Diablo Clones

[Moniker]

Anyone here ever find any decent Diablo clones? Nox is the best I've seen so far (actually on sale at GoG for like $3 right now). I'm kind of surprised that after all this time nothing really competes with Diablo 2, except maybe Torchlight (but not really).

Most recently I got Depths of Peril from an indie bundle. Kind of interesting, since it adds a Civilzation-style diplomacy system. Ugly as hell, though.

[Eno]

Titan Quest and Sacred come to my mind. I came to try D2 when it was really outdated though, so I don't know what exactly people seek when they ask for a decent D2 clone.

[Gozer]

I'm about 13 hours into Titan Quest - Immortal Throne and I'm really enjoying it. Mod support and the community still seems very active and the game looks decent to boot. Steam had a THQ sale and I got the vanilla game and expansion for $5. I'm sure it will go on sale again during the summer sale if your looking to get a deal.

Torchlight 2 is finally being released soon. Still no firm release date though.

[Ruldra]

Dungeon Siege II picks the D2 formula and improves it 100x times. Really love that game.

Stay away from the sequel though, it's a completely different and dumbed-down game.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

2nd Dungoen Siege 2 loved that game when I played it. You do control a party, but it does have that D2 click and loot pacing not the slower Bioware style. The story finishes on a cliffhanger, but I've heard theres an expansion pack that ties everything up.

Theres Majicka, but it might not run smoothly on your PC as its badly optimised for diiferent hardware. Scrolls like an old spectrum game on my PC (try the demo)

[Blackbird]

Borderlands is essentially an FPS Diablo clone.

[Ganelon]

The only Diablo clone I've really enjoyed has been Divine Divinity. And the only one I've ever been excited for was Throne of Darkness, which turned out to be a disappointment. I'm sure folks heard how the creators of Titan Quest are trying to kickstart a new Diablo clone called Grim Dawn: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cra ... /grim-dawn

[Gozer]

I forgot to mention Avadon The Black Fortress. I actually have this game in my steam inventory but I haven't used it yet.

I'm willing to do a trade if someone is interested in Avadon.
EDIT: Anyone happen to have an extra copy of Noitu Love 2 perhaps?

The only Diablo clone I've really enjoyed has been Divine Divinity. And the only one I've ever been excited for was Throne of Darkness, which turned out to be a disappointment. I'm sure folks heard how the creators of Titan Quest are trying to kickstart a new Diablo clone called Grim Dawn: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cra ... /grim-dawn

Divine Divinity is decent as well.

I was not aware of Grim Dawn. Looks pretty good.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I was just wracking my brains trying to remember the name to Divine Divinity. Glad you mentioned it. (its an ok game, but nowhere as good as D2)

[Ed Oscuro]

Titan Quest is pretty decent though loot runs really got to me. Definitely needed cash and carry! Also, that one midboss in the second to last world...argh. I just gave up on trying to beat that guy when I found him in the second playthrough.

Pretty cool progression for the Conqueror hybrid class, I think it's called.

[Jonathan Ingram]

The only Diablo clone I've really enjoyed has been Divine Divinity.

I personally never thought of Divine Divinity as strictly a Diablo clone. It`s more of a Baldur`s Gate meets Diablo kind of game, which is probably why it`s so good in the first place.

[Op Intensify]

I liked Record of Lodoss War on the Dreamcast. It's actually based on the tabletop game series, not the anime.

It's also nice that you have direct control over your character. I don't like having to click on things to move around and attack.

[Evilmaxwar]

I played Titan Quest quite a bit and imo it is better than Diablo 2 gameplay wise and feature wise. Problems with it are
1. Smaller community than D2, can get hard to find games to play, especially at higher level.
2. Easy for people to cheat and use all sorts of exploits in the game.
3. Has balance issues, some classes are clearly more powerfull than others and not equal throughout the game. For instance Mages are very powerful on easy and moderate difficulty, but they become almost unplayable at hardest. You need crazy item kits and mana guzzling spell combos just to get by and you die in a couple hit.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Crimson Tears. It's got chaining, proper bosses and a proper bonus dungeon. Protip - the most effective chaining tool I found for Kaede is a simple knife and a combo not even listed as such in the combo tree. Can't quite remember it right know. It is a kind of exploit (think the Onimusha enemies juggling glitch that led Capcom to develop DMC).
Quest Mode in Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (particulary good in co-op).
Also, Freelancer. I'm not following the mods, though.
Gauntlet Dark Legacy should be played in the ROBOTRON mode (twin sticks controls) with auto-attack turned OFF.

[Despatche]

dark alliance is amazing and i need to get it again

can anyone tell me about the sequel

[Obiwanshinobi]

dark alliance is amazing and i need to get it again

can anyone tell me about the sequel

In the latter, you share all the gold in co-op, which ruins the loot hogging.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Shining Soul I and II (II is quite a bit better) for the GBA are Diablo-esque dungeon crawlers. Variety of classes to play the game through with. Far from perfect, but they're not bad, especially if you happen to have a friend with a copy to link up with.

