Hordes of Eastern/Russian RPGs

[Texas Red]

Of those post apocalyptic ones, I can't make a difference because they are all so similar(and all of them with uninspired avatar art). Then there are the fantasy ones I know of, like Not the Time for Dragons, Hard to be God, Night Watch etc. Which of such games are actually worth playing? They all seem to have pretty good reviews but at the same time Westerners find numerous faults.

I'm asking since Fantasy Wars, King's Bounty and HoMM 5, which are strategy games, are all quite good.

I tried Dungeon Cleaners but disliked the setting. I have a strong tolerance for shitty combat systems but that... that was an abomination.

 

[Fowyr]

Hard to be God, Night Watch

I remember only weary curses about this crap.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Russian RPGs are shit, all of them.

 

[Fowyr]

Avanor was cool ADOM-lite

 

[theverybigslayer]

Russian RPGs are shit, all of them.

I agree. Russians have a special talent for making bad rpgs.

 

[Fowyr]

They all want make new Fallout, but make fucking "Зачистка Хьерварда", "Подземелья Кремля" and "Штырлиц". Really shame.
Too few developers, who understands genre, too many tasteless pricks.

 

[Eldritch]

Disciples III seems to be a game shaping up to have even more RPG elements than King's Bounty with an excellently improved hex based TB tactical combat system which is a huge improvement over the "Ogre Battle" fights. You're commanding a few handful of individual units with special abilities along with the heroes having a full fledged RPG style inventory with all sorts of equippable items including different weapons, skill trees with customizable stats and spells that are possible to be cast into combat now. They're even designing the terrain to be important on top of all that. Plus it has an insanely beautiful art direction which is the real rarity in the Russian games.

DIII could turn out to be an unexpectedly good game that could also quench the RPG thirst a bit if they can come up with an *excellent* campaign to go with all the improved features. So far it strikes me as p. generic one but I'll wait and see.

 

[Balor]

Well, while not technically an RPG, Pathologic would satisfy any connoisseur.

If one is NOT one, however, you will be hard-pressed to enjoy it. The game is unforgivingly hard, and the atmosphere is VERY dark and disturbing.

Codex may whine about 'lack of challenge and dark, mature themes', but sometimes too good is not good, heh.

It has tons of text and C&C, too. In fact, is has ALL the trappings of a classical RPG, if even it is defined as 'survival-adventure'.

It does suffer from shoddy translation sometimes. There is a fan project to improve it, but I never heard that it was completed.

 

[Texas Red]

Well, while not technically an RPG, Pathologic would satisfy any connoisseur.

If one is NOT one, however, you will be hard-pressed to enjoy it. The game is unforgivingly hard, and the atmosphere is VERY dark and disturbing.

Codex may whine about 'lack of challenge and dark, mature themes', but sometimes too good is not good, heh.

It has tons of text and C&C, too. In fact, is has ALL the trappings of a classical RPG, if even it is defined as 'survival-adventure'.

It does suffer from shoddy translation sometimes. There is a fan project to improve it, but I never heard that it was completed.

But have you played those numerous RPGs? How are they compared to, say, NWN 2 OC or Drakensang?

 

[Texas Red]

Disciples III seems to be a game shaping up to have even more RPG elements than King's Bounty with an excellently improved hex based TB tactical combat system which is a huge improvement over the "Ogre Battle" fights. You're commanding a few handful of individual units with special abilities along with the heroes having a full fledged RPG style inventory with all sorts of equippable items including different weapons, skill trees with customizable stats and spells that are possible to be cast into combat now. They're even designing the terrain to be important on top of all that. Plus it has an insanely beautiful art direction which is the real rarity in the Russian games.

DIII could turn out to be an unexpectedly good game that could also quench the RPG thirst a bit if they can come up with an *excellent* campaign to go with all the improved features. So far it strikes me as p. generic one but I'll wait and see.

Is it European? When is it coming out?

