9 best alternatives to NieR: Automata as of 2018 - Slant

Dark Souls III

Top Pro

Extensive lore that's presented in unconventional ways

There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story. Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you. Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it. See More

Top Con

Poorly tuned dynamic visiblity

You may notice some texture pop in while sharply turning the camera. It can be somewhat distracting if you notice it, but most of the time you won't because it happens in the distance. See More

Top Pro

Stunning environments

The world of Dark Souls 3 looks amazing, so you may often feel the need to stop and take in the beautiful sights. This can be the sheer size of structures, mountains, or caves. It can also be the decorations, inscriptions, or details in a room. There's always so much to look at, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in its world. See More

Top Con

Occasional performance issues

There are portions of the game that will have noticeable framerate drops, which can negatively affect the gameplay. Most of the fault lies with the game engine, so getting better hardware won't help that much. See More

Top Pro

Can give a great feeling of accomplishment

The Dark Souls series is known for its difficulty and Dark Souls 3 is no exception. It's filled with difficult enemies and tough boss battles, able to cause you grief on more than one occasion. However, every time you progress to the next safe spot or defeat a boss you'll often be filled with a mix of joy and relief. Beating this game will almost certainly feel like an achievement. See More

Top Con

It's hard

You should try avoiding the trap of great review scores since most of them fail to mention the difficulty. It's simply put - hard. A lot of the combat requires quick reflexes, good mechanics, and the mental fortitude to carry on after failing for hours. If you're new to the Souls-like genre or simply want to enjoy a relaxing evening playing a video game, you most likely won't enjoy Dark Souls III. See More

Top Pro

Unpredictable boss battles

The boss battles in Dark Souls 3 consist of several phases, changing up how the bosses fight over the course of the battle. They will gain new abilities, become more aggressive, or reveal various nasty surprises. This creates an enjoyable experience that is different from most modern games where bosses are just glorified pincushions. See More

Top Con

Poor support for mouse+keyboard control

The default DS3 key/button bindings actually prevent full use of certain weapons by requiring the shift key to be pressed and not-pressed simultaneously. Rebinding is possible, but limited by issues like the left mouse button overriding all others and certain bindings not actually working in game (e.g. Shift+MiddleClick). See More

Top Pro

A great variety of equipment for almost any playstyle

You'll be finding new pieces of equipment quite often, giving you many options to choose from. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to pick the equipment that best suits your playstyle. For example, heavy armor will make you move slower, but you'll be better protected. Greatswords have a wide reach, but you swing them really slow. Conversely a dagger is very fast but it has a horrible reach. See More

Top Pro

Solid controls

This game feels and plays really well. Your character responds to button inputs immediately and it almost never feels like you're losing control over it. The control scheme can also be customized, giving you the option of a more personalized experience. See More

Top Pro

Great combat system

Dark Souls 3 is a very fast-paced game but it's not just about having quick reflexes. A lot of the combat comes down to exploiting your enemies. To do that, you have to learn their patterns and attack the moment they pause or perform a telegraphed attack. This creates a combat system, which rewards awareness and patience, and is satisfying to master, even if you don't have extraordinary reflexes. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Platforms:Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Genre:Action Role-Playing

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113 38

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Top Pro

Character connections make for a compelling experience

Shadow of War uses the Nemesis system to create a more immersive and alive-feeling world. Thanks to it, orc leaders have names, ranks, titles, tribes they belong to, and most importantly, connections to other orc leaders. For example, an orc leader might be at war with another orc leader. This conflict won't end until one of them dies. There are also orcs that are considered blood brothers, having unwavering loyalty to each other. Because of this, don't be too surprised if you ever get betrayed by one of your followers that's trying to do right by his blood brother. Additionally, the leaders you fight will also develop connections with you. Orcs that you've killed or spared, may come back with scars, recalling your previous encounter and vowing to exact vengeance. Orcs that you've escaped from will mock you for being a chicken, and so forth. The gradual creation of this web of connections is very enjoyable and sometimes even more compelling than the game's main story. See More

Top Con

Can get repetitive

The overall gameplay formula doesn't change much over the course of the game. You fight orcs, take over strongholds, upgrade your character, and collect blips on the world map. After a while it can start feeling like a grind, especially during long play sessions. This is made worse in the final stretch of the game where you have to fight through 20 consecutive stronghold battles without any story segments or exposition. See More

