Path of Exile is like Diablo for adults. It’s much more dark and intense in my opinion. It’s worth checking out because the New Zealanders who make it are genuinely good guys.
The second one will be free as well, it isn’t even in beta yet. All micro transactions (I’m sure all the visual ones, not sure about stash tabs but I think they would be as well) will be usable in both games as long as you’re using the same account.
Path of exile is a wonderful experience, I’d suggest watching nyxvellum on YouTube, he started playing path of exile as a Diablo 3/4 player, and has good takes both on starting blindly and using a build guide.
Don’t be intimidated, don’t listen to the trolls and detectors, you can play the entirety of the campaign without 2 clues to the game mechanics. End game you might find more difficult, but by then you’ve experienced a bit of everything and might be interested in pursuing something different from when you started playing.
If you’re going to start path of exile I’ll give you 2 tips, 1) get a generic basic super open loot filter (use one from the path of exile website and it’ll tie to your account and be updated automatically), 2) elemental resistances (to their cap) and HP are the most important stats, chaos resistance and damage being second most important.
It’s a wonderful game with a very active community and development studio.
Haha, yeah, free. I totally haven’t spent hundreds of dollars on the game. It’s over a decade with thousands of hours though. I haven’t really played the last couple years though, but that’s mostly because I have small children and a career
i only played a little of both. i like titan quest for the story and mythology, but grim dawn seems more refined and modern, it’s actually by the SAME team (today i learned)!
I’m aware, but it will likely be mechanically similar. If it turns out to be a Bloodlines 2 situation, I can always just stick to the first game and Grim Dawn, maybe V Rising. And all of that is assuming that as I spend more time in Titan Quest I still enjoy it.
Another option is to get Grim Dawn, and then get the Reign of Terror mod. It’s basically Diablo 2 recreated almost completely + some extra content.
But since you’ve never played Diablo 2, I’d recommend playing it first in some form (D2R or PD2) so you can appreciate the storyline (and the epic cutscenes) - and then play the Grim Dawn mod.
Old timer here… Diablo 2 has a story with an atmosphere that sucks you in. In that sense Diablo 3 was a real disappointment.
Now, if you’re going for Diablo 2 it’s the remastered version you want.
The game is like 20 years old and not made for widescreen so it really feels dated on a modern screen.
Also, prepare for isometric pixel graphics.
Grim Dawn also has a mod called Reign Of Terror that lets you play the entirety of Diablo 2 in GD, complete with classes, skills and items! It has some differences because it’s built on Grim Dawn’s systems, so it has the dual-class system from Grim Dawn (with similarly laid out skill trees), item affixes work like Grim Dawn, etc, but it feels great to play! And you can combine Grim Dawn classes with D2 classes, D2 classes with other D2 classes, or just play the D2 campaign with a regular Grim Dawn build. It’s great!
The Crucible is the weakest - it’s just an arena mode, but it’s got a lot of utility for speed leveling new characters + some QoL for existing ones.
Ashes of Malmouth is the direct continuation of the base game’s story, adds Necromancer and Inquisitor which are both very well-loved masteries, and you need it for Forgotten Gods anyway. The zones are a bit meh - great overall mood but you spend a lot of time in cramped corridors.
Forgotten Gods adds Oathkeeper (very fun) and tons of huge new zones with a refreshingly different vibe to the rest of the game. And you can go to this expansion’s zones from the start! (Except that you probably shouldn’t on your first playthrough, you’d get destroyed and you probably want to focus on the main story anyway.)
I’d wait for a sale and get them all if you like this genre, or just base game + AoM if you just want to give it a shot (and technically you could hold off on AoM until you’re close to the end of the campaign).
I’m so excited for their future projects, book of aliens will be a day 1 pre order for me. There are just a few things I’d change with the gameplay of book of demons, and it would be nice if the references were a bit more subtle, but it’s a great(if simplified) Diablo 2 meets rogue like multi class deck builder amalgamation.
The MTX for PoE are within the “nice” ones. There’s extra stash tabs, but you don’t need to consider that until after the campaign. And then there’s cosmetics. No pay to win. And the MTX are on your account, so they will be on PoE2 as well.
For PoE you consider 30gb installed (on PS5 mind you) a large file size?
Yes it has mtx, but it is not once pushed or advertised to you, and none of it is required for anything. They does improve the QoL of the game however.
CoD + WZ is around 240gb I think.
