Diablo III: Send in the Clones

You could be forgiven over the past few weeks for thinking there was only one game out there for non-first person shooter types. But for those not entirely immersed in their characters for Diablo III, but who feel horribly left out the action on price tag alone, there are some very familiar-looking clones.

Firstly is the upcoming Torchlight II, the first installment of which always bore more than a passing relationship to the above game. Now it brings multiplayer and some revised classes into play, along with helpful additions like instanced loot and a great art style. The game takes pains to put a slightly different spin on the themes involved, including guns and engineers in place of monks and icky horror, but one look at the interface is a pretty familiar sight to anyone who’s slogged through any of the Diablo series. Most critically, the game will cost about half of what Blizzard’s offering does, which makes it a dead compelling offer.

Even lesser known is the ongoing beta of Path of Exile, which makes no bones about the style it’s borrowing. Straight out of Diablo II’s look and feel, the game wants to update the gameplay, put a few twists on the old mechanics, and otherwise bring back the fun of the game from a decade ago. But all that is small fry compared to the free-to-play price. So far the open beta looks dead encouraging, though it remains to be seen if multiplayer is as fun.

And finally there’s D3 itself, the long-awaited end to the trilogy that looks and plays drop-dead beautifully, especially if you like a little thought put into your click-fests. It costs more than the others and makes the cringing decision to only let you play while online, but sometime, the original gets a few things right.

Whichever way you go, these games make sure you’re getting your money’s worth, though your mouse’s left button probably won’t thank you.