Co-Op Action RPG difficulty, were is the middle ground?

Ok apparently this article was a Grammar mess. I just edited it to make it more understandable here it goes.

I used to play Diablo 2 back in high school like there was no tomorrow. The time passed and with no solid alternative I moved on. In recent years there's been more-better alternatives to the point and click action rpg, specially for some indie developers. This is a short review and thoughs about the ones I consider the best 3 picks at the moment and why is any of this 3 getting difficulty right.



1) Alien Swarm: Not a traditional Action-Rpg Alien Swarm is a cool blend between a top view shooter and an action rpg. There is persistence and progression but the combat mechanic is based on a variety of modern guns and weapons.

Aliens swarm was never intend to be easy. It was always advertised as tactical top view shooter.. and it does live to that description. Alien Swarm biggest problem is a very frustrating level of difficulty with no learning curve whatsoever. The game just jump you into it's bitch way right from the beginning. Personally I don't think friendly fire is the problem here, without it the game would be dull. The real issue for me is that the game has no learning level or any sort of introduction, even worst some arguably indispensable abilities don't unlock until you gain some levels.. not cool

2) Magicka: I love to hate Magicka. This little cute buggy game is perhaps by concept my favorite of the 3. It takes the loot factor out of the Action Rpg equation but introduces a innovative spell system. You are able to mix up 8 different "magicks" making it 100% skill based.

The problem with Magicka is not only his endless buggy nature.. It also has a frustrating level of difficulty. Your little cute wizzard moves way to slow, Movement is slower if you are about to cast a spell. Once the spell bean is shoot it is hard to control, the aim movement is slow. Your area of effect attacks will hurt and even one shoot your fellow wizzard partners. Crossing bean or friendly fire is as devastating as it is in Alien Swarm. All this plus a set of fast moving, charging, ranged enemies makes of Magicka a f%^&ing hard game to play.

3)Darkspore: here is our latest mainstream representative for the genre. It has all the rings and bells of a big studio/publisher production. With an arguably a good fiction and a set of "innovative" features. Paradoxically Darkspore feels the more traditional bet of the 3.

You have a set of space Pokemon that look very cool and are split among 3 "classes" (tank, dps, heal). You can pretty much customize everything: squad members, gear and looks for your pokemons.

The problem with Darkspore: combat is not that good. My best toon so far is the Sage a Murloc like healing/dps hybrid that would drop a healing tree arround partners and shoot green balls of magick that heal your buddies. Sounds cool right? Well that's basically rigth click and key 1 spam even in the hardest levels. You might have to change your pokemon in combat if things get to-hot but it rarely does. Darkspore combat feels kind of dull but The progression, customization, good built in social tools and overall quality crafting and production for this game makes me like it.

Make no mistake I like and a lot this 3 guys here, Yet I think the main problem for all of them is DIFFICULTY LEVEL. They either to hard (Magicka, Alien Swarm) or to easy (Darkspore).

Makes me wonder what's going on with this developers? I know there is business stuff they need to take care on. Nevertheless what I see here is lack (and a lot) of polish. Is the Blizzard lesson to hard to learn? All of this 3 titles would be way better with more and better play testing, extended beta and more developing time.. So what do you guys think? How do you "get"difficulty right?