Most modern AAA games are usually 90gb minimum.
Some years ago they pretty much rewrote the entire base game code (or some parts of it) and tidied it up, reducing the overall size.
It may be larger installed on PC (I’m on PS5) but I can’t imagine there being too much of a difference.
Path of exile charges for inventory QoL and with the ludicrous amount of different stuff that drops, it’s arguably kind of mandatory if you’re trying to complete seasonal objectives
Yes! As a die hard Grim Dawn fan I can say Last Epoch is awesome. Grim Dawn is still better imho, but Last Epoch comes close. Both are excellent games one could easily put 100+ hours in and have a blast.
I just wish that I could start at a higher difficulty on Grim Dawn with the appropriate scaling. I don’t want to do the campaign 3 times just like old days.
Didn’t they just change the game with the last patch (still being updated, my God the devs are GOATed) so they you can play to 100 in any difficulty?
I still imagine you get pasted in elite and ultimate if that’s your issue though.
Okay I’m liking the current class selection, still a little sparse but I mean it’s early access so whatever. But the reason this game is going in my wishlist is this one image
Those fifteen classes are all we’re getting for last epoch. Two of them won’t be live until launch on February 21 (falconer and warlock), but there’s a ton of diversity between those classes.
A game nobody has mentioned yet would be Undecember. Instant dont play if Korean MMO, f2p or an in-game shop scare you away. Behind all that is a pretty good arpg with unique skill combination mechanics that are a joy to experiment with. Beware though that if you want to get really far, the grind won’t stop.
(Progress can be bought, generally it’s just not worth it though, only p2 play hurdle is inventory space and that’s a one time payment of 20-40€ depending on you) I`d recommend checking out a guide or two concerning runes before jumping into the campaign as it can be a bit challenging in the early levels, especially if one doesn’t use all the skills available.
Its 100% free, so you can play it like a demo until you are either fully in or bored.
It gets a season refresh every 3ish months with an entirely new mechanic, so most experienced players restart it 4 times a year, play a new build, and then stop playing when bored and return at the new season so its always got reasons to peek back in and see if you want to rejoin.
The leveling system is a little daunting at first, but the base game is completely playable newbie blind even if you pick “suboptimally” from the skill tree. If youre too worried about FoMo, there are tons of guides online for builds, both top level and newbie friendly.
The attack/skill system is very interesting and completely moddable, tons of replayablility.
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Path of Exile is like Diablo for adults. It’s much more dark and intense in my opinion. It’s worth checking out because the New Zealanders who make it are genuinely good guys.
It looks cool, the first one seems to be free as well
The second one will be free as well, it isn’t even in beta yet. All micro transactions (I’m sure all the visual ones, not sure about stash tabs but I think they would be as well) will be usable in both games as long as you’re using the same account.
Path of exile is a wonderful experience, I’d suggest watching nyxvellum on YouTube, he started playing path of exile as a Diablo 3/4 player, and has good takes both on starting blindly and using a build guide.
Don’t be intimidated, don’t listen to the trolls and detectors, you can play the entirety of the campaign without 2 clues to the game mechanics. End game you might find more difficult, but by then you’ve experienced a bit of everything and might be interested in pursuing something different from when you started playing.
If you’re going to start path of exile I’ll give you 2 tips, 1) get a generic basic super open loot filter (use one from the path of exile website and it’ll tie to your account and be updated automatically), 2) elemental resistances (to their cap) and HP are the most important stats, chaos resistance and damage being second most important.
It’s a wonderful game with a very active community and development studio.
Haha, yeah, free. I totally haven’t spent hundreds of dollars on the game. It’s over a decade with thousands of hours though. I haven’t really played the last couple years though, but that’s mostly because I have small children and a career
Last Epoch scratches that itch real good for me and it’s hitting release in a few days.
Yes.
Truly a man of the people
Path of Exile,
The true successor to Diablo 2
Grim Dawn
How would you say Titan Quest compares?
I enjoyed Titan Quest more, but that may be down to the less grimdark aesthetics. Gameplay wise they’re both fine hack ‘n’ slashes.
Haven’t played it. My progression was Diablo 2 -> Torchlight 1 and 2 -> Grim Dawn
i only played a little of both. i like titan quest for the story and mythology, but grim dawn seems more refined and modern, it’s actually by the SAME team (today i learned)!
