These Games With A Near-Perfect Loot System Deserve Your Attention

Everyone loves stocking up on the best items available for players in their respective games, but is the entirety of that mechanic laid out perfectly from head to toe? Having a good loot system in games is extremely fun for players who enjoy this particular mechanic, but then again, quite a few titles out there overwhelm players with a constant barrage of pickable loot, leaving them perplexed. 

That’s why I’ve decided to put together this article to try and pin down some of the best games out there that boast great looting mechanics. If you’re a fellow enjoyer of this particular genre, keep on reading to find out what’s in store as for your next recommendations. 

Love Loot? Here’s What You Should Be Playing

Might I add: The following entries reflect my personal opinion and should be understood as such. If you feel like I missed a good entry or two, make sure to comment down below and spark a discussion. 

1. Diablo 2

Starting off the list is the magnificent Diablo 2, back from a time when Blizzard Entertainment was at its peak in terms of making games that aligned with player interest. The RPG still stands tall today — despite coming out more than two decades ago — in terms of having a highly meaningful loot system, one where you actually have to brainstorm and figure things out before putting different pieces of loot together for your character. 

I can certainly understand it when someone refers to Diablo 2 as a game that belongs to the golden era of the industry. Titles usually possessed the best game-making formula back then.

2. Fallout 4

Fallout 4 has been making headlines these days for various reasons, with one of them being the sprawling success of Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout T.V. show that has in turn hyped up the game itself, leading to a substantial spike in the post-apocalyptic shooter’s player count. If you’re the one to prioritize loot in games, Fallout 4 is right up there for scavenging and junk crafting. 

The fact that you are able to get everything that your foe wields or wears says a lot about the game’s creative potential. Make sure that you check this one out—it’s not the best Fallout game in the business, but it’s not bad either, all things considered.

3. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

If you consider yourself an expert when it comes to the loot system across different games, do give Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 an honest shot. I’ll be honest, it sports one of the more difficult-to-understand loot mechanics, with a lot of range and potential in end-game situations, but once you figure things out for yourself, it’s only then that you realize the sheer potential that The Division 2 is packing. 

Its dramatically involved loot makes sure that looting never gets boring, especially when it grants you the ability to combine the best features of one weapon during its disassembly and apply them all to another weapon belonging to the same category. That way, no loot or enemy battle leading up to the latter is boring, not to mention the encouragement of pushing to a higher difficulty because of better loot. 

4. Horizon Zero Dawn 

Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn is the best at what it does, and I’m not just talking about its loot system here. On top of the fairly straightforward gear upgrading and weapon enhancement system is a breathtaking RPG experience just waiting to be explored.

I found the sequel — Horizon Forbidden West —  a bit extra though when it comes down to its loot feature, often becoming too much of a grind for me to keep engaged after 4-5 hours of constant playtime. 

eXputer reviewed the action-adventure and rated it 3.5/5.0, with author Nameer Zia remarking, “Despite suffering from a fair number of issues, Horizon Zero Dawn is a great open-world game that largely delivers on its fantasy.”

5. Warframe 

What Warframe brings to the table, being a heavily loot-centric game, is something that most games out there aren’t really replicating. Among other things, it features a group loot system that encourages teamwork in players instead of going after every item solo. Redditor Whatah explains this nicely, 

The main aspect is the relic cracking. You go into a mission and select a relic. Every 5 minutes, everyone’s Relic cracks and you get to pick any prize from the 4 people in your team. If any one person gets lucky and their Relic cracks into a valuable “rare,” then the whole team gets that as a prize. This leads to amazing feel-good moments. When one person gets lucky the whole team gets lucky.”

6. Borderlands 

Last but not least, Borderlands is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the “looter-shooter” genre because it performed so well, that it paved the way for hordes of people to try out this particular category of video games, even though it didn’t primarily invent it. The procedural generation in-game makes sure there’s a ton of variety all the time, not to mention the high-level loot that you start getting into after putting in a fair number of hours for the grind.

Although the Borderlands series has multiple games to its name, I picked the first one because it’s one of the best and it kicked off the franchise in quite a way. Do not sleep on this one.