Suggestions

Sloth · Jan 5, 2011

Ok, so right off the bat you should know I'm newgen as fuck and thus should automatically assume that I'm unfamiliar with anything you might consider a classic.

I got curious about the other fallout games after playing fallout 3 and decided to try playing the series from the first game to see if it was any different, and ended up liking the first fallout a lot better than the others. I asked around for similar games and people pointed me here, been lurking for about a month and have tried some of the games people have been talking about. So far my favorites in no particular order are arcanum, thief 2, a couple roguelikes and planescape torment. I'm looking for any of the more obscure titles that are similar to those (especially arcanum/torment), since I really don't know where to start looking other than here. Any reply that doesn't crush my self esteem would be appreciated.

ElectricOtter · Jan 5, 2011

http://spiderwebsoftware.com/

PWSteal.Ldpinch.D · Jan 5, 2011

A few recommendations before you fully go oldschool (in order for you to fall in love with the genre)

Knights of the Old Republic 2
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Gothic 2 and 3 (maybe 1 too)

After those, getting into graphic downgrade of these should be no problem as they're all very intuitive gameplay-wise

Betrayal at Krondor
Darklands
Dark Sun Shattered Lands
Ultima 4 through 7

Sloth · Jan 5, 2011

@electricotter
The furries in some of the screenshots are a bit disconcerting, but downloading the demo now anyway.

@long name
I'm not sure where to get the gothic games, but I'll check gog or something.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Fezzik · Jan 5, 2011

Ultima V: Lazarus has outstanding exposition for an RPG, so that might be good for the Planescape/Arcanum category (also, electricotter's suggestion is good for that too, the Geneforge games in particular).

Demnogonis Saastuttaja · Jan 5, 2011

We should have a sticky, "Good games you should play", with short descriptions.

Play Jagged Alliance 2, it's the best game ever made.

7hm · Jan 5, 2011

Baldur's Gate 1&2 (particularly 2 for storylarping stuff)

Why do you like Arcanum / Torment?

The story? The character development? The combat? Some sort of combination of the above?

The Barbarian · Jan 5, 2011

Conan strongly recommends Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn.

Genre classics. Listen not to the naysayers who would suggest that the aforementioned have little choice and consequence and are therefore subpar RPGs. Both of these games present rich, full worlds to navigate and understand. The second, especially, has a compelling villain and a very interesting story. There are a number of play styles to experiment with, hearty music to listen to and plethora locations to explore.

Fat Dragon · Jan 5, 2011

Prelude to Darkness is pretty good and available for free, but it's down to pure luck whether it will work on your computer or not.

If you're going to try the Gothic games, only play the first 3. Stay FAR away from Gothic 4 Arcania, it is a fucking worthless piece of shit and needs to be forgotten. But do check out Risen, the spiritual successor to Gothic, and it was made by the same dev team that made the first 3 Gothics. It's quite good.

The Dark Savant Trilogy (Wizardry 6-7-8) is very good and you can import your party to the next game; it's pretty fun to do a straight playthrough of them in order.

Also, if you haven't already, take the time to learn about the RPGs in development over at irontowerstudio.com. Age of Decadence is the one closest to release, but Dead State is also making good progress and is being designed by Vampire Bloodlines' lead writer.

Fat Dragon · Jan 5, 2011

Also, if you liked Fallout then you need to go play its predecessor, Wasteland.

Zomg · Jan 5, 2011

Did you have any exposure to D&D before playing Torment? I'm kinda interested how people react to it that weren't already fluent in D&D generally (or Baldur's Gate).

7hm · Jan 5, 2011

Did you have any exposure to D&D before playing Torment? I'm kinda interested how people react to it that weren't already fluent in D&D generally (or Baldur's Gate).

I came to it years late and found it fairly boring. Writing in the first hour or whatever wasn't overly interesting and I didn't see enough in the game itself to continue. I plan on continuing at some point, but it's a lower priority now.

Zomg · Jan 5, 2011

I am mostly interested in hearing dudes that 1) liked Torment and 2) had no prior experience with D&D in general (or even many other RPGs at all), just interested to know how much D&D non-fluency is incident on the game

Serious_Business · Jan 5, 2011

The Barbarian said:
Conan strongly recommends Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn.

Genre classics. Listen not to the naysayers who would suggest that the aforementioned have little choice and consequence and are therefore subpar RPGs. Both of these games present rich, full worlds to navigate and understand. The second, especially, has a compelling villain and a very interesting story. There are a number of play styles to experiment with, hearty music to listen to and plethora locations to explore.

Voted best poster of 2010? And you had to put the titles in bold too? Yeah, get the fuck out

So I expect a witty answer to that post to put me in my place, and/or a very elaborate exposition to prove that I played through the BG series 7 times, do not dissapoint me

Anyway :
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=46288

The Barbarian · Jan 5, 2011

So I expect a witty answer to that post to put me in my place,

The Barbarian lives only to disappoint expectations.

:smug:

Sloth · Jan 5, 2011

Baldur's Gate 1&2 (particularly 2 for storylarping stuff)

Why do you like Arcanum / Torment?

