8 Great Isometric Action RPGs You Should Have Played

ffronw

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8 Great Isometric Action RPGs You Should Have Played

Diablo may have spawned the genre, but if you're a fan, you should have played all eight of these action RPGs.

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Vendor-Lazarus

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Nox: Absolutely a great game for its time. Haven't played it in quite a while so I don't know how well it holds up though.
Path of Exile: Sounds great but only for those with a good online connection.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance: Haven't played it.
Dungeon Siege 2: Was and still is a great game.
Grim Dawn: It was okay..Not a fan of the convoluted constellation thingy nor the massive distances between portals.
Titan Quest: Solid title. Until you hit that last boss just before the expansion. Ouch.
Torchlight II: Quite fun. Solid.. There is just that feeling of something..missing..I don't know..On the upside though, Mods.
Diablo 3: No..nononono..No online DRM for me.

My picks would have been;
Diablo 2 LOD
Titan Quest IT
Dungeon Siege II BW
Sacred UW
Harbinger
Torchlight II
Victor Vran
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.
 

Landwalker

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I haven't played all (or even most) of those listed, but I did see one big and, in my opinion, egregious omission:

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
 

Canadamus Prime

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Nox - Never played it
Path of the Exile - Couldn't get into it
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Pretty good, although I think they could've done more with the concept and some of the voice acting was spotty.
Dungeon Siege 2 - Found it lacking compared to it's contemporaries.
Grim Dawn - Haven't played it.
Titan Quest - Decent up until the final boss who pounds you into mulch without warning.
Torchlight II - I got bored playing this, I should give it another try.
Diablo III - Not as good as it's predecessors and definitely could have done without the always online thing.
 

JenSeven

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Oct 19, 2010
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Wow ....

I cannot think of any logical reason why Diablo 3 would be included other than either being paid to promote the Necromancer or because of that other story that a console release was leaked.

I mean, seriously, it should not be on this list.
And I thought you now had to reveal that you're doing paid promotions, right? Or is that only on Youtube and Twitch and with other media it's just a lack of journalistic integrity?
 

Wrex Brogan

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I'm always cautious about getting into Isometric RPGs since outside the Diablo franchise a lot of 'em just haven't been very good for me (and even in Diablo the first one was a touch rough). Marvel Ultimate Alliance just felt poorly balanced, Torchlight 2 missed a lot of marks in gameplay and starts off waaaay to slow (but, mods) and Path of Exile... I dunno. I heard lots of good things about it, but when I got into it (emphasis on 'when', stupid shitty internet) it just... didn't grab me.

JenSeven said:
Wow ....

I cannot think of any logical reason why Diablo 3 would be included other than either being paid to promote the Necromancer or because of that other story that a console release was leaked.

I mean, seriously, it should not be on this list.
And I thought you now had to reveal that you're doing paid promotions, right? Or is that only on Youtube and Twitch and with other media it's just a lack of journalistic integrity?
Or he liked the game? I mean, think Blizzard paid 'em for the promotion if it makes you happy but honestly I'd question as to why they'd pay for the rousing endorsement of being the top pick of a not-even-top-pick list of 8.

Like... jesus. What a weirdly aggressive response. Maybe he's been paid to promote Nox given I've never heard of that one? Or, as said, maybe he just liked the game?
 

Ugicywapih

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Man, I remember spending tons of time on Nox, I think I've gone through the game several times with each class. It probably also bears mention the game had branching storylines (and severely so) based on class selection. Kinda liked the sense of humour too, though I hadn't played the game for years so my tastes may well have changed by now.
I don't really agree about Dungeon Siege II, it wasn't a bad game but if you're only including one game in a series, I'd say the first Dungeon Siege was better, especially if you had Legends of Aranna installed (I have very fond memories of exploiting Polymorph in the hidden level :D). If I had to point out specific reasons, I feel the greater variety of skills made the game more interesting overall and I liked the idea behind letting a player run a bigger group of heroes by giving companions fairly advanced (for the time) AI and allowing active pause. I also recall seeing a bunch of cool mods for the game.
No complaints about PoE, TQ and Torchlight, solid games all around.
I hadn't played Grim Dawn, sadly it won't run on my hunk'o'junk PC, but I've seen my buddy play it and it looked fun.
Didn't play Marvel Alliance or Diablo 3, but I'm not really tempted to either. Superheroes are just not my ballpark and I'm skipping Diablo 3 on principle (if I could even run it in the first place :D) on account of locking single-player specific content behind online connection.
I've seen Arcanum mentioned in the comments. AMAZING game, but I don't really think it qualifies as an action RPG.
Magicka/Magicka 2 probably deserves a mention, if you consider it to have an RPG component.
Darkstone was pretty great for its time.
I feel like I'm still missing some good stuff, it's not easy just dropping titles off the top of my head like that, I'll probably just edit it in later :d
Edit 1: Oooh, Ultima 8 was isometric and combat was not turn based, so I'm guessing it counts. There were also some other isometric entries in the series and those games are bloody classics. Also, weren't the earlier games in Divine Divinity series isometric? I've only played Original Sin and iirc it already had controllable camera, but it was pretty cool and if the older games match up in terms of gameplay, they might deserve a spot.
Edit 2: Now that I think about it, Darkstone and Dungeon Siege both had the option to pan the camera up and down, so they can't really be called isometric games. Same, of course goes for Dungeon Siege 2, which made it into article's list to which I can only say "TFW?". And since this is as good as opportunity as any, how about Sid Meier's Pirates! Gold? While the original wasn't isometric, iirc Gold's camera was fixed in the naval battle and travel modes which constituted the bulk of the game. If I'm misremembering though, Windward is also hella fun, absolutely isometric and it has the added benefit of, like Pirates, being something different than the usual hack&slash fare traditionally associated with isometric aRPGs.
 

Cycloptomese

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I'm kind of pumped to get into Path of Exile. I think it's coming out for Xbox One later this year. I haven't had a good ARPG since Diablo III.
 

StatusNil

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Vendor-Lazarus said:
Victor Vran
Since you brought it up, I might as well shill a bit: new DLC out today, including the Motorhead-themed campaign, finally. Oh, and I guess it's out on consoles too, in an "Overkill Edition".
 

Hawki

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I will admit that ARPGs aren't really my thing. You might be forgiven for thinking otherwise, considering that Diablo I, Diablo III, and Torchlight get into my top 10 RPG list, but I think that says more about my comparative lack of RPG experience than anything else. Also telling that Diablo II isn't there, despite me having a played it - a game I will admit is "good," but not one I enjoy.

So, of this list, only played Diablo III (a game I quite like), and Path of Exile (a game that I...don't).