Enjoyable action RPGs

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For some time I've wanted to play a nice, enjoyable action RPG. I liked both Diablos - they were stupid, banal and contributed to the decline of pc gaming, of course, but god were they relaxing. But you can play diablo for only so long - and I grew tired of them (not that I had played them that much, these kinds of games get boring easily after all). What I'm looking for is simply fun. Lots of different loot, interesting character builds and a bit of challenge. Are there such games?
Torchlight - obvious diablo homage, but stupefyingly easy.
Sacred 2 - characters seemed to be interesting (especially that campy anubis robot), but due MMO-like early quest and overwhelming boredom I had to quit after 15 minutes. Twice.
Loki - better than the above two, played, completed one storyline, end.
Titan Quest - haven't played, but threads about it aren't very inviting.
Dungeon Siege 3 - enjoyable, been playing off and on

anything else you could recommend me?

Sacred 1
Nox
Divine Divinity

Demon (and Dark) Souls.

But seriously, play them.

Lots of good ARPGs out there, you have New Vegas, Deus Ex, System Shock, Stalker, etc.

But, if you want to stick with the broadly understood Diablo clones genre, the sad truth is - if you played D1 and D2, everything else feels like scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Din's Quest - some guys like it, I didn't. Nonetheless, have a look-see and decide for yourself.

If you had the stomach to enjoy Dungeon Siege, why not just go for the rest of the bunch? I had most fun with Dungeon Siege 1, got almost halfway through, which is a lot further than I ever got with 2 and 3.

TQ is not bad, just get it with the expansion. It has three big problems 1) levels aren't randomized (just the enemies and not by a lot) 2) it's not challenging until you get to the first main boss 3) sometimes the drop algorithm gets screwed and all you get is junk. Switching characters helps. Apart from this, it's a solid game.

You can also try Legend: Hand of God, I remember it being semi-decent, until at some point I grew tired of it.

If you've played and enjoyed Loki I think you should give Titan Quest a try, I've only played TQ but I've heard everywhere that's better than Loki.

I'll second Nox or DivDiv.

I enjoyed both Titan Quest (with Underworld mod iirc, it makes things much harder) and Sacred 2. I guess Sacred 1 is mostly the same, except it's a bit smaller and less MMO-y when it comes to quests. Here's a new one that we may have forgotten, Darkstone. I played it back in the day all the way to the end.

You may also be interested in roguelikes. I never knew it until recently that Diablo 1 was inspired by roguelikes basically. Dungeons of Dredmor has graphics and it's good.

Thanks bros. Yeah, I've meant games on the hack'n'slash spectrum. after all, even Icewind Dale can be considered aRPG.

I would if I could fucking popamole decline of console ports.

Played both previous installments, but I refuse to acknowledge them as aRPGs. They are screensavers.

Alright, I'll try. Level randomization isn't a big issue, it's not as if I'll be playing the game at least seven times.

Revenant was decent, from what I remember.

All good suggestions upthread, here's 2 not yet mentioned:

I know this isn't what you are asking for (modern'ish graphics and mouse-clickage^23), but you really should try the latest version of Zangband. It's a fantastic loot crawler. Amazing game once you learn the interface and use your imagination.

However, if the graphics whore in you simply can't handle the ASCII awesomeness, I highly recommend Borderlands. It has something like 6 million+ loot variety, and the writing/voice acting is hilarious. One of the best games to come out in the last 5 years, hands down.

http://progressquest.com/play/roster.html#
But seriously, I second Nox - it's a very good little-known gem

Just remembered two more, both started out good, but I never had the stamina to finish them: hexplore and throne of darkness.

Good one. I remember playing the shit out of its demo, although my enthusiasm dropped a fair bit when I actually got the full version. Decent game overall.

I second Gregz suggestion of Zangband. In fact, do try some roguelikes. They are the granddaddies of Diablo, and they do the shtick so much better. If you can stomach the ASCII and turn based, although the latter doesn't mean the action is any less intense. If you cant' stand ACII, though, there's always tilesetts to the rescue. Check out the DoomRL let's play @ the playground for a good example.

Of course I'm not new to RLs. I've played Castle of the winds extensively when I was a wee lad. I like Dungeon Crawl, though still can't win. I'm waiting for the graphical DoomRL to go official (as in, free) too. Never could stomach the ascii art though.
If you can provide me with some graphical rl goodies I will be much obliged.

There's a lot of mods for TQ too, some make the game much much better, I haven't played in a long time so I don't remember the names of the good ones, but the official forum should be a good start.

Dungeons of Dredmor is a good graphical roguelike although I'm sure you probably know about it by now.

Divine Divinity is kinda like what Diablo would be if it had actual real quests and didn't take itself especially seriously.

It's good. Except the ending. Delay that moment as long as you can. There is lots to do.

ToME (http://te4.org/) is a good graphical roguelike, you can play in "adventure mode" that let's you die a couple (?) times before perma-deleting your character. There's a bit of lore and backstory too, but is mainly forgettable.

Revenant


Best hack & slash combat, not that this is a great achievement, but still a fun game.

I enjoyed Divine Divinity.

Revenant had a level editor, did i spend much time with it...good old times...

Divine Divinity - sweet game - it's so called "diablo clone" but for me *wispers* It's better than Diablo.
Definitely worth a play. It's terribly underrated, at least in my country.

I just finished Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and I recommend it.
Consolized popamole hack and slash, I know, but still kinda fun, in the mindless slaughter kind of fun.

Is not exactly hard (I died and reloaded 4-5 times in the whole game, and I'm not exactly skilled), and has a retarded way to handle difficulty levels (you can only play easy or normal, harder ones unlock when you finish the game).

But still, fun combos and fun orc-gibbing.

Does it have anything to do with LOTR other than orcs?

And what is the most fun build for Divine Divinity? Melee? Arrows? Spells?

Mainly orcs and goblins, yes. You also get Barrow Dens that it's all about undeads, Mirkwood with lot of spider swarms, and fucking troll, and in some levels barbarian-like humans.
That said, the orcs have a wide variety of "units" to deal with.

Also there is Grim Dawn coming up this year, will probably be totally overshadowed by Diablo 3 in the genre, and by Mass Effect 3 on the Codex.