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Best RPGs by categories (story/exploration/C&C...)

Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment) - Mask of the Betrayer, Witcher 1 and 3, Arcanum, Betrayal at Krondor

2) exploration and overral ambience; - Gothic, Ultima Underworld, Baldur's Gate

3) choice and consequence system; - Fallout, Witcher 1-3, ELEX

4) strategic battles; - Baldur's Gate 1 and 2

5) character creation/progression. - Graphical NetHack (Vulture), Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1 and 2
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,026
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment) - Fallout 1, Betrayal at Krondor, Witcher 1 and 3

2) exploration and overral ambience - Gothic 1 and 2, Underrail, Fallout, Grimrock, Dark Souls, Dustbowl

3) choice and consequence system - Fallout 1 and 2, New Vegas, Arcanum, Vampires, Lisa

4) strategic battles - Dark Souls, Divinity Original Sin 2, Blackguards, Evil Islands, Lisa

5) character creation/progression - Underrail, Dark Souls, Gothic
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Witcher 3 nominated for story ahead of the likes of Deaus Ex??? Just wtf???

Witcher 3, the entire main plot.....

Get tasked by the Emperor to find Ciri by finding Keira Metze, then Crones of Crookbag Bog, then Bloody Baron, then Dandelion, then finally some variety when you help set some mages free, then off to Skellige to find Yen, then find Uma, and then finally get to find Ciri and move on to the second & final stage of the plot killing the Wild Hunt.


Now compare that to just the setup of Deus Ex....

Undertake several missions for an anti-terrorist organisation, and find a vaccine which helps cure a widespread virus. In doing so run in to your brother who's an agent who has defected from the group you're working for, because he suspects that the virus in question is man made, and the organisation you are working for makes sure only the elite get the vaccine. Return from mission to hear that brother's 24 hour kill switch has been engaged, and that you are off to Hong Kong to kill a hacker. But then run into your brother again who explains more about everything, and convinces you to betray your organisation you work for, and to warn the "terrorists" who you previously hunted. Resulting in your own kill switch being engaged. Get caught & imprisoned, and then a strange AI contacts you and assists with your escape, informing you the organisation you worked for is part of a bigger political group, with much more to it. You flee to meet the hacker you were assigned to kill, and he disables the kill switches. Now begins the real game.......

It's night and day. Deus Ex's setup has more twists & turns than the entire Witcher 3's main plot. And I shouldn't have to mention all the twists, turns, reveals etc. which follow the setup too.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Messages
6,633
Location
Ommadawn
Witcher 3 nominated for story ahead of the likes of Deaus Ex??? Just wtf???

Witcher 3, the entire main plot.....

Get tasked by the Emperor to find Ciri by finding Keira Metze, then Crones of Crookbag Bog, then Bloody Baron, then Dandelion, then finally some variety when you help set some mages free, then off to Skellige to find Yen, then find Uma, and then finally get to find Ciri and move on to the second & final stage of the plot killing the Wild Hunt.


Now compare that to just the setup of Deus Ex....

Undertake several missions for an anti-terrorist organisation, and find a vaccine which helps cure a widespread virus. In doing so run in to your brother who's an agent who has defected from the group you're working for, because he suspects that the virus in question is man made, and the organisation you are working for makes sure only the elite get the vaccine. Return from mission to hear that brother's 24 hour kill switch has been engaged, and that you are off to Hong Kong to kill a hacker. But then run into your brother again who explains more about everything, and convinces you to betray your organisation you work for, and to warn the "terrorists" who you previously hunted. Resulting in your own kill switch being engaged. Get caught & imprisoned, and then a strange AI contacts you and assists with your escape, informing you the organisation you worked for is part of a bigger political group, with much more to it. You flee to meet the hacker you were assigned to kill, and he disables the kill switches. Now begins the real game.......

It's night and day. Deus Ex's setup has more twists & turns than the entire Witcher 3's main plot. And I shouldn't have to mention all the twists, turns, reveals etc. which follow the setup too.
The story is shit in all Witcher games, but they're a journey. What makes them worth it is the characters and your adventures together, particularly Geralt and his band (Dandelion, Zoltan, Yen, Triss, Ciri, Siegfried, Roche, Vesemir...). Its sort of like LOTR - boring story, but the adventure is what counts.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
The story is shit in all Witcher games, but they're a journey. What makes them worth it is the characters and your adventures together, particularly Geralt and his band (Dandelion, Zoltan, Yen, Triss, Ciri, Siegfried, Roche, Vesemir...). Its sort of like LOTR - boring story, but the adventure is what counts.