Yeah, that last part I knew, but I started diving into this genre with Titan Quest because the sequel is allegedly coming out this year.
forgot about that, I would personally wait for the sequel but the first game is cheap anyway
The Titan Quest sequel is being done by a completely different team, no guarantee it captures the same magic as the original.
I’m aware, but it will likely be mechanically similar. If it turns out to be a Bloodlines 2 situation, I can always just stick to the first game and Grim Dawn, maybe V Rising. And all of that is assuming that as I spend more time in Titan Quest I still enjoy it.
Grim Dawn is “What if a sequel to Diablo 2, but not Diablo 3?”
Oh? I’ve only actually played 3 so I have no reference to 2 and what the differences are
Another option is to get Grim Dawn, and then get the Reign of Terror mod. It’s basically Diablo 2 recreated almost completely + some extra content.
But since you’ve never played Diablo 2, I’d recommend playing it first in some form (D2R or PD2) so you can appreciate the storyline (and the epic cutscenes) - and then play the Grim Dawn mod.
Old timer here… Diablo 2 has a story with an atmosphere that sucks you in. In that sense Diablo 3 was a real disappointment.
Now, if you’re going for Diablo 2 it’s the remastered version you want. The game is like 20 years old and not made for widescreen so it really feels dated on a modern screen. Also, prepare for isometric pixel graphics.
Grim Dawn also has a mod called Reign Of Terror that lets you play the entirety of Diablo 2 in GD, complete with classes, skills and items! It has some differences because it’s built on Grim Dawn’s systems, so it has the dual-class system from Grim Dawn (with similarly laid out skill trees), item affixes work like Grim Dawn, etc, but it feels great to play! And you can combine Grim Dawn classes with D2 classes, D2 classes with other D2 classes, or just play the D2 campaign with a regular Grim Dawn build. It’s great!
EDIT: spelling
Thanks for this!
Omg how have I not heard about this. I’m blaming you for my lack of social life in the next couple weeks. Not that I have one to begin with.
I’ll see you at the end of Act 2 when you remember what a fucking slog Act 3 was and decide you’ve scratched the itch.
I’m now just learning of this too and intend to do the same
Those fucking demon pygmies! Whenever I played necro, I always corpse exploded all of them
Grim dawn looks cool aesthetically and I’m liking the UI and how big the skill tree looks. Are any of the expansions any good?
All of them, honestly.
The Crucible is the weakest - it’s just an arena mode, but it’s got a lot of utility for speed leveling new characters + some QoL for existing ones.
Ashes of Malmouth is the direct continuation of the base game’s story, adds Necromancer and Inquisitor which are both very well-loved masteries, and you need it for Forgotten Gods anyway. The zones are a bit meh - great overall mood but you spend a lot of time in cramped corridors.
Forgotten Gods adds Oathkeeper (very fun) and tons of huge new zones with a refreshingly different vibe to the rest of the game. And you can go to this expansion’s zones from the start! (Except that you probably shouldn’t on your first playthrough, you’d get destroyed and you probably want to focus on the main story anyway.)
I’d wait for a sale and get them all if you like this genre, or just base game + AoM if you just want to give it a shot (and technically you could hold off on AoM until you’re close to the end of the campaign).
Absolutely. All of the expansions are good, but especially the ones that add extra masteries (classes).
I’ve had a lot of fun with Book of Demons, which is a bit more simplified, but really respects whatever amount of time I have to put into it!
Book of Demons was so good. Shame the roadmap the indie studio made couldn’t be met. It was wildly ambitious.
I’m so excited for their future projects, book of aliens will be a day 1 pre order for me. There are just a few things I’d change with the gameplay of book of demons, and it would be nice if the references were a bit more subtle, but it’s a great(if simplified) Diablo 2 meets rogue like multi class deck builder amalgamation.
Path of Exile, Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, Torchlight 2
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How is the couch co-op for Titan Quest? My SO and I spent a ton of time on Diablo 3 together and I might consider trying that again.
No couch coop on PC, so I don’t know.
There is 2 player local coop for Playstation, XBox and Nintendo though
https://www.co-optimus.com/game/334/pc/titan-quest.html
this is the definitive list.
path of exile is most popular but has optional mtx(?)
titan quest and Torchlight are on multiple consoles. titan quest has a sequel in production
grim dawn is by the titan quest team, has a small file size, and runs well on older pcs.
