Looting Dungeons and Loving It: My 25-Year Love Affair with Action RPGs
- PadrePlayz
- Mar 10
- 5 min read
One of my taglines I like to frequently use is "looting dungeons since 1997". That is a 100% factual statement. That was the year my dad brought home a little title called Diablo. At the time I knew nothing of dungeons and dragons, and other than Legend of Zelda not much experience in fantasy RPGs. There was something about this game that drew me to it. This dark, gothic, stylized game about saving a town from demons and evil had such an appeal. The tired worried towns folk, the old wise Deckard Cain, and the haunting Cathedral looming over the town was a perfect setting. I will admit the first time I played I did not know anything about the stats, clearly inspired by dungeons and dragons. But when I first cracked a skeletons skull with my club ( a board with a nail through it) and a bunch of gold dropped I was hooked. 25+ years later I am still playing the action role playing genre defined by blizzard all those years ago.
The Diablo series for me is close to my heart for nostalgia. Just fond memories of me playing with my friends over my shoulder or lending my disc to them so they could enjoy the adventure of Diablo. Comparing notes on how they defeated the Butcher or King Leoric. All good times. Regretfully, I skipped Diablo II, which some would argue the best entry in the franchise. Why did I skip it you ask? Because I was a dumb kid who did not like that they changed the save feature from "save and continue" to "save and quit". I know, I know a stupid reason to skip one of the best PC games of all time. When D3 was announced I was stoked. Bought a new PC, preordered the game at launch, I was all in. It released and it was ummmm.. okay. They really simplified the game I guess to get a new audience, but it made the game really easy. I remember beating it and thinking, "That was fast". Even on the easiest difficulty I always found D1 and D2 (I eventually played years later) challenging. D3 was the opposite. I ended up shelving it until friends got me to play with them and I grabbed Reaper of Souls expansion. Blizzard really improved the game since launch and the expansion was amazing. I replayed the story like 10x, created a bunch of seasonal characters, grinded rift after rift for epic loot. It was just straight up fun and playing with your friends online made it so much more enjoyable.
We are now in the D4 era and I kind of feeling meh about it and I feel bad about feeling meh about it. Not sure if its the game itself or I am just older and games do not have that same hold on me. I am not gaga over D4 like I was anticipating. Its not a bad game and its fun, but I have picked it up and put it down so many times since launch. The monetization of the game is embarrassing for Blizzard. It is priced as a AAA title with battlepasses and crazy expensive cosmetics. I am a believer if the base game is free, sure try to sell me shit. If I am dropping close to $100 (CAD + Sales Tax) then I should be able to earn everything from playing. The expansion recently came out and I have no real urge to buy it. Possibly down the road I will see the expansion on sale, and I will fall back in love with D4.
Diablo defined the isometric ARPG genre, but there are other great games and series out there that do Diablo just as good as Diablo. Path of Exile (PoE) immediately comes to mind. PoE is like if you fed Diablo II steroids and it was developed by the same Soviet scientists that trained Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. It is a hardcore ARPG with a skill tree like a mighty redwood. It is like the craziest thing I have ever seen allowing for infinite possibilities. The currency system is super unique too. There is no gold or silver. There is a barter system using Orbs and these orbs all have different properties you can use to upgrade armour and weapons. The game is also a rare example of microtransactions done right. The entire game is free to play and all updates are free. Only cosmetics like weapon skins, armour skins, and other appearance effects come with a price tag. I have said this more than once on the blog; if a game is fun and free I do not mind throwing some copper to the devs. I want to support free games that give you tons of content and not prey on your wallet maliciously. Currently, PoE 2 is in a paid early access and I have heard great things.
Outside Diablo and Path of Exile there are some other great titles. The Torchlight series is a fan favourite. I have never played the first, but the sequal was fantastic. Its got kind of a cartoony aesthetic and has some interesting classes. TL3 was kind of boring. I played it on the switch and it got old kinda fast. Torchlight: Infinite is the newest. It is a F2P live service model which launched to some heavily negative reviews on Steam. It does sound like they have turned it around based on steam reviews but I have not played it personally. I cannot write an article on ARPGs and not mention Grim Dawn (GD). GD gives off this dark Victorian era vibe in a world full of monsters and demons. From the classes, skill system, to crafting the game has its own flavour which I really enjoyed. The game has tons of content in the base game. On top of that there is a DLC mode where you fight waves of baddies and two expansion packs. A third expansion is on the horizon, but I have heard its been delayed.
Action RPGs are such a fun genre that have been entertaining us for 30 years and hopefully the next 30 years to come. Do you have any recommendations? Would love to hear what your must play ARPGs are. I might already have it sitting in my Steam backlog.
Like always thank you so so much for reading and stay safe out there gamers.
RIP Marvel Heroes
Diablo is the intellectual property of Activision Blizzard, Inc. Path of Exile is the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Ltd. Torchlight is the intellectual property of XD, Inc. and Grim Dawn is the intellectual property of Crate Entertainment,
This article is subject to Fair Use (US Law) and Fair Dealing (Canadian Law) as it is informational in purpose and is a critique of the product. All rights and credits go directly to the owners. No copyright infringement is intended
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