State of the Game: Dungeon Crawlers
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At first, there were not that many Diablo clones, because they were largely still in development, the industry readjusting its processes to try to capture the appeal of Diablo.
An early example would be Darkstone, the first fully-3D Diablo. A fairly good game, but it wasn't quite as deep as the original Diablo in terms of gameplay mechanic sophistication. Little did we know that this would be a common trend amongst dungeon crawlers.
(2000) Nox, by the now-defunct Westwood Studios, featured both online competitive and cooperative play as well as an extensive single player campaign. One of the more fast-and-furious dungeon crawls, a considerable amount of foes were thrown at the player and this required unusually high reflexes to accurately counter. Although it was largely forced offline due to Westwood Studios' closure and exploits, a handful of players still enjoy Nox.
Belgian Larian Studios was responsible for (2002) Divine Divinity and its sequel, (2004) Beyond Divinity. Though the Diablo similarities were certainly in place, the Divinity series removed the randomly generated maps in exchange for an overland epic adventure. There can be found in either game a great deal of attention to detail, with pixel hunting often proving rewarding. Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis is still in development and slated for a 2009 release.
