Is Blizzard finally creating a freaking Diablo MMO? Is everyone desperately itching for Lost Ark? Why the hell is there a Japanese popstar dancing in the background while I’m telling you about all this? We’re sorry, but we don’t have any answers for you right now. Well, maybe just on the J-pop girl, since we know that’s Vita from Master X Master, in case you want to google it.
So, no Diablo MMO and Lost Ark is still probably a couple of years away. But if you want some valid alternatives while you wait for that to happen, then you’ve come to the right place. Here are ten Diablo-like games that are the best available right now or in a few months. Let’s begin with our Top 10 Free Online Action RPG Diablo Like Games 2016~2017.
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10 – KINGSROAD
KingsRoad is a nice little game that launched on browser and Facebook. Sure, we also die a little inside every time we hear the words “game” and “Facebook”, but please bear with us! KingsRoad is a good one, a gem of a game that is so streamlined, with a no-bullshit approach that could make it the arcade game of online RPGs. It looks pretty decent, there’s a great feeling to the character control and combat, and you can play co-op with two buddies or PvP with three more players. It’s too bad there are only three classes, so while you can get a tremendous amount of loot to customize your character, more choices would be welcome. If you want a nice little RPG to kill some time, you could do a lot worse than KingsRoad.
Drakensang Online isn’t a spring chicken anymore. In fact, this game was one of the first proper Diablo-like MMOs and launched in 2011 as a browser game, so you’ll be excused if you find it somewhat dated nowadays. While it was well received, it also endured plenty of criticism about pay-to-win concerns, something that was smoothed in 2015, when the Rise of Balor expansion released and the Crystals of Truth were removed from the game. It could – and should – have more than four heroes after all these years, but combat still manages to offer some solid fun and there’s a nice amount of content to dive into.
8 – DEVILIAN
One of the few horror-themed MMOs, Devilian is another import from South Korea and it takes obvious inspiration from Diablo, only this time you are actually a half-devil and possess a devil transformation. It’s not the deepest game and we’ll be damned if only having four gender-locked classes isn’t too skimpy in this day and age – if you prefer the Cannoneer class but you hate playing loli characters, then you’re screwed. The combat system is pretty decent and you should already know how it goes, with plenty of ability spamming, so beware of your carpal tunnel syndrome – but that could be said about most, if not all the games on this top 10. Don’t go into Devilian expecting a deep lore or awe-inspiring quests, as most of what you’ll be doing is killing ‘X’ monsters and repeating over and over, with a particular mention to the endgame grind. Overall, Devilian is a pretty decent game, but you’ll have to spend a few bucks to remove some limitations and fully enjoy the game.
Here’s one game that hasn’t aged a bit – obviously, we might add, because it already looked old as heck when it launched a few years ago. Now more seriously, Realm of the Mad God goes for this retro 8-bit style that makes it difficult to properly place if you don’t know exactly when it was released, and that is one of its major achievements. A few years after release, this hard-as-nails bullet hell MMORPG remains utterly simple but has enough classes to keep you coming back for more, trying the rest and seeing which suits your playstyle. It also seems that the pay-to-win that plagued it a while ago is no more, with a friendlier business model that lets you win stuff just by playing. Oh, and permadeath, did we mention it? Yes, there’s permadeath and you’ll certainly die so, so many times in this game that you’ll wonder just why you keep trying one more time. The answer is because Realm of the Mad God is addictive as hell.
6 – HEROWARZ
Far from being a Diablo clone, HeroWarz is more of an anime action RPG that just happens to be played in an isometric perspective. There’s a comic book style to the way that the narrative is introduced and the cast of heroes couldn’t be more colourful and over the top, in a good way. From guns to swords, baseball bats or chains, there are different methods to destroy the endless hordes that attack you from every side. You can play in co-op with friends or try the MOBA-style PvP, but HeroWarz is clearly built for players to enjoy the campaign. This isn’t a groundbreaking game, far from it, but it manages to do one of the things that so many others have failed – to be fun to play.
5 – TREE OF SAVIOR
Don’t let the cute anime visuals fool you; Tree of Savior is a somewhat crude, bug-ridden MMORPG that will quickly remind you of old-school RPGs for more reasons than one, and that’s not just the fact that this is a spiritual sequel to Ragnarok Online. It’s due in part to a lack of optimization, bugs and exploits, a level design that could be better and bosses that look good but have the AI of a bowling ball. But hey, old school also means all of that, we could say. It’s about peeling through the layers and discovering a really good, challenging game with dozens of classes, a truly stunning art style and plenty of replayability if you’re in it for the long grind (pun intended). If you get a few friends to go along for the ride you’ll barely notice some of the major flaws and make the experience a lot more fun. Maybe in a couple of years Tree of Savior will become the game that it should have been from the start, but for now it’s already a very interesting if flawed experience.
