It’s funny, when you talk about an entire sub-genre of gaming you don’t really expect to be talking about just one game with different skins or pallette swaps and yet when it comes to the ARPG genre the only thing we end up really discussing is Diablo and the games that want to be just like it.
Not that these other games are just ripping it off mind, it’s just that the entirety of the genre and Diablo are just so closely intertwined that is not really the case in almost every other section of gaming (well maybe aside from survival games and Minecraft) and as such it’s interesting to talk about this part of the gaming spectrum specifically. To those who haven’t played an ARPG before they are all pretty much isometric RPG games in which you move around a character on screen with your mouse, kill loads of enemies, collect loot and build up your character over time. It’s a formula that is present in almost every single game released in this niche of games and it truly astounds me that you can look at most of them and see the same things over and over.
To me however it’s a bit like the RTS genre in which is does one specific thing, Dungeon Crawling, very good and gives you almost endless amounts of that single thing. It is a smaller section of the gaming world that’s for certain but with the rise of more casual variants and the different ways in which new entries are trying to differentiate themselves it’s clear that it’s becoming more mainstream and maybe this will lead to a true competitor to the Diablo series down the line (well, aside from Path of Exile, but still).
Regardless I’m interested, what do you all think about the ARPG genre? Do you find them to be your favourite kind of games or do you find them repetitive and grindy? Let me know in the comments! That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.