Grim Dawn is the new gold standard.

D1 is wacky, absence of spell shortcuts kills fun for me. D2 is very good, perhaps even overpolished, with appropriate mods (PlugY+HiRes). TitanQ is very solid. T2 is fine, but a bit cartoonish.

thread closed then ;)

Din's Curse and Depths of Peril (both Soldak games) I think add a nice twist to the model, though the town emergencies in Din's Curse can end a game quickly if your recall spell is down and a major attack comes when you aren't near a portal. Didn't like that RNG aspect of it - think DoP handles that general mechanic a bit better.

As for the rest I've played at least some of all these except Grim Dawn, and TQ I barely remember.



D3: Very polished yet feels lifeless to me, at least at early levels, which normally is my favorite part of these games as I'm filled with anticipation for the new and how awesome it could be. Just didn't have that here. So technically I'd rate it high, but in terms of enjoyment, near the bottom. Quite the opposite of D1 or D2 which I loved both solo and coop, but which shows its age now, technically speaking.

TL1/D1 I think are both skippable because they aren't even the best in their own title.

TL2 I like the options in character building and the balance of gear drops is just about right. Story is forgettable, but art is good (if you like the style), combat is solid, and having a combat pet by default really opens up experimenting with squishier or tankier builds without completely faling off the cliff. Still, will probably delete it after maxing out a second character.

VH2 had the pet as well, but as someone else noted, it's really just not balanced well for solo play. 90% of enemies can be ROFLstomped, and then you'll run into something else that will 2-shot you. Even dying a lot I loved the first 10-15 levels, and then hit a pinch point that even cheating and toggling the game to easy I barely got past and decided it wasn't worth the headache. And the mini games are...just ok.

VV is...confounding. There are lots of things I like, and yet it didn't quite wow me as much as expected. I think part of it is that on the surface it seems like the RPG elements aren't quite there, and more than other games you can really get hosed by bad RNG on drops. It borrows a weapon system similar to Guild Wars 2, where skills and even the way you fight is radically different based not on class but on what weapon you happen to be holding, and you can toggle between two weapons. I think that part of it is well done. And while it has a wide array of maps (and generally good ones) the game wants you to replay the same maps over and over for drops, and time and difficulty achievements. That part didn't speak to me as much - played with it but didn't really find it rewarding.

POE is free, but yes, online only. Still, I quite liked it. And while the skill tree is huge, it's not...that overwhelming. You can only move skills along certain paths, and your starting point is based on your class combo. So starting out you have only a few choices, not 100, and as you build out there are patterns in the skills, and the game isn't so punishing that min/max is absolutely necessary. If all you're wanting to do is wet your whistle, it's well worth firing up, because again - free!

At least for me, even having played it (though not since the expansions) I'd probably consider installing that again rather than shelling out $15 for GD.

$12.5 this week.

Well, I played them all, expect Grim Dawn which I bought just two days ago and here are a few words about them:

1. Diablo 1 is my favourite, since I played it when I was a kid and it was like; I would wake up early before school to play and kids in that age really want to sleep. Finished it at least 10 times.

2. Diablo 2 was good, but couldn't push myself to complete the game more than twice.

3. Diablo 3 - bought it on day one and played the hell out of it + Reaper of Souls = I have over 450 hours playtime in D3+RoS

4. Titan Quest + Immortal Throne - played it when it was released and it is an excellent game, better than Diablo 2 IMHO, as its UI was better than D2; more user friendly and I had a lot of fun with it. Finished it about 5 times. Now bought AE and will play it probably in time.

5. Torchlight 1+2 - played them once before GOG, liked them and that's it. And bought them on GOG again of course! ;-)

6. Van Helsing 1+2+3 (or FC) - well, this game was/is strange. I played 1+2 before FC and they were great and then 3 came out it totally changed classes, so I haven't played it; was waiting FC to come to GOG and when it finally did; I started playing it and I was like MEH, the game to me became a bore, so I uninstalled it.

7. Victor Vran - very good, but still playing it so no conclusion yet.

And on a side note, also played Path of Exile and finished it once, but I felt like it had all the flaws of Diablo 2, so that was enough

Considering the size of my backlog and the cost of raising a kid, that's still about 2x what I'd be willing to pay, but I knew it was on sale for somewhere in the 10-15 range. Thanks.

Then skip Path of Exile.

Online only + super hard to learn on your own + you will be pretty much forced to trade with other players relatively often, and PoE has a very, very, VERY toxic community.

You should add Grim Dawn to your library then. If you liked TQ, chances are you'll love GD. It's by the same folks (for the most part), but greatly evolved.


I wonder who owns the rights to Throne of Darkness... I have the disk version of it; I should see if I can get it to run. I never finished it back-when. (It's an asian-themed game in the genre.)

Yes, just bought it two days ago, will play it!

Ah, yes Throne of Darkness, one overlooked but very unique game. I also have it on CD, but would like GOG to add it!

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/throne_of_darkness

I just got diablo ii for the first time I'm going to install it tonight i can't wait i'm very excited

Nice.

I would go with Diablo 2 as well. It just has a great atmosphere, I don't think the others can match. I'm not a huge fan of ARPG's but I still like Diablo 2.

I havn't played all of the others but I felt Torchlight was lacking purpose and a reason to kill and loot lots of stuff. Titan Quest felt very restricted to only mythical Greek settings and gear back when I played it, whereas Diablo feels very whole world orientated.

Reminds me I should finish my Diablo 2 playthrough with my Barbarian.

I've played and completed Diablo, Diablo 2 (with and without Lords of Destruction), Torchlight, Torchlight 2. They're all great games and as someone else said D2 is the "gold standard" of sorts. I haven't played any others enough to make an objective comment about them yet.

On the multi-player side of things, D2 is the strong point for the Diablo games IMHO (never played D3 and not interested in it). Torchlight 1 does not have multi-player but Torchlight 2 multiplayer was quite good, I enjoyed it as well.

I misread Titan Quest AE in the thread title as Titan AE, and wondered why there was a movie in the middle of a list of games :-D

Great movie, by the way. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

Grim Dawn has a lot of nice Elements but doesn't do anything special. It takes a tried and true formula and executes it VERY well, though. Van Helsing is meh, especially the final cut. TL 2 is worth playing, as is Diablo 2. I love me some Dungeon Siege (WHY IT NO HERE GOG?!!)