The MTX for PoE are within the “nice” ones. There’s extra stash tabs, but you don’t need to consider that until after the campaign. And then there’s cosmetics. No pay to win. And the MTX are on your account, so they will be on PoE2 as well.
For PoE you consider 30gb installed (on PS5 mind you) a large file size? Yes it has mtx, but it is not once pushed or advertised to you, and none of it is required for anything. They does improve the QoL of the game however.
CoD + WZ is around 240gb I think. Most modern AAA games are usually 90gb minimum.
true, I thought it was larger for some reason
Some years ago they pretty much rewrote the entire base game code (or some parts of it) and tidied it up, reducing the overall size. It may be larger installed on PC (I’m on PS5) but I can’t imagine there being too much of a difference.
Path of exile charges for inventory QoL and with the ludicrous amount of different stuff that drops, it’s arguably kind of mandatory if you’re trying to complete seasonal objectives
Its also free to play.
Or as some streamers say: its a $60 game with an incredibly generous free trial.
Does Last Epoch belong on this list too?
Yes it absolutely does belong! It’s officially launching on February 21, but it’s currently available in beta/early access.
Yes! As a die hard Grim Dawn fan I can say Last Epoch is awesome. Grim Dawn is still better imho, but Last Epoch comes close. Both are excellent games one could easily put 100+ hours in and have a blast.
I just wish that I could start at a higher difficulty on Grim Dawn with the appropriate scaling. I don’t want to do the campaign 3 times just like old days.
Didn’t they just change the game with the last patch (still being updated, my God the devs are GOATed) so they you can play to 100 in any difficulty? I still imagine you get pasted in elite and ultimate if that’s your issue though.
I don’t know, haven’t played with that feature. The campaign with expansion is long enough that it was a pain to go through it to get to endgame.
It’s a good thing that you can skip that.
Yeah I’m hoping so as well, haven’t played since that patch. I got really burnt out spamming the story over and over too.
I’ve only heard good things but haven’t tried it yet, probably does belong!
Ive had a ton of fun playing it!
Last Epoch seems to be the most popular recent one. It’s currently in early access but it’s releasing in a week or so.
Okay I’m liking the current class selection, still a little sparse but I mean it’s early access so whatever. But the reason this game is going in my wishlist is this one image
That looks so fucking cool
Those fifteen classes are all we’re getting for last epoch. Two of them won’t be live until launch on February 21 (falconer and warlock), but there’s a ton of diversity between those classes.
A game nobody has mentioned yet would be Undecember. Instant dont play if Korean MMO, f2p or an in-game shop scare you away. Behind all that is a pretty good arpg with unique skill combination mechanics that are a joy to experiment with. Beware though that if you want to get really far, the grind won’t stop. (Progress can be bought, generally it’s just not worth it though, only p2 play hurdle is inventory space and that’s a one time payment of 20-40€ depending on you) I`d recommend checking out a guide or two concerning runes before jumping into the campaign as it can be a bit challenging in the early levels, especially if one doesn’t use all the skills available.
Path of Exile.
Its 100% free, so you can play it like a demo until you are either fully in or bored.
It gets a season refresh every 3ish months with an entirely new mechanic, so most experienced players restart it 4 times a year, play a new build, and then stop playing when bored and return at the new season so its always got reasons to peek back in and see if you want to rejoin.
The leveling system is a little daunting at first, but the base game is completely playable newbie blind even if you pick “suboptimally” from the skill tree. If youre too worried about FoMo, there are tons of guides online for builds, both top level and newbie friendly.
The attack/skill system is very interesting and completely moddable, tons of replayablility.
If you like diablo, try PoE.
Looking forward to PoE2
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As an addition to all the great titles already mentioned: Wolcen
It was pretty rough around the edges when it released, but they since finished it and I liked it quite a lot.
Oh God there’s so many options I’m honestly not sure where I’m gonna find the time to play all of these now but I sure want to
Since the good ones have been said, allow me to give a niche option; Untold Legends. Grab youself a psp or an emulator and enjoy. It slaps.
Yo, I got a PSP as a kid and this game came with it. Very dark, an absolute trip of a game.
The incredible adventure of van helsing.
Last Epoch. It has the best crafting and best skill system of any ARPG IMO.
Absolutely this, the crafting system is a great balance of getting what you want but also giving you something to try again and again for.
Basically that and the talent trees inside skills sold me on this game.
And it has an actual endgame, leaderboards, and it’s half the price of Diablo 4. It’s a no-brainer IMO.