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This list was more difficult to make than I had expected. I ultimately had to make decisions on what I actually played the most, with emphasis given for full replays. Some games, like Arcanum is really enjoyed conceptually, but only played through like twice. Second time wasn't even to completion. There were several games like that which I had to concede, despite having fond memories of. What's exciting though, is that I fully anticipate many new games usurping my current choices. Fabulously optimistic, but it's nice to be that way for once in a decade or two.
Fuck off. It was the best example of lore, character and world building in almost any game on this list
8. Deus Ex
9. Vampire Bloodlines
10. Mask of the Betrayer.
Other games that I just find fun. In no particular order:
Syndicate 1 & 2.
Dawn of War 1 & 2.
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos & Chaos March. One of the best games ever made. *
Severance: Blade of Darkness
Shogun: Total War 1 & 2
Thief Gold (that thieves guild though) and Thief 2
KOTOR 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Fallout 2, Tactics & New Vegas.
Shadows of Mordor
King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame 1. Second game had the greatest potential if they were allowed to finish it.
Mechcommander 1
Mechwarrior 3
Most of the Command and Conquer games. 1,2 Red Alert, Tiberium Sun (James Earl Jones & Michael Biehn. Those were the days)
X3: Albion Prelude with the X3 Star Wars mod reborn. Moving on to Litcube's universe with the Star Wars mod as soon as I upgrade my PC.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Witcher 3
Jagged Alliance 2
Star Wars Jedi Knight series. Battlefront. Empire at War + Expansion.
Original FF7
Vampire: Redemption
Shooters: **
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Transformers War for Cybertron & Fall of Cybertron
Action Games:
Castlevania 1 & 2. They were awesome to look at. Like gazing at Sophia Vergara endlessly.
Darksiders 1 & 2. Same as above. I appreciate art.
*
** Go ahead. Ban me. They were fun. Lock Sawyer in a room for a week and make him play them.
VTMB, DE: Mankind DVD (fuck you I love it to be short #1), F:Sonora (out of the bunch seems the most refined Fallout title), Shadowrun (the game for Sega Genesis), PtD, PF:KM, DD: Dark Arisen, Arcanum, ToEE, TW2 (fuck you I love it #2), UU2:LoW, AoD
Not much of a gamer myself.
Gonna re-evaluate such list though, have a bunch of timeless classics sitting in backlog and a few free day-offs.
If Silent Storm is an RPG then so many weird genre-bending russian are rpgs too - Kings Bounty, Space Rangers 2, Etherlords 1-2, Pathologic. Plus Diciples 1-2. I'm not as disingenuous as Lilura to put them in though.
1 Arcanum. What a brilliant game. They say it has flaws but since it's my list, let me tell you: I don't care about so called flaws. Terrible combat system? It's not the best, I guess, but it's not terrible for sure either. Besides, there're so little vast classless systems so I enjoyed my tons of experiments with this one. Maybe these complains about combat and dungeons are rooted to running around with bunch of companions faggotry. Play solo like a man, ffs. Or at least with bro Virgil on toe.
or some waifu, don't care
Story is very good but so does its dungeons.
2 VTMB. This is immersive sim territory like people tend to call it nowadays but I don't care much about genre boundaries, especially considering how complex some RPGs are. And yes, this shit is immersive as fuck, I love replaying it over and over again every year or so.
Also I'm ok with the sewers.
3 Fallout. Yeah, no suprises here, imho it's still the best game of its own franchise, how ironic. As far as I know, only F1.5 guys actually have created something really worthy to compare. I enjoyed the sequel a lot and NV too but I like their direction far less, tbh.
4 Planescape: Torment. I discovered it for myself much later than aforementioned and was amazed, naturally. Also for thouse who follow: I enjoyed it not only with INT/WIS char but I will not say that I dig game's combat system, that would be too far of a stretch. Lots of cool weapons, though.