 

[Monolith]

There's been Dungeon Cleaners, Russian RPG, sounded nice from what I remember. Here's the moby games summary:

"Dungeon Cleaners is a real-time post-apocalyptic RPG. It has been described by the developers as a mixture between Neverwinter Nights and Fallout, on a smaller scale. The game features a non-linear plot, extensive dialogues, a character development system that affects the plot, as well as a real-time with pause combat system. It uses the same graphical engine as the hack'n'slash game Dawn of Magic.

The protagonist is one of the four imperial troopers sent to a post-apocalyptic prison-planet under the guise of convicts to investigate the construction of a spaceship by the prisoners. The pods carrying the convicts crash, scattering the four troopers all over the planet. The primary objective of the game is to reunite with the remaining three soldiers, who will join the group as playable characters, and to get on with the investigation.

The politically incorrect setting of the game, as well as its black humour, has been a subject to much praise by the Russian gaming press, as well as by fans of Dmitry 'Goblin' Puchkov, a Russian celebrity famous for his translation theories, whose only book serves as the basis for the game. Racial segregation, misogyny, homophobia, debauchery, slavery, and cannibalism run rampant on the planet."

And positive AG.ru review (from what I gathered).

Has it ever been translated?

 

[Balor]

I didn't play abovementioned RPGs because I heard that they are mediocre at best.
As for Pathologic again, there is SA LP thread here:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... genumber=1

Should be worth a read, because it is a game you should at least see, even if you lack stomach to actually play it .

 

[Texas Red]

Don't think I have the balls to play it, considering there's a time limit.

 

[Balor]

There's been Dungeon Cleaners, Russian RPG, sounded nice from what I remember. Here's the moby games summary:

"Dungeon Cleaners is a real-time post-apocalyptic RPG. It has been described by the developers as a mixture between Neverwinter Nights and Fallout, on a smaller scale. The game features a non-linear plot, extensive dialogues, a character development system that affects the plot, as well as a real-time with pause combat system. It uses the same graphical engine as the hack'n'slash game Dawn of Magic.

The protagonist is one of the four imperial troopers sent to a post-apocalyptic prison-planet under the guise of convicts to investigate the construction of a spaceship by the prisoners. The pods carrying the convicts crash, scattering the four troopers all over the planet. The primary objective of the game is to reunite with the remaining three soldiers, who will join the group as playable characters, and to get on with the investigation.

The politically incorrect setting of the game, as well as its black humour, has been a subject to much praise by the Russian gaming press, as well as by fans of Dmitry 'Goblin' Puchkov, a Russian celebrity famous for his translation theories, whose only book serves as the basis for the game. Racial segregation, misogyny, homophobia, debauchery, slavery, and cannibalism run rampant on the planet."

And positive AG.ru review (from what I gathered).

Has it ever been translated?

DC is more then decent, but not perfect. It does have lots of text, some (light) C&C, and very atmospheric - but you may like or definetely dislike the atmosphere, and combat system is an abomination - RTwP done WRONG.

Still worth a try, provided it will ever be translated. I really doubt it. Lots of jokes/allusions are incomprehencible w/o some knowledge of Russian culture... so, unless you are a major Russophile who also knows Russian himself - you may never enjoy this one.

 

[pipka]

I really liked Paradise:Cracked for art style and cyberpunk setting; but also was rewarded with shity gameplay(perma-TB), and minor bad art directions(green ink on violet paper...ew).

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Don't think I have the balls to play it, considering there's a time limit.

Don't be afraid, it's not a typical time limit.

 

[Eldritch]

Is it European? When is it coming out?

It's Russian now, the previous games of the series were French Canadian.

Haven't ya ever heard of Strategy First's legendary "Disciples" series, with the Kaiseringue's banshee avatar and all that jazz? Akella bought the whole license from SI and gave it to .dat to develop it. It's coming out on Q3 2009.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=33085

/\ Baby Arm posted a link to a nice and recent E3 trailer here yesterday.

http://www.disciples3.ru/

/\¨Here is the official website.

This one is my most anticipated game for 2009.