Looking for an alternative to Diablo RPG? Then this list of the BEST Hack & Slash aRPG Games is where you want to be. I played the original Diablo as a kid, and much like everyone at the time, I completely fell in love with it, as well as the new hack and slash, top down action RPG genre, that Blizzard created, which is now the precedence.
Naturally, I continued to play Diablo II and Diablo III as well, but its been a long time since a new release of the series, with Diablo IV still a while away from release. So, in order to satisfy my need for more aRPG Hack and Slash fun, I did a deep dive into making this list of the best games like Diablo to play on PC.
I was pleasantly surprised to say the least! Diablo IV is certainly going to have some strong competition on its hands when it is released.
Let’s take a look!
Best Hack and Slash Games 2020
As this hack and slash aRPG list of Diablo alternatives is in order of release date, let’s take a look at the games released in 2020.
Iron Danger
Release Date: 20 March 2020 | Developer: Action Squad Studios
Iron Danger is unlike any game you’ve really played before, especially in the aRPG genre. I was in two minds about putting it in this list, as its definitely the slowest paced game of the lot, falling more towards a turn based game. But at the same time it also has some hack and slash elements to it, so thought, why not as its a really good game.
Iron Danger is a tactical combat game that sports a very unique time manipulation mechanic, allowing you to reverse time and rethink your strategy upon death, to change your fate and come out alive instead of dead. While this might sound like a “I’ve seen this before” mechanic, you really haven’t until your played this game for yourself. If you don’t take note of your actions properly, you will die very quickly, as its very unforgiving if you are going in to mash your mouse button like the other games here.
This brings an exciting and technical combination of tactical turn-based strategies and action of real-time games.
You will have to really relearn everything you know about hack and slash games when you play Iron Danger, and you might get frustrated in the begging as I did at first, dying time after time. To avoid this, my advice is to properly read the very well designed tutorial explanations, as once you learn how to block and use the timeline mechanic, things not only get easier, as well as fun, which is what the developers indented it to be.
The graphics of Iron Danger are gorgeous, being very similar to Torchlight, coupled with high end voice acting for the dialogue, helping you get cemented in the story very quickly. Iron Danger is a great game and highly recommend checking it out.
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Wolcen : Lords of Mayhem
Release Date: 13 February 2020 | Developer: WOLCEN Studio
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is an action Hack and Slash RPG game that initially started on Kickstarter in 2015, with a presumptions release date of 2016. However as with many Kickstarter and game development projects, these things never really go as planned and are more than likely to be delayed, which was the case here again, as this game only got released 5 years later in 2020.
Even though it didn’t come with many of the promised features in its Kickstarter campaign, such as housing, this is still a well made Hack and Slash game made using the Cryengine with some very dark but great looking graphics.
It did have a very rough launch day as well, with many people including myself not being able to play online as well as losing their day one characters due to server issues and resets. All this has however been solved and the game is playing very well now, making for an excellent action RPG and I have had a lot of fun playing so far.
The game has no Mana. Instead it uses Rage and Willpower, with a dynamic of these two powering each other up as you engage in battle.
Wolcen also has no predefined classes that you see in Diablo, instead you pick up abilities as drops from monsters or finishing quests. These can be hot swapped at any time to customize your style of play/class.
This game also has a very extensive skill tree (actually a series of wheels), much like Path of Exile which further allows you to customize your class. This wheel has an inner, mid and outer ring, of which the two latter ones can be spun in order to align the set of skills on them with the other two rings, again allowing you to change your play style at any time.
All in all a great game, which has not passed it launch day teething stage as the devs have fixed a lot of the initial issues. Check it out.
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Darksburg
Release Date: 12 February, 2020 | Developer: Shiro Games
While this is a list of the best hack and slash RPG games, I feel that it’s important for me to also tell you what to avoid and Darksburg is one of those games unfortunately.
Darksburg is different to the other Hack and Slash games on this list in that it finds itself as a half MOBA as well, with no single player campaign, only online 4 player co-op play. As of its release there are only 4 characters to choose from, meaning each player needs to select one of the 4 characters.
Unfortunately some are more fun to play and more powerful than others, so you will quickly see that in a n online lobby many people dodge in order to get the specific character. In this case I found ‘Sister Abigail’ to be the most fun and very powerful, while ‘Rose the Archer’ and ‘Runolf the Tank’ are very slow and painful to play.