5 Might and Magic VII. My favorite "blobber". Nuff said.
6 Underrail. I'm almost finished my completionist DOM playthrough and only now I can see how truly great this game is (not to mention all the patches since I played on release and the expansion). It is really something else. I need to finish it and revaluate a bit more, so let's leave it here.
7 The Age of Decadence. This is a special game to me on many levels but let's just say that I love its combat system, its lore, story - everything.
8 Disco Elysium. Like I said, don't care much about genre boundaries, so I didn't include it to piss off one more time some purists here but because this game is simply amazing. If I had to say something about its genre I'd say somewhat Adventure/RPG hybrid but it's actually quite unique game even genre wise to just put a few labels on it.
9 The Witcher 3. Again, immersive sim territory, basically but the game's story is astonishing, I remember when the credits were start to roll was 5-30 am and I had an urge to start over - so hooked I was. Expansions were awesome, too. Combat is lacking though (I guess I should try mods next time) but overall, it's just a too good of a game (to me) not to include here.
10 Wizardry 8. Also discovered for myself only few years ago but damn, what a game! Besides obvious virtues like the best character creation section ever or its all around great combat system I really dig the game's lore. More than M&M's approach to fantasy/sci-fi - that's for sure.
No wonder, topicstarter is a lone honk-honk resident MILF still lusting for dicks. And local dicks have drive and clarity of vision but not clever to not fall for obvious bait.
TheImplodingVoice hey buddy you picked the wrong door, the leather's club two blocks down
In order based on the enjoyment I got from them at the time of playing.
1. Fallout 2 - Played it before the original Fallout and it was the game that really opened my eyes to what games could be. Top-notch from art style to music, memorable characters, quests, places etc. Combat could be more complex and the AI better, but it doesn't diminish the game in my eyes. Best overall RPG experience still to this day and it might not ever be beaten, seeing where gaming is going these days.
2. Baldur's Gate 2 - Superior in every way to the original it built upon, this is how you make an epic Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Again, great presentation, music, memorable characters and villains, interesting and diverse places and sense of being on a grand adventure.
3. Fallout - The game that started the (short lived) "Golden Age" of computer roleplaying in my eyes. The story and setting are more coherent than Fallout 2, but the gameplay and more variety put the sequel on the top spot for me personally.
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
6. Planescape: Torment
7. Final Fantasy VI
8. Suikoden II
9. Star Wars: KotOR
10. Fallout: New Vegas
Already posted my list which included some of these, but figured I'd limit myself and try and give my "Top 5 which aren't on the Codex Top 70/101 Lists" games, since the good qualities of something like Arcanum or Fallout have already been talked to death.
1. Swordflight
I don't like NWN. I don't like the look of it, I don't like the way it handles companions, and I don't like the engine's clunkiness. Despite that, Swordflight is a truly excellent game. Challenging combat, creative area design, and well-written characters and scenarios are all present, but the crowning achievement is the reactivity of Chapter 2. I've played through it as a Paladin, a Rogue/Wizard, and a Barbarian, and each time it felt like I made the "right" choice thanks to all of the class-unique content in quests, item availability, and dialogue options. Like MotB (but for different reasons), Swordflight transcends its mediocre origins.
2. Crusader Kings 2
Although the game affords you the freedom to ignore roleplaying considerations, it is far more fun to treat it as an RPG and tailor your actions to your ruler's traits. The options to play any number of interesting characters, their interactions with the world and their fellow rulers, and the objectives you decide to pursue, create all sorts of fun alternate-historical scenarios. And that's even before you get into all the memes.
3. Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome
It's surprising that this game isn't on any Codex lists, considering how often it gets mentioned around here. I recently played through both paths for the first time and loved it. The historical setting is great, as is the magic system, which is based on tribal beliefs and is unclear whether or not it's actual "magic" (the higher your belief, the stronger your "magic," but the more susceptible you are to enemy "magic," which is brilliant). More games should follow this example. The combat system is a bit simplistic, but fun, and really shows your character's progression from a scrub to a chainmailed spear-throwing Avatar of Woden, if you choose to focus on combat. Unless, of course, you carry too much bread and get overloaded, or don't carry enough bread and get really hungry, then you're going to cross your fingers and hope you get lucky if you run into bandits. The writing is also excellent, but the atmosphere of the game is its real highlight. The old-school graphics are very charming, and despite the limited number of areas, the world feels quite extensive to explore.