Top Pro

Addictive gear collection fuels your thirst for orc blood

As you kill orc leaders, they'll drop random quality gear items, ranging from common rarity every-orc weapons/armor to legendary rarity artifacts with unique names. Each item serves to improve your character, providing various stat increases and damage bonuses. You can also upgrade gear with gems or via challenges that usually involve killing orcs, bolstering your strength even further. On top of that, there are set bonuses for legendary items, giving you special abilities such as your hits applying explosive poison on regular enemies. It's very exciting seeing what gear piece an orc leader will drop once you lob his head off, causing you to constantly seek out new victims. See More

Top Con

Unskippable cutscenes disrupt the flow of the gameplay

Every time an orc leader enters the screen, there is an unskippable cutscene where he rambles a bit, focusing the camera on him and halting combat until the cutscene ends. This usually happens as you're fighting another enemy, potentially disrupting your rhythm, which can be really frustrating, especially if mess up your combo or take an unnecessary hit after the cutscene. See More

Top Pro

Satisfying combat

Shadow of War gives one of the better feeling combat systems in recent times, allowing you to be either stealthy or go for direct confrontations. If you choose to be stealthy, you can skewer unsuspecting orcs from behind with your dagger, drop onto them from a building while impaling them with your sword, or just pierce them from afar with your bow. If you choose a direct confrontation, it's a really quick-paced and brutal showdown against your enemies with your chosen melee weapon. You weave combos against enemies, dodging, parrying, and countering enemy attacks, which ends in a devastating finishing move, resulting in a mutilated or decapitated orc. Whichever method you choose, the combat flows really well and you always feel like a force to be reckoned with. See More

Top Pro

You can lead an orc army and expand your own dominion

As part of the Nemesis system, you can recruit orc leaders after you've bested them in combat. Each one has his own unique strengths and weaknesses, so making the best possible army for conquering enemy territories might take a while. For example, an orc leader can be completely immune to ranged attacks, but can take increased damage from explosions. You should take such an orc leader on assaults against fortresses filled with archers but be wary of the slightest hints of any bombs. Once you've finished building a sizeable force, you can assault a fortresses. If you succeed in the assault, you'll take over a territory, allowing you to install your own orc leader as the ruler. With enough effort you'll gradually take over Mordor and its surrounding lands. Shadow of War makes you feel like a recruiter, general, and a ruler, which is very empowering and a lot of fun. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

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21 2

Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition

Top Pro

Fun combat

You'll immediately notice how nice it feels to attack the enemies with each slash, strike and shot having an impact behind it. Enemies will flinch, get thrown back and get suspended mid-air from your attacks, making it feel like you're always the dominant force. It's especially amusing seeing an enemy flail about and slamming it into the ground with your demonic arm. Some of the stylistic elements add fun as well. The prime example is Nero's greatsword the Red Queen, which is equipped with a motorcycle-like gear shift. You can use the gear shift mid-combo to add a flame effect to your sword. This increases your damage and the range of your combos and also looks very nice. It's especially awesome to see your character ascend in a whirlwind of flames. See More

Top Con

Occasional difficulty spikes

Upon reaching the first boss you'll encounter the first difficulty spike. The boss attacks a lot faster and stronger than the enemies leading up to it. Messing up means you'll die in a couple of seconds, which can be really frustrating. Especially because you have to switch gears so suddenly and adapt to a new playstyle, where the enemy stands on equal footing. See More

Top Pro

Highest level of combat depth in any hack and slash game

An open-ended cancelling system (Jump Cancelling) stacked with individual character mechanics (Dante styles and style/weapon switching, Nero ACT and parries, Vergil being Vergil, Lady and Trish are the weakest in terms of combo-ability of the 5 but you can still style with them) and system physics create a combat masterpiece that rewards practice and creativity. See More

Top Con

Recycled stage designs and lack of character-specific bosses

Capcom basically just slapped on the 3 new characters (Lady, Trish, and Vergil) and they suffer the same problems that Dante does, and that's lack of bosses designed specifically for their toolset. They run through the same bosses and levels instead of getting unique missions. See More

