You Favorite RPG Games and Why

  • Witcher series: atmosphere, writing/quests, storytelling, characters, art design, soundtrack, presentation, great C&C
  • Mass Effect series: atmosphere, writing/quests, storytelling characters, scope, soundtrack, presentation, great C&C
  • Baldurs Gate series: atmosphere, gameplay, writing/quests, storytelling, characters, art design, soundtrack, epic scope, great C&C
  • Gothic 1+2: atmosphere, writing/quests, characters, soundtrack, exploration, great C&C
  • Deus Ex 1+HR: atmosphere, writing/quests, storytelling, gameplay, soundtrack, good C&C
  • Alpha Protocol: atmosphere, writing/quests, storytelling, good C&C
  • TES Morrowind: atmosphere, art design, scope, exploration, soundtrack

Other RPGs that Iā€™ve enjoyed because of various reasons: Divinity series, KOTOR 1+2, Witcher 1, Fallout series, Risen 1+2, Dragon Age Origins, Gothic 3 (patched), NWN 1+2, other games of the TES series, Planescape Torment, Drakensang, ā€¦

A few of my favorite action-adventures I would like to mention here since they could add to a 1st person realistic game about history:

  • Assassinā€™s Creed series: atmosphere, scope, gameplay, art design soundtrack, storytelling, historic places (!)
  • Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: gameplay(!)
  • Dishonored: atmosphere, gameplay, art design, soundtrack
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Heh, thatā€™s the most spot-on description of Dark Messiah Iā€™ve ever seen

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In the order that I played them:

System Shock 1
System Shock 2
The Witcher 1 (modded with FCR 1.6a)
The Witcher 2 (modded with FCR 2 ver 1.1a)

Iā€™d say that of these my favourites are the two Witcher games ~ but I canā€™t choose between them - both have strong elements which were managed differently in the other. Iā€™d probably choose The Witcher over the The Witcher, Assassin of Kings overall ~ but that may only because I am currently mid way through a replay of itā€¦

Really looking forward to The Witcher 3, The Wild Hunt ~ and keeping an eye on itā€™s development in the run up to spring 2015.

Iā€™ve played others, but not gone back to replay any of those either immediately or some years later as I have with these. Of these ā€˜not replayedā€™ games Iā€™d probably select Fallout series titles as most likely to replay at some pointā€¦ but I also remember being annoyed with their design and mechanismsā€¦

I have only played one real RPG which is the Risen 2 Dark Waters and it was one of the few games I liked that much. Although there where some bugs with the quests and the game wasnā€™t so polished, the amazing beaches and sceneries was something I still remember. The combat was fun to.

I would also like to play Skyrim but I hate blood and gore in games.

Apart from RPG games I also like the awesome Total War Series, Mount & Blade, Minecraft and Stronghold 3. My favorite is Rome Total War 1.

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For me that is Neverwinter Nights 2 wihtout any doubt
The storyline, the graphic style, the superbly worked out world, the non linear feel, ā€¦
Only got around to the installation of the expansions a few days ago so totally back into the game right now :slight_smile:

The witcher is a good one too but I still havenā€™t played it past the begin because of all the terrible way it was ported for mac. Too many crashes and I gave up.

Morrowind is probably my favourite of all time. Such a big open world to explore with so many possible adventure paths. I saw someone mentioned Betrayal at Krondor - that is also one of my all time favourites - just because it was one of the first I ever bought and it was so cool at the time. Love might and magic Dark Messiah because the battle mechanic is so cool. Having a bunch of orcs charge you and then watching them fly off into an abyss after you cast ice at their feet is unbelievably entertaining!

Brytenwalda mod for Mount and Blade- Soooooooooooooooo good.

Man real tough questionā€¦ but great topic.

Iā€™d have to agree with a number of your selections; KOTOR I & II for example were awesome PC games. And for me The Witcher 2 hands down represents the best RPG Iā€™ve seen / played in about a decade, absolutely love CDP Redā€™s work. (and looking forward to both Witcher 3 and CyberPunk 2077)

But some of my all time faves in no particular order:

Suikoden II
Breath of Fire II & III
Chrono Cross
Lunar (2 & 3)
Star Ocean
Wild Arms
FF VII
Front Mission 3
Vagrant Story
Valkyrie Profile
Xenogears

Yea thereā€™s probably a heap more. But these bring back some wicked memories :smiley:

Oblivion, Fallout New Vegas, Nehrim, Witcher 2 and Skyrim heavily modded with arrows causing at least 3 to 5 times more damage.
For a 10 year old game, linear and barely modded, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is absorbing to me. The character development and dialogue choices massively increase the replayability. I eagerly await a better game.

Mass Effect is my favorite thanks to great atmosphere and a sense of exploration. Thereā€™s just something sweet and optimistic in that one when you meet the people on the Citadel and your new squad and getting on your characterā€™s very own ship. The sequels lost sight of what it felt like to step through the dust on a softly lit foreign plateau under blue stars. There was a great melancholy and sense of optimism in the first game that the sequels, namely ME2, tossed in exchange for grime and animosity, on every planet and in every community. The first game was about finding the scratches in the glass, but ME2 acted like the glass was shattered and things were going downhill, and thatā€™s just not the mood that the communities of the first game evoked. Instead of a threat to their survival, everyone in the second game was written as if theyā€™d been living like survivors all along.

