3) Snowblind Studios -PS2 era

Photo courtesy of BioWare

Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance, Champions Of Norrath and Champions Return to Arms. These games brought the PC action RPG experience to the consoles and they did it with style. With the extremely popular backdrop of the forgotten realms and later Everquest’sNorrath Snowblind crafted RPG tales that combined just the right amount of genre cheese and modern sensibility. Most importantly these games gave us characters that played uniquely and worked well together and lets not forget all the amazing loot. You can probably find these games in the used bin at an EB Games for under ten bucks, failing that hit up Ebay. These games cannot be missed.

2) Divine Divinity

Photo courtesy of CDV, Snowball Studios

Divine Divinity similarly to Sacred drops a heavier dose of RPG in with the action of Diablo. The game features a rich RPG world that has been expanded in Beyond Divinity, Divinity 2: Flames of Vengeance and the upcoming Divinity: Original Sin. The game is built around the pre rendered backgrounds and sprites of Diablo 2 but far exceeds it in terms of quality and depth. The world is massive and littered with items you would expect to see in a living-breathing world. Though you choose from a male or female version of one of three classes at the outset of the game you are never bound by your class, you can truly mix and match skills and abilities as you choose. The game features full voice acting and the majority of it is fantastic. Divine Divinity has a classic fantasy tale to tell but it never forgets to lighten up and the self-referential humor truly succeeds. This one is a personal favorite for this list, check it out.

1) Torchlight

Photo courtesy of Runic Games

Who could make a better Diablo clone than the remnants of the original team? Torchlight’s ex Blizzard roots show in spades. This game in many ways is a love letter to the original Diablo. You pick from one of three characters, analogues of Diablo’s sorcerer, warrior and rogue and delve into the central dungeon of Torchlight. One town, 35 dungeon levels and 3 classes, that’s what you get with Torchlight and it is near perfect. Each class features three skill trees and they play very differently, the stats are sublimely simple and focus on channeling the main attraction the combat and the loot. Torchlight features some of the best loot and treasure systems in any RPG, exceeded only by what is offered in Diablo 3. Torchlight also gives you a companion animal creature to fight alongside you, the dog or cat can be morphed into monsters or work as a mule for your loot. Torchlight features a cartoon 3D graphics engine that empowers the very generic plot. The game looks like a Saturday morning cartoon about a steampunk world and that’s awesome.Torchlight’s voice acting isn’t great but the game doesn’t force plot on you. Torchlight is free when you preorder the sequel from steam for a total of 20 bucks, at that price you have to be nuts to pass this over.