Top Pro

Great soundtrack

Most of the battle music has the lyrical styling of progressive rock while mixing in dark electronica guitar riffs. It matches the rhythm and speed of the battles really well, spurring on your combos and devastating attacks. The exploration sections and cutscenes have an entirely different style of music. It ranges from divine vocals accompanied with organ music to eerie pieces with harp and piano sounds creating a bone-chilling ambience. See More

Top Pro

There's a bunch of stuff to do even after beating the game

You can replay the game on higher difficulties, try to find all the hidden missions or collect all the upgrades. You can even try to get the max style rank on all the missions. Doing any of these will award you extra collectibles or unlock new modes. There's also the The Bloody Palace, which is an arena consisting of 101 levels. Each level contains enemies and bosses found within the main game. The first few levels are quite easy, but each level becomes increasingly more difficult. Only the most skilled players can reach the end, giving you another goal to strive for. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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19 0

Titan Quest

Top Con

Save anywhere does not save character placement

This means that there will be some retreading of areas once a save is loaded as the character will not be in the same place as where they were left off. This will waste time and can be frustrating having to do this every time you load the game. See More

Top Pro

You can choose the speed you want to play at

Titan Quest is unique among ARPGs in that you get to choose the game speed. You can be a leisurely player and take things slowly, or you can go hard and play the game on very fast settings. The fact that you get to choose adds another level of enjoyment to the game. See More

Top Con

Combat feels a little static

Top Pro

Replayability through different classes

There are a plethora of classes that open up upon leveling to the second level, once one is chosen the others will be gone for that game session. This means that a different playthrough will be needed to explore what all the different classes offer, making for quite a lot of playtime. See More

Top Con

Disappointing loot at later levels

Even when the player has reached a high level, they will often find loot meant for low level characters. This can be frustrating when trying to find better gear and just adds a lot of clutter to ones inventory as the majority of items found won't be that useful. See More

Top Pro

Lots of loot to find

There is quite a lot of loot in the game to be found, which drives the player to continue playing, just to find that better weapon or piece of armor. The loot is also color coded when dropped, making it easy to discern what is worth picking up or leaving behind. See More

Top Pro

Tons of customization

There are 30 different classes of characters to choose from within the game with 150 character skills that they can learn. This way users can customize their character to their liking and playstyle. See More

Top Pro

Holds up incredibly well

Titan Quest is over 10 years old now, and it is still widely played. It even saw a remastered "Anniversary Edition" in August of 2016, drawing in more players, old and new. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Platforms:Android, Windows, PlayStation 4, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Genre:Action Role-Playing, Hack-and-Slash

Co-Op:2-6 Player Online

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79 21

Grim Dawn

Top Pro

Drop-in co-op (online and local)

Co-op is pretty convenient as players can drop in and out of your gaming session at any time. This way there is no wasted time jumping out of ones game in order to find players to play with. See More

Top Con

only some builds are fun

There is a definite meta, with superefficient vs non-viablo builds. It's easy to mess up a build, and attribute and spec-bar points are non respeccable. (you can use a cheat editor...but devs want you to reroll a new char) See More

Top Pro

Complex leveling system with thousands of possible builds

Basically you choose 1 class and select skills as you level up. At level 10 you can select a second class, which already gives you 5x5=25 character type possibilities. Each character has dozens of skills, plus you have this additional passive skill tree that you unlock through cleansing shrines. Then there is item customization with crafted "modifiers", adding additional unique stats and skills that you can use, all this adds literally to thousands / millions of character possibilities. Do you want to use a double weapon shooting lightning bolts? You can do that. Do you want to summon your creatures and support them with fireballs? You can do that as well, you can push it wherever you want. See More

Top Con

Difficult to move when fighting, especially when you are ranged

Top Pro

Great homage to old school ARPGs

This game is very dark, and grim. It harkens back to games like Diablo 2 or Titans Quest. While other ARPGs have come out since then, none have hit all the marks of what fans of the genre have been asking for. For those that wish for an updated version of Diablo 2, Grim Dawn is the game for them. See More

Top Con

Static pre-rendered levels

This may cut down on replayability a bit as all the levels in the game are pre-rendered, meaning that each playthrough will have the exact same layout, making for something that can get tiring and too familiar. Similar games have gone with randomized levels, which can keep the game fresh. While Grim Dawn is meant to be a throwback to earlier games in the genre, some newer features found in more recent released would have been welcome. See More

