Single Player RPG Recommendations (WOW Refugee)

Originally Posted by Icefire
You'll have to forgive him. He is a wings fan after all.

Say what you want about dteowner, but he has quality taste in hockey teams.

Actually, Dungeon Siege 2 somewhat resembles the Baldur's Gate paradigm (fantasy, mostly-isometric, party-based, semi-open world, combat heavy) - and it's not bad. Certainly miles ahead of both the prequel and the sequel.

Otherwise, Dragon Age is definitely the closest contemporary game - and it's very good overall.

I've tried to get into the Drakensang games several times, but I find them incredibly dull and uninspired. I especially dislike the RPG mechanics. They do seem very popular around here, though, so I guess they're worth a shot.

Anyone that likes the old school gold box D&D games would probably enjoy some of the Spiderweb games. For those on a budget, they usually have a very extensive demo for each game as well, so you can get a good taste of the game before plunking down cash. The price is also quite reasonable. Well worth checking out!


-Carn

Originally Posted by Icefire
You'll have to forgive him. He is a wings fan after all. (And Cowboys?? Really??)

Hey now, my post was at 18:42 and his edit was at 18:49. While I can clearly see #12 in 12, I don't generally do the foretelling thing.

For someone who is tolerant of very old-school graphics, Jeff Vogel's games will rock your world. Tons of exploration, turn-based party combat, classic high fantasy, etc. They have worse graphics than even Baldur's Gate 1 though, so your eyes will bleed.

If exploration is your number 1 criteria, then Skyrim is king. The storylines are fairly basic though. Skyrim just gives you a world and lets you live your own story, it is not heavily structured at all. Skyrim is huge, so fair warning. If you're the type that just wants to see what's over the next hill, then there is no game in the world that compares to Skyrim. If you didn't like The Witcher 2, then Planescape Torment isn't going to work for you either. It's even more of an interactive novel than The Witcher 2.

I'll divide some of the games listed above by where they shine the highest.

Party Combat simulation:
1. Temple of Elemental Evil
2. Wizardry 8
3. Knights of the Chalice (indie)
4. Dungeon Siege 2
5. Frayed Knights (This game has humor elements too).
6. NeverWinter Nights 2

Exploration:
1. Skyrim (Oblivion, Morrowind)
2. Two Worlds Two (Two Worlds)
3. Fallout 3 (Fallout New Vegas) post-apoc though
4. Anything from Spiderweb

Story:
1. Planescape Torment
2. The Witcher 2
3. The Gothic Series (This series is immensely popular here)

The Gothic series is probably the best when it comes to a cohesive story told through several chapters 1-3. It doesn't work for me personally, but I'm a exploration/loot manipulation junkie.

One more category: Diablo/Rogue-likes/Action rpgs
1. Diablo 1-2
2. Titan Quest
3. Sacred 1-2
4. Dredmor

Dragon Age: Origins is close to a modern Baldur's Gate, so you might like that.

Neverwinter Nights 2 is my favorite modern D&D game. The original campaign is just ok, but Mask of the Betrayer is excellent. (The jury is still out on Storms of Zehir until I have the chance to get back to it.)

Drakensang: River of Time - I'm having a lot of fun with this one right now. It's old school, like Alrik mentioned. If you like stats and lot of character creation options it's a good one.

Wizardry 8 is also one of my favorites…but good luck finding a copy.

Some older games you can get cheap at GOG.com:

Neverwinter Nights - Lots of bang for your buck here. The original campaign is boring, but the expansions were more interesting. HUGE library of fan created content, some quite good.

Divine Divinity - Probably my favorite action-RPG. It plays like a hybrid of Diablo and Ultima 7…so more depth than your typical hack and slash.

Drakensang: The River of Time
The last Baldur's Gate style RPG with a decent budget. Rather complex but very good.

Skyrim:
The best for exploration. Look elsewhere for story.

Risen:
Similar to the much older Gothic and Gothic 2. The middle ground between story-driven and exploaration. Some story but still enough freedom to explore for several hours here and there. Very good world design, as all Piranha Bytes games.

The Witcher 2:
Currently the best story-driven RPG.

Dragon Age 1:
Should be worth a look if you enjoyed Baldur's Gate. Avoid Dragon Age 2.

KotOR 1&2:
Everybody enjoyed those. A simplified Baldur's Gate in the Star Wars universe.

Divinity 2: Dragon Knight Saga
Hard to describe. Some Diablo, some Gothic, some dragon combat, decent story. Enjoyed it.

Venetica
See other thread. Definitely worth a gamble for 5 bucks or less. A lot of people here liked it. It's like an adventure game with simple but effective RPG mechanics & combat on top.

