Are you a fan of the Diablo style action RPG, but are looking for games that aren’t actually Diablo? There’s nothing wrong with that. You can only play a game for so long, even if it’s a great game, without becoming incredibly bored with it.
Here’s some of the best Hack-n-Slash RPGs you can find that use an isometric view.
Of course, everyone has their own idea of which games are the best. Feel free to comment below with your thoughts!
Sacred
Always a fan favorite, Sacred captures the style of Diablo with a bit more emphasis on the story over simply “go out, kill demons, collect loot”. The story is about the turmoil caused by a sudden halt in communication with the Gods. This causes creatures everywhere to go insane and start rampaging and destroying villages and killing people. Your job is to stop them and find out what happened with the Gods.
Fate
If you’ve ever wondered if it was possible to make a game that’s a hybrid of Torchlight and Diablo, your answer is Fate. At first glance you’ll notice that the combat and theme it’s eerily similar to Diablo in many ways. But the interface and gear style seems to be borrowed from Torchlight. That’s not to say it’s ripping off of these titles. It brings its own story and types of creatures to kill and is absolutely fun to play. Instead of a defined class to choose from, you start as a blank slate and form your own unique style by spending your experience points into areas that will help you mesh out your very own class. It keeps things dynamic and attractive to play it over and over again.
Bastion
Bastion is one of those games that show just how well a small indie game can really be and that simply throwing money at a game won’t make it better. As you play through this one, you’ll find a lot of passion went into this title with the artistic beauty of each unique area, and one thing that the developer wanted to bring to this game was a voice, or rather, voiceovers for the interactions. While most games that have voiceovers for their story-lines seem to do so to add a level of seriousness to what is unfolding, Bastion makes it a part of the game so well, when you play other titles without it you’ll wonder why its so quiet. Bastion is very much all about the audio. As you have a nearly fully voiced game to play through, you’ll experience one of the finest soundtracks to be a part of a game, pulling you in even more.
Magicka
Take Diablo 2 and mix in a sense of humor and you’ve got Magicka. However, instead of classes, you’re simply a wizard. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s all about simply casting fireballs and other basic magical abilities. This wonderfully entertaining game has an interesting combat spell system, that allows you to combine spells to create a new one depending on the combination of elements you’ve mixed together. There are thousands of combinations that you could muster together, far more than you’d find in any other RPG out there. The armor selection is far more amusing as it draws from other titles and gives you a little flair to your character. Would you like to wear space marine armor from Warhammer 40k? It’s in here, as well as a variety of others.
Dungeon Siege (except 3)
Dungeon Siege was one of the first that wanted to take a piece of the pie that Diablo controlled in the ARPG market. It was one of the first that had a “skill up” system where the more you used an ability, the stronger it became. You enjoy using fire abilities? Watch that goto spell hit harder and harder the more you use it. In this game you don’t start as a hero ready to smash enemies to bits, but a simple farmer with only limited skills. As you partake in your adventure, you kind of make your own class by which abilities you use the most.
Dungeon Siege was a wonderful game that seemed to choke on its own success. Dungeon Siege 2 was okay, but didn’t grasp the fun that the original title did and the third game… well… let’s not talk about that one.
Titan Quest
This one is my personal favorite. Combine ancient Greek mythology and Diablo style gameplay and you have Titan Quest. It’s one of those RPG games that once you sit down and play, you’ll seem to lose all aspect of time. With a variety of classes that seem to balance awfully well and a story that draws you in, making you have that thought of “I’ll quit once I finish this quest”… many times over again.
Path of Exile
While it’s not well known to casual players, it should be. Path of Exile is a free-to-play game that, instead of being designed by some big studio, was created by a bunch of hardcore RPG loving gamer’s wanting to make a great RPG that others could enjoy. There’s not much of a story, but the game is beautiful and the gameplay is simply fun. Those who have played Path of Exile seem to all claim it’s what the Diablo series should have been all along.
Torchlight 2
If there is a game out there that proves you don’t need to be created by a AAA title developer, Torchlight 2 is that game. While it doesn’t have the dark visual style of its counterpart, it still has the addictive gameplay that make this genre of games fun. Also, while I’m sure this is debatable, my personal opinion is Torchlight 2 is still a better game than Diablo 3.
