I'm new to CRPGs, what games are the absolute must plays?

[overly excitable young man]

If you internalize RPG Codex values

Spoiler

 

[The Jester]

stop playing games older than yourself to fit in among people who don't feel in any way particular about you

And don't listen to the people who tell you that story is more important than combat.

Don't listen to this zionist agent, join the storyfag master race and play Underrail for story

 

[Sweeper]

Don't listen to this zionist agent, join the storyfag master race and play Underrail for story

I live for the day when we depose the head kike from this place and deal with the storyfag question once and for all.

 

[Nano]

Literally just google it. Even if you want a Codex-specific opinion just google "best RPGs RPGCodex" or something.

 

[Fowyr]

You basically shouldnt post here before you finished Aleshar, Obitus and The Ruins of Cawdor at least 7 times.

Don't mislead this young man.

Aleshar - yes, it's a great game.
Obitus is shit. Finished it, between visiting funerals and drinking myself to stupor.
You should not play The Ruins of Cawdor without playing Shadow of Yserbius first.

Damn, links to my hand-drawn maps of Yserbius are dead.

Also you are not Skyway to play games seven times.

 

[The Jester]

None of those are truly mainstream except Witcher 3 and that's a storyfag game.

The point is that his/her choices will not be limited to zero by codex values.

 

[overly excitable young man]

You should not play The Ruins of Cawdor without playing Shadow of Yserbius first.

Dude, of course not! What kind of person do you think i am? That would be ridiculous!

 

[Fowyr]

Dude, of course not! What kind of person do you think i am? That would be ridiculous!

Good, good panda. Atta boy!

 

[The Jester]

Don't listen to this zionist agent, join the storyfag master race and play Underrail for story

I live for the day when we depose the head kike from this place and deal with the storyfag question once and for all.

 

[Horvatii]

I am excited that there are all these amazing games I've never played, but I don't know where to start

Dont start. Read a book, a classic preferably. RPGs are nothing but trash.
Computer arpeegees tried since their inception to mimick PnP, from mainframe first person view wireframe graphics to Gold Box series and beyond. They try to weave a narrative, they are storyfag shit! The mechanics are tacked on, sad constructs, buckling under their own weight and/or laughably simple.
When you grow up and collect a decent library of stories in your head, you realize just how retarded and pathetic fantasy is. And with this comes the disillusionment of video game narratives.
If you stop for a second and dont chase the next slot machine high, the veneer comes off and reveals a sad, sad reality.
Its like looking a children with severe genetic disoreders crying 'kill me'

Your typical arrpeegee

 

[Ysaye]

I am 17 years old, and I recently got into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and have been really enjoying it despite it being a year older than me. It's like I was made for this type of game, so I started to do research and found out about all the classics people love; Fallout, Baldurs Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Planescape: Torment, Gothic, Dragon Age, and it goes on an on. I am excited that there are all these amazing games I've never played, but I don't know where to start. I picked up the first Fallout on GOG for $4.59 and am going to start that tomorrow, but besides that, I just want to know which RPGs should be in priority queue of my backlog.

There are no must plays.

The Codex community has particular preferences of rpgs, and then at the next level they sub-communities of people that favour particular sub-genres of CRPGs. The threads about what the "real best RPG of all time" are just a weird form of linguistic nonsensical humor, because most know that they could never really identify a best which is a best for everyone and that the reality is that whatever comes up on top through poor means of voting with biased samples will result in a mediocre results rising to the top.

If you want a good recommendation (that being playing a game that you actually enjoy) then you should identify what you like about Morrowind and/or any other game that you find you like and then link off that to pick up other games. I would suggest trying next Daggerfall / Daggerfall Unity, Ultima Underworld, maybe Wizardry 8 and Might and Magic 6 - they all have similarities to elements in Morrowind but also some key differences.

 

[alyvain]

In the order they came out.

Fallout 1 -> Fallout 2
Baldur's Gate 1 ( -> Planescape Torment ) -> BG2
Arcanum
VTMB

That's it, you're set. Maybe try Kotor after all of that, if you're still there.

I feel that's a perfect list, tbh. Fallout 1 and 2 are very easy to get into, Baldur's Gate is a good starting point for various types of D&D autism, and then the sky's the limit, you can try anything.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Silly Germans]

The Shadowrun Returns games are also worth a look if you like cyberpunk. They are "light fare" on the mechanics side and very story focused.

 

[Sweeper]

Dont start. Read a book, a classic preferably. RPGs are nothing but trash.
Computer arpeegees tried since their inception to mimick PnP, from mainframe first person view wireframe graphics to Gold Box series and beyond. They try to weave a narrative, they are storyfag shit! The mechanics are tacked on, sad constructs, buckling under their own weight and/or laughably simple.
When you grow up and collect a decent library of stories in your head, you realize just how retarded and pathetic fantasy is. And with this comes the disillusionment of video game narratives.
If you stop for a second and dont chase the next slot machine high, the veneer comes off and reveals a sad, sad reality.
Its like looking a children with severe genetic disoreders crying 'kill me'

Your typical arrpeegee

This is good.
Storyfags should be self-loathing.

 

[Vlajdermen]

 

[The Jester]

Dont start. Read a book, a classic preferably. RPGs are nothing but trash.
Computer arpeegees tried since their inception to mimick PnP, from mainframe first person view wireframe graphics to Gold Box series and beyond. They try to weave a narrative, they are storyfag shit! The mechanics are tacked on, sad constructs, buckling under their own weight and/or laughably simple.
When you grow up and collect a decent library of stories in your head, you realize just how retarded and pathetic fantasy is. And with this comes the disillusionment of video game narratives.
If you stop for a second and dont chase the next slot machine high, the veneer comes off and reveals a sad, sad reality.
Its like looking a children with severe genetic disoreders crying 'kill me'

Your typical arrpeegee

This is good.
Storyfags should be self-loathing.

