[aidenn0]

I have no clue why, but the Diablo style dungeon-crawler ARPGs are literally the only subgenre of game that I have not found a single game from which I like.

I keep trying examples because it's such a strange (and popular) hole in my tastes.

Games I've tried:

- Diablo

- Diablo II

- Nox

- Dungeon Siege

- Divinity

- A few others I'm probably forgetting.

[atdrummond]

I historically have not been a major fan of ARPGs and share with you the list of games that haven’t moved the needle for me.

Path of Exile fundamentally changed my view on the genre and enabled me to retrospectively re-evaluate many of the ARPGs I had played to this point.

The granular level of control you have over your playstyle and strategy is incredible; it is insane how rewarding it is to be the first person to create a new approach to playing a character and have this build succeed in combat.

I highly recommend giving it a shot if you at all enjoy the cerebral, long term planning aspects of gaming.

[nottorp]

> cerebral, long term planning

That is, until you reach the end game and you realize how much you have to grind because of their completely random crafting system.

PoE is the game that weaned me off "but the microtransactions are cosmetic". It's simply designed to keep you ingame for so long that you get bored and buy a few hideout skins and character skins.

If you mean the skill tree, most people just follow a guide.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

<< If you mean the skill tree, most people just follow a guide.

At the beginning? Sure. Eventually though a boredom does set it and a player seeks their own fun be it lore, own builds or something else like gauntlet. I am saying this as a person, who spent too much time on it already.

[nottorp]

I quit when I realized getting +2 to minions on my headgear meant farming 100k of <whatever that item was called> to roll the helmet endlessly.

It's just like lootboxes but you farm them ingame. Still boring.

[notTooFarGone]

You really didn't understand crafting then. It's an optimization problem that you have to solve.

Analogy: You don't try to brute force passwords as it takes far too long, you look for smarter options. Same in PoE - you NEVER roll your gear with chaos orbs, you look for vectors to increase your chances.

The whole game is one optimization simulator and it tingles that part of my brain.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

Thank you. I was trying to find the words for why it seems so addictive and this captures it. I am now playing ruthless ( ssf hc btw ) and even though I keep getting smacked down, I keep trying to get back up. The mode forces you to work with what you have and optimize at all times.

[nottorp]

Heh, I've been on all PoE crafting simulators and learned about the optimized paths.

The only difference is you don't use the relatively common chaos orbs but the much less common <whatever orbs>. Time spent grinding is the same.

Still a nope.

[aidenn0]

I'm actually a huge fan of ARPGs (e.g. Seiken Densetsu), just not the kind that are in the Diablo line. I definitely have unusual sensibilities for RPGs in general because I didn't like Planescape Tormet either (though I enjoyed the SSI Gold Box games when I was younger).

[uzerfcwn]

Sacred 1 really stood out for me as a cool open world ARPG with dungeons and lots of side quests. It gets too grindy later on though.

[egometry]

Have you tried Torchlight?

I dislike the entire Genre EXCEPT Torchlight 1&2

And I've never really been able to put my finger on why

[solardev]

Have you tried the more casual ones, like Torchlight 1/2?

Diablo 3 (after all the changes of its first year) also plays very smoothly and is much easier to get into D2.

There are other titles too but they're mostly similar to the ones you've already disliked. Maybe it's just not your genre? No biggie

[Cthulhu_]

Which part is it that you're not vibing with? For me personally, I think the story of e.g. Diablo 3 is gash, but it's when you're higher level, get a great gearset and can just whirlwind through levels and zone out where it comes into play.

But I get what you mean; I've tried PoE and didn't get very far at all, just lost interest. I've spent a bit more time with Grim Dawn, but that game seems to just drag on, I've tried two playthroughs and didn't get behond the second chapter/act I think. I don't know what it's missing, I'm sure it's a great game if people are into that kind of game.

[YurgenJurgensen]

Doesn't this just show the fundamental problem with the genre? In the time it takes to get a high level character with good gear in DIII you could have played another, shorter, game to completion. If you have to play through an entire game's worth of bad content to get to the good bits, why not just play a game that's good from the start?

[drw85]

The good bits are also very short lived. Basically once you get all items you need for a build it's fun for an hour, but from then you only get marginal improvements in grinding to get even better versions of the same items.

For me that's when i get bored and lose interest. The problem with D3 is that you can skip pretty much all the boring prep and just hit max. lvl in minutes and then play a couple hours to get the needed items.

[somat]

Same here, after a bit of thought I think it is because I bounce hard off the control scheme. the controls are for a rts, which would be fine if I was controlling a bunch of units but I am not. I am controlling only one unit. I keep concentrating on how much the controls suck and how much fun it would be as a run and gun(or twin stick shooter if you prefer that terminology).

[oreally]

I suspect if you don't approach games from the 'I must be immersed' angle you'll enjoy it much better. Games are much more than that.

[devman0]

Not a player of it myself, but Path of Exile was pretty popular with my Diablo liking friends during the in between years of Diablo releases.

[wesammikhail]

Diablo and PoE differ in tone and gameplay. One is darker and more story/world focused, which is what people tend to love about it, while the other is about management of extreme complexity. Path of Exile (and by extension the upcoming path of exile 2) is all about sinking thousands of hours into understanding game mechanics. The level of depth in that game is unmatched while the story is a complete clusterfuck. For example: you need third party programs to just help you understand how much damage you´re doing due to the number of variables that need to be accounted for https://pathofbuilding.community/images/pob_overview.png

Reason I say this is because if the parent comment is looking for something to try, it is important to keep in mind that PoE is really difficult for beginners to get into and play casually.

[solardev]

PoE isn't too hard to play in the beginning, as long as you learn the skill gem system (takes 5 min?)

But yeah it gets immensely complicated in the endgame. I've been playing for about a year now and am barely just starting to understand it.

That said, it's still a lot of fun. It took me a while to get over the frustration but once I did, it became one of my all time favorite ARPGs... and games, period.

It's totally free too. You only pay for cosmetics and optional extra bank (stash) space. A really fair monetization model that doesn't sacrifice the player experience, so on that front I totally support what they're hilding. (They are, however, owned by Tencent now sadly.)

[mysterydip]

I enjoyed the customization multiclassing in titan quest. It's also a different theme, using greek mythology.