FATE

It would be close to a war crime not to mention FATE when celebrating all the best Action RPGs/dungeon crawlers/Diablo-likes.

Created by solo developer Travis Baldree, this 2006 game was a very deliberate nod to 1997’s Diablo, but also true roguelikes like Nethack and Rogue, which themselves were cited by Blizzard as inspirations for the original game. Baldree’s desire was to make something more accessible, more newbie-friendly, and avoiding the grimdark presentation of Diablo

The game was very well-received, so much so that Baldree was hired by Flagship Studios, a studio formed by the Schaefer brothers and David Brevik, the original founders of what would become Blizzard North. Which is to say: the guys who created Diablo were so impressed by his Diablo-clone that they hired him to make another one. That went on to be Mythos, an MMO follow-up to the developers’ previous near-miss, Hellgate: London. However, due to a litany of issues, Mythos was never truly realized. The team was dissolved, and the Schaefers and Baldree was go on to form Runic Games, and, well, click on…

P.S. You can still buy and play FATE today.