What's new in the world of ARPGs and other lootgrinders?

Gaming
#1

The other day I had a need to play an Diablo-style ARPG lootgrinder where I could play a class with meaningful wolf/dog companions.

I don’t know why I had this need, but I’ve found that if you’re in a place where you know you want something, it’s best to just accept it and steer into it.

So I went on my own personal quest to see what’s new in the world of lootgrinders. I spent some time in Path of Exile and it led me to discover Last Epoch.

I’ve also started experimenting with new tags on the forum. We now have: #lootgrinder, #arpg, and #lootshooter. The idea is to use these tags only on the “Official Threads Topics” for games so it’s easy to get a list of discussions of specific types of games. I’ll be looking at a tag like #space for games like Elite: Dangerous and No Man’s Sky. We also already have a tag for #racing.

Anyway, that’s a tangent…

My question is: Do you know of any new-ish lootgrinder games that are maybe worth attention? Or even an old ARPG or MMORPG that might be worth a re-look?

After spending a few hours each with Path of Exile and Last Epoch, each of them has issues with the early game loot cycle. Beyond a certain point, the loot you pick up doesn’t matter except to be ground into crafting materials or currency.

It’s a similar thing with my first few hours with Torchlight 3. Eventually you’re just feeding your loot to a tree, or grinding it down into crafting materials.

Diablo 3 has a pretty good mid-game loot cycle, but it’s so short-lived because you transition quickly to just grinding for legendaries and sets and turning your magical and rare loot into dust.

I’m curious to find out what y’all think of the current state of #lootgrinder games. Is there perhaps a gem out there that I’ve been missing?

4 Likes
Roguelike, Roguelike-like and Roguelite games
Torchlight III — Fame, Fortune, or the Future of the Frontier
#2

I don’t think I’ve played a game like that since Grim Dawn. Which is strange really since love ARPGs.

2 Likes
#3

Wolcen?

2 Likes
#4

Oh yeah. Not mentioned, but I checked it out. Very negative reviews on Steam, combined with heavy criticism after its latest patch.

Have you played it recently? Is it worth a relook?

I’ve also checked out Pagan Online, but people are saying it has no endgame.

1 Like
#5

Oh yeah, I tried the beta for that and the controls were horrible! I hope they fixed it before release.

2 Likes
#6

Never played, only looked at videos. A colleague raves about it, and he’s not prone to fanboism. Also, steam’s breakdown of review ratings are a problem. I see 17k negative, and 19k positive from jan 2020. In May 2020, it’s +304 to -307. Even if you account for a review quality variance and bell curve , you’re looking at round about equal positive to negative rating. :man_shrugging:

2 Likes
#7

The last time we played Wolcen, we decided to stop, we want to play it, I miss playing it. But their broken multiplayer was so bad that I just couldnt.

#8

In fairness, Steam does actually say “Mixed”. I guess I just remembered the negative ones because they were more detailed than the positive ones. I’ll also link the video I watched before deciding which game to buy (Last Epoch or Wolcen) in the Wolcen topic.

Steam’s review rating system has actually come a long way. They’ve got that “Recent Reviews” rating now to address problems with review bombing, and they let people vote on whether a review was helpful or funny, pushing those reviews to the top.

1 Like
#9

Absolutely. I stopped because of that as well. Their network code is aweful. Unless you are playing really close to their servers, you can forget dodging out of any nasty effects.

2 Likes
#10

I can recommend this game:

It is pricy now, I got it on a real good sale from Steam for R250 a while back. Amazing ARPG.

2 Likes
#11

So reading this thread and taking inspiration from @SIGSTART, I too am staring into what I’ve been craving, and that’s some Titan Quest. The Anniversary edition is currently installing. I played the everlasting crap out of the game way back when, and have been thinking about getting back into it. And this is from someone that doesn’t like ARPGs like this. Don’t really know if Titan Quest is an ARPG, but I guess it is.

1 Like
#12

One of my favourite rpg’s. And the mod scene is still alive and kicking. Favourite mastery combo?

1 Like
#13

Just a few comments about the warhammer 40k ARPG I listed above: the one thing that always irritates me about the isometric view used in ARPGS is that you have a much bigger field of view at the “top” of the screen than below and to the sides. Warhammer 40k has a lot of gun play in it so seeing a target at the longest range possible is ideal. In this game you can swivel the screen around so that the direction you are walking always faces the top of the screen, showing you the longest view there. I found that quite handy when playing this game.

2 Likes
#14

I dived into it this Sunday and today, took a bit of a personal day. I went with warrior and defence class specialization. Both makes you a super tank and I love playing games like this as a hard hitting melee warrior unit. Magic is for the weak! Swords and shields are for the strong!!

I played until past Delphi, and man, did I miss Titan Quest. It really is such a fun game.

2 Likes
#15

R166, summer special price. Well worth the money. for R 271.66 you get the entire package, all DLCs and the really good expansion with a pet class.

This is a really good ARPG

3 Likes
#16

Two new ARPGs got pushed into my Steam recommended feed: Hellpoint (Cradle / tinyBuild, and Blightbound (Ronimo / Devolver).

2 Likes
#17

Quite Shy has done her thing on Hellpoint. Apparently it’s pretty bad.

2 Likes
#18

I am still looking for a good ARPG that is coop and just works!

1 Like
#19

I think the bar has stopped at D3 for now. I don’t see that changing until at least 3 major patches of D4.

2 Likes
#20

Unsure if it’s worth a look, not my cuppa tea but came up in my feed.

3 Likes