There are no skill trees or gear in Darksburg, only a shop at the start of each level like in League of Legends, although it only sells consumables and no gear. You can also never return to the shop unless you run all the way back, which defeats the purpose of the game, which is to reach the end of the map. So the shop is basically useless.
I gave up on online play and just decided to make an AI Bot game to test it out. The AI Bots are well scripted in my opinion and do their part in the DPS as well as heal you when you are down.
There are currently 3 maps to play though, of which i played the Faubourg Map in my Darksburg video gameplay, which was enough for me and didn’t feel any inclination to do anything more than close the game after that.
Gameplay wise is where I got annoyed with the game making me probably never play it again.
Firstly, there are puddles on the ground which slow your character down by a massive amount, which are all over the map. While this was put there as a game mechanic it’s nothing more than an irritation when trying to play, especially with one of the less mobile characters. Just a bad mechanic all round, which is a reason other games in the Hack and Slash genre don’t have it.
Secondly, the zombie hordes just respawn endlessly, becoming very tedious very quickly, to even move around, which is required to solve some of the miniature puzzles the game has you do, such as collect 3 hay bales in Faubourg.
It’s just too much and you get the feeling of why even bother killing these if I will just have to do it all over again in 10 seconds anyway, so you choose to rather just jump past them, that is, if you have a mobile character to do so. If you don’t, (and you are playing one of the slow tanks), well this is where you will not want to play this again as you are stuck having to try clear all the mobs with you very low damage skills while other characters can run off into the distance.
I also found a glitch where after 3 runs of Faubourg, I was still on level 1, when the game shows that I skilled up to level 2 each time.
All in all, I was bored after making my gameplay video and probably won’t be returning, as there are many better Hack and Slash RPGs out there. I am not alone in this, as many other players have given it a solid Mixed Review status on Steam. This quickly becomes the nail in the coffin for a game like this as it offers no single player campaign and only online play.
With so many people leaving within a week of its launch, that falls apart very quickly as you cannot matchmake any games and thus are forced to play AI Bots, making it dead in the water.
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Diablo 4
Release Date: TBC, 2020 | Developer: Activision/Blizzard
While this is a list of Diablo alternative, it’s also a list of Hack and Slash action RPGs, which is the genre that Diablo basically invented, so it would be a sin to not include the highly anticipated Diablo 4 on this list.
Blizzard have changed their art style slightly in Diablo 4 compared to Diablo 3, to a more realistic and dark style, as the go back to the original Diablo style, compared to a more slightly more cartoony style in D3.
Officially announced in November 2019 at Blizzcon, Diablo 4 is set to release sometime in 2020, most likely towards the end of the year.
Based on the playable demos from Blizzcon, we saw some familiar faces in terms of character selections, with the Barbarian and Sorcerous, while the new kid on the block was the Druid. More classes might be seen closer to release time and even in expansion, much like Diablo 3.
The game looks amazing from what we have seen thus far, so naturally a highly anticipated release in our Hack and Slash games list.
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Best Hack n Slash Games 2019 & Older
While 2020 is certainly panning out to be a great year of Top Down Hack and Slash RPG Games, there are plenty of others from 2019 and before that are well worth checking out as well.
Darksiders Genesis
Release Date: 5 December 2019 | Developer: Airship Syndicate
Darksiders Genesis is a top down Diablo like Hack and Slash RPG set in the Darksiders universe, actually fitting in as a prequel to the the other Darksiders games.
The other Darksider games (I, II and III) are different to Genesis though, in that they are played from a third person perspective and are souls-like games, (similar to Dark Souls) rather than the new top down approach seen in Genesis.
Darksiders Genesis is made by one of my favorite developers, Airship Syndicate, who I first heard of during another Kickstarter campaign for their other turn based game called Battle Chasers. I supported the game on KS and wasn’t disappointed (for once) as they delivered a superb game with great comic style art and characters. If you haven’t played Battle Chasers, make sure to also check that out.
Anyway, back the Darksiders. As with the previous games, the universe revolves around you playing the 4 Horsemen as you battle your way through hell and back.
Game play wise, you can swap between two of the Horseman, in this case, WAR and STRIFE, with a comical dialogue between the two, as they don’t always see eye to eye. WAR is your big melee bruiser, while STRIFE is your ranged assassin, each with their own set of abilities for you to swap between depending on your playstyle or what the game throws at you.
