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Community The RPG Codex's Top 101 PC RPGs (With User Reviews!)

Lemming42

Arcane
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
6,043
Location
The Satellite Of Love
Especially because these games don't offer what I'm looking for in fully fledged RPGs, which is less emphasis on combat and more on quests and story.

Agreed on this point, a lot of older cRPGs are almost entirely (or actually entirely) combat focused, which frequently gets boring quickly - especially because the combat systems aren't as fun or complex in many older games as some Codexers would like to imagine. There's a clear shift towards developing settings, writing interesting stories and characters, and branching quests with choices in game made post-Fallout.

In other words, many RPGs from the Fallout era onwards make a clear attempt to emulate tabletop pnp RPGs, which it seems to me should be the obvious goal of the medium. The early Wizardry and M&M games are fun but you're essentially just walking around beating the shit out of everything, and as the numbers in your stat screen go up, you beat the shit out of everything a little quicker. On the other hand, Fallout almost feels like you're actually playing a great RPG campaign against a good DM - something a lot of its successors haven't quite recaptured in the same way.

Can't agree on the graphics though, I love a lot of shitty old 2D graphics. They age with charm in a way that early 3D games don't. I've never been a big fan of the Gold Box games but Pool of Radiance's weird looking character portraits and unending grey corridors really appeal to me for some reason.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Old games have active (dungeon more than overworld) exploration gameplay with traps and puzzles, actual party building and PnP-like combat, from Ultima Underworld and then diablo RPGs switched from PnP combat to single character action and replaced any other form of gameplay than combat by pure narrative stuff.

Nitpicking Fallout or Icewind Dale is ridiculous, Black Isle is one of the rare studios who made RPGs after 1995 and did not 100% embraced this terrible trend even if they're not completely out of the equation either.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
4,230
I wish I had the capacity to ignore the dated nature of games "before 1998, but I'm afraid it's just not in me. Someone claiming that they don't enjoy a game because they couldn't get past its poor and/or dated graphics/sound/etc is a valid excuse in my book, regardless of how many things the game does right.

Can you imagine someone saying the exact same worlds about Fallout or BG or Torment?
 

Sigourn

uooh afficionado
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
5,625
Can you imagine someone saying the exact same worlds about Fallout or BG or Torment?

I've seen people say that. But the truth is that, most of the time, what they actually mean to say is "I don't like turn-based/RTwP", which has nothing to do with a game being old or not. A modern game may be an interface masterpiece that if it releases with graphics looking and sounding like a Commodore, I won't play it. I can't stress enough how serious I am about old PC graphics and sounds (figuratively) hurt me.
 
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Messages
3,914
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I wish I had the capacity to ignore the dated nature of games "before 1998, but I'm afraid it's just not in me. Someone claiming that they don't enjoy a game because they couldn't get past its poor and/or dated graphics/sound/etc is a valid excuse in my book, regardless of how many things the game does right.

Can you imagine someone saying the exact same worlds about Fallout or BG or Torment?
Fallout's controls and interface are utter shit.
 

Fenix

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 18, 2015
Messages
6,458
Location
Russia atchoum!
I wish I had the capacity to ignore the dated nature of games "before 1998, but I'm afraid it's just not in me. Someone claiming that they don't enjoy a game because they couldn't get past its poor and/or dated graphics/sound/etc is a valid excuse in my book, regardless of how many things the game does right.

You are right, but therr is one definite exception - System Shock.
It has ben modded to a appropriate level of graffixx so you can play and don't suffer even a bit - just enjoying instead.
Just find SSP - System Shock Portable.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
Agreed on this point, a lot of older cRPGs are almost entirely (or actually entirely) combat focused, which frequently gets boring quickly - especially because the combat systems aren't as fun or complex in many older games as some Codexers would like to imagine. There's a clear shift towards developing settings, writing interesting stories and characters, and branching quests with choices in game made post-Fallout.

Yeah, I switched to PC and started RPGin' not long before Fallout came out, and it was a transformative game for me. I think I expect a lot more on the story/quest design/faction choices side of things than some older guys here as a result. It's hard not to miss those elements when they're gone, especially since they CAN be done with good combat as well. That said I can still enjoy a very combat focused experience when the right mood hits me. I really got into Might and Magic X when it came out.

Anyway I always forget to check the news section (sorry Infinitron) so let me give a belated "great work everybody!"
 

Happycamper

Barely Literate
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
1
Bummer - no love for the Freedom Force (superhero RPG) franchise? Pretty much the best superhero RPG out there, so it stands out from all the other fantasy (and a little bit of SciFi) tropes..
 

Louis_Cypher

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
1,520
Ranker has a list of top 200 CRPGs....

https://www.ranker.com/list/all-computer-role-playing-games-list/reference

Planescape Torment is currently number one, which is good.

A bunch were just added so stuff like Ultima IV, Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, Age of Decadence, Legend of Grimrock, Expeditions, Pathfinder, The Banner Saga, Elex, ATOM RPG, Druidstone and UnderRail only have one or two votes.

Codex... sort it out :)
 

Goldschmidt

Learned
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Messages
461
Location
Swen Vincke's bedroom (Ghent)
Finally found the codex shitlist.
  • Baldur's Gate 2 (3rd place, great should be 1)
  • Might and Magic 6 (27, should be in top 15 at least, much better than Morrowind or Gothic)

Legend of Grimrock 1 and 2 not even in top 100. Ye kiddin right?

Path of Exile (gamespot goty 2013) not even in top 100. Path of Exile has more rpg elements than Planescape Torment could only dream about. What a complete joke. Path of Exile is the BEST rpg released this decade. Not Divinity Original Sin, not pathfinder, not witcher 3, not underrail BUT PATH OF EXILE !!!! Bunch of untermenschen. Underrail is the much simpler game, for the much simpler man.

The list is pure decline! Let me, a pro, redo it next year.
 
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Not.AI

Learned
Joined
Dec 21, 2019
Messages
305
Grimrock was pretty good. I was surprised that I liked it a lot. Never played 2. (Still on my to-do list.)
 

Butter

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
7,526
I think I already said this in the review thread, but it is worth repeating: The fact that we have new games getting high ranking in the poll really shows that our hobby is healthy at the moment. Rejoice!
While I agree, 2019 has been a really bad year. We are in August and what's the best we got so far? Outward? Operencia?
2019 is a shit sandwich nothing interesting came out so far, hope that 2020 will be a fat year.
:shredder:
 

Danikas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
1,605
I think I already said this in the review thread, but it is worth repeating: The fact that we have new games getting high ranking in the poll really shows that our hobby is healthy at the moment. Rejoice!
While I agree, 2019 has been a really bad year. We are in August and what's the best we got so far? Outward? Operencia?
2019 is a shit sandwich nothing interesting came out so far, hope that 2020 will be a fat year.
:shredder:
:badnews:
 

samuraigaiden

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
1,954
Location
Harare
RPG Wokedex
Dying is very easy in this game, and the priests of the Temple of Cant have high prices for resurrection, so make sure you always have a Priest/Bishop handy.

Not sure what console port of Wizardry HiddenX played, but this is terrible advice for anyone playing the MS-DOS Wizardry Archives version. Priests rarely pull off DI and KADORTO, and good luck leveling up a Bishop to even be able to cast those spells.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,874
Yeah, i can't recall if it goes DEAD -- ASHES --- GONE OR straight DEAD --- ASHES (GONE)
 

samuraigaiden

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2018
Messages
1,954
Location
Harare
RPG Wokedex
It’s dead - ashes - gone. You get two tries. But again, even a completely overleveled priest will fail most of the time.
 

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