any good Action RPGs?

[SlowSpyder]

I have over 100 hours in Titan Quest (and the expansion). That game is about as perfect of a hack & slash as I've played. It's long without being drawn out, there are compelling RPG story elements, but never so much as to slow down the game or take away from the action. With the different combinations of skill masteries there are so many ways to develop your character. Really, Titan Quest is about as close to a perfect game as I've played personally. It's a real shame that there won't be a Titan Quest 2. But, at least I have Diablo 3 to look forward too.

I've also been playing a lot of Dungeon Siege lately... gotta like the old games. A bit more 'clunky' then newer games, but still great in their own way.

 

[nZone]

I'm a fan of Diablo but I've put countless hours on TQ/IT. There was supposed to be a TQ2, but they didn't have cash to go forward for development. They had a sales demo...but oh well.

 

[mindcycle]

Silverfall. I know it got terrible reviews, and I admit it was unplayable at first. You just need to get the expansion "earth awakening" which will allow you to play through the original the way it should have been. I spent a whole bunch of hours on it after I picked up the expansion. Pretty fun hack and slash with a decent story.

 

[bullbert]

Originally posted by: Martimus
The vast majority of Role Playing Games I have played do not include character customization. Most of them are like this one, where you are playing a particular role, and there is a particular situation you are thrust into. Some are more open ended than others, but if it was too open ended, it wouldn't be a game, it would just be a virtual life.

That is a common problem with Action-Adventure-RPGs.

Action-Adventure-RPGs have been designed and marketed to appease a larger audience for larger sales volumes. If you want a true RPG, you are going to have to go back to some of the classics that were computerized versions of the old pencil and paper and dice 'board' games. One genre is Arcade with rpg elements while the other genre is D&D with a computerized Dungeon Master. But the industry now calls them both RPGs. Totally different genre but lumped together.

Having to think and reason beyond the next tasks, having to customize each individual member of an entire party, having to play turn-based, having to use a keyboard to control all the varied command options demanded to personally control each party member, etc is a major turn off to many gamers, and this results in sales figures in the 10s of thousands. Offering an action game with a short shallow storyline and a few trainable rpg attributes of a single central character result in sales figures in the 10s of millions across multiple platforms. It is fairly obvious at to which option the Publishers are going to fund the Developers to make.

Another way to look at it is: at least some Arcade games now come with a storyline and require some advanced planning. Kind of like how porn movies now have a script...

 

[oddyager]

Originally posted by: bullbert

Originally posted by: Martimus
The vast majority of Role Playing Games I have played do not include character customization. Most of them are like this one, where you are playing a particular role, and there is a particular situation you are thrust into. Some are more open ended than others, but if it was too open ended, it wouldn't be a game, it would just be a virtual life.

That is a common problem with Action-Adventure-RPGs.

Action-Adventure-RPGs have been designed and marketed to appease a larger audience for larger sales volumes. If you want a true RPG, you are going to have to go back to some of the classics that were computerized versions of the old pencil and paper and dice 'board' games. One genre is Arcade with rpg elements while the other genre is D&D with a computerized Dungeon Master. But the industry now calls them both RPGs. Totally different genre but lumped together.

Having to think and reason beyond the next tasks, having to customize each individual member of an entire party, having to play turn-based, having to use a keyboard to control all the varied command options demanded to personally control each party member, etc is a major turn off to many gamers, and this results in sales figures in the 10s of thousands. Offering an action game with a short shallow storyline and a few trainable rpg attributes of a single central character result in sales figures in the 10s of millions across multiple platforms. It is fairly obvious at to which option the Publishers are going to fund the Developers to make.

Another way to look at it is: at least some Arcade games now come with a storyline and require some advanced planning. Kind of like how porn movies now have a script...

I think when the OP meant character customization, he meant being able to customize the character's appearance, the classes, the skillsets, the gender, etc, which is pretty much the de facto feature of most RPGs.