I need more Eurojank like Risen and Two Worlds 2

[CaffeineConquistador]

I second that. Venetica would be a game made by Piranha Bytes

Sounds good, I'll put it on my TODO list.

On a related note, don't you find American colloquialism, spelling and voice acting in medieval/fantasy themed games jarring? Especially the voice acting. I just realised the other day that pretty much all medival TV series and movies that I like were produced in UK/Europe and pretty much everybody in them has a British or foreign accent. Even look at the Games of Thrones cast, there's only 2 or 3 actors with American accents, although it's a series commissioned by Americans.

On the opposite end for my American ear it’s jarring to hearing a specific regional accent that’s intentionally subdued. There’s an NPC in KCD I swear is from Texas, or at least around the Houston area long enough to pick up a slight accent.

 

[fantadomat]

Gods: Lands of Infinity

Fun game,but not a ARPG.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Linear? Venetica makes you choose between 3 distinct guilds (with mutually exclusive quests, skills and powers), features a morality system and numerous choices that affect the endings (there are two, twice the number of Gothic's endings).

Ok then.

I did not get that far in the game, but I guess it only opens up after a good chunk gameplay. I played more than a sitting and it was pretty much on rails all the way. Might give it another spin eventually then.

Yes, Venetica's middle act is most open (as opposed to Gothics where the first act provides most freedom of choice), the beginning is mostly linear.

I think it's worth a try for at least one playthrough, although I may replay it one day as a necromancer (finished the game as a courier/thief character).

 

[Funposter]

I second that. Venetica would be a game made by Piranha Bytes

Sounds good, I'll put it on my TODO list.

On a related note, don't you find American colloquialism, spelling and voice acting in medieval/fantasy themed games jarring? Especially the voice acting. I just realised the other day that pretty much all medival TV series and movies that I like were produced in UK/Europe and pretty much everybody in them has a British or foreign accent. Even look at the Games of Thrones cast, there's only 2 or 3 actors with American accents, although it's a series commissioned by Americans.

On the opposite end for my American ear it’s jarring to hearing a specific regional accent that’s intentionally subdued. There’s an NPC in KCD I swear is from Texas, or at least around the Houston area long enough to pick up a slight accent.

It's Sir Divish with the yank accent and yeah it's fucking weird

 

[V_K]

Venetica is a mostly linear game

Just like most PB titles.

 

[Falksi]

Just play Risen 2. it's fucking brilliant.

 

[bec de corbin]

Play Hammer and Sickle, lol

 

[Terenty]

Venetica fits the bill perfectly: in European, it's janky, has a unique concept and setting, and it's absolutely worth playing for the things it does well (exploration and level design).

Bold faced LIES! I believed you and installed the game yesterday and the level design is atrocious. Invisible walls galore, you can't fall off a cliff, you can't fall through a hole in the roof, you can't even jump ffs. What level design and exploration are you talking about?? And whoever said the cities are great is a fucking liar too, npcs don't have any schedules and walk around like zombies. Granted it's all based on the first 30 mins of the game, but i doubt it all suddenly changes

 

[Dodo1610]

Venetica is neither great nor bad but just a decent Action RPG that was clearly designed for the Xbox 360. Also, play it with the original german voice acting it's much better than the translation.

 

[Curratum]

Venetica is just the thing I needed! I even had it in my library already, played 4 hours at some point and forgot about it! Job done, thanks, Codex!

 

[Siveon]

ITT: butthurt europeans mad about a term of endearment.

Eurojank just mainly refers to AA, or lower, games (not just RPGs) from european countries that try to punch well above its weight. Typically the games have some of glaring flaw and lack of polish but are incredibly enjoyable for their setting, reactivity, depth, uniqueness, etc.

Stalker, for many people Gothic, the first Witcher game, etc.

To answer the thread, not my favorite but Kingdom Come is interesting.

 

[Rincewind]

Btw, just realised that I think most people who say the Witcher 1 was janky, they must be referring to the original release. I played the Enhanced Edition and it was practically bug free and to me polished enough.

 

[Curratum]

Imagine calling Witcher 1 anything but Eurojank! :D

 

[Sloul]

Evil Islands

 

[Siveon]

Btw, just realised that I think most people who say the Witcher 1 was janky, they must be referring to the original release. I played the Enhanced Edition and it was practically bug free and to me polished enough.

I think you're so lost in the eurosauce that you don't even know the common perception of polish.

Which, honestly, is fine - polish can be overrated.

 

[Rincewind]

I think you're so lost in the eurosauce that you don't even know the common perception of polish

Yeah I think that's true. As I said, the most modern RPGs I played was ELEX, Witcher 1 and Nehrim. Otherwise I just play older games (pre-2005 or so) or games from smaller studios (e.g. Banner Saga). The most recent AAA game that I played was Rise of Tomb Raider from 2013, and yeah, the graphics and animations in that one were noticeably superior to everything else I played before. But even with all the popamole shit turned off (quest markers, minimap, item highlighting, etc.) it was still a quite shallow shooter with a cringeworthy melodramatic story.

