What genre of game is Diablo 2?

[Eric the Orange]

So here is a quick list of games that I would say got a lot of inspiration from Diablo (more specifically Diablo 2)

1. Dungeon Siege (1 and 2, 3 is debatable)
2. Torchlight (and most likely Torchlight 2)
3. Titan Quest.

My question is, what is the genre of these games.

Diablo gets it's roots from Dungeon Crawlers, some times known as Rogue likes (from the game rogue). But these games have evolved and changed so much that it's hard to classify them in the same genre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_crawler

I have heard them referred to as hack and slash, but I've also heard that term used to describe games like God of War, and some times games like golden ax.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_and_Slash

In most genre sorting on websites it falls under "action RPG", which is an incredibly broad term. While this is technically correct, you can find a lot of games under the action RPG umbrella that play very differently from each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_RPG

EDIT: added wiki articles for reference.

 

[Dirzzit]

Dungeon crawler.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Hack and Slash. Meaning I wouldn't call God of War a hack&slash even though it's what you do in 80% of it. GoW seems to me like more of a third-person action game with an emphasis on combat.
Genres these days get more and more ambiguous. I don't think there's much importance to categorizing an old game.

I'm more interested in what to call games that are based off it's same archetype. Because I like this kind of game a lot, and I don't want to look like a ponce calling them "Diablo clones".

 

[Disaster Button]

I always call them Top-Down RPGs.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Action RPG. It has rpg elements, and plenty of action. Dunno, first thing that came to mind anyway...

Also, what the hell is this thing?

 

[Cenequus]

Always called it hack n slash since Diablo 1.

Also Diablo is actually "inspired" by an even older game called "Hero". They pretty much copy-pasted that game with new graphics. I played alot of similar games in the early 90's where they were pretty numerous(not sure how popular).

The popular ones were mostly the Might and Magic/Ultima/Wizardry series which were actually dungeon crawlers and SSI games which had actually D&D license(Pool of radiance,Menzoberranzan etc). The fact that Diablo 1 came out that strong from that '88-'94 age was because people wanted something more light while still having fun in RPG elements. It was a good age for RPGs but they were pretty hard on you. I rremember playing Bard's Tale and drawing the maps square by square and they didn't even had a 20x20 map like Might and magic. So many times I got lost on the infinite street in BT.

 

[Stryc9]

I've always referred to it as an Action RPG and will continue to do so until they come up with something more fitting. Other games such as Torchlight and Titan Quest I tend to refer to as Diablo style games.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Action RPG I always thought was the accepted term.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Other games such as Torchlight and Titan Quest I tend to refer to as Diablo style games.

The problem with using that as the terminology is it makes you look incredibly antiquated. Like how all FPSs used to be "Doom Clones". Or sandbox games "GTA clones".

 

[pat34us]

+1 Action RPG, but when it was released I think it was considered a RPG.

 

[RanD00M]

Action RPG. Thread over. Next question.

 

[4173]

Dungeon Crawler


alternately: massive time sink

 

[Biosophilogical]

Hack and Slash. Meaning I wouldn't call God of War a hack&slash even though it's what you do in 80% of it. GoW seems to me like more of a third-person action game with an emphasis on combat.
Genres these days get more and more ambiguous. I don't think there's much importance to categorizing an old game.

And as more and more complexity is added to the game (through story, mechanics (like elements, weapons, magic, etc), gameplay (how they function), etc), it'll be harder and harder to categorise, because there become more opportunitis for the game to leak into other genres.

EDIT: Dungeon crawler. It also suffers from the Diablo-effect (suffers isn't the correct term, as it isn't a flaw, just a mechanic I don't prefer), you are given a whole bunch of options, but are forced to specialise. Dragon Age had this problem, and I'm pretty sute Borderlands did too (but changing in Borderlands was easy). DA2 didn't suffer from it as much because the game was shorter and faster-paced, so you didn't feel like you were trapped in a single role for very long.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Action RPG I always thought was the accepted term.

While it is probably the most "proper" term, it's only because it's so broad that in can encompass a lot of different style of games. The point of a genre is to use it as a short hand to say, this game plays like these games (or book reads like these books, ect.). Action RPG is a term that can be used to describe games such as,
Secret of Mana
Odin Sphere
Kingdom Hearts
Castle Crashers
Mass Effect
Fallout 3
Not to mention the aforementioned Diablo esque games. So if I say Game A is an Action RPG, it doesn't narrow down the type of games it plays similarly to enough.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Action RPG. Thread over. Next question.

Why would I ask you another question in a thread devoted to this one?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Action RPG I always thought was the accepted term.

While it is probably the most "proper" term, it's only because it's so broad that in can encompass a lot of different style of games. The point of a genre is to use it as a short hand to say, this game plays like these games (or book reads like these books, ect.). Action RPG is a term that can be used to describe games such as,
Secret of Mana
Odin Sphere
Kingdom Hearts
Castle Crashers
Mass Effect
Fallout 3
Not to mention the aforementioned Diablo esque games. So if I say Game A is an Action RPG, it doesn't narrow down the type of games it plays similarly to enough.

But that's the problem with all game genres.

 

[Signa]

It's always been a "hack'n'slash RPG" for me. The only other game I've played that isn't a Diablo clone that is described by this genre title is Gauntlet. It too is much the same style of game, though its RPG elements are far more dumbed down.

 

[Navvan]

Assuming that it only belonged in one genre is where you're getting confused

I would say its a rpg and a dungeon crawler.