4 – MASTER X MASTER
“Wait, isn’t that a MOBA?”, we hear you say. Well, you’re not wrong, but Master X Master is in fact a hybrid, a game mixing MOBA elements with action RPG gameplay. If we had to choose, we would say it’s pending more for the latter, as the PvE content is really interesting to go through and rich enough to keep you and a few friends entertained for some time. There’s a storyline to keep you going, you’ll travel through some iconic locations from NCSoft’s games, and there are some nice, visually striking bosses to mow down. Of course, the several masters taken from the studio’s most popular games are also a great draw to this game, with over 30 characters announced – while a few of them are original and interesting creations, others come straight from Blade & Soul, Guild Wars 2, Aion and Lineage, for example. All things considered, Master X Master is a polished, carefully crafted experience with some truly addictive gameplay.
3 – MU LEGEND
The MU franchise never hid its inspiration from the Diablo series, but MU Legend is a major step in the direction of the action-based gameplay made popular by Blizzard. Despite the comparisons, there’s a lot to recommend about this new hack and slash. This is a really simple game to get into, you’ll be instantly at home with the point and click controls and during the first Korean closed beta, there was no sign of MU Legend being a grindy, boring game – in fact, you swiftly progress and discover new environments and enemies and that is a big plus as you don’t get tired of doing the same quests in the same place. You can, of course, ramp up the difficulty for a proper challenge. Pets, mounts and wings are all part of the deal, as well as crafting and PvP, for example with a 10vs10 arena. While overly familiar to be groundbreaking, MU Legend is a very good game that fans of the genre should delve into as soon as they can.
2 – MARVEL HEROES
Marvel Heroes has grown so much since it launched in 2013 – in fact, it was even rebranded Marvel Heroes 2016 because of that, and we’re certainly in for another name change next year. It is one of the best superhero games out there, if not the best, and has a ton of characters for you to pick and level up with, as well as controller support and a friendly business model that isn’t trying to screw you up. Marvel Heroes gets new content regularly and is up-to-date with the new superhero stuff, such as focusing on Deadpool when the movie was all the rage, or new costumes based on TV shows, such as Luke Cage – events related to new Marvel movies or shows are commonplace. It’s extremely fun in short bursts but a bit repetitive in the long run, combat is fun but when several players are going at it at the same time it can become a bit confusing. With all the heroes available and teamplay being a part of it, there’s a lot of replay value, so if you like superheroes and plenty of clicking, this one is for you.
1 – PATH OF EXILE
Oh Path of Exile, how many players have you baffled with your freaking what-the-hell skill tree? I just… where the heck should we place our first skill points? It’s insane! It’s also fantastic, as this offers so many different customization options that you’ll have to try the game over and over with another class or just going through other paths to see how it affects your character. Don’t feel discouraged at the beginning, fight the learning curve and the apparently slow gameplay and you’ll quickly dive into the game, discovering an extremely rewarding and mature gameplay, thousands of hours of content and deep game systems. Support is great, new content is free and of significant size, and Path of Exile has one of the best uses of the free-to-play business model ever – it’s certainly the online RPG that is the fairest and most generous to players. But don’t just take our word for it – you can easily find on Steam players with over 5,000 hours of gameplay, some of them with over 10,000 hours! That’s 416 days, over a year of nonstop Path of Exile gameplay for zero dollars – but don’t you dare not to support the developers with the occasional cosmetic purchase! If this doesn’t impress you, we don’t know what will.
Those are our top games, but wait, we have some more loot for you – as in other suggestions that may or may not be available yet. We’ll begin with the inevitable name of the last few years: Lost Ark. A few lucky players already managed to try it during the Korean closed beta and it is shaping up to be as good as expected, with its cinematic dungeons and fantastic combat. The next game in the Lineage series is also coming and it will certainly be Lost Ark’s main rival, although we’re not entirely sure if it will be free-to-play – Lineage Eternal brings randomized dungeons and mouse gestures to activate skills. If you’re looking for something less gloomy and more cheerful, then the following three games are for you: Seventh Dark Online, previously known as Laplace, is the new game from X-Legend, makers of Aura Kingdom and Twin Saga, and this time the Taiwanese studio chose an isometric perspective and hack and slash gameplay for its new anime game; Arpiel is a nice action RPG that is occasionally so colourful that it may hurt your eyes. We’re exaggerating, of course, and the nice touch in this game is that your character can summon the abilities of a specific animal. We’ll round up our suggestions with MapleStory 2, a game that we’ve already covered in some detail so we won’t go through it again – it’s just a shame that no western release is announced for these last three games. As usual, any other games you can think of, let us know in the comments, and enjoy all the clicking and looting!
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