4. Der Langrisser
One of the few JRPGs I've played that actually had C&C, and with 4 potential paths to play through, the C&C is pretty extensive. The story is pretty basic, but the fact that you have so many options of how to interact with the factions involved, and the way that your relationships with your former allies and former enemies are affected when you choose to betray a faction, keep it interesting.
The gameplay is interesting in theory - a tactical RPG where your heroes hire squads of various units, allowing you to build a custom army - but in practice the game is too easy to make the fights match the promise of this system.
5. Game of Thrones - The RPG
Released by Cyanide Studios to critical and commercial disdain, this game possibly killed Telltale Games by giving that studio another license to overextend themselves with. It looked like a PS2 game, played like KotOR with fewer character and combat options, and had somewhere between 4 and 6 distinct voice actors. Beneath all that, though, is a great storyfag game, with a strong plot that matches the tone of the books, and truly excellent characters. The quest design is pretty good, and despite the mediocre combat system there are some memorable and well-structured encounters.
Honorable mention because I don't really consider it an RPG:
Final Fantasy VI
The only Final Fantasy that I really like. I'm sure nostalgia plays a big part of it, since I first played it as a kid. I have a tough time really calling it an "RPG" since you don't really make many meaningful choices and there's not much C&C (beyond whether or not you make the effort to re-recruit your party members after the apocalypse happens). The game's plot is decent, the world is pretty cool (as a kid it reminded me of that really cool demo disc I had for this game called "Arcanum"), and the characters are really memorable. The game becomes too easy eventually unless you actively avoid grinding, but there are some cool fights.
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
Mask of the Betrayer
BG2
BG
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Dark Souls
SW: KotOR
Xenoblade Chronicles
Dragon Quest VIII
The Witcher 3 (except for the fact that in the main story they ruined Geralt, basically making him a baby sitter!)
Dragon Quest XI (the story is great, the gameplay and characters less so)
Dragon's Dogma (the gameplay is great, the story and the characters less so)
Pathfinder: Kingmaker (would have been better without the kingdom management system)
Radiant Hystoria: Perfect Chronology (story and characters are great, the gameplay (fighting) less so)
SW: KotOR 2 (has some interesting parts, like the ability to influence followers, but there are many problems, like the existence of G0t0, the loss of the manichean phylosophy, which is a major betrayal of what star wars is, and more)
Age of Decadence (the end is too abrupt)
S+ Baldur's Gate (Sword Coast Stratagems)
Dragon Warrior III (Hardtype)
S Baldur's Gate 2
A+ Arcanum, Wizardry V (PSX)
A Final Fantasy IV, Phantasy Star IV, Pokemon Pyrite, Diablo I/II
Top 10 are hard to do. My Top 5 has been the same for a while, but after that it kinda depends on what I last played and what kind of experience I'm currently craving or how much my memory has forgotten the shitty areas the game has - looking at you, Arx Fatalis.
In chronological order (I just can't pick an order, other than Wizardry, Ultima IV, Underworld and Darklands being at my top 4):
Wizardry I
Ultima IV
Alter Ego
Ultima V
Ultima Underworld
Darklands
Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail
Fallout
Morrowind
Expeditions: Conquistador
Honorable mentions: Telengard, Sword of the Samurai, Betrayal at Krondor, Daggerfall, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum, Gothic, Wizardry 8, Knights of the Chalice, NEO Scavenger, The Age of Decadence... I could keep it going.
Edit: Did I mention Betrayal at Krondor? What was I thinking?
FFS, I instantly put forward a top 20. Then I hem and haw and cut down 5. Then I wriggle, glare, giving it the hairy eyeballs, and finally cut down 5 more for top 10, a very unreasonable selection.