If you can cope with ugly robes, a twee but compelling atmosphere and a clunky, fun and occasionally annoying game try Arcanum! The first time you play it if you go slow it is pretty fun and the setting (the music is good too) can be pretty fun. I quite like the system it uses for stats// skills etc.
Something about that game makes me smile. If you like the Baldur Gs (depending where you started on them) you should like Arcanum

The earlier parts of Arcanum are AWESOME. But the latter parts felt rushed and unfinished.

@'Nut:

I would put the Gothics in the exploration column. The 3rd for sure, but the others too because although they're smaller in scope they do reward careful exploration (and are still "open" compared to many other RPGs) .

Yep, the Gothics were hard to place. They're not as open as TES or Two Worlds, but more open than most other series. However, I thought that they had a good, cohesive storyline that covers the whole series and story crpgs are few and far between.

It was hard to pick which games to put where. Skyrim is easy. It's an explorer's wet dream and it's also a fun loot/stat game. It's weaker in story and while you can have party-based combat it's rarely more than two people, unless you're a conjurer.

Several games shine in multiple areas.

Create a new column "Not for pussies!"

If you don´t want to "wind the clock back", Dragon Age: Origins seems like the safest bet. It has a linear start (though you have variety of beginnings to choose from), but then it opens up and you can decide which parts of the main quest to tackle next.

One point about Drakensangs - I definitely would not recommend the first one, it´s an average to below average game in my opinion. Utterly generic plot, poor use of ruleset, boring itemization, weak encounter design (filler at every step) … you´d likely ended up with 50+ hours of seriously forgettable experience.
Drakensang 2 is a much, much better game, offers a tight mix of 25-30 hours of questing, combat, character developing and dungeon crawling and would be my second recommendation for a somewhat Baldur´s Gate-y experience with more recent production values. Since it´s a prequel, you don´t really have to play the first part for the story reasons anyway.

I would also recommend Mask of the Betrayer which is an excellent game, but it comes with the baggage of the NWN2´s original campaign, which is average and contains hilariously boring first third.


When it comes to older titles, I second most of the other recommendations as well.

Among the party-based, Baldur´s Gate 2 seems like the safest bet indeed - it´s a good all-rounder (but shallow when it comes to non-combat roleplaying), with some very good features (spell system, itemization) and none which would seem like potentially detrimental, judging by your posts.

Planescape: Torment is a text-heavy game and its main strengths are story, setting and characters (and exploration is tied to these elements). Combat is nothing to call home about, though a good thing is if you´re in it for the aforementioned strengths the combat very likely won´t diminish the enjoyment - it´s neither prominent, nor difficult.

Wizardry 8 is a combat heavy-game and its main strengths are character development and combat system. The game also has next to none hand-holding and its world can be explored in a non-linear fashion - both are good things, however, a large amount of encounters (and quite frequent respawns) along with relatively low combat speed may result in at times tedious experience and especially so in this context, ymmv.

Arcanum is similarly as BG2 a sorta all-rounder (but unlike BG2 it´s not shallow when it comes to non-combat roleplaying), main strengths being quest design, character development and setting. Similarly as in PS:T, its combat is nothing to call home about, however the game is comparatively more combat-heavy and I feel this may result in this aspect being substantially detrimental to the overall experience, at least for some character builds.

The three games above also deliver strong and unique "atmosphere", I think.

From the non-party based games, I second G1, G2: NotR, Arx Fatalis and Dragon Knight Saga.
If you´d be willing to step out of your comfort fantasy zone, I´d also add Fallout: New Vegas, because the game shows (unlike Skyrim or Two Worlds 2) that a modern open world games don´t have to be mutually exclusive with good writing and strong reactivity elements. You can have two companions with you, so there´s a bit of that party-based feeling as well.

Originally Posted by DeepO
Arcanum is similarly as BG2 a sorta all-rounder (but unlike BG2 it´s not shallow when it comes to non-combat roleplaying), main strengths being quest design, character development and setting. Similarly as in PS:T, its combat is nothing to call home about, however the game is comparatively more combat-heavy and I feel this may result in this aspect being substantially detrimental to the overall experience, at least for some character builds.

This is true especially for the technologist build, with the game balance significantly favoring the "magic" builds, which is a pity because it is the most interesting one…

Still, the mediocre combat does not detract much from the enjoyment the great setting and open ended nature of the design can give you, imo. A definite classic (and all time favorite of mine)…

The game that made me rediscover how much (more) fun a single-player rpg could be, and made me eventually leave wow was Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines.

Good one pibbur. I didn't find Two World with the most compelling storyline IMHO. Good game and open exploration but most of the time if I quite playing I never got that nagging feeling to go back in and find out how anything played out.

I would hit the Gothic series for sure. You have to play G1 if you never play any others. Skyrim has the sand box effect but the story lines, if you stick just to those, do have a pull you in effect. VMB of course is high story but lots of explore in there, though some areas are not that open to it.

You have lots to pick from….I say grab some demos and see what you like at this point.