Top 10 CRPGs of all time

Not to steal you from your massive audience, HiddenX, but we are now accepting reviews for those games, if you want to write about Albion or any other favorites. :)
 
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@felipepepe - posted this on the Codex, too:

edit:
It's now in our game database, too.

Albion - The Dark Horse of western CRPGs

Albion - a mix between Ultima and Realms of Arkania games - was released 1996 by Blue Byte GmbH.
It is a refreshing entry to the genre, mixing fantasy and science fiction elements (A bit like the movie "Avatar "). These mix leads to an interesting and powerfully written story.

You play as Tom Driscoll, a pilot from the mother ship Toronto that crashes on the planet Albion. Albion is supposed to be a barren world. Tom discovers quickly, nothing could be further from the truth: Albion is full of alien races to interact with, places to explore, rich and varied landscapes, various useful equipment and items to find. Magic and potions are available for healing and enhancement of your character's abilities.

You can build up a party with up to 5 members. Each party member has his own backpack as inventory. Each backpack is limited by the strength of the character. So you have to decide what to keep and what to sell (there are a lot of items in the game). Items can be sold in stores - the common currency is gold.

Battles are turn based, challenging long and interesting. There are a lot of options to attack and the enemies have a lot of options to attack you - be prepared. As long as one party member survives you can heal the rest of the party after battle.

In most towns and dungeons the game switches to a first person view, in outdoor areas a third person view is used. The game features auto mapping.

Interacting with the aliens is fun, you can ask everyone and your mother about many topics (listed in the dialog screen) to learn about new secrets and about new quests. The story develops through interacting with people, so you have to read and ask a lot.

The story is full of twists - but I tell you nothing here :)

The party members are all interesting characters, each with skills and stats that can be further developed.

Some puzzles, riddles are in the game, too.

Albion creates a fully believable alien world; you meet a lot of interesting NPCs and enemies to interact with. You find many (some unique) items to equip your characters. Character development through an interesting skill/stat/experience system is effective. Exploring the last corner of world is rewarding. There are many things, skills, spells to learn. The storyline is top notch.

Albion plays with many CRPG-elements and out comes a beautiful interesting and entertaining CRPG. I can recommend it to all Ultima, Realms of Arkania, Wizardry and Ambermoon fans. Two thumbs up!


Further details here:
Wikipedia - Albion
Character Development
Characters earn experience points by defeating enemies or by solving certain puzzles. When a character has sufficient experience points they will advance in level, increasing their maximum life and spell points. They will also receive training points which can be expended at a trainer to permanently increase one or more of their skills.

Navigation
Albion uses a hybrid 2D/3D graphical system to depict its environments. Most interior locations are shown using a 2D overhead view, centered on the player's party. Movement is possible using either the keyboard or the mouse, and the mouse is used to examine or manipulate objects within the reach of the party leader. A similar view is used when exploring the larger world outside the cities, but with objects and characters shown on a much smaller scale. Upon entering most dungeons, caves, and the exteriors of larger cities the game switches to a real-time first-person 3D view. As in the 2D view, players may use the mouse or keyboard to move around and the mouse is used to select objects to interact with. A 2D automap is available to assist navigation in these areas.

Combat
In both 2D and 3D areas, groups of enemies may be present. These groups are visible to the player and move in real time. Combat occurs when the party encounters one of these groups. Therefore combat can sometimes be avoided by slipping past or outrunning enemies. The combat system in Albion is turn-based and takes place on a five-by-six grid similar to a chess board, with the player's characters arranged at the bottom and their enemies at the top. At the start of each turn, the player selects an action for each character to perform: Attack, Move, Use magic, Use Item, or Flee. The order in which party members and enemies execute their actions depends on their relative speeds and is an important tactical consideration. Since attacks are targeted at a grid square rather than the character or enemy in it, attacks will miss if their intended target moves before they are made, even if that target is still within reach. The movement of the player's characters is limited to the bottom two rows, but there is also an 'Advance Party' option which moves all enemies one row towards the party.

Conversations
Conversations in Albion are handled in two ways: Set Topics and Keywords. The Topics usually signify something you can specifically ask that person, for example the leader of a tribe about an object that only he knows about, or a shopkeeper to show you his or her wares. Keywords are more dynamic and may yield different results to different people. Besides being able to type them freely, you learn keywords for a particular town by speaking to people about common topics, and gradually you will learn all there is to know in the game just by speaking to people. For example, you can learn some of the native language and culture, some superfluous knowledge about who likes whom, and what kind of drink is preferable.
 

