The Forefather

There have been a lot of Action RPG games released, but the pinnacle of this genre was Diablo 2. 

Diablo 2 is arguably one of the best isometric Action RPG games ever created. Released in 2000. It was developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment. 

Released 3 years after the original Diablo, this was the most anticipated game at the time. It launched to great critical and commercial success.  

It was so successful in fact, that every game in this genre is compared to it. Diablo 2 had it all, from the characters, to the story, to the skills, to the memorable bosses, to the absolutely huge maps and the thousands & thousands of items. This game was essentially perfect in every single way. It’s so perfect in fact, that it’s still being played today, some 20 years later. 

There have been a lot of games released in this genre over the years, some great (Titan’s Quest) and some horrible (Fate). Every one of them had one thing in common. They wanted to capture the glory days of what made Diablo 2 special, and failed.

Honorable Mention 

I don’t think I can talk about this genre without mentioning Path of Exile. Path of Exile is one of the more successful Diablo 2 clones, all while being free-to-play. It has a ton of content, weapons, and with 7 characters to choose from, each one of them having 3 different sub-classes. You have a lot to do. 

A sequel to Path of Exile has been announced, but then all information has since died.

I will say one thing though, that is one of the best ways to choose a character that I have ever seen. 

The Future

Last Epoch is the newest game in this genre. The easiest way to describe this game is if Diablo 2 and Path of Exile had a baby. Developed and published by Eleventh Hour Games. A demo was released in 2018 for their Kickstarter campaign, and in April of 2019 they officially launched on Steam as an early access game. The game is expected to release some time in 2021. The developers have been very forthcoming with the community and even have a posted a "development forecast" on this web site and Steam page.  

The Nitty Gritty

There are 5 base classes; Acolyte, Mage, Primalist, Sentinel, and Rogue (the newest class). After you invest 20 points into your base class, you can then choose a “Master Class”. 

Each of the 5 base classes have 3 “Master Classes” to pick from. Each of these further expand your character and allows for another play style. 

All in all, with the base class and master classes. There are 20 playable classes in this game. Each with their own skills and playstyles. 

Not Done Just Yet

On top of your class choice and then Master Class choice. You then have skills to pick. 

Borrowing from Diablo 3, you can only have 5 active skills at a time. Here is where the fun comes in though, each of those 5 skills have their own skill tree. 

Starting at level 4, you can specialize in a skill. When you specialize in a skill, you will then have access to its own skill tree that you can put points into. This skill tree augments the skill to do many different things than the original skill wasn't able to do. You can add elemental damage, give it life leech, allow you to turn invisible, and even increase its attack speed. 

This expands on the character possibilities even further. With this skill tree, you can create synergies between skills. If you are a bow wielding Rogue, you can augment your Flurry attack to launch a multishot, you can then augment your multishot ability to give lightning damage. You can then augment your lightning damage to chain to other enemies allowing you to mow down mobs with reckless abandon.  

The amount of depth in this skill system is endless, and the game isn't even done yet. The game boosts 100+ skill trees, and after playing around with different characters. I can completely see it.

Conclusion 

I have 16 hours into this game and I am addicted. I love this genre of games, being a huge Diablo fan. There is still a lot to do from a development stand point. The new class, Rogue, still has an entire master class that needs to be worked on. The game is still very much in beta, but development is going steadily. I see it hitting its 2021 launch window if nothing comes up.  

Is this going to be the next great Action RPG? It's looking that way honestly. With the depth of this character classes and the endlessness of their skill tree. You could easily sink a hundred hours into this game. End game is here, but it's really grindy at this point in time having to run the same maps over and over again. I am hoping this changes in the future, cause as of now, I have zero reason to constantly run the same thing. 

All in all though, this game is really insanely fun. I cannot wait to see what the future holds. 

Last Epoch is currently in Steam early access. You can purchase it from their store page for $34.99. It's really steep for an early access game, but there is a lot here for that money. This is a beta that feels like a full game.

If you like this genre of game, buy it.

This has been James with Game Fix. Game on everybody!