20/20 Hindsight part 2, GOTY 2014

Which would be your GOTY 2014?

  • Divinity:Original Sin

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Wasteland 2

    Votes: 3 30.0%
  • Dragon Age: Inquistion

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Shadowrun: Dragonfall

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Might and Magic X

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lords of Xulima

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Risen 3

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Legend of Grimrock 2

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Dark Souls 2

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

forgottenlor

Font of Useless Knowledge
Staff Member
Joined
January 29, 2014
Messages
2,716
Location
Vienna, Austria
I did one of these for 2013:

https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1061450463#post1061450463

And was surprised that voting hadn't changed much over a 3 year span, but 2014 in contrast had a lot more games which have gotten positive exposure on RPGWatch, so I thought it might be worth a try.

Here are the games which won the 2014 GOTY top ten results:

1. Divinity: Original Sin.
2. Wasteland 2.
3. Dragon Age: Inquistion
4. Shadowrun:Dragonfall
5. Might and Magic X
6. Lords of Xulima
7. Risen 3
8. Legends of Grimrock 2
9. Dark Souls 2.
10 South Park: Stick of Truth.

Also two very good JRPGS were released and made it on the codex top 10 list but not here:

Legends of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Valkyria Chronicles.

Number 3 on the Codex list was
Neo Scavenger.

In 2014 I had played only Might and Magic, Wasteland and Grimrock. I've now played all of them except South Park and Dark Souls.


Today I'd choose
1. Wasteland 2
2. Might and Magic X
3. Lords of Xulima
4. Divinity: Original Sin

What about you?
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
2,716
Location
Vienna, Austria
2014 was a very good year. Wasteland 2 was the first kickstarter I ever gave to and the reason I found out about KS. I enjoyed Lords of Xulima and M&MX. I finished all 3 of those games and played Wasteland again after the extended cut came out.

Hope we get another year like 2014 again.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2010
Messages
2,838
Location
Wolf Light Woods
Didn't comment in the original thread as my choices didn't change. But in this case they did.
My top3 choice back then was Original Sin, Risen 3 and The Stick of Truth.
While top2 I wouldn't change, today I'd kick South Park out, I still feel it deserves top3 spot but Ubi ditched Obsidian for it's sequel. Supporting this publisher decision is no go.
On the other hand another publisher decided to bring a console game to PC. A game of such quality I couldn't believe wasn't on PC initially, I couldn't believe this pearl was thrown to pigs who couldn't nor would appreciate it. Sorry for harsh words, it's just I believe all bad things in gaming industry today come from platforms where the audience has no taste, where the audience appreciates only mediocrity and cannnot spot an obvious musthave gem.
Such publisher decision I have to praise. So on my 3rd spot from that year I'd put Valkyria Chronicles if the poll was running today.

Maybe in a few years my choices change more although I doubt it.
But one thing defiently won't change.
Neo Scavenger - never heard. Thought that back then too. Guess I'll die an ignorant fool and I'm proud of it.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I really haven't been playing many RPGs in last few years so only ones I've played on the list are D:OS, DA: Inquisition, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

My fav one remains as D:OS.
 
I have no idea what I actually voted for originally, but this time I voted for Risen 3. Except for the fact that it was poorly balanced, it was an excellent game that I still find it a lot of fun.

It was a much better year for RPGs than 2013 though, and a good handful of those would have won the 2013 GOTY for me if they had been released that year instead of in 2014.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
I have no idea what I actually voted for originally, but this time I voted for Risen 3. Except for the fact that it was poorly balanced, it was an excellent game that I still find it a lot of fun.

It was a much better year for RPGs than 2013 though, and a good handful of those would have won the 2013 GOTY for me if they had been released that year instead of in 2014.

I enjoyed it too. Action RPG combat is probably my least favorite, and I prefer party based games, but for the style of game it was, I thought it was quite good. I think its my favorite of the Risen series. Obviously 2014 profited a lot from the Kickstarter boom and increased JRPG porting to Steam.
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
2,716
Location
Vienna, Austria
Hm, 2014 sure was a great year for CRPGs.

Divinity:Original Sin:
Not really played this one yet. I have it, but just started it.

Wasteland 2:
Played it, but got sidetracked 10h into the game, and had issues figuring out where I were. Great game, but not flawless.

Dragon Age: Inquistion:
I have it, but not really played it yet. Did parts of the tutorial, and it failed to capture me.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall:
Great game. It's what Shadowrun: Returns should have been. A bit short, and bit easy, but I love the SR setting.

Might and Magic X:
Good game, with a few bugs too many to be great. I like it, but in the light of all the other issues I've had with Ubisoft titles and their complete lack of QA, it bothers me.

Lords of Xulima:
Not played yet :(

Risen 3:
I thought it was quite bad. Did not get far into it before I just gave up on it and uninstalled it.

Legend of Grimrock 2:
Great game. It did not have quite the same impact as the first one had, but that's because it was mostly more of the same. A better game, but less impressive.

Dark Souls 2:
Not played.

