Nox was released in 2000. It got good reviews, but was generally written off as a "Diablo clone." However, I actually liked the game *more* than Diablo. For one thing, the environments were more interactive and varied. Additionally, there was a really cool line-of-sight system.
I think it's really an underrated classic, and still one of the best hack-n-slash games ever made. It would be cool to see it get some recognition (hint hint).

It was a Westwood game before EA bought them out and gutted them. Back in the day Westwood made more than just Command & Conquer. I assume the rights have remained with EA in their long forgotten vaults.

I still have the original game and it actually runs fine on my Vista x64 laptop. Still one of my fav Westwood games along with Lands of Lore.

I remember seeing the box in the store, but never picked it up. Reading the wiki article [url=]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nox_%28video_game%29[/url] it looks interesting.

I thought Nox was an okay game, but rather short, as I recall. Also, although I remember none of the story, I do remember that I didn't find it nearly as good as that of Diablo II.

I remember every time I died, you'd see a death screen and then you'd hear Hecubah, the baddie from the game, talking about how without you to stop her she'd rule over the world and this and that. It was always a sort of rant or long monologue mocking you and your demise. Then one day I started a new game and on my very few steps I accidentally stepped on lava and died. The death screen showed up and all she said was "Well, that was easy".
I really liked the concept of the game and the graphics. It gets a bit repetitive in the crypts but what RPG doesn't?

"Damn!"
"Lousy second rate candle makers, kill them all when I rule the world. What kind of half baked operation do they think I'm running here?"
"Now where was I.... donandetak donandetek blah blah blah blah.... Oh yeah!"

I really liked the setting. The graphics were in that great highly-detailed 2D style.
I still remember one moment where I was trapped in a house and people were attacking me from all sides.
There are lots of screenshots here:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/nox/screenshots
This screenshot shows the line-of-sight system. Look at the way you can only see a cone of vision through the doorway and around the corner. As you move, the visible area shifts, too. (EDIT: Link not working. It's the first pic on the third row).

Actually for a hack and slash game diablo 2 story is pretty good. You had to talk to the npc's to get alot of it but I enjoyed it.

I remember seeing it on a retail store so many times, but I didn't get it at the time. :/

Indeed. Also, the part of the story that was told through the cutscenes between the chapters was amazing, but then Blizzard always made fantastic cinematic cutscenes.

Yeah their cinematics are truly excellent. The games they're attached to are rather average though of undeniably high quality but their cinematics rock
And Nox was pretty cool, never got to play much of it but I definitely put it ahead of diablo, even though it's not very different it had enough additional bits & bobs to make it more fun

Yeah pretty good game from what I could tell (never played more than a level or so at a friend's when it came out). The funny thing about Diablo clones is that as a subgenre, most of the games stack up pretty well against the source material (vs. say RE clones). Many of the diablo clones stake out their own claims on unique locales.
Throne of Darkness was pretty good, too. Did you play that one?

Of course I remember Nox - it's one of the games in my collection. Pretty good one, too.