RPGs of the Decade [PC]

Insipired by this article and the fact that the decade is about the end, I decided to make a thread.

Top5 (non-MORPG) RPGs

1. Baldur's Gate II
2. SW: Knights of the Old Republic
3. Gothic II (+NotR)
4. Neverwinter Nights
5. Diablo II

1. Best Overall
- I'm sure I don't need to comment on that.
2. Best Characters and Story
- Every element works perfectly, but the character interaction and story are the most important aspects of KotOR.
3. Best World and Atmosphere
- G2 has incredible detailed world and everything feels authentic, unlike Oblivion's random-generated world.
4. Best Adventuring and Extendability
- The game still keeps growing and you can still get new content to the game by download modules. And there are few remarkable adventures to be experienced, like Stefan Gagne's modules.
5. Best Lasting Appeal and Re-playability
- Diablo and Diablo 2 basically created a whole new genre, action-RPG. And there is lot of games that tried to achieve what D2 did, without still succeeding in it. Games like Titan Quest, Sacred and even WoW exists because of Diablo 2.

Honourable mentions: Oblivion, Icewind Dale 2, ToEE and The Witcher.

What is YOUR list of the best non-MORPG roleplaying games of the decade (2000… 2009)?

No specific order: Gothic, Gothic 2, Baldurs Gate 2, The Witcher, Divine Divinity

Best party-based crpg - Baldur's Gate 1/2

Best solo crpg - Gothic 1/2

In both of those series, it's hard for me to differentiate between the first game and the sequel, so I tend to just list them as if they're a single game.

The Witcher definitely deserves to be mentioned as well.

Oooh, list time again? Well, I got to play less this decade, so there are many games I still haven't touched, but these are the ones I remember as good times:

Morrowind
Gothic 2 - NOTR
Gothic
Deus Ex
The Witcher
KOTOR
Fallout 3

Edit: added some comments:

The Sandboxes:
Morrowind: great sandbox game - I loved the depth of the lore and just the "seeing the land" aspect of it. The strangeness of the setting and the dunmer culture are memorable to me. And you can't talk about Morrowind without talking about modding - modding turned MW into a super-customizable experience.
Fallout 3 - despite the controversy about its heritage the best recent Bethesda game. Atmospheric, great open world exploration, and avoiding many of the pitfalls I disliked in Oblivion.

The explorer adventures:
Gothics - in my opinion the best mixes between open world exploration and story driven roleplaying.
Witcher - A great setting, an interesting hero, interesting quests, and a smart use of choice and consequence.

The shooter:
Deus Ex - how shooters should really be made.

The Interactive story;
KOTOR - great story, and man, it's Star Wars!

Lots of good games. And please, comment your choices too, why they are so good? What makes 'em remarkable and better than the rest?

1.Morrowind
Free roam , fantastic lore , no black / white MQ , well done level scaling , lot's of secrets , very easy to mod.

2.The Witcher
Super atmosphere , lots of game affecting choices , strong language , no good vs evil BS , one of the few games that i enjoyed swords

3. Mount & Blade
Realistic medieval simulator , best combat approach ever , no MQ , can be done solo or with an army , no magic , the only game i can be a mounted Mongol spreading chaos with my bow

4.Vampire : Bloodlines
I like the concept , love to be a villain , spooky themes , lots of blood and raw meat, tiamat and chiasm music .

5. X3-The Return , i know that for many this doesn't count as a RPG but it is open for role play since you can be what you want to be (merchant , fighter , pirate , industrialist, explorer , space weed dealer or just a taxi driver ) .

A far more interesting (perhaps depressive) list you will get if you make a list of RPGs of the last 5 years.

2000 Baldur's Gate II
2000 Deus Ex
2000 Diablo II
2001 Gothic
2002 Divine Divinity
2002 Morrowind
2002 Neverwinter Nights
2003 Gothic II (+NotR)
2004 SW: Knights of the Old Republic
2004 Vampire : Bloodlines
-------------------------
2007 The Witcher
2007 X3: Reunion
2008 Fallout 3
2008 Mount & Blade

I'd say the same as JDR - BG series as the best party based games, Gothic 1-2 as the best solo RPGs. I'd also like to add Planescape: Torment, which wins the category "best writing" by a long shot. It was released 9 years and 50 weeks ago, so it's still eligible..

@Jemy : I wouldn't call X3 an RPG … but I must admit that I haven't got it yet.

Well, there are couple of good recent RPGs, like Neverwinter Nights II, Drakensang, Titan Quest, Sacred 2, Risen and Dragon Age. Though they really don't fit to my top 5 list. Are we getting old or are the games getting worse?

Originally Posted by Ergonpandilus
Well, there are couple of good recent RPGs, like Neverwinter Nights II, Drakensang, Titan Quest, Sacred 2, Risen and Dragon Age. Though they really don't fit to my top 5 list. Are we getting old or are the games getting worse?

I don't think they have been getting worse overall, although there have been undeniable ups and downs in the RPG genre. But they also haven't really grown with me - I have higher demands now regarding many things, and would like to see more cerebral games now that the current market produces rarely, if at all.

Some interesting choices here, looks like although we love the same genre we have very different tastes when it comes to games .

I think that the games are not getting worst but good RPGs are most of the time big expensive projects , customers are asking so much , gfx - sound wise and the numbers show that the big money are in the shooters .

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
@Jemy : I wouldn't call X3 an RPG … but I must admit that I haven't got it yet.

