One of my favorite genres of computer games are ARPGs, especially of the loot and grab/hack and slash style. Typically people think of Blizzard’s Diablo series. There are a couple strong other entries out right now. Path of Exile, an excellent free to play ARPG which would really take a full article to detail how amazing and in depth it is. Marvel Heroes 2015, an ARPG set in the Marvel universe. Torchlight 2 and it’s older sibling Torchlight are both nice light hearted takes on the genre, and good entry points for more casual gamers while still offering a good deal of depth for more serious players. As an added bonus the guys who made Torchlight are making a new game called Rebel Galaxy which I got an early look at, and it was full of win. Gauntlet is somewhat in the same vein, though it’s a bit more arcadey…

Anyhow, it’s among my favorite genres. There are a number of games coming out soon(ish) that I’m particuraly interested in. This is a very quick run down of some of my favorites that I’m looking forward to.

Devilian is an open world MMO with ARPG combat that is already out in Korea and Thailand, among some surrounding areas. The game is being brought to the west by Trion, who brought us ArcheAge (which I’ve covered extensively before overdosing on it). Now plenty of people out there feel upset at Trion for the way ArcheAge was handled at launch, but I for one am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and more than a fair chance to prove themselves with Devilian.

I’ve already covered Devilian to some degree:


Lost Ark Online. Sadly not much information is out there on this title, and that link is to a fan site… however the combat and everything else looks to be epic. It appears to be another open world MMO using ARPG combat.

Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor… An ARPG in the Warhammer 40k universe? Yes please!

Umbra is still in the crowd funding stage, but their technology demo and the rest of the media they’ve put out for it has me sold on it being a very good potential winner. It looks amazing…

Let’s also recall the fallen Shadow Realms, which was going to be a 4 v 1 ARPG being made by Bio Ware… we need to keep this in mind for my future dream ARPG…

So my dream ARPG quick 5 second pitch… It’s more a traditional MMO with ARPG elements, think Devilian or Lost Ark, with a heavy sci-fi flair. However, we really ride the ARPG, especially the Path of Exile ways. I love PoE’s socket system and map system and basically the whole game really… but it’s these elements we’ll be pulling out for this game. Rather than gem sockets, and sticking with the sci-fi flair, these are Tech Slots, which allows various chips to be placed in that enhance one’s abilities (and one can reroll gear to change the slot colors and how they link or not), be they paranormal or physical… and this is where we pull in the Shadow Realms basic story in. It’s basically the same universe, but moved to a more ARPG style and forgoing the complicated 4v1 (at least for the main part of gameplay). I also like the map system. There are large open worlds, and major areas. Most of the major areas are PvP free, then there are semi-neutral zones where world events may trigger PvP in certain parts the way they do in Devilian. Other zones will be warzones and nearly always have PvP. The progression system would come closer to Path of Exile or Skyforge‘s Ascension Atlas, which face it borrows heavily from PoE. There will be 1v1, 3v3, 5v5 and 20v20 style PvP matches, and World vs World designed to be like Guild Wars 2… Eventually I’d love to bring the 4v1 back as a special game mode here as well. For those not wanting to do the PvP, most of the end game content is generated via the map system like PoE. There would be seasons ala Diablo III, probably themed the way PoE seems to do it. The story line should be planned a few years out. Probably not free to play, but buy to play, but a bit cheaper than most prime titles, so say games are going $60 now, it’d go for $40 today… then no monthly free. It’d be basically the GW2 model there, with every few years we have a really big expansion that requires a new purchase but overall, one gets a ton of content for the money… though for some micro transactions you can get costume effects or the like… The engine should be either Unreal 4 or CryEngine 3… something that will look amazing… but can still work in an MMO format…Oh, and I really like the crafting system in Black Desert with the workers and houses… for player housing I’d like perhaps like PoE’s Hideout or perhaps a bit more complex than that… perhaps closer to Wildstar’s housing?