KickStarter Best RPGs from the crowdfunding era

[fantadomat]

I've yet to play Serpent in the Staglands which I would like to since it definitely interests me.

But as of now...

GRIMOIRE: HERALDS OF THE WINGED EXEMPLAR
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Honorable mention: Dragonfall, Grim Dawn.

You haven't played Expeditions games?

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

You haven't played Expeditions games?

I have not. I heard the better one was Vikings and to be honest I don't like Viking shit.

 

[fantadomat]

You haven't played Expeditions games?

I have not. I heard the better one was Vikings and to be honest I don't like Viking shit.

Both of the are pretty good and unique,worth checking them out mate.

 

[DalekFlay]

Maybe shouldn't have voted since there are quite a few I haven't played yet (Torment 2, PoE 2, Pathfinder), but fuck you I did anyway. Shadowrun Dragonfall is my favorite so far, which... honestly says something about how it all turned out.

 

[AdolfSatan]

The Expeditions games on the other hand are criminally underrated.

They aren't that good, combat was easy and repetitive and there was almost no room for experimentation with builds/character development.

And while I appreciate the dedication they put into the details of world building, both games are lacking in memorable moments/quests/characters from the storyfaggy side.

 

[BlackGoat]

What a depressing decade

 

[Bruma Hobo]

You haven't played Expeditions games?

I have not. I heard the better one was Vikings and to be honest I don't like Viking shit.

I like Conquistador more, as it's more elegantly designed, with some unorthodox design choices while still being an RPG first and foremost. Also because of its more interesting setting, vikings are indeed boring.

Viking on the other hand is a more conventional party-based RPG with a bigger budget, mostly due to marketing reasons (since many still believe the first game is just a HoMM clone). Not a bad game at all, but it definitely feels more generic.

The Expeditions games on the other hand are criminally underrated.

They weren't that good, combat was easy and repetitive and there was almost no room for experimentation with builds/character development.

Yeah, they're not combatfag games. Combat is just serviceable, although it's way more enjoyable here than in many classics like Fallout or Realms of Arkania. These are explorationfag games with choices and consequences.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Maybe shouldn't have voted since there are quite a few I haven't played yet (Torment 2, PoE 2, Pathfinder), but fuck you I did anyway. Shadowrun Dragonfall is my favorite so far, which... honestly says something about how it all turned out.

Torment 2

 

[Bruma Hobo]

What a depressing decade

FFS, this has been a much better decade than the last one. The 00's may have had a strong beginning, but they soon became a wasteland, with only popamole console games to play and no turn-based games to be seen since fucking Temple of Elemental Evil (and the ocassional one-man game like KotC). Compared to that, this is fucking heaven.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I like Conquistador more, as it's more elegantly designed

I really liked the setting and tactical combat in Conquistador but I hated the awkward and slow overworld movement.

 

[luj1]

As others have pointed out - Grimoire. Kingmaker was ruined by Kingdom management.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Numanuma had great loading screens.

 

[fantadomat]

As others have pointed out - Grimoire. Kingmaker was ruined by Kingdom management.

The SJW garbage was the worst part,but they at least had some based writers too.

 

[Darth Canoli]

FFS, this has been a much better decade than the last one. The 00's may have had a strong beginning, but they soon became a wasteland, with only popamole console games to play and no turn-based games to be seen since fucking Temple of Elemental Evil (and the ocassional one-man game like KotC). Compared to that, this is fucking heaven.

It started with Wizardry 8 and ended with KotC, birthing ToEE as well, i wish the second decade was as good as the first ...

 

[Verylittlefishes]

FFS, this has been a much better decade than the last one. The 00's may have had a strong beginning, but they soon became a wasteland, with only popamole console games to play and no turn-based games to be seen since fucking Temple of Elemental Evil (and the ocassional one-man game like KotC). Compared to that, this is fucking heaven.

It started with Wizardry 8 and ended with KotC, birthing ToEE as well, i wish the second decade was as good as the first ...

You had deadfire you ungrateful shit.

 

[Alphons]

Not enough votes!

1. Pathfinder- I don't like most fantasy RPGs, but I've had surprisingly good time with it (I've started playing after most bugs were patched).
2. Kingdom Come- great RPG with a great world.
3. ATOM- the closest we got to isometric Fallout with commercial games, but the team poured more than enough heart into it to make it feel distinctive for me. Excited for Trudograd!