There is no skill tree or skills/abilities in this game, so its slightly less customizable that others in our Hack and Slash game list, but a lot of fun in its arcade simplicity. Plus you even get to ride, shoot and dismount from your horse mid fight 🙂
Check this one out its a lot of fun and the art style is fantastic
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Hades
Release Date: 10 December 2019 | Developer: Supergiant Games
Man oh man! This a little hidden gem of a game when it comes to hack and slash action! Hades is created by SuperGiant Games who are the same developers behind other very popular games such as Bastion, Transistor and Pyre.
Hades’ comic book art style graphics, combined with its stunning, faced paced animations, is just glorious to play and gave me a serious adrenaline rush, followed by me wanting more and more.
You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, a British accented teenager, with a bunch of comical attitude, who doesn’t have much love for his dad, thus wanting to leave home (Hell), but Hades refuses to let him leave.
Zagreus decides to escape, but finds that this is not as easy as he initially thought as he is faced with many demons out to kill him, at his dad’s bidding. You are also given very little in terms of HP regen, all pointing to your undeniable demise.
Although, as you are already in Hell, you cannot really die, so once dead he has to start all over from his dad’s chambers and bedroom.
This is what sets Hades apart from other hack and slash games on this list is that it’s more a of a Roguelike game than an RPG, as you try to clear as many chambers (levels/rooms) as possible before dying and starting over.
During your escape attempts you get many temporary boosts from other Greek Gods such as Artemis, Poseidon, Athena, Dionysus, Ares and even Zeus himself.
Charon the Boatman of very little words, is in one of the chambers who runs a small shop, from where you can either buy some more temporary upgrades using Gold, or exchange it for other currencies to use to permanently upgrade yourself.
The other currencies such as purple gems give you permanent boosts to your character’s abilities as well as passive gains, when used in your bedroom mirror, as well as Chthonic Keys that unlock more ability boosts.
Chthonic Keys also used to unlock the other weapons, but I quite liked his starting blade actually.
You can also get mixed colored gems that upgrade your room with new features, as well as wine drops that you can give to other characters in the game, who then give you items with passive bonuses to equip in return. These items can also be leveled up as you play.
Story wise, it actually gets rather interesting, which i wasn’t expecting from a rogue-like hack and slash game. I was pleasantly surprised and drawn into how it unfolds after each time that you die and speak to more characters, who are all very well voiced over.
Hades is still in early access, so see a lot more coming to this epic hack and slash game.
Don’t miss this one!
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Last Epoch
Release Date: 30 April 2019 | Developer: Eleventh Hour Games
As with Iron Danger, Last Epoch is an aRPG that is also about time travel, but more inline with centuries than minutes. Last Epoch combines time travel with hack and slash dungeon crawling and the character customization that well know and love in the genre.
You come from an era when humans were in their infancy, but it had been lost to THE VOID and thus destroyed eons ago. Fortunately you have found a way to travel in time to both past and future era to change climatic moments in Eterra’s history. During your travels you will face and fight the Undead Empire and the war of the Gods, as you witness the untouched beauty of the world ignorant of humanity, and most importantly, discover the untold secret of The Void
Last Epoch lets you choose from various unique classes, including a Mage, Sentinel, Acolyte and a Primalist, with a fifth unknown class on its way. Each of these main classes has 3 sub specializations to choose from. The Primalist for example can be a Shaman, Beastmaster or Druid, while the Acolyte can be a Warlock, Lich or Necromancer.
Each class has a ton of upgrade trees and skill to invest into, so further make each of these classes unique to you is really easy to do, while constantly giving you that satisfaction of a skill point or to to invest into something with each level, which is why we all love this genre to begin with.
Graphic wise it actually reminds me very much of Grim Dawn, as well as in it game play, which is a good thing because Grim Dawn is amazing. Last Epoch also hosts an exciting randomized loot system allowing you to find tons of unique weapons, equipment sets, and legendary items to help shape your character. There is also a crafting system where you shatter magic items to obtain shards, then used to enhance your current equipment through further.
You can also check out the Last Epoc Gameplay Playlist on my YouTube channel
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Nine Parchments
Release Date: 31 August 2017 | Developer: Frozenbyte
Nine Parchments is a magical hack and slash RPG game made by Frozenbyte, who are the same brilliant developers behind the Trine series. You can definitely see the beautifully whimsical Trine fantasy art coming through in Nine Parchments and it is absolutely stunning.
You are a student of the Astral Academy of Magic, who is being scolded by the Grand Wizard for being reckless with magic, when an explosion happens in the tower, causing the Nine mystical spell parchments to be scattered by the wind into the far away corners of the world.
