Top 10 CRPGs of all time

1 - Geneforge 1/2/3 - best games I ever played. Fantastic setting, great story and character development. The amount of choises and endings avaible are truly amazing
2 - Fire Emblem/Fire Emblem Sacred Stones - Did I mention I adore TBS combat? With good story and interesting characters? Nevermind that these are for the GBA ...
3 - Arcanum - though it has its own problems, I still admire the complexity of the world, story, character system, and so on.
4 - Temple of Elemental Evil - an underdog, but the combat ... I'm in love with this game on combat alone
5 - Diablo 2 - again, no pun intended, but I really liked the game. Made item hunting a blast, besides it was good for multiplayer
6 - Fallout - a really well though out game. Besides, probably the best RPG in a non-fantasy setting, and that is saying something.
7 - Baldur's Gate 2 - though I've said a few harsh words about it, recently I've rethough my standing on the game. The story was indeed compelling and emerging. The characters were memorable, a thing I cannot say for more recent RPGs
8 - Avernum 1,2,3,4 - With fun turn based combat, non-linear gameplay, and well thought and really developed setting setting the games are a blast
9 - Planescape Torment - while I find many flaws in the game, the deviation from the typical fantasy setting is worth the place on my list
10 - Gothic - probably the only RPG with third person view that I like. Story was nice, the setting good.
 
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I have completed it four times yes. Takes me roughly 3-4 days to get through it once, but I'm a powergamer and never spend any "wasted"(depends on POV, obviously) time in games. It took me half the time to complete Oblivions main quest and all guilds.

As I both have a job and studies I don't really have a lot of spare time, but I go all-out during weekends and come to work on Monday more tired than when I went home on Friday, hehe. Also, I never do anything but work, studies and computer games. Of course, I would most likely get a nervous breakdown if I kept going on like this, but it only happens during certain periods(Gothic3 and NWN2 are the only two games for years) :)
 
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The problem with the really old games was that they felt more like strategic combat games than roleplaying games. The character statistics, monsterkilling, new weapons etc was there, but the adventure/story/choices was often missing.
 
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The character statistics, monsterkilling, new weapons etc was there, but the adventure/story/choices was often missing.
Indeed, but they are a few exceptions. Ultima, Magic Candle, Darklands, etc.
 
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Could you be more specific about which games you're thinking of?
 
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I have a hard time with these lists since I only really got heavily involved with RPG's in 2003 when I got the Mac version of NWN when it was released ...
 
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*catches rock and throws it back*
There's no need to apologize for liking Diablo.
 
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I have the same problem as "txa1265".

I havnt played RPG's that long so havent got that much experience.

Ive played thise games and I rank them it aprocimetly this order:
Gothic 1
Gothic 2
Gothic 3
Neverwinter Nights 2
Oblivion
Morrowind
 
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I have the same problem as "txa1265".

I havnt played RPG's that long so havent got that much experience.

I have played plenty, but I don't feel that I have given the older games the same fairness of experience as newer ones - I mean, I have Might & Magic, Wizardry and Ultima games all as 'collections' ... for other genres that I *have* played for the many years I've been gaming, I know that playing a 15 year old game now is different than having played it when it was released .
 
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okey...
I misunderstood...
But Mike? what game could you advise me to try? (after knowing I love the Gothic games) =p

I love Deus Ex and System Shock 2 and Vampire Bloodlines, and based on everyone else's lists, so do they. Each is action-heavy but full of other very interesting things.

(Oh, and don't listen to Jaz, Deus Ex 2 *is* that bad ;) )
 
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My list would be very similar to all the rest. MonGoliat you might want to grab NWN1 the diamond edition. I think you'll find it fairly good fun, and the mods out for it will keep you busy for days. It should be cheap to buy now.
 
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For replay value Morrowind beats everything else (provided you have the discipline to not join every faction during every playthrough), with BG 2 a distant second. For story and NPCs Gothic 1+2 win hands down. For multiplayer I recommend Icewind Dale, Baldurs Gate, and NWN.