So something with a shit story......should be nominated for best story? :?
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
5,103
Witcher 3 had a great story in the sense that although the overarching storyline was pretty meh (Ciri, Wild Hunt, etc), the individual pieces that actually made up the story as you played the game were absolutely amazing. Emhyr vs Radovid (foreign tyrant vs next door nutjob), the Bloody Baron's storyline and the impact your actions had on it, the beautiful coming together of the witchers at Keir Morhen, Triss vs Yennifer, and so on. It is a beautifully written game.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Witcher 3 had a great story in the sense that although the overarching storyline was pretty meh (Ciri, Wild Hunt, etc), the individual pieces that actually made up the story as you played the game were absolutely amazing. Emhyr vs Radovid (foreign tyrant vs next door nutjob), the Bloody Baron's storyline and the impact your actions had on it, the beautiful coming together of the witchers at Keir Morhen, Triss vs Yennifer, and so on. It is a beautifully written game.

So yes, like you say, Witcher 3 had a shit story.

It may have been peiced together well, presented well, and acted well.......but it was boring as fuck, and - whereas Deus Ex will prompt people to contemplate things such as government, media & mass manipulation after playing - when you reflect TW3 all you think is "well....I found a lot of people and one side won a war".

Don't mistake enjoying an experience for a particular element of that experience being brilliant. If you think Witcher 3's story is better in any way than Deus Ex's get pre-ordering the next Bioware/Bethestard "masterpeice" now.
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,336
Location
Crait
I've said so before, most RPGs have shit stories. Actual good stories/ writing clearly stand out from the cesspool.
 

HeatEXTEND

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
3,928
Location
Nedderlent
1) story/narrative; (not planescape torment) AoD

2) exploration and overral ambience; AoD

3) choice and consequence system; AoD

4) strategic battles; AoD

5) character creation/progression; AoD

Well I'll be damned :mixedemotions:
 

Neanderthal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2015
Messages
3,626
Location
Granbretan
Witcher 3 had an alright story, simple but thats not a bad thing in any medium. Obviously constrained by game itself, wander around doing Witcher work instead o finding Ciri, but sames true o most games. Now Witcher 2 had a bloody good story, better politics not usual infantile Bioware kinda shit, an rolled along at a fairly breakneck pace. Pity games systems have got worse wi each iteration.

Nice that Witchers narrative goes through all games, an you find shit from first game paving way through series.
 

janior

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Messages
3,616
Location
Café del Mar
1) story/narrative; VtMB

2) exploration and overral ambience; Dark Souls

3) choice and consequence system; AoD

4) strategic battles; Dungeon Rats

5) character progression. Gothic
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2017
Messages
79
1.) Narrative/Story:
Planescape Torment - What else should I place?
Deus Ex - No explanation needed.
2.) Exploration/Ambience:
Gothic 2 - It's a shame how very few of you mentioned this gem. Aside from challenging combat (which becomes easier on your next playthroughs) Gothic 2 fixed most of the problems with the first game while retaining what made the first one great like exploration and RP Elememts.
Dark Souls - Other than being a 3D Metroidvania, I love the quest design. Instead of having the usual "come here to get a quest" dialog option for NPCs, Dark Souls' quests are activated by the moment you talk to the NPC but they are invisible to the player; that isnt what makes the quests here great thou, what makes them great is how they are progressing as the player progresses in the story and can only be completed by interacting and exploring the game world(or by walkthroughs). An example is Siegmeyer's quest which can be read here: http://darksouls.wikidot.com/siegmeyer-of-catarina. Most of them are grey when it comes to C&C and make the world feel more real and immersive.
Morrowind - Morrowind is one of those few RPGs that managed to combine two subgenres of an RPG: the Dungeon Crawler and Adventure RPGs. Despite a smaller world and weaker character creation than the previous 2 TES games, Morrowind makes up for this by being more polished and blending the Dungeon Crawling focus of Daggerfall and the Exploration focus of Gothic. The magic system here is also amazing and the quest design is great.
3.) Choice and Consequence:
Fallout 1,2 & New Vegas - They are here not just because of their C&C but because of how the stats affect them. In the Bioware RPG like ME and BG, the stats have very little effect on C&C other than the occasional Intimidation/Persuasion check and the endings; in Fallout however, stats affect the role that you play. The choices and their respective consequences available are dependent on the role you want to play, which makes Fallout an RPG with actual role-playing instead of just stats and a story.