The young students see this as the perfect opportunity to set out on an adventure to recover the parchments while also putting their magic abilities to the test..
As you progress, you harness the Elements of Fire, Lightning, Ice and Earth (for healing) and Shadow Magic to take down your foes. This is an amazing co-op game to play as the Elements can combine into more powerful versions with two players. Creatures in the game are also elemental based, so you cannot kill an Ice Bull with your ice beams and require a Fire spell to do optimal damage. You can also counter fire an enemy casting an ice beam with your fire beam in an epic duel.
As you are a wizard, you cannot charge into battle head on, but rather need to kill enemies with your ranged attacks while doing a lot of dodging of their attacks (using your blink), making for a pleasant and challenging gameplay experience.
I can highly recommend Nine Parchments thanks to its ultra smooth gameplay, amazing graphics and audio, especially with up to 4 friends in a local co-op game or online. There is friendly fire damage in this game, so watch out where you aim that thing! Oh and healing spells on the ground can heal monsters who step in them as well.
Great game, check it out.
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Titan Quest Anniversary Addition
Release Date: 31 August 2016 | Developer: Iron Lore/ THQ Nordic
Titan Quest was originally released on 26 June 2006, six years after Diablo 2 on 29 June 2000, which is why you can see a lot of resemblances of Diablo’s game mechanics in Titan Quest, although with cleaner news animation and graphics.
I played Titan Quest back in 2006 and have very fond memories of it, finishing the game very satisfied. Besides the Vikings, the Greek Mythology has always been a favorite of mine too, so having a hack and slash RPG game centered around all the Greek gods, was and still is amazing. In 2007 The Immortal Throne expansion was released as well.
Nearly a decade later, the original Titan Quest and the Immortal Throne expansion came to Steam in 2015. In 2016 they were bundled together and relabeled as Titan Quest Anniversary Edition, with it being given active development once again, as they updated the graphics to run at 4K and fixed all kinds of outdated elements. Since then two brand new expansions have been released – Ragnarok in 2017 and Atlantic in 2019, giving this game a massive amount of content.
In its day, Titan Quest set a new precedent for what we know as Hack and Slash RPGs, as its skill tree allowed you to add more abilities to your bottom bar, tied to your keyboard, expanding how your character plays and removing the boredom of only two attack abilities.
This does however take a few hours of play to achieve until you reach level 10 or so. Until then you will still be killing beasts and monsters with only two attacks. Once you invest enough points in your skill tree to reach Tier II, will the fun really start as you unlock more abilities to bind to your keyboard.
Titan Quest differs most from today’s hack and slash RPG games, is that it’s very unforgiving. This game is hard man, and you will die a lot.
It’s not if you will die, it’s WHEN you will die. Because you will, trust me – especially your first 5 to 8 levels.
There is now auto-regen of your HP after each battle like we have the luxury of today. If you come out of battle with 10% Hp, well then, that’s what you have until your next battle unless you use a potion or wait for it to slowly regen. You have potions in your bag and you need to learn how to use them to survive very quickly.
While this might put many of you off, let me also say that this does get better once you start to get some gear drops, especially HP regen gear, which is what I highly recommend you look out for and gear towards as this will make your life so much easier.
Well Titan Quest is from the early 2000’s so it shows its age if you compare it graphically to the games we currently have, but within a 30mins you actually forget all about it, as the game play is very addictive.
Definitely give Titan Quest a go, it was slightly overshadowed by Diablo back in the day, but it’s really a classic Hack and Slash RPG that every fan of the genre should play though, especially with all the new expansion that have some its way recently.
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Grim Dawn
Release Date: 25 February 2016 | Developer: Crate Entertainment
While Grim Dawn’s graphics aren’t as polished as Diablo and Wolcen, and reminded me of a game from the 90’s, don’t let that put you off. As the old saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover”, because Grim Dawn is an amazing and very addictive Hack and Slash RPG.
As the name states, this game is all about the grim undead, witchcraft, sorcery, demons, knights and everything in between all wrapped up in loads of gory gameplay. What the animations and graphics lack, the game makes up for it tenfold in its gameplay and sheer content.
Grim Dawn offers fast paced content, great leveling ratios and a ton, and i mean a TON of skills to customize your character, as well as thousands of loot drops.
This alone makes you want to keep playing for “just one more level” until you find yourself 5 more levels in and your girlfriend upset with you 🙂
With 2 Expansions and an added Horde Mode DLC, there is a ton of content to get through, so check this one out.
