Listening to a podcast is my favourite option, or perhaps putting on a crappy TV show that doesn't require much watching. But just on their own, ARPGs leave a big hole, and I think Titan Quest perhaps leaves the largest of them all. Yes, people want to talk to you, but oh lordy I don't want to listen.
"Blather blather Ancient Greek reference blather." Sure, sure, get on with it! Tell me where you need to me to go click on stuff next! The game here is to semi-distractedly tap-tap-tap on crowds of satyrs, while keeping an eye on my health and springing into more focused action when it's threatened. Then to pick up improbable piles of loot, and sell it for money I will absolutely never use at any point because of all the improbable piles of dropped loot.
You could try to argue with me that there's more to these games than that, that if played on a super-high difficulty level then it's about astoundingly precise min-maxing of all your equipment and skills, spending hours drawing out plans on pieces of paper and pinning them to your wall, lines of red string threading between them, but I'd look at you like you're silly. Heck, I think there's probably a very strong argument to be made suggesting that Action Role Playing Games were the genesis of the modern "clicker", those infernally compelling and utterly stupid games about tapping at your phone screen until your finger is a skeletal stump. They are the reductio ad absurdum of the format. Actually having at least some substance, a Z to reach from your A, and it's obvious why these ARPG games are so enjoyable. The missing third isn't necessarily something as simple as "a story". Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.There's a big baddie, and it's causing lots of monsters to be everywhere, and people talk to you about that an awful lot in between your hitting said monsters with your preferred stick. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.