What action RPG should I play when I love the horror atmosphere and slow, cautious pace of the first Diablo?

This is section where you discuss other games
Post Reply
User avatar
Spectrum
Posts: 69
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 12:40 pm
Location: Denmark
Denmark

What action RPG should I play when I love the horror atmosphere and slow, cautious pace of the first Diablo?

Post by Spectrum » Sun Nov 21, 2021 12:08 pm

I am a longtime fan of the Diablo series. I especially love Diablo I for the gothic horror atmosphere and the slow pace. In D1 each monster feels like a threat. I always advance cautiously, try to rouse as few monsters as possible at the time, and retreat a lot. And I love that!

D2 also has this to an extent in some of the tougher areas, such as the Chaos Sanctuary. I feel like it's easier to get to the point where you steamroll monsters in D2 than in D1, but in singleplayer the adjustable difficulty (with the "/players X" command) goes a long way to help the player set an appropriate difficulty.

D3 doesn't have this at all in my experience. D3 combat is smooth, fast-paced and steamrolling. I seldom feel like I am in danger. Cranking up the difficulty doesn't really make it feel more dangerous; it just makes monsters slower to kill. It slows the pace, but not in a fun way for me. It doesn't make me feel like I need to advance with caution like in D1.

But this post is not about dissing D3. That was just an introduction. My real point is: I want to try other action RPGs outside the Diablo franchise, and I want recommendations. What games would I likely enjoy, given my taste as I've described above?

I am not that much hung up about itemization and classes. They matter, but the main draw for me is the experience of fighting monsters. Moreover, I am more interested in the campaign and levelling part of games than the endgame. I am looking for a game to sink 20-50 hours into, or at most 100, but not 500 hours. So I don't want a game that "gets good" only when you reach the endgame.

Isometric camera (like in Diablo) is mandatory! I will not consider games with first-person or over-the-shoulder view. Dark Souls looks like it has a great atmosphere, but I am not interested in that kind of gameplay. This also rules out games like World of Warcraft.

I have played the first Torchlight. That was pretty good. I remember that I enjoyed the fact that, like D1, it took place entirely within underground dungeons and caves. That provided a claustrophobic feel which added a lot to the atmosphere.

I am looking at games like Grim Dawn, Inquisitor: Martyr and Wolcen.

Which ones do you think I am most likely to enjoy?

Thanks a lot in advance! :)

Texalic
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 149
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:09 am

Re: What action RPG should I play when I love the horror atmosphere and slow, cautious pace of the first Diablo?

Post by Texalic » Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:05 pm

You will for sure enjoy Grim dawn. Also have in mind that it has some good mods.
For example there is mod called Reign of Terror, which is diablo 2 built inside grim dawn (crate?) engine.

Maybe you could check out Last Epoch, still in development though.

And of course, there is huge amount of mods for diablo 2, there is at least 10 mods you should check out.

thereaverofdarkness
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2022 8:13 am

Re: What action RPG should I play when I love the horror atmosphere and slow, cautious pace of the first Diablo?

Post by thereaverofdarkness » Mon May 30, 2022 8:04 am

Definitely try Revenant! It is clearly very strongly inspired by the Diablo series. The ambience of the environment is a fun mix of creepy and cathartic, and the combat is complex, action-packed, and has nice visual and sound effects for its time. The game lacks a fancy attribute system for items, and most of your equipment will be far simpler, but it makes up for it with a fun spellcasting system.

There's clunky interface problems, some moon logic game design, and massive compatibility problems, but if you run the GOG version it's not too bad.

Post Reply

Return to “Other Games”