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines - It's a Troika Game, Troika usually have better C&C than most RPGs out there.
4.)Strategy and Tactics - Any RPG that revolves around strategy and tactics alone isn't an RPG. X-Com and Fire Emblem arent really RPGs but strategy/tactical games, thou one can argue that the lastest installments in both games are RPGs, but I digress.
The RPGs with the best strategic combat imo are ToEE, Jagged Alliance 2, and DOS 2.
5.) Character Creation/Progression:
Fallout - reason stated above.
VtMB - I may sound like a fanboy but Troika games tend to have actual Role-Playing more than most RPGs. VtMB's Character creation is the only thing that could rival Fallout's, IMO. Also unlike most RPGs, the race you pick in VtMB could alter your whole experience of the game especially if you pick a Malkavians or Nosferatu.
 

GrainWetski

Arcane
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
5,080
So yes, like you say, Witcher 3 had a shit story.

It may have been peiced together well, presented well, and acted well.......but it was boring as fuck, and - whereas Deus Ex will prompt people to contemplate things such as government, media & mass manipulation after playing - when you reflect TW3 all you think is "well....I found a lot of people and one side won a war".

Don't mistake enjoying an experience for a particular element of that experience being brilliant. If you think Witcher 3's story is better in any way than Deus Ex's get pre-ordering the next Bioware/Bethestard "masterpeice" now.

But is Deus Ex out on PS4 and made in Poland?
 

Danikas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
1,605
Witcher 3 had a great story in the sense that although the overarching storyline was pretty meh (Ciri, Wild Hunt, etc), the individual pieces that actually made up the story as you played the game were absolutely amazing. Emhyr vs Radovid (foreign tyrant vs next door nutjob), the Bloody Baron's storyline and the impact your actions had on it, the beautiful coming together of the witchers at Keir Morhen, Triss vs Yennifer, and so on. It is a beautifully written game.

So yes, like you say, Witcher 3 had a shit story.

It may have been peiced together well, presented well, and acted well.......but it was boring as fuck, and - whereas Deus Ex will prompt people to contemplate things such as government, media & mass manipulation after playing - when you reflect TW3 all you think is "well....I found a lot of people and one side won a war".

Don't mistake enjoying an experience for a particular element of that experience being brilliant. If you think Witcher 3's story is better in any way than Deus Ex's get pre-ordering the next Bioware/Bethestard "masterpeice" now.
Well first Deus Ex just copy pasted some conspiracy theories from internet into its plot, I wouldnt call that great writing.





Deus Ex tier writing, better voice acting though. Deus Ex: Human Revolution had best writing from all Deus Ex games.
 
Last edited:

sser

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,866,661
Witcher 3 had a great story in the sense that although the overarching storyline was pretty meh (Ciri, Wild Hunt, etc), the individual pieces that actually made up the story as you played the game were absolutely amazing. Emhyr vs Radovid (foreign tyrant vs next door nutjob), the Bloody Baron's storyline and the impact your actions had on it, the beautiful coming together of the witchers at Keir Morhen, Triss vs Yennifer, and so on. It is a beautifully written game.

So yes, like you say, Witcher 3 had a shit story.

It may have been peiced together well, presented well, and acted well.......but it was boring as fuck, and - whereas Deus Ex will prompt people to contemplate things such as government, media & mass manipulation after playing - when you reflect TW3 all you think is "well....I found a lot of people and one side won a war".

Don't mistake enjoying an experience for a particular element of that experience being brilliant. If you think Witcher 3's story is better in any way than Deus Ex's get pre-ordering the next Bioware/Bethestard "masterpeice" now.

Deus Ex's story is a fairly ordinary conspiracy-thriller romp. The fun of that game is that you get to basically mold how the conspiracy unravels through gameplay.

Witcher 3 has way better writing, but it's more linear C&C with gameplay that never changes. But on a strictly 'writing' level, Witcher 3 blows most games clear out of the water. The themes are far more mature which means they're far more likely to get bungled, but they never are. I don't think most people realize how difficult it is to pull of a story like the Bloody Baron without fumbling it somewhere.
 

Dreed

Bremsstrahlunged
Patron
Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
1,865,027
Location
Austrasie
Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
1) Story/Narrative: Mask of the Betrayer, Ultima 7 + Serpent Isle, Betrayal at Krondor.

2) Exploration and overral ambience: Grimoire, Morrowind, Gothic 2 + NoTR.

3) Choice and consequence system: Alpha Protocol, AoD, Vampire Bloodlines.

