Titan Quest did a LOT of things right when it first came out years ago. With the Anniversary edition, you get the original base game and the first expansion pack. The graphics have aged a tad, but the game still runs wonderfuly on my mid range 2019 Win 10 laptop. Controls are nice and responsive, and the sound design is top notch. The dual class system is where this game truly shines. Once you level up, you can choose a second class to really make the build your own. There will be some weaker builds (I have restarted the game to try a few different builds, and see what is actually viable for the majority of the game), but it allows you to have some variety, and also experiment with different play styles. The graphics really show the atmosphere of the Ancient Greek era mythology, and the monster variety is quite good.
Well Steampunk Diablo III is a bit a undersell. Crate took an already excellent ARPG base (Titan Quest), added a heavy dosage of Lovecraft and steampunk, and VOILA. You get Grim Dawn. The character customization is quite good, while not as complex as say Path of Exile. Combat feels weighty, with some over the top physics yeeting when some enemies are killed. (I find it quite comical myself.) The dual class system, like in Titan Quest, is very good and quite flexible. The Devotion passive tree is an excellent addition to add a little bit more character customization to your builds. Want a Necromancer that wields dual pistols that shoot fire? You can probably try that. Want a magic user who also can tank damage and uses magic infused melee attacks. You can try that. The setting, enemies, graphics are very well done for its time frame of release, and hold up well. I love the dark, Lovecraft inspired steampunk setting. The expansions provide even more classes and masteries so you can add even more build combos then ever. If you get tired of the somewhat overly complicated passive skill tree of POE, or some of the sluggish movement of Diablo II, or even some of the absolute baffling decisions of Diablo III. Give Grim Dawn a chance, you may actually enjoy it...
Like the sequel, Sacred is a very large open world ARPG. The combat is not super complex but satisfying (although a bit easy as well). There is enough Character differences to make it worth while to see which character playstyles suit you the best. Quests can sometimes be a little buggy (enemies that should spawn for certain 'defeat x amount of enemies don't spawn in the places as they should.), some quests can also be a little obtuse with very little description in the quest journal for guidance. Horse traversal is good, but buggy. Graphics are good for their time, but also show their age in comparison to Sacred's ARPG contemporaries. If you don't mind some of the jank, but like exploring a large open world with decent character selection, try out this game, you like it, buggy warts and all.
I have this game on Xbox as well. But this is a a great open world game, albeit with a bit of jank, and bugs. But the world is HUGE. There are literally hundreds of quests in this game. Mount system is good from what I have seen of it, and the character playstyles are good, and each character plays different enough from each other. Combat can be a little strange an janky at times, with no real skill to it (mostly just click the attack or skill buttons over and over. But if you want a good, large open world ARPG game with decent graphics, and don't mind some jank from time to time, definitely take a look at playing this game.
This is an excellent game to get your start if you have never played an ARPG. This is a good throwback to Diablo, minus the more gothic vibe of Diablo. While the graphics may be a bit too cartoony for some, I think the graphics are a strength and have helped this game age well visually compared to many other contemporaries in this genre. The story is very standard. Wizard seeks magical object, gets corrupted, you try to stop him. Friend gets changed into an evil monster, you kill him, and now you are on your way to loot and hack and slash heaven. Now I will say the voice acting in my opinion is very good, albeit with some hokey and standard 'RPG Trope' lines. The game sound and music is also a big plus with some great music that sounds very 'Diablo-esque'. (Considering most of this development team are from the team that brought us Diablo). The gameplay is fast paced, the enemies are plentiful and killing things is satisfying. And the loot. My God the loot. You get a lot of it. Everything in the inventory only takes up one slot, so no more inventory Tetris here. That's really my biggest complaint. You get just oodles and oodles of loot. You'll get a few levels in and your inventory will be inundated with weapons, armor, jewels, and magical items and the like. With this game it's more about which items you want to keep, not what you need to get. Again if you don't mind the ludicrous amount of loot and the somewhat cartoony graphics, this is a good ARPG with a decent enough story, satisfying gameplay great sound and music for any ARPG fan.
I remember buying a shareware 3.5" disk version of this years ago. I LOVED this game. This is a very solid Apogee platformer. I thought it had good design, nice, bright, cheery graphics and good non annoying sound (some platformers back during this time frame tended to have a stupidly annoying sound). Might have to pick this up since I never could afford the full version back when this first came out...
I bought this years ago for my PC at a local Fry's Electronics. I bought it for two reasons. 1) I really enjoyed Baldur's Gate 1+2 and Neverwinter Nights. (all of which I own). and 2) I really love RTS games. So when I saw that there was a D&D RTS game coming out with RPG elements, I was on board. So I bought the game and installed on my trusty Windows XP PC at the time. And needless to say after about 20+ minutes slogging through the first two missions, I was highly disappointed. The RTS elements are so poorly done (what freaking RTS has a hex system where you HAVE to build on, answer, um, NONE), and the RPG elements are very light and don't really add too much to the game, in my opinion. So unless you are a really, really die hard D&D fan and you really, really love the D&D Eberron set stuff, then maybe go for buying this. But, c'mon GOG 10 bucks for this mediocrity? I can see maybe if this was on sale, or if it was 5 bucks, but at this price I really wouldn't waste my time with this very, very mediocre RPG esque RTS.