[sjewkestheloon]

I have lost hundereds of hours of my life on Sacred 2 and I still haven't got a legendary item to drop that isn't a quest reward. It remains one of my go-to games to this day.

Unfortunately it is filled to the brim with bugs and is pretty hardcore on the learning curve.

I think my favourite feature of the game is the ability to play each class in at least 4 completely different ways adding huge replayability. Writing this has made me want to load up my sword and board Shadow Warrior of ownage...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Shining Soul I and II (II is quite a bit better) for the GBA are Diablo-esque dungeon crawlers. Variety of classes to play the game through with. Far from perfect, but they're not bad, especially if you happen to have a friend with a copy to link up with.

I tried to get into the first one shortly after playing some Ys games on a PC. As much as I like Diablo, Shining Soul seemed the most souless kind of MMO played offline, with most terrible music. Like, slower-paced than Diablo (let alone Ys), with very bland graphics and - again - TERRIBLE music. To add insult to the injury, tacking the "Shining" label onto something so devoid of charm keeps baffling me to this day. Everything that made Shining Force any good in the first place is not here, so why bother? To piss me off?
Sheesh, among the sorts of games lacking on the GBA are shmups, proper Diablo clones and the likes of Ys. Zeldas and zeldoids, being neither as loot- nor action-packed, don't really fill this gap.
Oh yes, from what little I've seen of BG:DA for the GBA, it doesn't deliver either, not even in the way Doom and Monkey Ball ports do (downgraded but still fun and, of course, portable).

[Moniker]

I have lost hundereds of hours of my life on Sacred 2 and I still haven't got a legendary item to drop that isn't a quest reward. It remains one of my go-to games to this day.

Unfortunately it is filled to the brim with bugs and is pretty hardcore on the learning curve.

I think my favourite feature of the game is the ability to play each class in at least 4 completely different ways adding huge replayability. Writing this has made me want to load up my sword and board Shadow Warrior of ownage...

Does the difficulty remain acceptably high throughout? I've actually had my eye on Sacred 2 for awhile, and that's been my main concern.

[Eno]

Sheesh, among the sorts of games lacking on the GBA are shmups, proper Diablo clones and the likes of Ys. Zeldas and zeldoids, being neither as loot- nor action-packed, don't really fill this gap.

Have you ever played the LotR movies' games for the GBA? The tFotR was made by a different studio and a different concept, but both tTT and RotK were done Diablo style and, again, not sure what Diablo fans call decent, but I liked them quite a lot.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Have you ever played the LotR movies' games for the GBA? The tFotR was made by a different studio and a different concept, but both tTT and RotK were done Diablo style and, again, not sure what Diablo fans call decent, but I liked them quite a lot.

Funny you mention those... A guy I'm about to buy Motocross Maniacs from has got some RotK carts up for sale. I enjoyed its "big" brother on the PC for what it's worth. (In the latter, choose the Gandalf's path if you wonder why. He's a friggin' tank.)
Blood Will Tell, while technically in the vein of DMC and three-dimensional Ys games rather than Diablo, gave me the sort of loot rush typical of the latter, combined with the addictive chaining (a bit like Crimson Tears). More Diablo clones should have this kind of arcade hooks and fast pace. I'm not sure if Crimson Sea 1&2 belong here, but they seem better paced than Hunter: The Reckoning console games.

[CptRansom]

Does the difficulty remain acceptably high throughout? I've actually had my eye on Sacred 2 for awhile, and that's been my main concern.

I thought it was difficult to be enjoyable, yes. It works like Diablo in that you unlock new difficulties by beating previous ones. If you're playing on PC, there's a hardcore mode (or just do what I did on 360 and delete your character manually if you die) and it can get pretty intense at times...

Shit, now I want to play this again. My ONLY gripe with the game is the way skills and runes work. It takes some figuring out and builds can be a little difficult/tedious to manage because of it. Everything else about it was fun as hell. HUGE map, great dungeons, fun boss fights... hell, you can even get a mount and then fight while mounted.

[sjewkestheloon]

Does the difficulty remain acceptably high throughout? I've actually had my eye on Sacred 2 for awhile, and that's been my main concern.

I thought it was difficult to be enjoyable, yes. It works like Diablo in that you unlock new difficulties by beating previous ones. If you're playing on PC, there's a hardcore mode (or just do what I did on 360 and delete your character manually if you die) and it can get pretty intense at times...

Shit, now I want to play this again. My ONLY gripe with the game is the way skills and runes work. It takes some figuring out and builds can be a little difficult/tedious to manage because of it. Everything else about it was fun as hell. HUGE map, great dungeons, fun boss fights... hell, you can even get a mount and then fight while mounted.