In X series you can role play without the set of rules , it is the exact opposite of Oblivion where you do have the rule set but you can not role play.

Originally Posted by JemyM
A far more interesting (perhaps depressive) list you will get if you make a list of RPGs of the last 5 years.

2000 Baldur's Gate II
2000 Deus Ex
2000 Diablo II
2001 Gothic
2002 Divine Divinity
2002 Morrowind
2002 Neverwinter Nights
2003 Gothic II (+NotR)
2004 SW: Knights of the Old Republic
2004 Vampire : Bloodlines
————————————-
2007 The Witcher
2007 X3: Reunion
2008 Fallout 3
2008 Mount & Blade

I see (and kinda share) your point, although you forgot Two Worlds (2007… I think?). Also, if you mention X3 as an RPG, then "Space Rangers 2 - Dominators" should count too. Lastly, some might consider Titan Quest and its extension as an crpg too, sligtly extending this second list further, no?

My top 10, in no order:

Deus Ex, Baldur´s Gate 2, Wizardry 8, Arx Fatalis, Gothic, Gothic 2: NotR, Bloodlines, Mask of the Betrayer, The Witcher, Dragon Age

Disappointment of the decade - Gothic 3

I´ve been postponing a proper playthrough of Arcanum for ages, but from what I know about the game I´m quite surprised no one listed it yet.

Can't believe I forgot Arcanum. Definetly a favourite, one worth remembering for its original setting and open world w/loads of choices/consequences.

Wile I love the game Arcanum has a lot of issues (balancing, horrid combat etc) that prevents it from being in my top five.

My unordered top five would be:

Gothic 2 NotR (NPCs and geography)
Baldurs Gate 2 with ToB (MP and overall polish, better than the sum of its parts)
Morrowind (sandbox)
The Witcher (choices and consequences, gameworld)
Mount & Blade (combat)
Just outside the list I'd put flawed gems: Arcanum, Gothic 3 (somewhat controversial, but I actually liked the game a lot after patches), KotOR2, and possibly Fallout 3
and below that the solid efforts that amused me for one playthrough but didnt quite touch me: Jade Empire, KotOR1

Oblivion is my RPG disappointment of the decade (and second most disappointing game after the steaming turd that is Sid Meiers Railroads). Polished and solid craftsmanship, but Bethsoft didnt aim to produce a game to my liking.

EDIT: I havent tried Dragon Age or Risen yet, one or both would likely make it to my list given how well user reviews align with my preferences. I havent played Mass Effect either, but that would likely only make it to the KotOR1/JE group…

Can't believe I missed this thread—I love lists. I'm just going to do my favorites from the last five years, though, as the same games (PST, BG2, Arcanum, ToEE, IWD, Gothic, Wiz8) always turn up on my "best of" alltime list.

1. The Witcher: best overall for game world, plot & dialogue choices and consequences, interesting skill sets and combat, best new use of potions in a crpg, and the excellent main character, Geralt.
2. Eschalon: Book 1: best turn based combat, best picking up the torch of old school, best dungeons, particularly in an indie game.
3. Titan Quest with expansion Immortal Throne: Best action rpg in the Diablo tradition that is not Diablo.
4. Kings Bounty: Not an rpg per se, but definitely best strategy hybrid with rpg elements.

Not yet played but probably destined to make it to a list at some point: Risen, Drakensang and Divinity 2.

Originally Posted by Ergonpandilus
please, comment your choices too, why they are so good? What makes 'em remarkable and better than the rest?

I think that most of my choices are well known here, but here are specific comments on some of them:

BG2
The game I replayed the most, thanks to the mods.
Some user made npcs are rather very well done with writing quality comparable to the vanilla ones. They often scream "mod!" for various reasons but I just tend to enjoy take on the world made by enthusiasts.
For tactically fresh game, my current setup has a combo of these generally well thought-out and conceived mods - Ascension, Spell Revisions, Item Revisions, Rogue Rebalancing, Refinements and Sword Coast Stratagems - and the whole combat/character development experience is on entirely different level while still leaving original game´s tone intact.
Add Item Randomization to the bunch and the fresh experience is guaranteed.
Of course, vanilla game rocks too .

Wizardry 8
On first playthrough this game can be really tedious due to frequent monster respawns and slow battles, but it really shines on successive runs.
Being able to plan travelling routes more effectively significantly cuts the tedium and leaves player with adrenaline fueled turn based combat scenarios and one of the best character development in any party based game to date.

Arx Fatalis
This game has quite a lot of flaws but the atmosphere of its dungeons is simply superb and imo unrivalled as far as modern games go. This one aspect alone easily makes it a worthy top ten member.

Mask of the Betrayer, Bloodlines
Both games have quite immense replay value out of the box.
Both have really good writing, story and characters.
Mask of the Betrayer offers probably the best realized and satisfying alternatives for evil characters.
Bloodlines offers Malkavian playthrough which is the strong contender for the most unique role I´ve ever experienced in a computer game.

Dragon Age
AAA title done right. Period.
Numerous (mostly minor imo) flaws and lack of originality just don´t take from the fact that the game offers a very polished, expansive and complete rpg experience in a well put together fantasy world.
I haven´t been this positively surprised by a game in a long time.


That´s just about it, I think commenting on the other games would be more-or-less reduntant here.

If planescape's still in, that's number 1 for me. Followed by Bloodlines, MotB, Gothic 2 w/ NOTR & Dragon Age.

I think Planescape was december 1999 or so, but yeah, if it´s in, it´s my number 1 too.