While they're not multiplayer and both tend to lack somewhat in graphical polish, Depths of Peril and Hinterland are both good D2/Action RPGs with a bit of a twist.
Hinterland has you managing a small village on the edge of a harsh, monster-ridden frontier. You'll have to clear monsters out, gather gold, hire various villagers who you can also take with you monster hunting. You also have occasional requests from the king. "Please provide x amount of food/gold by y days from now." The combat is somewhat bland except for the fact that you can bring along up to three villagers in a party who will fight beside you and level up(while neglecting their village duties.), might become awesome fighters, might run away as cowards, or they might die. Various types of villagers are available, from simple farmers to create food, craftsmen to create items or sell things for gold, all the way up to the more expensive priests and necromancers who will provide magical bonuses. The goal is somewhat simple, just clear out the whole map without being overrun yourself. Each map is randomized somewhat, although your village is always in one corner with the difficulty pretty much in a gradient to the opposite corner. Also a good number of classes to choose from to start, most with a unique perk, some more focused on management, others more on combat. One or two are pretty much completely weak, having to depend almost entirely on villager party members to kill anything.
Depths of Peril is definitely a diablo-like, but the twist this time is you're managing a clan in a village full of other clans. While it's not multiplayer, there's definitely competition here, including diplomacy. Clans can trade, form alliances, even party with each other to achieve goals. But the ultimate goal is to defeat all of the other clans in the village which is achieved by an all out attack on their headquarters, focusing on a crystal which represents the life force of the clan. Again, not much to look at, but plenty of random looting and random quests as well. Even an interesting persistant structure of the quests. You don't have to accept a quest, but say, you didn't kill that weakling little goblin who was gathering a few friends and going around causing minor trouble? Well, say an hour or so later, it comes back to bite you in the butt when the goblin is suddenly a LOT stronger and has a whole army now and about to attack the village. You also have to hire clan mates. You're limited to partying with one at a time, except during the clan v clan battles. Only four classes here to choose from, but they're pretty unique in the way they're played. Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, or Mage each have a different play style and shortcomings which you'll have to overcome with well equipped party members. My only real complaint is that the battlefield can seem kind of cluttered sometimes. Especially when you get down into the dungeons, those places tend to be absolute mazes and because of the way the walls are drawn, it's not always obvious where an open path is. Still, I've had my share of fun with the game, and if you can find it for a good price, definitely worth it.
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Topic: Diablo 2 style of game .. (Read 4495 times)