You can find my Full Grim Dawn Review here as well.
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Hell Divers
Release Date: 7 December 2015 | Developer: Arrowhead
While at first glance, HellDivers might not seem like it fits into the Hack and Slash games list, but once you play some multiplayer games, you will see how much carnage and faced paced action this game offers.
Secondly, this game is very challenging, and I mean very!
If you are looking for a more casual hack and slash RPG, then rather look at some others on this list because HellDivers is going to put your skills, reflexes and patience to the test.
HellDivers doesn’t follow a linear story and level like the other RPGs here. Instead, you are a HellDiver, who are Elite Mercenaries working to protect Super Earth, during its conflict between Bugs, the Cyborgs and the Illuminates, as you embark on procedurally generated map missions.
Each mission is different, varying in objectives such as retrieving technology, activating oil-pumps, deactivating mine, escorting civilians to safety etc.
What makes this challenging is that in order to complete many of these objectives require you to activate panels or even call your drop ship, take time, which requires you to hold and defend the area until the arrival or the countdown ends.
This is made more challenging by the fact that you need to enter randomized sequences of the arrow keys (eg. up, up, left, down, right, right, up down) while not getting hit and killed by enemies. Your Street Fighter combo skills will come in very handy here. You also use these to call down your limited supply of supply drops, such as a turret or ammo to aid you or to resurrect fallen allies.
Of course this game wouldn’t be hell if there wasn’t friendly fire damage, so watch out where you shoot and don’t step on your friend with you mech. He will die.
What’s unique about this game, is that you and all the other HellDivers (players) are all fighting together on a single galactic real time battle. Here each battle that you win, contributes to winning the war by a tiny percentage, which when full, wins the war. This then resets, which generally takes about 90 days or so.
Check out Helldivers, it offers a nice single player and a ton of action packed multiplayer.
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Path of Exile
Release Date: 23 October 2013 | Developer: Grinding Gear Games
Path of Exile is one of the older Hack and Slash games on this list, going all the way back to 2013, which can be seen in its very rough graphics and animations, and is probably the second most well known aRPG next to Diablo due to its age and active community..
Path of Exile is also the only Free to Play game on this list as well, and is updated regularly by the developers, as it fits into a semi-MMO style game.
As with many other F2P titles, the developers make their money by selling cosmetics and extra stash tabs, among other things, but the game is fully playable without spending a cent and isn’t hidden behind a paywall.
There are 6 character classes to choose from, much the same as with other Hack and Slash games on this list, with each offering varied game play style, to suit your liking.
Game play and monster slaying is fast and reactive, as you will find yourself clearing levels very quickly while attaining a lot of skill points which you need to invest in the monstrous skill tree that path of Exile were the forerunners in introducing to aRPG games, with other games to follow suit.
Newer games like Wolcen and Grim Dawn definitely took a page out of this Path of Exile’s Skill Tree feature, when they designed their own. I have no problem with it though, as it really allows you to mold your character as you like, without many restrictions.
I have barely touched the surface of Path of Exile, so make sure to check it out and decide for yourself. It is a massive time sink due to its MMO like design, which could appeal to some of you looking for a game for the long haul, while at the same time is easy to pick up and play as a casual, especially seeing that its free on Steam
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Torchlight II
Release Date: 20 September 2012 | Developer: Runic Games
Torchlight II is one of the older games on this Hack and Slash RPG list, coming out in 2012, which is the same year as Diablo III. At the time there weren’t very many Diablo alternatives and Torchlight was definitely the top one, as a handful of the original Diablo Developers set out to create their own company called Runic Games and made Torchlight I and II, with III around the corner as well.
You can definitely see the resemblance of Diablo II in both Torchlight I and II – even the background music has the Deckard Cain sound to it. Although when compared to Diablo III, Torchlight II does fall behind slightly with its offering of a much less intricate skill and abilities.
Don’t let that stop you though, as its smooth, fun gameplay, coupled with its cartoony art style and will offer you tons of hours of action packed monster slaying as you explore the world with your pet by your side.
Your pet not only does a ton of damage, but also acts as extra bag space and can be sent to town to sell off unneeded items, allowing you to continue playing without the need to travel to town and back using a portal every time.
Torchlight II allows for the modding community to do as they please, which is still very active today. The SynergiesMOD being one of the most popular, filing the gaps that the devs didnt bring to the table,as well as more classes, pets and much more, so it definitely something I would recommend of the standard game.
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Conclusion
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