Favourite dungeon crawler.

[Migey]

Hey.

Dungeon crawler games as a genre seem to be suprisingly varied, and while I have played several which absolutely sucked ass, some have been among the best games I have ever played. The two which come to mind are the amazingly well done Dark Cloud and sequel Dark Chronicle (or Dark Cloud 2 in America). Two amazingly fun games which have aged suprisingly well, despite the first being one the PS2s original launch titles. Dark Chronicle in paritcular which employs cel-shaded graphics almost identical to League of Legends (so much so that I would be very, very suprised if at least a few of the creators of LoL hadn't played Dark Chronicle. This is reinforced by the fact that the design of the champion Ezreal is without a shadow of a doubt inspired by a mix between the protagonists of the Dark Cloud games, Toan and Max).

I have played a fair few of these games, and while the two mentioned are the best, I also remember being suprisingly engaged by the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, despite me not being a pokemon fan.

So what is your favourite dungeon crawler? And of course, why?

Also, while I understand most of you will say one or the other of the Diablo games, I would appreciate it if you did at least give one other game, to keep the thread interesting. Although I personally do not really think of the Diablo games as dungen crawlers, as so much of them take place above land.

[DeadmanWalking]

So what is your favourite dungeon crawler? And of course, why?

Also, while I understand most of you will say one or the other of the Diablo games, I would appreciate it if you did at least give one other game, to keep the thread interesting. Although I personally do not really think of the Diablo games as dungen crawlers, as so much of them take place above land.

Thats kind of a silly reason to disqualify Diablo. Most of the game happens above ground? Isn't the 'above ground' play just the same as the 'underground dungeons' just with wider corridors? I mean heck every dungeon and 'above ground' section is just a room with doors leading to rooms with doors, the 'above ground' parts are just 'underground dungeons' with wider corridors. The monsters don't behave any differently and the only real difference is the background graphics.

I get the feeling you tossed in that disqualifier because you don't like Diablo, which is fine since not everyone likes the same thing, but allow those of us who do like it to do so without having to like another dungeon crawler just to be able to mention it. I mean its the dungeon crawler that made the dungeon crawlers that YOU like possible.

Its like saying, "Tell me what your favorite sci-fy space traveling series you like the best but you can't talk about Star Trek because they use teleporters and teleporters are a gimmicky way of traveling through space. It's the beginning of all space traveling series, why do I have to say I like Battleship: Galactica just to be able to say I enjoyed Star Trek?"

Greatest Dungeon Crawler of all time wasn't even a video game, it was a board game called, "Hero Quest". You could take a board with pre-drawn rooms and change every single level based on where doors were located, stones blocking passage and the placement of monsters. The doors, characters, monsters and even furniture like chests, tables, bookshelves and altars were 3 dimensional playing pieces that could be moved around. I still use those pieces today in Dungeon and Dragon games.