I sure miss that bold, sleek, spectacular new vision of the future. It may have been left behind in some degree by BioWare, but the hints of it continued on and if rumor turns out true, the separate BioWare team behind the next Mass Effect saga is quite interested in an atmosphere of exploration coming back.

Glad to see some Obsidian games getting love in here. That studio knows how to take a concept and give it more passion than the predecessor. At least, thatā€™s how KOTOR 2 and Fallout: New Vegas paint that studio to me.

Yeah, I want a Star Trek Mass Effect as well :smiley: Oh well, never getting that with the direction anything new Star Trek is going inā€¦

I have played RPG games for such a long time.
Some of my favorites include:
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2
Other Star Wars games
Dragon Age Series
Neverwinter Nights 2
Mass Effect Series
The Witcher Series
The Elder Scrolls Oblivion/Skyrim
Fallout Series
Dues Ex
Dues Ex: Invisible War
Dues Ex: Human Evolution
Dues Ex: The Fall
Mount&Blade Series
Vampire: The Masquerade
GTA III thru GTA IV (Waiting on GTA V still)
Risen 1 & 2
BioShock
Dead Space
Two Worlds 2
Divinity 2
Alpha Protocol
Sid Mierā€™s Pirates
Star Trek: Elite Force
Mafia 2
Godfather 1 & 2
Sleeping Dogs

There are so many games to list. I thoroughly enjoy games that are open world/sandbox, ability to craft items, and something that had a great story line that will get me to play it over and over again and that I can submerge myself into. That is probably why I have somewhere around 500 hours into Skyrim.

I am waiting for the following games to come out:
Dragon Age 3
Watch Dogs
The Witcher 3
Kingdom Come
Wastelands 2

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Sleeping Dogs, Mafia 2, Godfather 1+2, Star Trek Elite Force, Sid Meierā€™s Pirates are no RPGs, dudeā€¦ :smiley:

And you canā€™t play for that long without even mentioning games like Baldurs Gate or Planescape Torment in your list. Go play the true classics! :slight_smile:

:smile: I was about to say ā€œHm I didnā€™t realize Sleeping Dogs was an RPGā€¦ā€

Concerning freedom of play, combat system and the scenario (post apocalyptic) the Fallout series. Also Warbands and its mods. And Stalker for its atmosphere, one of the only games that stays challenging till the last. Even so Fear 1, was not a real RPG but more of a shooter but I enjoyed it very much.
And of course the first Freelancer, long, long ago.

Not Ranked:
M&B Warband Brytenwalda (mod), donā€™t expect a story or pretty graphics but itā€™s the greatest sandbox, bugs and some localization aside

Dragon age: Origins/Awakening, great story telling but stupid good versus evil stuff, challenging and fun combat, great characters, but I like the way that the Witcher series handles decisions better than the way bioware does because they donā€™t tell you whatā€™s common dialog and whatā€™s an ā€˜epic decisionā€™ in witcher so every choice feels important.

Crusader kings 2, yes itā€™s more of a strategy game, I tend to forget my characters names right after there borne, but it can also be a great RPG, limitless with mods

Skyrim, by now there are so many mods itā€™s basically a sandbox RPG

Fallout: New Vegas, the factions and the players impact on the world are very convincing


for all itā€™s flaws Gothic 3 tried some interesting new things, like faction relations and no real main story line which i think should be acknowledged but I canā€™t look past the issue that they have this huge world where most inhabitants are male soldiers after having made a believable one in Gothic 2.

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What is an RPG or makes a game an RPG? All of the games I listed I had choices I could make for the characters, some where open world to explore and do things at my own pace not jumping through hoops when and where the game Devā€™s tell me I have to. I can submerge myself in the game and feel like I am part of the world in either first person or third person. I also did define that I enjoyed games that were sandbox, open world, submersive. So please do not get me wrong when I say games that have RPG in them it could be a game that is completely RPG or a game that has a small aspect of RPG in it.

Oblivion, for lore, quests and mood of the game

I play shooters a lot besides rpg but those are the ones I put the most time in.
For rpgā€™s a lot are mentioned who are in my top list.

The elder scrolls series in a whole just is such a deep storyline, yet so much freedom, so much different ways of how you want to play, even without all the mods and tweaks its a great game franchise.
I started with morrowind, then oblivion and the witcher came after that.
So my list, no particular order:
Morrowind
Oblivion
Sskyrim
The witcher 1, 2
Severance: blade of darkness (although its maybe more a hack and slash game, there is a big rpg element in it and the combat was unrivaled at the time, still better then most games)
Dragon age 1,2
Risen 1
Two worlds II (arguably not the best game but it had some great features in it)
Mount and blade, because freaking epic battles, on horses, why is this not in every list above??
Dark messiah for the epic fight mechanics. definitely a game to have played.

Now the less rpg like or modern games:
Fallout is pretty much the elderscrolls but diferent setting. Great games.
Deus ex has great storyline and hard choices
Mass effect is just such an immersive game, the originality of all there is, in the world the way to play etc.
Assassins creed, mostly for the freeroaming, hunting and stealth implementations and era correct clothing and weapons.

My top game would be oblivion despite all its flaws, still was really the game I lost myself in most of all the games.
The witcher has grown on my because of the deeper story all the political twists and more mature gameplay.

I have many a favourite RPG over the years, from Deus Ex to Skyrim to KOA, Iā€™d say KOA and Fable II are one of my main two favourites because of their story and gameplay along with their respective settings.