A Look At the Three Best Diablo 2 Clones
Diablo 2 is an awesome, mighty game, the one that gave Blizzard the mojo to put out World of WarCraft and instantly have a million folks sign up. The fact that WoW is a solid product meant that the player base doubled, and doubled, and nearly doubled again since release, but the first million is the key, and that wouldn’t have happened with out D2.
There have been at least a dozen different clones of D2, games created by other developers that have pretty much the same style. Most were rightfully sent to the sales bin of oblivion, but a few stood out, as much for their uniqueness as for their resemblance to the mightiest of the hack-and-slash RPGs.
Diablo 2 is still played by tens of thousands of folks daily, but it’s really starting to show its age, so the purpose of this article is to take a look at the best of the clones, so players looking to truly enter the 21st century of this style of play can better choose their new toy.
Diablo 2: “The ultimate combat RPG.”
Dungeon Siege 2: “D2 with larger parties of henchmen.”
Fate: “D2 without annoyances.”
Titan Quest: “D2 in Ancient Greece.”
Good:
D2 devised a whole new scheme for leveling up characters, in the form of skill trees and ability scores. As your character goes up a level, he can increase his attributes (like strength or dexterity), and also gains a precious, precious, skill point for improving in some special skill, one that usually allows him (or her) to administer heavier butt-kicks to the hordes of monsters. The variety in the skill trees means players will need to play multiple times to see all that D2 has available.
Bad:
Character progression is based around a half dozen classes, from heavy melee classes like barbarian and paladin, to magic-intensive classes like sorceress and necromancer. The skill trees allow the player to focus his/her character, so that, say, one paladin might be completely different from another. Alas, all skills are not created equal, and most classes pretty much all look the same; as an added insult, gender is class-based, so if you want to be a sorcerer, you’ll need to be female.
Good:
DS2 allowed the player to pretty much design his own character, from among the four main classes of warrior, wizard, healer, and archer. Again, players pick skills from a tree as they level. Players simply needed to use the skills from each class he wanted until he achieved the desired level in the class, thus granting maximum flexibility in development; players could also choose a race for his character, like elf or human, as well as gender. An expansion created a pair of “mixed” classes, with more skill trees.
Bad:
Since anyone can be anything, everyone is everything. Even a primary warrior is well advised to take a few levels of healing so he can cast healing spells, and a few levels of wizardry (er, “combat magic”) to summon a good pet or to cast a good enhancement (buff) spell on himself. Since the player also controls the development of the NPCs, he/she quickly exhausts all the game has to offer as far as class skills go. Choosing a race is irrelevant, as it minimally affects the character, and the skill trees don’t allow as much variety between classes as in D2.
Fate
Good:
Much like DS2, the player develops his character as he wishes, although without the skill tree. It’s all attributes and basic skills, like “blunt weapon” or “attack spells.” One innovation here is that on replay, the next character is the heir of the first, gaining bonus fame (important for being able to use items) and an heirloom magic item as well.
Bad:
Even more so than in DS2, your character in one game will almost certainly be nearly identical to your character in the next — especially if the heirloom you pass down is a weapon.
Good:
Character development is chosen from 2 basic masteries (i.e., classes), granting 36 different classes, all of which are fairly cool. Again, a player chooses among attributes and from a skill tree as he levels. As he gets three skill points per level, his character can change significantly from level to level. The more powerful skills aren’t so much restricted to character level as to mastery; a player must devote skills points to a mastery (gaining no special ability, but increasing health and attributes) before gaining the more useful skills.
Bad:
TQ shares some of the balance issues with D2, but with so many skills and so many paths of increasing aptitude, a few cracks are bound to show up. Perhaps the biggest drawback to the system is in finding the right items appropriate to your class (but we’ll cover items below).
Best clone in this category: Titan Quest, which offers the greatest variety while still leaving the player free to develop his character as he sees fit, thus avoiding the pitfalls of other clones.
