It's shocking to think about, but the biggest name in isometric action-RPG gaming, Diablo II : Lord of Destruction came out 11 years ago.! Since then, countless world-changing events have come and gone. Rises (Facebook, Twitter, Justin Bieber) and falls (Myspace, print magazines, sadly not Justin Bieber) have reshaped our day-to-day lives. Meanwhile, statistics say that you've probably changed careers, homes, and pants at least once -- probably more. And even though the Lord of the Damned has been out of the spotlight, action RPGs have hardly gone to hell -- or even a particularly unpleasant handbasket -- in his absence. Here's the cream of the crop, in handy chronological order.Divine Divinity managed to splice Diablo's hack 'n' slash DNA with the more complex aspects of RPGs like Baldur's Gate and a refreshing dab of humor -- something most fantasy worlds fail to invent while constantly fretting about Ends of Days and Chosen Ones. Skill trees, for instance, are shared among all character types, so hybrids of all shapes and sizes are viable if you know what you're doing. (And if you don't, well, you probably made the mistake of playing a Summoner.) The world, meanwhile, is impressively non-linear, and most NPCs react realistically when faced with a blade to the face. That is to say, by dying. Unfortunately, however, there is NPC clone of the person who decided to call the game Divine Divinity. Demo! Sacred is a textbook case of quantity over quality. It doesn''t reinvent the wheel -- or even mildly inconvenience itself to make sure there weren't any nails sticking out of it -- but it dreams big and, in many ways, succeeds. Foremost, Sacred's world is positively massive and mostly open from the get-go. Countless side-quests and Easter eggs (including a reproduction of Diablo's city of Tristram) make the comparatively standard central plot more of an appetizer than a main course, and different character types begin their journeys on different parts of the continent. Clumsy combat threatens to trip up the whole operation, but a wildly detailed world rises up to catch its fall. Demo! As far as skill progression and loot go, The Bard's Tale strummed hardcore players to sleep with a decidedly less complex version of Diablo's trademark tune. It is, however, still solidly enjoyable from a click-until-the-Bad-Things-go-away perspective, and summoning NPC companions -- from knights in shining armor to lightning spiders who are, I suppose, naked -- add a form-fitting layer of strategy to the proceedings. Humor, though, is this game's double-edged sword of choice, as it simultaneously takes sharp-tongued stabs at every RPG cliche in the book and manages to trip over a few tropes in the process. Demo! The Diablo games are, of course, great, but Dungeon Siege II does them one better by including parties! Oh yes, balloons, streamers, clowns bursting from cakes to fulfill, like, five different phobias at onc-- oh, right. Not that kind of party. Even so, full control over four characters -- both mid-combat and in terms of progression -- ensures that the brain isn'trelegated to the sidelines, and co-op gives robot-hating social butterflies a chance to get in on the action as well. Also, the original Dungeon Siege's mule is back, and he brought friends -- friends that devour armor to level up. Suddenly, I understand why my dog so desperately wants to eat my shoes. Demo! While Dungeon Siege opts to add a heaping helping of complexity to Diablo's tried-and-true recipe, Fate takes the opposite approach. It stuffs feature bloat into a George Foreman grill, leaving behind only a lean, mean hack 'n' slash that nails the basics with razor-sharp precision. And while it's a bit cutesier than fans of Diablo are used to, it takes full advantage of its candy-coated looks with puppies and kittens. Specifically, said adorable arbiters of justice and loot-hungry genocide level with you and transform based on what sorts of fish you feed them. The same system resurfaced in Torchlight , because all the glittering prizes in the world can't match the value of furry, doe-eyedSo far, every other game on this list has gleefully slain its way through some randomly generated fusion of Blizzard and J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginations, which is kind of impressive -- but not really in a good way. So let's say you're looking for an exotic vacation spot for your olde-timey mythological take on Hoarders. Well, why not Greece? Minotaurs, Gorgon sisters, and of course Titans round out Titan Quest's roster of thematically appropriate loot pinatas, and its skill progression lets players pick and choose between all sorts of varied trees. No, Titan Quest didn't kick off a new generation of action-RPGs, but it did manage to all at once spirit the genre away to a new setting and capture Diablo's lightning-in-a-bottle feel better than most of its competitors. Demo! One of these things is not like the others! It may not be a third-person isometric clickfest, but Borderlands does have guns. 87 bazillion of them, in fact. I'd say it definitely fit the ARPG bill, given that it prominently features randomized loot, leveling up, questing, skill trees, co-op multiplayer, and a largely open world. In a genre that often seems content to tread water in the shallow end of a pool Diablo built more than a decade ago, Borderlands pushes its borders outward, assimilating the best bits of the almighty shooter empire and relying on their strengths as well as its own. So basically, it's the Genghis Khan of ARPGs. But, you know, with a tiny dancing robot who never shut up about how he was, in fact, dancing. No demo available.Most action RPGs get fussy about being called a Diablo clone, but not Torchlight. Then again, some of the creative minds who'd helped create Diablo II at Blizzard reassembled at Runic to create it, so it's only idea theft in the same way that finding a $20 bill that you left in your own pocket is bank robbery. (That same $20, by the way, could buy you a copy of Torchlight.) Granted, Torchlight lacks some of Diablo's more iconic bells and whistles, like an explorable world and multiplayer, but it nails the heavy hittingof wading through armies, Sauron-at-the-beginning-of-Lord-of-the-Rings-style, perfectly, and does it with such style and flavor that it becomes amazingly addictive. Now the only question is whether Torchlight II -- whichinclude multiplayer and a bigger above-ground world -- will beat Diablo 3 out of the gate. Demo! DeathSpank – as you might expect from a game whose name contains the words "death" and "spank" – is pretty silly. It none-too-subtly burst forth from the cranial region of Monkey Island mastermind Ron Gilbert, but somehwat surprisingly took to the stand up stage with rapid fire jokes about farts and fecal matter. Even so, it manages to poke some solid fun at ARPGs in general and also leverages Gilbert's vaunted pedigree in the form of adventure-game-style puzzles. The actual act of hacking 'n' slashing, meanwhile, leaves a bit to be desired, but Deathspank has gobs of cartoony style where its substance falters. No demo available.This one's a tad controversial. Ripped from the bosom of series creator Gas Powered Games and placed in the generally capable hands of Obsidian, the third Dungeon Siege is one of those "sequel-in-name-only" games that its own mother wouldn't recognize. There's more focus on story -- it's brilliantly written and backed up by a stance-switching combat system that makes for smooth slashing against groups or single targets. Blocking and dodging, meanwhile, keep you on your toes during combat and away from the snooze-inducing lullaby that is mindless click-click-clicking. Sure, co-op's a bit of a botched proposition considering that your friends can't bring their own characters into the fray, but Dungeon Siege III is strong enough to stand alone. Demo! : Did we miss any? What's your favorite non-Diablo action-RPG? By the way, Diablo's third coming won't mark the end of the flow of hack-and-slash loot hunters. In the next 12 months I'm looking forward to Torchlight II, Borderlands 2, Grim Dawn (from the guys that made Titan Quest), and the free-to-play Path of Exile.