4) Tacticool battles: Jagged Alliance 2, Temple of Elemental Evil, the Goldbox games.

5) Character creation/progression: Arcanum, Wizardry 6/7/8, Wasteland 1/Dragon Wars.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
Witcher 3 had a great story in the sense that although the overarching storyline was pretty meh (Ciri, Wild Hunt, etc), the individual pieces that actually made up the story as you played the game were absolutely amazing. Emhyr vs Radovid (foreign tyrant vs next door nutjob), the Bloody Baron's storyline and the impact your actions had on it, the beautiful coming together of the witchers at Keir Morhen, Triss vs Yennifer, and so on. It is a beautifully written game.

So yes, like you say, Witcher 3 had a shit story.

It may have been peiced together well, presented well, and acted well.......but it was boring as fuck, and - whereas Deus Ex will prompt people to contemplate things such as government, media & mass manipulation after playing - when you reflect TW3 all you think is "well....I found a lot of people and one side won a war".

Don't mistake enjoying an experience for a particular element of that experience being brilliant. If you think Witcher 3's story is better in any way than Deus Ex's get pre-ordering the next Bioware/Bethestard "masterpeice" now.
Well first Deus Ex just copy pasted some conspiracy theories from internet into its plot, I wouldnt call that great writing.





Deus Ex tier writing, better voice acting though. Deus Ex: Human Revolution had best writing from all Deus Ex games.


It might be, but that doesn't make TW3 a game who's story is even remotely stand out.

Well told? Fair enough, but when I start seeing posts nominating TW3's story as "best ever", I start to think that even this bastion of old-school values has been body-snatched by casuals.
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
100
Superhero League of Hoboken for everything. Alternately:

Story: Little King's Story
Exploration: Zelda, ambiance: Anachronox
Choice and consequences: Deus Ex
Strategic combat: Mario versus Rabbids Kingdom Battle, tactical combat: Shin Megami Tensei, action combat: Metroid
Character development: Fallout
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
1) story/narrative (not planescape torment); (would choose Planescape: Torment), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

2) exploration and overall ambiance;
-----a) exploration - Inquisitor, ELEX, Morrowind, Gothic 2, Baldur's Gate, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
-----b) overall ambiance - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Inquisitor, ELEX, Icewind Dale, Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

3) choice and consequence system; Torment: Tides of Numenera, ELEX, Planescape: Torment, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

4) strategic battles; Lords of Xulima, Icewind Dale, Elminage Gothic, The Last Remnant, Neverwinter Nights

5) character creation/progression; Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics, Neverwinter Nights, Arcanum, Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale (progression) Gothic 1 & 2/Risen/ELEX
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Doctor Sbaitso

SO, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS.
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3,348
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Serpent in the Staglands
My heart bleeds that so many have not played Ultima Underworld. Ambience and exploration off the charts. U7 as well and loved exploring the Gothic games.

For battles, POR, ToEE and KoTC for me. Also like like Wizardries a lot for not only combat but character development. FFXI has truly unique and compelling combat mechanics and class abilities.

Story and C&C are overrated but enjoyed reading PST.
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
Shit, I'd throw The Red Hand of Doom, also known as the game Ellis Studios stole for their Cave of Sorrows scam, in the strategic battles category. The original creator of that mod should finish it, because it has combat deeper than ToEE. No lie. And it's made in the RPG Maker engine, which is just crazy.

If anyone's interested in pretty decent isometric visuals in RPG Maker, but more importantly, combat similar to yet deeper than ToEE's using the 3.5 Edition rules, download The Red Hand of Doom. It was/is really impressive.

And before anyone asks, I tried contacting the original modder to no avail. It uses sound/graphics/other stuff from games like NWN, etc., as it was just a free mod download at some point. It's probably up there if not surpassing Knights of the Chalice, too (I have to play more of that one, though, so not sure.) Crazy stuff.
 

Darkman

Educated
Joined
Jul 6, 2016
Messages
49
1) Fallout 1 - Writing and Role-playing is top notch. Nuff said.

2- Dues Ex

3- Fallout 1

4- Balder's Gate

5- Daggerfall - Surprised none mentioned this. There really aren't many games that give you so much domination over the character you create. That fact that you can easily spend over an hour on the character creation screen says it all.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,512
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Why can't one pick Torment?

1) story/narrative; Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

2) exploration and overral ambience; Baldur's Gate II

3) choice and consequence system; Alpha Protocol

4) strategic battles; Temple of Elemental Evil

5) character creation/progression. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

This is how I feel today. My opinion changes a lot.
 

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