My top 10 would be:
Gothic 2, Gothic 1, Morrowind, Baldurs Gate II, Baldurs Gate, Gothic 3, Arcanum, Darklands, Daggerfall (which sadly aged terribly bad and is unplayable today), SSI Goldbox series (particularly Pool of Radiance which is the only one to feel remotely non-linear, and the Krynn series).

Other good ones are:
I enjoyed Realms of Arkania 1: Blade of Destiny, Demons Winter, and the Ultima Underworlds as well. NWN1 was only really fun in MP.

Of this years releases I havent tried NWN2, enjoyed Gothic 3 in spite of the bugs, and hated Oblivion...
 
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txa1265 said:
(Oh, and don't listen to Jaz, Deus Ex 2 *is* that bad )
It's not one of my favorite games ^_^. It was merely nice. Just like System Shock 2. No, I don't love that one, either.

@Zaleukos: I replayed Daggerfall last year and played Arena for the first time this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed both (despite all those newer, shinier and more detailed games). I take it Mike alluded to shooters when he said
txa1265 said:
I know that playing a 15 year old game now is different than having played it when it was released .
.
I think it depends on personal preferences. For example, I played Catacombs Apocalypse for the first time in 2006. It's from the early nineties, I played the precursor games back then, and I had far more fun playing it in 2006 than I had playing, say, Doom 3 or Halflife 2.
When writing down my favorite CRPG list I felt the desire to replay the LoL games. I need a Win98 comp *badly*.
 
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It's not one of my favorite games ^_^. It was merely nice. Just like System Shock 2. No, I don't love that one, either.

It is just that DX: IW would appear on a different list for me ... "10 Most Hated Games of All Time" ...
 
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I have played plenty, but I don't feel that I have given the older games the same fairness of experience as newer ones - I mean, I have Might & Magic, Wizardry and Ultima games all as 'collections' ... for other genres that I *have* played for the many years I've been gaming, I know that playing a 15 year old game now is different than having played it when it was released .

Games are like wine. Ones with a clear UI and clever presentation can age graciously, while those relying on state of the art graphics tend to not. I still find the Goldbox games or Darklands playable due to the clean menu-driven interface, while Eye of the Beholder and the Darksun games that looked much better upon release are absolutely horrid to play. Not to mention Ultima Underworld that was way ahead of its time upon release.

A mouse-driven interface and interactive graphics at a low resolution is a bitch and very hard to get back to. Heck, even going back to Baldurs gate 1 and 640x480 is painful...

@Zaleukos: I replayed Daggerfall last year and played Arena for the first time this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed both (despite all those newer, shinier and more detailed games). I take it Mike alluded to shooters when he said

I've had problems running Daggerfall properly on anything faster than a 90MHz Pentium I. While it starts up nicely there is a bug that sometimes (in my case pretty often) makes it impossible to pick up quest items off the ground when running on a "fast" CPU. The randomly generated dungeons (that sometiems were impossible to finish) and the rather limited presentation of all the factional intrigue that was hidden somewhere in the code were also big minuses.

But if you look at the concepts in the game, a huge game world with tonnes of factions that like/dislike each other, branching within quests, skill based character progression (not optimally implemented in the TES games, but I still like the concept) Daggerfall could have been THE "Elite with swords" RPG. I loved the game back in 95-96. Imagine what smarter randomization (just using some sort of pathfinder to check that all quest locations within a dungeon are reachable) and a transparent presentation of in-game politics could have done to the game! :)
 
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1. Wizardry 6 (best party based dungeon crawl ever IMO)
2. Ultima 7/7.2 (best world and characters/npcs in any cRPG)
3. Fallout2
4. Planescape Torment (best story)
5. Baldurs Gate 2+TOB (truely epic)
6. Gothic 2 (best action cRPG)
7. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny (the first and by far the best in the series)
8. Ravenloft: The stone prophet (excellent dungeons and epic story)
9. Jagged Alliance 2
10. Secret of the Silver Blades (best dungeons in any gold box game)
 
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