CRPG Replay Hall of Fame

I got the idea for this thread from some comments by Moriendor in a Witcher thread on replayability being a non-issue due to lack of available time to play for many people.

That made me realize that the time factor actually nudges me back to certain games, since why waste time playing an unknown that may disappoint when you have an old tried-and-true favorite that will give you the experience you are looking for. I know that one needs variety and that new games often bring new and good experiences, but what about the games you replay because they never disappoint?

This is my list of games I go back to when all else fails:

1. Might and Magic 6--This is a game that combines nostalgia with everything I enjoy in an rpg: a big self-created party, tons of quest, dungeons and skillsets, and was also the first crpg I ever played.

2. Icewind Dale/Heart of Winter--For pretty much the same reasons, also for the atmosphere, dialogue and npcs. Playing through The Severed Hand is on par with watching your favorite movie for the tenth time.

3. Wizardry 8--Setting up the party, making the plot path choices, exploring the world. (With the Wizfast utility, of course, to make the combat less interminable)

4. Baldur's Gate2: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Baal--This one I go back to because I am convinced I need to finish it, but still haven't--I invariably get drawn into taking along all the npcs and doing all their sidequests and wear out before I can advance the main plot very far.


As far as, why these games? I don't know except that they satisfy my gaming chops the best, I guess. Games like PS:T, ToEE, and Gothic were so involving at the time that they have a "Totally Completed" tag in my mind and it seems I can't go back and play them casually. Other classic games like BG1 and TES series had their charms but weren't involving enough. For me, that is .

What's your personal list of HoF candidates?

When it comes to CRPGs, my HoF list ist rather short because I won't include games I played only twice. Some of my favorite CRPGs are not on this list - sometimes I never return to a game out of fear of destroying a myth.
My favorite list of CRPGs I replay from time to time instead of trying out newer games includes:

- Daggerfall: Clothes
I just love to save money and buy ships and houses. And, of course, this game has the most fantastic array of clothes - I enjoy to travel around with my horse and cart full of clothes and dress differently each time I talk to an NPC.

-Morrowind: Interior Decoration
While I'm afraid I must say 'forget about the clothes', I love to clean out and occupy (or build) houses. The absolutely best feature in this game (for me) is the fact that you can spend hours on end with interior decoration: decorating tables, light sources... I remember taking candles and lamps from all over the island and arranging them on the roof of my Hlaalu stronghold. It was so nice to come back to the place in the dark, and the roof and windows were lit by hundreds of lights.
That's the reason I was a bit miffed with Oblivion: no portable light sources! Not even Hieronymus Lex could make up for that.

- Lands of Lore 1: The Feeling
No houses to buy, not many clothes to wear... yet I love this game so much I replay it quite often. Why? I like the atmospheric graphics, the dry humor... and even though I tell myself to try out a different character each time I replay the game, I always end up with Ak'Shel.
Don't get me wrong, I already played it through with each of the four player characters, but the grumpy Drac holds a special place in my heart.

- System Shock 1: The Thrills
This is one of the few games I like to replay for the story. I just love it that my efforts are foiled over and over again, and trembling in anticipation of Shodan's traps has become a favorite pastime.

- Jade Empire: Romance
Well, my favorite romances in a CRPG so far. I like the game, the looks and the story, but the romances are the best, and pretty much the only reason I replayed the game so often.

- Gothic 1 : MARVIN
While I enjoyed to play through Gothic with all the factions, playing it the MARVIN way was a real blast: only after I had set up fights between many unlikely combatants and taken screenies of my favorite characters in their undies, I put the game on the shelf.

high replay value:

JA 2
Gothic 1 + 2 NOTR
Wizardry 7-8
Might Magic 3-7
Fallout 1-2
Icewind Dale series
Baldurs Gate 2
Planescape Torment

magerette said:

...the time factor actually nudges me back to certain games, since why waste time playing an unknown that may disappoint when you have an old tried-and-true favorite that will give you the experience you are looking for.

Click to expand...

Exactly! And here I was, thinking I was the only one! Thank you!!

These are in no particular order:

* Daggerfall
* Icewind Dale
* BG's 1 and 2
* Gothic
* Civilization 2 (not an RPG, but I've played it more than any other game)

Mine would be, in no real order:

• Ultima 7
• Gothics
• BG 1 + 2
• Fallouts
• Wing Commander (all of them)

These are the games that I can always go back and enjoy.

1. Baldur's Gate 1

I don't know why, but this Game is the one I replayed most... the different Race/Class/Aligment-Charas the first 5, 6 times, then Darkside of the Swordcoast and now BG tutu with the NPC-Mod...

2. Dungeon Master

Certainly Number 2, just for its perfect Gameplay...

3. Baldurs Gate 2

There is always a NPC-Mod or Quest-Mod I haven't tried...

