[deleted]

[Dorateen]

Finding the shrine to Dumathoin in Gateway to the Savage Frontier. This is the deity I had picked in pen and paper, from the Unearthed Arcana resource. Having this event in an SSI Gold Box game was outstanding.

Even better was fighting the medusa who had defiled this sanctuary of the dwarves. The battle ended most appropriately when I had equipped a mirror, and reflected the monster's gaze, turning it to stone.

 

[Suicidal Meat Slapper]

Going with 1 Intelligence in both Fallout 1 and 2. I'd say the best conversation was with Torr in Klamath by speaking in grunts, moans, and other imbecile noises while in parentheses, we were being civilized and having an in-depth conversation about helping kill the "bugmen" threatening his brahmin.
Special mention goes the Overseer debriefing you once you return the Water Chip in Fallout 1 while also having 1 Intelligence.

 

[Helly]

Throwing Morte back into the pillar of skulls. It never gets old.

 

[skyst]

I must go with a memory from Fallout 2 as well.

FO2 was released when I was 13 and was probably the first game of the CRPG genre for me. My PC gaming history until that point included the Warcrafts, Diablo, Lords of the Realm, SimCity and earlier children's games while I played all of the RPGs on consoles. That said, Fallout 2 was quite overwhelming for me at the time. I remember installing the game, selecting Narg and never passing the Temple of Trials. The "complex" systems, tribal theme, brown palette and rats just didn't draw in my 13 year old imagination, coming from experiences of bright and flashy console JRPGs and over the top Blizzard action.

Probably a few months went by before I revisited Fallout 2 out of boredom one summer night. I fondly recall playing a fresh game to Vault City for the first time during a single play session. I really had no idea what to expect in the world of Fallout and I was blown away once I began exploring the ruins of post-apocalyptic America. I saw my first combat shotgun (quite possibly the best weapon of all time, ever to a 13 year old) in the shop in Vault City. I broke the bank to buy that baby.

 

[a Goat]

I saw the mountain and I knew I could climb on it.

Spoiler

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Thinking about it, I realise that a lot of my favourite experiences have to do with sound and music.

Moments in Morrowind where I just stopped and listened to the rain and Jeremy Soule.

Moments in PST where I took a step back and just listened to the music.

 

[Maschtervoz]

Thinking about it, I realise that a lot of my favourite experiences have to do with sound and music.

Moments in Morrowind where I just stopped and listened to the rain and Jeremy Soule.

Moments in PST where I took a step back and just listened to the music.

Sound design really does make for great memories. I liked chilling around Gothic 1's swamp temple in the evening listening to the local theme. Also, Fallout's Metallic Monks in the BoS bunker for that military-industrial feeling. And more recently, Serpent in the Staglands' bog map has a great eerie area specific theme that goes excellently with the dark visual design, poisonous atmosphere and roaming gigantic spiders.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The first time playing Morrowind and realizing that the opponents I killed had loot which was exactly like what it appeared they were wearing. So when I fought someone wearing full armor and a two-handed sword, I recovered from their bodies the same exact armor and sword they were fighting me in. I know this doesn't sound revolutionary, but I had just finished some games like KOTOR and there the loot from your enemies rarely matched what they had been fighting you with. Even in Daggerfall, the weapon an enemy appeared with would not match the weapon you looted from his or her corpse, so Morrowind was a great find for me. Couple that with the sandbox nature of the game and oddball moments like the wizard with the failed jump spell that splats next to you, and the experience was so very pleasing.

Also, the dawning realization in Ultima 4 that you were spearheading a new religion and that there was no big bad evil guy at the end was quite mind-blowing to me. It's amazing to think that here we are all these years later, and we still haven't broken the CRPG trope that there is a great evil to defeat at the end of a game, but here is a game 25 years old that shows the way if any developer would take a moment to learn the lesson.

 

[Keldryn]

After weeks of waging war on the invading gargoyles in Ultima VI, learning that they were a complex society with their own belief system and had a legitimate reason for what they were doing. This was quite early on in my CRPG experience, so I wasn't used to plots more complex than kill the big bad.

 

[zool]

Arriving in Vault City for the first time and seeing those patches of green grass across the fence - first thing that wasn't completely desolate since I had left Arroyo. Also, once in the city, looking at that huge entrance to the Vault and I was like "woah" (I had not played Fallout 1 then, so that was the first Vault I ever saw).

 

[Jaesun]

Blowing up the Cathedral in Fallout, and never meeting the Master....

 

[Turok]

In Veil of Darkness when i first hear the funking SOUND BLASTER!!! they promise voices on the game, i only hear voices in the prophecy, it was a ISA sound blaster 16 bit, i cant complain. Multimedia beginning era.

 

[mondblut]

Killing the Beast of 1000 eyes in one turn.

 

[Abu Antar]

Doing my no kills playthroughs of Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas. I love games that let me do pacifist runs. It was especially fun in New Vegas. I know people might get sick of me mentioning this run but it was probably the most fun I had with New Vegas. Be a cunt and have people killed, but not by your own hand. Lots of people have told me that it's a gimmicky run but I loved it and at the same time got to avoid the combat.

Pacifist playthrough in New Vegas is so shockingly bland and easy, that it feels broken. Just rack that speech and endurance skills up and you're unstoppable and make your way to the end in a few hours. It's refreshing though because how often do you play a RPG where it is a lot easier to not kill anyone?