Honorable mentions (I'm going down the poll):

• Wasteland 2- I found it in a local supermarket in a discount bin and bought without any expectations. Had fun, but the game has problems with difficulty levels.
• Shadowruns- I've enjoyed all 3 of them, but Dragonfall the most (Returns the least- dialogue felt REALLY dry).
• Hard West- demons and cowboys in a game set on nuXcom foundations, but with enough new mechanics to make it entertaining through the whole campaign. I also liked the story and characters.
• Dead State- game really drags on too long, but I still did 2 playthroughs (Hard and normal with saving every survivor). Fights with zombies were meh after game gives you the best melee char (Getz) and the best pistol char (Vic). I wish they made a sequel as most my annoyances were with some of the design decisions (game length, giving you the most powerful chars in second week of the game), but the writing (aside from catholics) and the level design were alright.
• Grimoire- it's hard to get into, but once you get the ball rolling it won't stop. Also UI requires a map through the first 50 hours, later on you get accustomed.

 

[Tancred]

Going with DOS, Dragonfall and ATOM RPG here, but there's a few I haven't played yet that I want to try like Expeditions and KCD.

 

[Falksi]

How the fuck am I the only vote so far for Hard West?

It's fucking brilliant!

 

[Lacrymas]

From the ones I've played, only Grim Dawn is uncompromisingly good. But I haven't played a lot of these, like Grimoire, the Expeditions, ATOM, Hard West, Lords of Xulima, Eisenwald, etc; so I'm going to refrain from voting.

 

[Urthor]

I feel like there are very few true "crowndfunding games" that were absolute classics off the back of crowdfunding, at least in the RPG genre. PoE is probably the closest and while I'll hand on heart say the White March was absolutely a classic up to the standard of BGate, I'm not sure many other people even played the expansion or are going to agree with me on that one. Shadowrun didn't fix the jank in the formula until Hong Kong, even though Dragonfall had pretty great writing, if they launched with Hong Kong I'd give them full credit.

Games like Kingdom Come absolutely were backed by $$$ and publishers, the idea you make a game like that off a 1.6 million dollar Kickstarter is a joke. These are games were the funding is set and they basically use Kickstarter as an advertisement, calling them Kickstarter games are a bit of a misnomer.

The "true" Kickstarter games where the Kickstarter is the entire game budget extremely few come off except 2d sidescrolling allsorts (cue "is Undertale a good RPG")

Love it or hate it, RPGs are a genre that depends on production values because choices and consequences and good writing cost moneh. And while yes Eastern Europe has produced games with both for very little (and seems to produce the majority of Codex's favourite content these days), that's in large part due to the fact they pay people in Eastern European bux. While you can look at 90k life to date Steam sales with 40k full priced and think to themselves "jackpot" in certain countries, that's certainly scraping the bucket for financial success for a 5+ person dev team in Americah with rent and health insurance to pay. And Kickstarter doesn't pay.

 

[Trashos]

Love it or hate it, RPGs are a genre that depends on production values because choices and consequences and good writing cost moneh. And while yes Eastern Europe has produced games with both for very little (and seems to produce the majority of Codex's favourite content these days), that's in large part due to the fact they pay people in Eastern European bux. While you can look at 90k life to date Steam sales with 40k full priced and think to themselves "jackpot" in certain countries, that's certainly scraping the bucket for financial success for a 5+ person dev team in Americah with rent and health insurance to pay. And Kickstarter doesn't pay.

Poor Americans. Such bad conditions for creating anything of value. I am surprised they can survive, let alone create.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the best game (of any genre) that I kickstarted, but the best game on that list is, of course, Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Haven't played more than half of these (some I didn't know were crowdfunded), from what I've played: Kingmaker, Grimoire and Wasteland 2. Grim Dawn is also not terrible. I'm surprised Wasteland 2 got as many votes as it did.

 

[Atchodas]

I'm surprised Wasteland 2 got as many votes as it did.

Well there were like 3 versions of Wasteland 2

Wasteland 2 release version which was beyond horrible, crime against humanity basically.

Wasteland 2 half year or more after release where they fixed most of games breaking bugs and you could actually play trough game

Wasteland 2 DC - if someone played this version for their first time with WL2 they probably think it was amazing game.

My point is that reception of WL2 depends on when you played the game, I personally played it for first time right after it was released I have nothing positive to say about that, and then I played it again on Directors Cut and liked it a lot

 

[fantadomat]

I'm surprised Wasteland 2 got as many votes as it did.

Well there were like 3 versions of Wasteland 2

Wasteland 2 release version which was beyond horrible, crime against humanity basically.

Wasteland 2 half year or more after release where they fixed most of games breaking bugs and you could actually play trough game

Wasteland 2 DC - if someone played this version for their first time with WL2 they probably think it was amazing game.

My point is that reception of WL2 depends on when you played the game, I personally played it for first time right after it was released I have nothing positive to say about that, and then I played it again on Directors Cut and liked it a lot

Hmmm i played only the release version and don't want to have anything to do with wasteland any more. How different it wasteland 2 dc??? What makes it even passable?