Yes indeed. It is common to hear people asking if a build in this game is capable of taking on Niob, the highest difficulty, and quite often a substandard build will die very quickly. Unfortunately a good build will wind down well before the level cap. My Shadow Warrior main build is at about lvl 155 (out of 200) and I can now steamroll everything in the highest difficulty and, without an XP suit, leveling slows down incredibly. I would have appreciated another higher difficulty level that challenges up to the cap on strong builds but I already ahve about 270 hours in that character so I can't really complain.

[BryanM]

It is so sad it's not been surpassing, considering its such a throughly flawed game. Diablo 1 was better in almost every respect outside of movement speed/class balance/skills/item system/having an extra chunky grid size.

It still bothers me to this day that they will never re-render out all the 3d models to make the game look as smexy as the guys in wallpapers look. Those smudges on your guy are actual things you know.

I suppose the failure of the clones was they merely tried to ape without understanding the game. You have a fixed budget, but you spend it on 3d art? When your artists and animators don't have the skill or time to do it right? One of the best multiplayer genres there is, and you can't dedicate a server to it?

But what it comes down to is the project lead not being a real fan. How can you write a love letter to something you don't know inside and out, good and bad? Not knowing the techniques of the Diablo Clone chasers is fine, but not knowing they exist... that's a big gap of understanding that'll surely trickle down to the nuts and bolts of what makes it live and breath.

There are people still out there that don't know that the timered skills in D2 lock out ANY action besides moving for about 1/4th of a second after use. Maybe these Shoot Them Ups have made me sensitive to split second precision more so than the average walrus..

Hellgate London

It's really baaaaaad. They only managed to cobble together about 1/4th of a completed game. Minus good boss battles. Minus decent fps mechanics.

* The grey zombie you see at the very beginning of the game is the same grey zombie you'll see at the end of the game. Yes, there are palette swaps. No, they're only used in quests.

* The mattresses in the game have urine stains on them.

* Weapons don't have a DPS number on them. No DPS numbers on gear. You have to math them out yourself from the advanced item view, and even then things like Rate of Fire are probably all lies.

There's one weapon in the game that shoots lava boogers which sets monsters on fire. I discovered, hours later, that it constantly overwrites the damage field on the ground. So the more fire you pour on guys, the less damage it does. So you want to wait for it recharge before firing again.

Pausing between attacks. Does that sound like a diablo clone to you?

Was hoping for something mediocre from the demo. Only got a great game to hate. But you can't get the full experience now unless you set $50 on fire, and you'll have fewer people who still care enough to reciprocate your hate.

Mythos

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."

Mythos was okay, and going places. Then Hanbitsoft got its claws on it, the competent guys able to add actual content got sacked, and now you can play a slightly bastardized 2008 game in the brave world of 2012. Maybe. I don't know what those guys are doing.

Diablo 3

I am excited for the upcoming D3 release.

So I can not buy it.

No peeing on the rug. Bad Blizzard!

[Moniker]

Got Sacred 2 (X360) per recommendation. Actually really good so far. First few levels were a drag, but I'm ~lvl6 now and things are coming together. Started with a Dryad on Silver difficulty - in almost all D&D based RPGs, it seems I do best with archers/rangers. Combat is sort of a mashup b/w Diablo & Dragon Age: Origins. Took me awhile to get into the combat groove, and while I wish there was a little more tactile feedback during combat, I'm starting to dig it. Finding your destination is sorta shitty, but that's a small price to pay.

Anyway, good enough consolation for the fact that my laptop will never be able to run D3. Maybe I'll start a kickstarter page... or max out my credit card. (BryanM, you crazy.)

[Khan]

Torchlight was actually made by the guys who made Diablo 1 & 2

[BryanM]

Maybe I'll start a kickstarter page... or max out my credit card.

Noooo. If you pay their fun tax, then the Nazis win. It starts with teh DRMs and making wizards care about sword damage and giving melee monsters infinite reach; then they start shoving people in ovens!

[Moniker]

Torchlight was actually made by the guys who made Diablo 1 & 2

Torchlight's pretty good in that it incorporates almost all the features (mainly UI) that Diablo 2 lacked. Problem is the skill tree structure doesn't offer much replay, and it's insanely easy. Even on Very Hard Hardcore Ironman (no returning to town or buying from dungeon merchants), it's still not much of a challenge. I guess you could lock yourself out of certain skills and/or stat upgrades, but then it seems to lose its point entirely.

It starts with teh DRMs and making wizards care about sword damage and giving melee monsters infinite reach

...Gandalf vs. Balrog in Diablo 3... :drool:

[BryanM]

Hey, the forums are viewable again.

If you wanna see my aborted Hellgate let's play: gogogogogogo

You'll never see so much whining or grey in your life.