I completed lots of side quests that I first thought were unsolvable without violence. On the other hand, stealth boys helped out most of the time. It's still fun that you can be purely evil as a non-killing courier.

 

[Morality Games]

I liked a moment in Baldur's Gate where you, after learning what the baddies are up to, can then ask people what the baddies are up to, at which point one NPC reiterates and says something to the effect that there's no way I wouldn't know any of this considering that I experienced it and lived through the events he's talking about. He then makes a comment about me not paying attention to the game. It was a neat little nod to people that might just uberskip through the game.

In Arcanum, asking random passersby for directions and using street signs to find where I needed to go was probably the single most excellent thing that ever happened to me in an RPG.

How do you find the lost city of the elves? Keep asking elves until you find one that will tell you. How do you find the lost city of the mages? Well, keep asking mages until you find one that will tell you.

Pretty much what you would do if you were totally clueless about such things in the real world.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Most recent memory would be the genie quest in Witcher 3, and that amazing view.

There's plenty of others, of course, but that is the most recent.

 

[Ludo Lense]

Blowing up the Cathedral in Fallout, and never meeting the Master....

Try proposing the ability to bypass the entire finale to any modern game dev and he/she will call you pants on head stupid.

"Wh-what? It is avoidable? But..muh artistic vision!".

 

[V_K]

The Phex temple quest in Star Trail. That was some 80th level trolling before both trolling and 80th level were a thing.
Come to think of it, that game had quite a few memorable moments. Like when you traverse half of the world map, getting sick, and hungry, and tired in pursuit of the mages who took your mcguffin, only to find it laying forgotten in a jail sell, because the mages fell victim to the orcs, who weren't interested in it a single bit.
Also, the Dwarwev Pit - a whole dungeon without a single combat, the only challenge being temptation to loot it all - that was a kinda mindblowing concept. And, frankly, still is.

 

[Caleb462]

First time hearing the music of Fallout 1. First meeting with a Deathclaw in Fallout 1 - realizing how unprepared/underpowered I was for the encounter but still getting past it via lots of stimpacks and hunting rifle criticals to the eyes. Bringing the water chip back to the Vault and realizing that the overseer was about to throw me out and abandon me to the wastes, not in spite of my knowledge and heroism but because of it - that shit far outdoes any supposed emotional resonance in modern games.

Turning Vault City into a wasteland of corpses in Fallout 2. Sleeping with Bishop's daughter in Fallout 2 and having to fight my way out of Bishop's casino. Conversations with Marcus also quite memorable.

Just thought of one more - playing a high intelligence/wisdom half-orc mage in Arcanum, who acts uber polite and respectful to all the 'racist' fucks who talk down to me, and then coming back later to kill them and terrify them with dark magic.

 

[Darth Roxor]

There was one really cool moment I had in IWD1, which is potentially even cooler due to the fact that it was on my 2nd or even 3rd playthrough when I already knew the game well enough already.

I was steamrolling through the second level of the Dragon's Eye, massacring all the yuan-ti scum, when my barb got hit by a histachi and got diseased. 'Big deal, I have like three dozen mummy extracts to get rid of that shit', I thought, but then it turned out I had none. No mummy extracts, no cure disease potions, no cure disease spells. And then it also turned out that my last save was from the start of the level or something, while I was already well past the middle, so reloading would translate to lots of lost time, but on the other hand, the barb had a death sentence on him, since he'd lose 1 hp/6 seconds, and I could neither rest nor travel back to town without him dying. So I said 'FUK IT', clenched my buttocks and finished that fucking dunjin, killing Yxunomei and everything, without resting since that moment. It was a pretty extreme race against time and dwindling resources, but holy shit was it satisfactory when I made it.

Naturally, the barb died on the way back home anyway, BUT WHO CARES. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.


Fact: the above story could never happen in PoE.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Also, the Dwarwev Pit - a whole dungeon without a single combat, the only challenge being temptation to loot it all - that was a kinda mindblowing concept. And, frankly, still is.

Not true, there are undead dwarves and gargoyles in there.
But yeah, it was more of a puzzle dungeon, and a great one too.

 

[V_K]

Not true, there are undead dwarves and gargoyles in there.

Well, I guess memory has a way of painting everything in brighter colors.
You're sure they're not optional, though?

 

[NotAGolfer]

Yeah, I think the gargoyles are indeed optional. They only awake if you come closer to the middle of the room... or click at the statues.
Dunno about the dorfs anymore...
Ok, the web says that you have to fight them.
There were optional fights against undead dwarfs on another level though, when you desecrated their graves.

 

[Brutan]

"You are one sick puppy. I think I'll put you to sleep now."

 

[Daemongar]

Hearing the Guardians voice in Ultima 7 for the first time. It took me forever to get my memory configured properly, and even then, I think I had to do it the first time without loading a mouse driver (think it took 30k of memory.) I spent so much time on config.sys and autoexec.bat - you could load himem.sys, but not emm386, etc, etc. It would have helped if I could afford a SB card, but alas, I was poor.

Getting the Fireball spell for the first time in Pools of Radiance. Think the first place I used it was a temple... in some area. Spent 10 minutes trying the spell positioned then destroyed half my party. I didn't care. I reloaded and tromped back 30 minutes because I was in heaven.

The first time I needed help finishing a game. Was Lands of Lore, and there was a tower with these here ghosts which I couldn't hit. Think I logged into Westwoods BBS to get an answer. Good times.