The story? The character development? The combat? Some sort of combination of the above?

Well, the combat really wasn't the selling point, although the way arcanum's tech/magic (well, not magic, made the game too easy) was set up was definitely a plus. It's nice to sort of be forced to decide what you want to do instead of being a master of everything by the end of the game. imo planescape torment had a far more interesting setting/character development/that kind of shit, but one of the most satisfying things about arcanum's ending was sitting there watching the effects your choices sort of unfold.

And holy shit there are actually choices
You have to understand, all my previous gaming experiences are modern mass effect-esque games, I'm not used to being able to decide what to do further than "do I want to say I'll help you out in a really nice way or a really mean way". I'm used to having to do some fetch quest in order to open a mysteriously unpickable door or PILE OF RUBBLE.
It's liberating as all hell to be able to tell some faggot blocking my way to fuck off and to not have a quest compass or some shit that makes a game go from easy to braindead simple.

Zomg said:
Did you have any exposure to D&D before playing Torment? I'm kinda interested how people react to it that weren't already fluent in D&D generally (or Baldur's Gate).

It honestly wasn't that bad for me, I played through the mortuary, alt tabbed as soon as I got out and just looked up everything I didn't get. I mean, it was sort of new to not have everything spoonfed to me through a fucking bendy straw (I'm THAT newgen), but I wasn't bothered much by it. Certainly not enough to make me lose interest.

It was harder to get the game running and to fix my characters moonwalking every time I told them to walk in a direction they weren't already facing, than it was to understand the game mechanics.

SCO · Jan 5, 2011

Knights of the Chalice (for the combat)
Geneforge 5 (for the choice)

Try ToEE with the circle of 8 patch (it's kind of a light KotC with some very, very light alternative paths - disregard the Homlet quests).

Larp in Vampire the Masquerade : Bloodlines.

SCO · Jan 5, 2011

Fat Dragon said:
Prelude to Darkness is pretty good and available for free, but it's down to pure luck whether it will work on your computer or not.

Why hasn't it been opensourced already? Non-free middleware? Frankly the game could use a lot of bugfixing.

Konjad · Jan 5, 2011

. I'm looking for any of the more obscure titles that are similar to those (especially arcanum/torment)

Then Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, Deus Ex and NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer (you can skip mediocre NWN2 OC campaign though) should be the first games to play on your list.

After that you may want to play other games like:
Fallout New Vegas
The Witcher
Gothic 1 & 2 with addon and then Risen (DONT play G3/FG/ArcaniA!!!)

Oh, and I would play games like Geneforge, Prelude to Darkness and other indie games after you finish these which I recommended. They aren't worse but they are better suited for already experienced cRPG player and... well, they are harder to get into.

tindrli · Jan 5, 2011

Dont forget System Shock 2 :salute:

Rude Dude · Jan 5, 2011

You like the exploration aspect of games?

Try Morrowind for the rich world/lore, Daggerfall for the crawl and of course the other Thief-games(these are equally good; ok thief 3 has quite small maps which are even cut in 2 or 3 tiles but overall nice atmosphere).

racofer · Jan 5, 2011

DramaticPopcorn said:
Fucking 2011 newfags.

Do you enjoy it?

Black · Jan 5, 2011

I know it's old but I still find it funny that only 2010fags recommended BeeGees so far.

7hm · Jan 5, 2011

Might and Magic (3-7) and Wizardry (6-8) might be a good choices then. You lose out on the dialogue to a large extent but character development and exploration are more to the fore. And as someone said above, if you play Wizardry 6 through 8 as one game there are choices that roll across the entire series.

There is a boatload of turnbased combat in both games though, so that needs to be something you enjoy. The older games are slightly more hardcore ie no automap in Wiz6 and you best be taking notes in pretty well all of them.

Also the Realms of Arkania series. Both Wiz and MM are easier to get into though... and Wiz has furries.

For RPG hybrids System Shock 2 and Deus Ex are must plays if you haven't.

I am mostly interested in hearing dudes that 1) liked Torment and 2) had no prior experience with D&D in general (or even many other RPGs at all), just interested to know how much D&D non-fluency is incident on the game

Yeah I misread / misunderstood that. It was late. mb

SCO · Jan 5, 2011

Well, play betrayal at krondor too.

Storyfags and explorationfags fully catered for. (story kind derps sometimes though, but that is nothing new).

Some people even like the combat!

Vaarna_Aarne · Jan 5, 2011

If you can handle the Baldur's Gate series, you should be able to enjoy NWN2 OC just the same.

Anyway, some suggestions somehow related to RPGs...

Deus Ex, Vampire: Bloodlines, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, Silent Storm, Silent Storm: Sentinels, Jagged Alliance 2, Knights of the Old Republic 2 (you might want to play the first game so you'll REALLY appreciate KotOR2).

But since you want something from people like me who consider Planescape: Torment to be the greatest thing video games have ever produced, definately prioritize Mast of the Betrayer (a hero's personal journey to save his own life and confront divine injustice) and Knights of the Old Republic 2 (a more personal journey to save the Galaxy, and the greatest take on the Star Wars universe).

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