Lol another combatfag peasant crying for attention to superior storyfags

 

[Sweeper]

Lol another combatfag peasant crying for attention to superior storyfags

Ah yes, instead of actually playing the game, the storyfag likes to read and immerse himself in the lore.
The obvious question then is, why not simply read a book? The classics of literature are so above and beyond any writing in games that it really makes one wonder why storyfags don't simply choose to read a book if they care about writing so much.
Horvatii is quite right in his post.

 

[The Jester]

Lol another combatfag peasant crying for attention to superior storyfags

Ah yes, instead of actually playing the game, the storyfag likes to read and immerse himself in the lore.
The obvious question then is, why not simply read a book? The classics of literature are so above and beyond any writing in games that it really makes one wonder why storyfags don't simply choose to read a book if they care about writing so much.
Horvatii is quite right in his post.

I'm high
But I try to explain in the best way that i can
I read books, I'm not sure if the books I read are classic masterpieces.
My favorite genre is fantasy
But video games have the ability to define a story in a way that no other medium can
They can put you in the middle of the story, you are no longer just witnessing events
You are in the heart of a storm, you are the one who moves the story forward, you find the puzzle pieces, you put the clues together to realize the bigger picture.

This is something that game developers have forgotten in recent years, they forget that a game has the ability to tell a story as a "game".
But instead, what do we see in this industry?

Video games are becoming more and more like movies
Interactive videos, press the button and watch the next cut scene!

This retardation is not something I support as a storyfag
I want games to tell a good story without becoming anything other than a "game".

 

[DraQ]

I am 17 years old, and I recently got into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and have been really enjoying it despite it being a year older than me. It's like I was made for this type of game, so I started to do research and found out about all the classics people love; Fallout, Baldurs Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Planescape: Torment, Gothic, Dragon Age, and it goes on an on. I am excited that there are all these amazing games I've never played, but I don't know where to start. I picked up the first Fallout on GOG for $4.59 and am going to start that tomorrow, but besides that, I just want to know which RPGs should be in priority queue of my backlog.

Coming from Morrowind I would go for PS:T first.

It's a very different game being 2D and mostly story oriented, but it has some common ground:

• You find yourself in an exotic and quite unexpected world.
• There is mystery to decipher although more of a one pertaining to yourself than the world.
  
• It's atmospheric and evocative.
• Reading a lot probably doesn't scare you although instead of rich background lore and somewhat stale dialogue you will mostly read rich dialogue and descriptions.
  
• It has clunky combat.

Other than that:

• Fallout 1&2 is atmospheric but the setting isn't it's main strength. It is its reactivity to your choices. It's also kind of open world and you probably don't mind brown.
• Wizardry 8 - 3D, first person, turn based, combat focused. For a change of pace. It's very different type of RPG but meaty enough to be palatable by other people than just wireframe nostalgia junkies.
  
• Deus Ex - first person shooter / RPG hybrid. Mission oriented but with lots of freedom, reactivity and ultimately pretty cool storytelling. The first one is the best, albeit clunky visually. Don't play Invisible War, it sucks.

 

[Sweeper]

But video games have the ability to define a story in a way that no other medium can
They can put you in the middle of the story, you are no longer just witnessing events

Sure, but that's also the reason why the stories written in games will never even come close to those in actual literature.
Or at least they haven't yet. I personally heavily doubt they ever will.

If you already care about writing in vidya, then worldbuilding and lore are far more important and have greater potential than the standard vidya writting we've seen so far.
None of this of course changes the fact that at the end of the day, the real meat and potatoes of any game is the combat.
Storyfaggotry is illogical.

Anywho, I'll stop derailing OP's retarded thread with my hateboner for storyfaggotry.
Sorry OP.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

For must plays, there's not much point in making suggestions beyond the top 101 list. You probably won't like everything on it, but that's RPG lists in general. Personally, I'd suggest Dungeon Master if you want more combat, and Albion if you want another alien world.
I'd instead offer some advice, games older than say, Fallout have a steep learning curve on the controls most of the time.Turn-based games have smaller curves. But Daggerfall and Arena are both difficult for first time players. Darklands, well, the first time you get to the combat in that, you'll get your ass crushed. Fallout has relatively easy to understand controls, but if you can figure it out you should have a decent enough time. Just don't get upset if you have to start over.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Age of Decadence. Make sure to play it blindly, without googling anything. Tons of fun.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I am 17 years old, and I recently got into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and have been really enjoying it despite it being a year older than me. It's like I was made for this type of game, so I started to do research and found out about all the classics people love; Fallout, Baldurs Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, Planescape: Torment, Gothic, Dragon Age, and it goes on an on. I am excited that there are all these amazing games I've never played, but I don't know where to start. I picked up the first Fallout on GOG for $4.59 and am going to start that tomorrow, but besides that, I just want to know which RPGs should be in priority queue of my backlog.

Ignore every Codex Top ## list and go straight for the classics:

Rogue
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Tales of the Unknown, Volume 1: The Bard's Tale
Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back
Pool of Radiance, Champions of Krynn, Eye of the Beholder, Shattered Lands
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
Legend of Grimrock I & II
Age of Decadence
Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar

 

[Pentium]

Word of advice: Stay away from walktrhoughs and game wikis, fandoms and such shit as much as possible. Try to resist and figure out everything for yourself and put your own effort into it - THAT is the nature of hardcore gaming (i.e. not being breast-fed by a promiscuous skag of riff-raff pretending to be the decent empress that would only silently make high demands).