I also didn't get why people were complaining about the graphics of the first Styx game in most reviews. To me it seemed perfectly fine.

Btw, I found this definition, it seems quite accurate:

So if you don't know what euro jank is, i'll tell you. It's a classification for games developed in Europe that are usually incredibly ambitious with a strong focus on gameplay depth rather than presentation, but with a lack of polish more often than not attributed to a tight budget. Euro jank is basically a sacrifice of graphics/presentation, for gameplay depth and ambition. It's a silly, condescending term, but it's recognizable and easy to memorize.

Personally, the face of euro jank is definitely the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, more specifically Shadow of Chernobyl.

Source: https://www.gamespot.com/forums/system-wars-314159282/euro-jank-whats-your-favorite-33338101/

So basically prioritising substance over style, while being on a tight budget. But I don't think this is a USA vs Europe thing, really. I mean before the rise of the corporate AAA game industry there were plenty of interesting and innovative games beging produced in the US too, pretty much all the classic RPGs, actually. And I don't think the term makes much sense for pre-2005 RPGs because all of them were a bit janky (or rather quirky).

So, without irony, let's say I would like to play a non-janky ARPG so I can appreciate the polish you are talking about. Which game would that be, in your opinion? (currently I'm playing Morrowind which I find quite janky, more so than the Gothics)

We already have a list of contenders here. I just watched some Dragon Age videos and that seemed quite polished too (but so many cutscenes!).

Fallout
Mass Effect
Dragon's Dogma
Deus Ex
Witcher 3

 

[cvv]

Welcome to the club.

Stop listening to the retards ITT. All you need for your eurojank desires are three words - Piranha Bytes, Warhorse, Spiders. You're welcome.

 

[Rincewind]

Piranha Bytes, Warhorse, Spiders. You're welcome.

That was six words, bro.

 

[adddeed]

All of PBs games. My ranking would be Elex > Risen 2 > Risen > Gothic > Risen 3 > Gothic 2 > Gothic 3

Divinity 2 by Larian, awesome fun.

 

[DeepOcean]

Spiders is eurojank as eurojank can get, their sthick of making a 10 hour game take 40hs, and shiet combat systems with their rolling simulators from Bound by Flame to GreedFall dont make me any happy. Warhorse isnt eurojank by any metric. Pyranha Bytes, they only have three games that I would say are eurojank games: Gothic 3, Risen 2 and 3 , their other games are pretty good.

Even Spiders, if they werent so much obsessed into making the biggest game ever without a single penny to support that so they wouldnt need to fill their games with so much bs, they would be capable of making good games. The reality is that euro games are pretty good if: a) They arent trying to appeal to a larger audience and failing hard at it (Risen 2) or b)not biting more than they could chew to so absurd levels that the whole game suffers for it (pretty much all Spiders games and Gothic 3).

The recent Call of Cthulhu games are examples of the typical eurojank too, they could had been so much better games if they were traditional iso rpgs or adventure games but nope, they were trying to appeal to a larger audience AND bitten more than they could chew at same time. So, trying to appeal to a larger audience while failing hard at it AND bitten more than they could chew = eurojank.

 

[Rincewind]

Pyranha Bytes, they only have three games that I would say are eurojank games: Gothic 3, Risen 2 and 3 , their other games are pretty good.

Well, that was my idea too before people confused me in this thread... ELEX if perhaphs not exactly an AAA game, it's pretty good and "polished" enough (my biggest complaint was the lack of inventory categories). And Gothic 1-2 were perfectly fine when they were released (e.g. compared to Morrowind).

 

[Rincewind]

Bold faced LIES! I believed you and installed the game yesterday and the level design is atrocious. Invisible walls galore, you can't fall off a cliff, you can't fall through a hole in the roof, you can't even jump ffs.

Pretty much like Witcher 1, there's next to no verticality and you can't fall off anywhere. Still a good game.

 

[Sad He-Man]

Evil Islands

We need to go deeper.

Rage of Mages.

 

[V_K]

Bold faced LIES! I believed you and installed the game yesterday and the level design is atrocious. Invisible walls galore, you can't fall off a cliff, you can't fall through a hole in the roof, you can't even jump ffs.

Pretty much like Witcher 1, there's next to no verticality and you can't fall off anywhere. Still a good game.

The WTF part about this comment is that there's a ton of verticality in Venetica.

 

[bec de corbin]

I liked Drakensang 2 a fair bit. It's a somewhat solid rtwp rpg; maybe check that out? Blackguards is also good.