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RPG Codex's Top 50 cRPGs - Results

I like the Bayesian Average List and the Runner Up List -> Albion :)

From the list I can tell they *really* love Black Isle/Interplay/Troika/Obsidian games... I actually prefer Bioware games vs Obsidian games.

BG series > IWD series
NWN1 > NWN2

I haven't played KotOR yet but it seems like generally KotOR 1 is favored over KotOR2. Also generally ME > Alpha Protocol although I suppose that is not really fair comparison...
 
That's a nice bit of necro. Wonder why this thread died like that, guess there's hardly been any change in the top10s in a while?
 
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I think this year may change a few.

I'm amazed Fallout 1 didn't come out until 1997. I tried playing the game a year or two ago and I thought it was at least five years older than that.

No Bethesda game on the list after they had the audacity to let consoles play their RPGs. Not even for Fallout 3, even though the New Vegas expansion is in the top ten. <sigh>
 
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I think this year may change a few.



I'm amazed Fallout 1 didn't come out until 1997. I tried playing the game a year or two ago and I thought it was at least five years older than that.



No Bethesda game on the list after they had the audacity to let consoles play their RPGs. Not even for Fallout 3, even though the New Vegas expansion is in the top ten. <sigh>


Arcanum looks about the same as fallout and came out in 2001...
 
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Looks about the same, yeah, but the gameplay wasn't the same. It's been a couple of years now so I can't remember specifics but I think it had to do with the default keyboard commands, how the map worked, and other such things.
 
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No Bethesda game on the list after they had the audacity to let consoles play their RPGs.

Like Morrowind, which reached 7th place? Which was released for the XBox one month after PC? Yeah, sounds like a legit complaint.
 
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What? Morrowind wasn't released on.... (checks)

DOH!!! How the Hades did the original XBox run a game like Morrowind!? That thing only had 64Mb of memory!
 
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From the list I can tell they *really* love Black Isle/Interplay/Troika/Obsidian games… I actually prefer Bioware games vs Obsidian games.

BG series > IWD series
NWN1 > NWN2

I haven't played KotOR yet but it seems like generally KotOR 1 is favored over KotOR2. Also generally ME > Alpha Protocol although I suppose that is not really fair comparison…
From the posts of this thread, and some time ago, the top 30 list was, for my eyes, a lot less pedantic and more natural (EDIT lol I like alot ToEE but 21 in top 100 lol yeah very pedantic):
  1. Baldur's Gate 2
  2. Gothic 1
  3. Planescape Torment
  4. Gothic 2
  5. Fallout 2
  6. Fallout 1
  7. Ultima 7
  8. Morrowind
  9. Wizardy 8
  10. Baldur's Gate 1
  11. Kotor 1
  12. Arcanum
  13. Ultima Underworld 1
  14. Neverwinter Night 1
  15. Deus Ex
  16. Realms of Arkania II
  17. Betrayal at Krondor
  18. Daggerfall
  19. Vampire Bloodlines
  20. Gothic 3
  21. Ultima Underworld 2
  22. Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal
  23. Icewind Dale 1
  24. Ultima 4
  25. Divine Divinity
  26. Wizardy 7
  27. Dungeon Master 1
  28. System Shock 2
  29. Might and Magic 6
  30. Ultima 5

EDIT
 
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I think this year may change a few.
...
I'm amazed Fallout 1 didn't come out until 1997. I tried playing the game a year or two ago and I thought it was at least five years older than that.
...
Lol 1992? I wonder if it's the turn based combats that made you thought that because if I remember well screen resolution was 800*600 and graphics level was on par with Baldur's Gate 1 released less than a year after.
 
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I'm having strange experience… I'm really getting into all the games I lacked patience to play previously. Really starting to get into KotOR and MotB. I may actually be able to come up with top 10 by end of this year.

I can only come up with top 5 at the moment, as the number of RPGs I've completed is still quite small compared to most of you in this forums:

1. BG2: SoA + ToB with/without the mod: What can I say? I just love this game. Everything about it. I'm not saying this game does not have flaws; in fact, if you look at individual elements, there are a lot of other games that are better. But when you put all elements together, nothing comes close to this game.

2. IWD + HoW + TotL + NPC Mod Project: I never thought I will like this game. Boy, was I wrong. I fell in love with it. I have to admit, the mod played big role to it, but I realised that's all this game lacked - decent NPC interactions. And I love the music!

