of space on consoles. I did have it on pc but last time i tried it a few years ago it kept crashing.
I have to say Grim Dawn has stolen my heart without my noticing... Despite how much i hate the base character models, later armor looks awesome, the setting is different and feels cohesive to itself, and some of the areas are surprisingly lovely. The soundtrack is great too. I also find the lore compelling and am rather sad I'll likely not see another expansion. Last Epoch is also pretty nice- I find the time hopping interesting, and some of the bgm tracks are very nice.
The funny thing about Grim Dawn is that the vast majority of people that stopped playing or didn't give it a chance did so because of the graphical fidelity and the (lack of) animations. Which while funny, is really sad because the game is outstanding, and the expansions just made it even better.
@@davidrosensin7985 yeah my brother hates how it looks and complains it's too slow... I guess it is slow if you prefer PoE's blink everywhere and one shot 3 screens worth of mobs style of play. I do like trying builds occasionally in PoE but everything happens so fast it becomes mind-numbing. I can only play it like once every fourth season cause I burn out
I’m really happy to see a list like this since it does kind of feel like the whole genre is held up by Diablo as the gold standard.
I played a bit of Torchlight II, but quite because I found it way too easy even in hard mode. Though to be fair, it WAS just a demo and I was right at the beginning. Thanks to you, I might give it another chance. Book of Demons sounds really interesting too with the whole “set path” thing.
Thanks for this video, man
Does anyone know if these games support the use of a gamepad? I can´t play with a mouse due to my carpal tunnel problem.
Victor Vran, Grim Dawn, Last Epoch, Torchlight 3, Minecraft Dungeons, Shadows Awakening, and Van Helsing do. I dunno about the rest.
@@WanderbotPrime thank you
Games presented are all great in their own way and I played most of them. However none can replace Diablo 2. The closest thing for me was actually a mod called Belzebub for Diablo 1.
Another classic that I would recommend is Divine Divinity. It has hilarious writing and fun combat with a great story. Also Divinity 2 could fit into here.
DD is great but it's not hack and slash ARPGs though.
@@merdufer It kinda plays like one? It’s weird, kind of like Ultima 7 if you have played/heard of that.
Oh yeah, shame this list didn't include any of the old Divinity games
You get a like for mentioning Revenant and Nox. Good old times with those.
All this video with the Grim Down OST behind !
Veeery nice !
There's two reasons I'm not playing D2: Resurrected. Blizzard is now more Activision with their scummy practices, but also I've played D2 already. I've played it a lot. I have no real incentive to churn through the same content I've been through thousands of times before.
lol
I might get it when it's on sale. Like you, I've played it years ago and I don't see why I should shell out 40 bucks for a game I already played.
@@glennjanot8128 I've already bought D2 two or three times now. I think it's taken enough of my time and money.
dont forget Dungeon Siege 1 and 2, amazing arpg's with party management. its such a shame dungeon siege 3 was never made...
They don't belong in this list as they won't appeal to the same people
Dungeon Siege 3 did come out, it's just a completely different game. You could compare it to Sacred 3.
@@jonathansoko5368 Why not? Besides the fact that you control a party, rather than a single character (at least in SP), they're very similar to the first 2 diablo games. If you like D2, there's a good chance you'll like DS2 and vice versa.
I played and finished Dungeon Siege 1 and the moment I was done I wondered why the heck I played the entire game. I mean it had beautiful particle physics for it's time but it was by no means the most attractive thing. I spent hours wondering why I was so meh about it
Then I realized I afk'd in the mines and forgot to pause and was still alive because the ai plays the game itself. Maybe I had gotten lucky with gear and my autos were hitting to hard🤷
I think I held that at the back of my mind and felt foolish for spending time playing a game that didn't seem to need me to play it- beyond clicking to move occasionally.
Still, I bought and tried DS2 and liked it better but never got around to finishing it because other games distracted me. They were definitely competent games but I haven't thought about them in years.
@@Agreel i am well aware there is a game called dungeon siege 3, the contents of which i have scrubbed from my memory 😢
Wow nice to see the shout out to Nox. Played it back in the day and it was awesome. Funny and well balanced. Plus three character classes that are so different that you could play through the game three times as if each one was the first.
Love this list. Love the reason you made it.
I would add Hellgate: London to this list. While it deviates from iso-metric strategy to a 3rd person, the unique class progressions, focus on loot, and amazingly gritty story line are all the same. Plus it's set in "modern" day (modern for 2008) and it was made by some defectors from Blizzard who worked on Diablo.
But that isn't playable anymore, is it?
@@LordShrub last I knew it was up and playable on steam. I think it's changed hands between several Asian companies over the years and has been playable in one form or another for quite a while although plagued with many issues and questionable changes from what I've heard. There's always single or network play to if you can score an old copy or find an iso. Not really worth the trouble though imo.
Uh, no. Hellgate has no place on this, no it even close. Just because you like it doesn't mean it should be here 😂
@@StodgyAyatollah steam version last i checked is only single player and is glitchy as hell. Someone did make a private server that has online like you said with an old copy,etc.
@@jonathansoko5368 it's a first person ARPG. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it shouldn't be here.