Top Pro

Exploration

Top Con

Lots of trips to town

The majority of loot in the game can be useless, with odd stat restrictions or repeats of vendor items. This means the user will need to make many trips into town to sell it all off in order to have room for even more loot they will not necessarily need. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Action / RPG / Hack n' Slash

Co-Op:4 Player Online / 4 Player LAN

Controller Support:Full

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92 18

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Top Pro

Freeflow combat pioneer

Arkham Asylum is the first game to bring us freeflow brawler melee combat in its full glory. It invented the combat genre where you fight a multitude of enemies who take turns attacking you, while the player has a basic attack, a parry+counter and a combat roll. Getting multiple hits in on enemies builds up a combo streak that makes batman stronger. This streak is reset by getting hit by an enemy. Other games, like Assassin's Creed, had superficially similar combat systems, but not as optimized as this and they did not feature hit/combo streaks. Arkham Asylum's freeflow combat system is very suitable to be played with controllers. See More

Top Con

Dark atmosphere

You won't realize how many shades of black exist until you've played an Arkham game. It's always dark outside, so to people who like daylight and colors in their games, this might get a bit dull after a while. See More

Top Pro

Fun stealth & gadgets

Remaining stealthy and getting stealth takedowns is important in Arkham Asylum's gameplay. Arkham Asylum gives the player a relatively large number of different gadgets to use for different combat purposes, such as ranged takedowns, cutting ropes, diverting enemies' attention, blasting through doors, traversing longer distances and hacking. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Platforms:Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

6 0

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Top Pro

Grand boss fights

The game has interesting, multi-part boss battles. A lot of character to the fights is added by the impressive, grotesque boss monster designs. See More

Top Con

A departure from Castlevania series in key areas

Some aspects of the game are considerably different from the previous Shadow game. For example, combat is a lot more God of War than Castlevania and boss fights are a lot more Shadow of Colossus than Castlevania. See More

Top Pro

Impressive, flowing combat system

The game has a visceral, impactful free-flow fighting system that emphasizes counter-attacks, dodges and stringing combos with a variety of weapons and moves. See More

Top Con

Stealth sections feel out of place

The game has stealth sections that involve turning into a rat and getting from one place to another while avoiding detection, but the stealth gameplay is very barebones and feels very out of place in a Castlevania game. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

17 3

Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition

Top Pro

Excellent story, well rounded abilities and insane combos

Top Con

Lacks widescreen support

The game only plays in 4:3, there is no widescreen support. See More

Top Pro

Hardcore difficulty mode

New to the series is a hardcore difficulty mode that is meant for only the most extreme players. This adds a level of difficulty to the game for those that are interested. See More

Top Con

Terrible controller support

The default controls for the game with a controller do not work that well and will most likely require a third party fix. See More

Top Pro

New character with new gameplay mechanics

DMC 3 focuses on a new character, Dante's brother Vergil. Vergil offers a whole new moveset when compared to previous games, which makes the gameplay fresh for those that are familiar with the series. See More

Top Con

It's practically impossible to play with mouse and keyboard

A keyboard binding exists, but it is impossibly complicated for anyone to use. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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14 3

Victor Vran ARPG

Top Pro

Lots of different builds

There are multiple weapons that Victor can equip, and each has a different set of abilities and are used in a way that is very different from how the other weapons are used. They really feel like separate classes. There is also a huge pool of equipment types (spells, etc.) that drop that supplement the various builds. Weapons and armor also have stats and qualities attached to them too. See More

Top Pro

Funny Dialogue

As you progress through the various maps, you have a "ghost" that tags along with you and pokes fun at Victor, the situation, or sometimes even you. He has multiple pop culture references as well. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly diverse AI in monsters

The AI in Victor Vran is spectacular. It's randomized very well which leads to far less predictable enemies than other games in the genre, and it will really keep you on your toes which is a lot of fun. See More

Top Pro

Acrobatic gameplay

Victor Vran ARPG is unique in the genre in that it's a very acrobatic and dodge-oriented game. In order to get far, you're going to have to learn how to jump, dodge, and dive around (or even on to!) your enemies in order to survive. This aspect of the game really adds another level of fun to an already good game. See More

Top Pro

Map Challenges provide extra challenge

Each map has a set of five challenges that reward you for completing them. They range from things you would normally do anyways to things that are so difficult really have to change up your approach to get them. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

12 8

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