So out of the ones listed I would probably rate them as follows:
Legend of Grimrock 2
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Wasteland 2
M&M X

with Risen 3 not making the list due to me disliking it so much.
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2011
Messages
1,756
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
Still voted for Dragonfall.

Underwhelmed by W2 and never finished it (far too many trash encounters and the combat system isn't strong enough for so much mandatory combat). Also hated the many different types of containers w/ mostly underwhelming / random loot.

Grew bored with D:OS about halfway through; haven't had the urge to pick it up again (again too many trash encounters, the random loot system / itemization is absolutely horrid, with a weak story and I don't much like the over-the-top humor).

Lords of Xulima is good for what it is, but just not really my type of CRPG; very lacks a strong story, NPC interaction / dialogue, etc.

Still haven't played DA:I and have little desire to considering the tedious gameplay of DA2.

The others are almost certainly not my type of RPG.
 
Joined
Apr 9, 2013
Messages
2,315
Location
PA
1. Shadowrun Dragonfall
Totally unfair for competition because of a relative small size, not much replay potential past one replay, many aspects of RPG aren't very developed even if some are still quite well done, for exploration aspects it's not bad but rather minimal. But a bash on head is a bash, I'll skip list qualities, just great and had great fun.

2. Divinity Original Sin
Most original RPG since a long time, I experimented stuff a lot, the game still suffered a bit of quality of each combats dropping down overall. Thankfully in last area I found many ways to sneak past many combats and didn't get bored. I chained with a second play but failed end it. For sure writing is tedious, many combats didn't get enough tuned design, character building didn't offered that many interesting choices, and it's a surprising failure on consequences (more the champion of non consequences, kill them all and it changes nothing, sigh), but a great original RPG anyway.

3. Dragon Age: Inquisition
I didn't played the year of release, but two years later. First 10 hours was a pain, but it clicked when I realized how manage myself much better the gameplay flow, to have a lot more fun. And I ended with 2 plays in a row, both very fun. I won't care explain why and how, no explanation will avoid pointless arguing with the hateboys, it's just my choice, end of debate.

4. Might & Magic X Legacy
Objectively it has flaws, but also there are aspects very well done. The point is I loved my chained two plays. I regret its relative lack of success and the too high negativity around it at release and first months. In my opinion it deserved a much better reception. One more major publisher that will try avoid RPG genre, well done the hateboys, sigh.

5. Wasteland 2
Vanilla version is both a great game and a weak game. Director's Cut version made it a pure great game, but it was one year later. Party building failed past party creation, tedious unlock skills looking often the same and overused in many areas, a large area (Hollywood) awfully unpolished and half broken up to waste a part of the fun, too many weapons too much unbalanced, bad armor system. So despite many qualities, ton of small consequences, good pathos, quite good writing, many great combats, many good exploration, more, it's been a lot of fun but Vanilla isn't that top and from far, failed chain two plays. Director's Cut version is another matter, much better, it would be 1 or 2 in this list if released in 2014.

6. Blackguards
Quite good RPG using a rather bizarre blueprint. I found the 2 much much better (despite it has a weak fame) and then it makes a bit more pale the first. The first is suffering of a writing a bit uneven, some combats based too much on some special tricks, some skills/spells too OP. Still many good to great combats, some good writing parts, interesting character and party building, cool companions.

7. Eschalon Book III
For me the best of the series because of a much better filling density and quality, for tricks, puzzling, combats, story elements. Alas last part is a bit under quality, deve explained it was open for mods but at end just a bad idea to have weaker final parts. And the final too is a bit weird, interesting but a bit weird. Still a lot of fun, get a reception with too much negativity mainly because of quantity somehow low in comparison of II with extensions, but quantity isn't quality.

8. The Banner Saga
In middle of choose your own story book, RPG, tactical game, and suprisingly fun despute the uneven quality of the writing. It suffers a lot of many of some core gameplay aspect that are just fake, some related to caravan management. Also combat system suffer of a huge flaw, not allow design diversified combats areas, combats diversity based too much on enemies set. Still pretty good combat, simple character building but the roster approach makes it less basic.

Some other quotes:
- Legend of Grimrock II, loved the first, despite the II was clearly a lot more ambitious, it's been too late for me, perhaps too long or even too tricky, anyway, for now I failed finish one play.
- Lords of Xulima, I pledged it, I enjoyed about 60H of play, but at end it didn't clicked with me, in my opinion, too much dilution, too many combats proportionally. It hadn't to be so huge, and would have been much better quite less huge and with a much better density of tricks and other stuffs and less but more designed and distinctive combats. It's a worthy released, more a game not fitting well my preferences. I didn't regret have pledged and even was satisfied with the result and consider they did a great job, just less for me.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, too much a delayed release, it's a remake from a 2004 game. It's not fitting a list of RPG released in 2014. I'm not fan of JRPG, and the game suffers a tiny bit of grinding or a few combats repetitiveness, but I had a lot of fun to play it, including combats, for me much better than usual combats systems in many JRPG non tactic.
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
3,258
Back
Top Bottom