3 & 4. ME 1 & 2: This as a whole series is a winner despite the 3rd game. I've played ME2 first and it's cinematic experience blew my mind. And I loved my Fem Shep. Too bad by the 3rd game, she didn't really feel like my character anymore. I think while ME2 flashed out Shepard's travelling companion, ME1 really flashed out the story and the world. Really opened my mind up… enough to make me play KotOR… :)

5. World of Warcraft: Say what you want, I still have very fond memories of this game, spending more hours than any other games I've ever played, which includes my 50+ plays of BG2. Too bad all the things that made WoW good previously are all gone now (no more challenges or decent community… it's so toxic, I try to avoid talking to anyone now).

I think KotOR and MotB will make it to top 10 soon… may even push out ME series and WoW out from top 5 :)
 
  • 1. Baldur's Gate 2 & ToB: Just replayed the EE. It's just a great game.
  • 2. TDE Northland Trilogy: I'm biased here, but there are so much good childhood memories about these games.
  • 3.-5. Mass Effect 3 + some DLC: Well, it's difficult for me to judge these games separately. The gameplay changed throughout the series with reallly weird stuff (ending, planet scanning?!?), but overall no other game (series) made it so well to create a feeling of having a sworn crew of interesting characters. Really loved the Leviathan and Citadel DLCs of ME3. I know that a lot of people don't like the story of recurring conflicts of organics vs. machines and stuff, but for me it was outstanding.
  • 6. KotOR 2: Well, it's Star Wars. I love light sabers and the force. And it had great characters, nice TBC.
  • 7. Dragon Age 1: I just loved the campfire "safehouse", most of the characters and the overall gameplay.
  • 8. KotOR 1: Just like KotOR 1. A little weaker overall.
  • 9. Fallout 1 & 2: I treat them as one game. In fact I can't remember in which ways they were different. Just liked the atmosphere, the dialogs, the combat.
  • 10. Neverwinter Nights 1: Well, I've played for years on a free server with actual heavy role-playing, where I had some of the very best moments in roleplaying overall (including books, P&P and video games). So it belongs to this list.
 
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I would add Skyrim to my list.

Really loved it, had the polish of Oblivion but great atmosphere like Morrowind. Still haven't finished it, actually only played for about 20 - 40 hours in three separate periods so never even got close to finishing it. But planning on starting a new game soon and playing to completion. Restored my faith in the series after Oblivion.
 
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1.Planescape:Torment-Unsurprising considering my forum name:).Best writing in CRPG imo not just for companions but for most NPC and enemies.Ravel is probably my favorite villain in game any game.

2.Arcanum-This game has many problems that persist even through community fix and not really good combat, but world is incredibly well done, huge amount of game has been put into details make this one of best gaming experiences.

3.Witcher-Very atmospheric game with very well done world and good writing.

4.NWN 2 Mask of betrayer-I had fun with oc of nwn 2 but it was mediocre.MotB didn't improve gameplay but writing was incredible after I consider it second only to PS:T.

5.Vampire the masquerade:Bloodilines-Like all troika's games it was flawed but worthy experience.

and rest next 5 without comments because I am tired.

6.System shock 2

7.Knights of old republic 2

8.Divine Divinity

9.Knights of old republic

10.Gothic 2
 
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In no particular order:

The Witcher 1
The Witcher 2
Baldurs Gate
Fallout New Vegas
Morrowind
Alpha Protocol
The entire Mass Effect series (I found 3 excellent up until the godawful last 30 minutes or so)
Kotor 2
Gothic 1
Gothic 3

Obviously I'm a big Obsidian/PB fan, though I enjoy Bioware games as well.
 
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The thing is, what makes an CRPG most memorable to me doesn't necessarily make it the most fun to play. Coming up with a list that I know is more than just fond memories requires a lot of analysis.
 
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The thing is, what makes an CRPG most memorable to me doesn't necessarily make it the most fun to play. Coming up with a list that I know is more than just fond memories requires a lot of analysis.
Analysis seems objective but the main point for the game is the fun you have to play it, at least that's how I feel it.

Myself I have a huge problem to make anymore such list, it's because I need be able enjoy play it since few years, past that it lost its meaning. Last two times I tried replay Gothic 1 or Gothic 2 with NotR I just failed play much. G2 NotR was my top 1 but frankly I can't anymore because of my inability to replay it. At opposite I replayed M&M3 and it's been a huge surprised how fun I felt it, too long for me to finish it but I didn't remembered the fun.
 
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