4. Realms of Arkania I

So many Ways to create a Party - Hunters, Warriors, Jesters, Witches, Druids, the different Wizard-Schools - and so much to see (even if it might only be told in writing)... places you could only teleport in, things in the wilderness to explore... and a timelimit that simply didn't allow everything on one Play-through...

5. Daggerfall

The first Game in my Replay-HoF that isn't in my All-times Top-Ten - just to try different Character-Builds (IIRC only my first Character in this Game was a male, there was really just to much interesting Clothing that you missed when playing a Guy ).

6. World of Warcraft

Now this is really a strange thing... I leveld one Chara to lvl 60 and then started twinking, and twinking and twinking... then came Burning Crusade with the stupid Outland and I stopped twinking on PvP-Servers ... atm I usually play a Month, take a break for 3 to 6 Weeks and start twinking again... while I enjoyed to play Blood-Elves and Dreanai through their Starting-Locations, I guess BC destroyed the End-Game-Content for me... and a good part of the Atmosphere too...

7. Wizardy 6

The interesting Races, Classes and "Multi-Classing" are what leads me back to this game from time to time... I prefer Part 6 even with the outdated Graphics because of the more or less traditional Setting...

8. Eye of the Beholder I

No real reason... a good Game-Balance, nice Atmosphere and interesting NPCs... although they only talk once to you when you take them in your Party

9. Eye of the Beholder II

Same as the above... and Darkmoon is a interesting Place to be

10. Darksun I

Again a lot to see, to roam around and to explore - and interesting Party-Creation - after years of killing Thri-Kreen it was nice to have one in the Party - and Half-Giants and Psionics and Ranger/Psionic/Mages...

11. Master of Magic

I always wanted the perfect Empire... Legions made of Dark-Elven Warlocks, human Paladins, noble Sky-Dragons, evil Fire-Dragons, Troll-Mammoth-Riders, Draconian Drake-Riders and Arch-Angels... and all the Interesting Heros with costum-created Equiqment and a good Mix of interesting Enemies ... I tried countless times to get all that

12. Diablo II

Just another Item, just another Level...

I guess thats it... although there is a lot of old stuff in the List that I haven't played in years

And I learned with this Post that I use far to much Smilies...

Wiz8
MM7
Civ2
HoMM3
Majesty + Northern Expansion
Pirates (Sid Meier)

Those are the games that I keep dragging out after years and years. I probably would have listed one of the XCom's, but I'm guessing UFO:ET will be enough of a clone to become a new stand-in. Honorable mention would probably go to NWN.

Ultima Underworld 2
Ultima 7 (both)
Wiz 7-8
FO (both)
System Shock 1
Daggerfall
M&M 6-7
PS-T
NWN (mods online)

Gothics - Goes without saying
Oblivion - For some strange reason
Dark Messiah - Intense Fighting
Diablo 2 - typical RPGing
(NOT RPG) Far Cry - Just plain Awesome

dteowner said:

Wiz8
MM7
Civ2
HoMM3
Majesty + Northern Expansion
Pirates (Sid Meier)

Those are the games that I keep dragging out after years and years. I probably would have listed one of the XCom's, but I'm guessing UFO:ET will be enough of a clone to become a new stand-in. Honorable mention would probably go to NWN.

Click to expand...

Sid Meier's PIRATES! isnt an RPG!?

Neither are Civ2 and HoMM!!

My list of 'Most Replayed Non-CRPGs' (which includes Wolf 3D/Spear of Destiny, Heretic 1/Shadows/2, Hexen 1/Death Kings/Hexen 2/Portals, Doom 1/Ultimate/2/Final Doom, Blake Stone AoG/PS, Ken's Labyrinth, RotT/Extreme RotT, Quake 1/addons/2/addons, Thief 1/2/DS, Bad Toys and many, many more) is a bit longer than the CRPG one, I just omitted those because the title's thread told me to .

Yeah, I expanded the scope a bit. Sue me.

(hits dteowner with lawsuit ... OUCH ... )

I have to be careful, because if I listed my 'top 25 replayed games' there wouldn't be more than one or two RPG's on it ... but then I play RPG's slowly and completely (as opposed to blazing through FPS yet managing to see everything)

Here are 5 that I have replayed more than any others:
- KotOR - played ~9 times, and it takes me an average of more than 50 hours ... 6 on PC, 3 on Mac.
- Gothic 2 - I tend to take over 80 hours on this.
- VtM: Bloodlines - one of my faves
- Neverwinter Nights - love it ... all the way through the expansions.
- Divine Divinity
- Baldur's Gate 2

Great idea, Magerette!

1. Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra. I've replayed this game more than any other game in the series. I like the music, the cartoony-graphics, and most importantly the great dungeons in this game. I like puzzles in my dungeons and MM3 has a lot of them. I've played this once a year since its release.

2. Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor. This game is my second most played. MM7's only weakness, to me, is the first island. Once you get past that, the game is just a blast all the way through. I'm one of those types, who cannot play evil for any reason, so I've always played the light path I play MM7 once a year too.

3. Oblivion-Whichever TES game is the latest, I'll play constantly til the next game comes out. I almost always have a TES game going. With Morrowind and Oblivion the gameplay can be vastly different thanks to all the great modding. It's hard to go back to Morrowind's graphics after playing Oblivion. I've tried a few times, because I like the guild requirements in Morrowind, but I end up back in Cyrodiil after a few hours of play.

4. Wizardry 6: The Bane of the Cosmic Forge. This is my favorite Wizardry game. I don't like mixing Sci-Fi and Fantasy, so the latter games just don't cut it for me.

5. System Shock 2 and Deus Ex. I like to replay these occasionally, when I'm in the mood for science over fantasy.

I've replayed every game I own. Some I've never finished, but I still load them up once in a while and run through the first few hours. The one game I can never seem to get into is KOTOR. I've never lasted more than 2 or 3 hours into this game. Gothics 1-3 are the same, but I play longer before getting bored. I'm guessing dialogue-heavy games aren't my cup of tea. I never finished PST or Bloodlines either...Same with Baldur's Gate 2. I've read tons of fantasy novels and I think that's the main problem; if I'm reading I don't want to be interupted by a game. If I'm gaming, I don't want to be interupted by lots of dialogue.

Jaz said:

My list of 'Most Replayed Non-CRPGs' (which includes Wolf 3D/Spear of Destiny, Heretic 1/Shadows/2, Hexen 1/Death Kings/Hexen 2/Portals, Doom 1/Ultimate/2/Final Doom, Blake Stone AoG/PS, Ken's Labyrinth, RotT/Extreme RotT, Quake 1/addons/2/addons, Thief 1/2/DS, Bad Toys and many, many more) is a bit longer than the CRPG one, I just omitted those because the title's thread told me to .

Click to expand...

You are such a good girl--even if you have a wierd avatar

dteowner said:

Yeah, I expanded the scope a bit. Sue me.

Click to expand...

Actually, I just said CRPG's because I knew Jaz and Mike had a bottomless list to
go through if not

Fenris said:

...
12. Diablo II

Just another Item, just another Level..

Click to expand...

.

I left Diablo and it's perfect twin Titan Quest off as they are not considered traditional rpgs by most(including me, but that's another thread)

If I had included them, they would probably have the most hours of replay for me of any game except HoMM3.

And I learned with this Post that I use far to much Smilies

Click to expand...

..

Feel no shame, Fenris. I, too, have a smiley dependency. I prefer a smiley to lol and stuff, though...it must be the graphix freak in me.

@crpgnut
I understand about the science-fiction fantasy conflict. It took me awhile to appreciate it, but it has a certain logic, both in Wizardy 8 and MM6. And the games rest on a pretty solid gameplay base, so it isn't too distracting for me now.
Ditto for me on KotOR--just wasn't born to be a Jedi, I guess. I get too aggravated at Bastila( didn't care much for Imoen, either)

Fallout
- Short enough to be replayed many times and have a different experience each time.

Icewind Dale
- Lots of options (different class setups, different party size), game fun each time due to excellent difficutly factor, good size campaign (not too short, not too long)

Wizardry 8
- Same as IWD, fun and plentiful combat with lots of different class choices.

Morrowind
- TONS of mods, several guild/faction quest lines so you can just play through any without having to do all or finish the main quest. Poor dialogue system does keep things a bit on the dull side but then there's always just exploring the vast game area! How I wish Bethesda had made Oblivion feel more like Morrowind in terms of game play and atmosphere, then it would be on this list instead - so much potential wasted

Honorable mention:

Baldur's Gate 2 is probably my fave RPG of all time but that game is just too lengthy to warrant constant replays but I've played it twice and I'm sure in a couple of years I'll play through it at least once more. I still think this was the pinnacle of DnD based CRPGs.

magerette said:

You are such a good girl--even if you have a wierd avatar

Click to expand...

Muahaha! Weird avatars are my specialty. I just love to dress up.

Having played it twice, I should give honourable mention to Grimoire!!

Since the category is top replayability...

Neverwinter Nights and all its mods

Baldur's Gate I and 2 - for sheer depth. The IWD's were better IMO but not for replay

Arcanum - for sheer depth

Wizardry's. I know people that still play Wizardry I. Wiz 7 had at leat 4 factions you could join if I remember, something they continued a little bit with Wiz 8 but not as extensive.

Heroes of Might and Magics - lot's of expansions

FICs - Free Internet Chess Server