A Brief History of Western Action RPGs

Videogame blog Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote a piece entitled “A Brief History of Western Action RPGs” where the author analyzes the development and history of this variant of the RPG genre, from antecedent Adventure (1978) to Mass Effect 2, Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas (2010), touching upon genre hallmarks like the Diablo franchise along the way. Here’s a sampling of this very interesting read:

2000:

‘¢ Diablo II is released, and it would have completely rejuvenated the hype around its predecessor, hadn’t it been going strong consistently over all the years, anyway.

‘¢ Warren Spector continues to explore new grounds with his cyberpunk thriller Deus Ex, which gives more meaningful plot decisions into the hands of the player than any game before.

‘¢Also: Summoner for PC and consoles.

2001:

‘¢ Piranha Bytes apparently takes any concepts that are salvageable out of the trainwreck that is Ultima IX (figuratively speaking), patch it all up with what they carried over from their pen&paper passion, and somehow make a great game out of that. The new German RPG prodigy is called Gothic.

‘¢ No end to Diablo-inspiration in sight: Nox, Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption, Throne of Darkness (in a samurai setting).

‘¢ But 2001 marks also the beginning of console hack&slay shovelware with Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, an attempt to cash in with the biggest name in non-action RPGing at the time.

‘¢ Also: The obscure Euro-only title Technomage that dreams of being Japanese; Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern, based on the fantasy novels by Anne McCaffrey.