What is the best RPG of the CRPG Renaissance?

[rusty_shackleford]

kingmaker does absolutely nothing well so it's no surprise that codex likes it
I'd rather play through deadfire again than kingmaker and I hated deadfire

 

[Saravan]

All of these games are shit. The more I stay on this forum the more I begin to hate RPG:s.

Kingmaker is ridiculously overrated.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Good topic! I ended up with AoD, Kingdom Come, Wasteland 3, Expedition:Conquistador and Dragonfall. I'm not sure if they are the best of the bunch, but they are the games that annoyed me the least. With everything else on the list, there is at least one major beef that used to drive me nuts. So yeah.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

kingmaker does absolutely nothing well so it's no surprise that codex likes it
I'd rather play through deadfire again than kingmaker and I hated deadfire

What’s your opinion of the IE games?

 

[GloomFrost]

Top 3 -Kingmaker, Underail, Dragonfall. Followed by Elex, Atom, Kingdom Come. EE of IE games should not even be on the list here.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

kingmaker does absolutely nothing well so it's no surprise that codex likes it
I'd rather play through deadfire again than kingmaker and I hated deadfire

What’s your opinion of the IE games?

pst is a good cyoa

 

[luj1]

idiot

 

[The_Mask]

Voted for: Grimoire, NEO, P:K, E:C and... the best of the best, for me: Kenshi.

I think Kenshi takes the cake, not because it's a better RPG - technically Grimoire is - but because of the curve I had with it. I was expecting to hate it, because Fluent liked it, and Fluent had shit taste at the time, but here I am ~1k hours later, and I don't regret a single second. And I guess that's how we rate RPGs now: how many seconds do you regret spending on them.

There are also others that I enjoyed, but couldn't make the list. Like "A Legionary's Life", and so on. But I'm sticking to the 5 slots we were given.

 

[anvi]

What's with all the KOTC2 love? Last I heard it was brutal and people were saying they preferred KOTC. Has it been improved since then or were those people just misleading pansies?

 

[Butter]

What's with all the KOTC2 love? Last I heard it was brutal and people were saying they preferred KOTC. Has it been improved since then or were those people just misleading pansies?

KotC2 has way more classes and supports user-made modules.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[Poseidon00]

I put more time into Tyranny than the rest of em, best world and story, but Deadfire has the most entertaining gameplay once you put it on a harder difficulty and make it turn based.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I think Kenshi takes the cake, not because it's a better RPG - technically Grimoire is - but because of the curve I had with it. I was expecting to hate it, because Fluent liked it, and Fluent had shit taste at the time, but here I am ~1k hours later, and I don't regret a single second. And I guess that's how we rate RPGs now: how many seconds do you regret spending on them.

That jibes with the classic Codexian sentiment: "I spent 300 hours playing a game and it was terrible!"

 

[Butter]

The otter cries out as it eats you.

 

[Pink Eye]

The stand outs for me are:
1) Knights of the Chalice 2 - reinvigorated my love for Turn Based Tactics.
2) Age of Decadence - reignited my passion for Role Playing Games.
My only regret was that I didn't play Age of Decadence earlier.

 

[Atchodas]

That jibes with the classic Codexian sentiment: "I spent 300 hours playing a game and it was terrible!"

Cant know how truly shit game is without putting 1337 hours into it.

 

[Basshead]

Underrail
Disco Elysium
Kingdom Come
Pathfinder kingmaker
Wasteland 2

Underrail really perfects the fallout like turn based combat for me with tons of build varieties and great mechanics. I do like the world, lore and characters, especially when you get deeper into the game. The central conflict is a good one, although I do feel that the game is lacking in the story department as a whole, especially compared to how memorable some of the factions, characters and locations were in fallout.

Disco Elysium is basically the opposite. No combat to speak of but the characters, world, dialogue and thought system are very original and extremely well done. Sure it’s a lot like an adventure game, but the way you’re able to grow and sculpt your character as the story unfolds is really unparalleled in the medium.

Kingdom Come:Deliverance is a game I had always wanted: a realistic medieval rpg with no fantasy elements whatsoever. History is something that has always fascinated me and there is no end to the potential for interesting stories and settings whilst maintaining historical accuracy. This game demonstrates that the medieval period doesn’t need dragons or magic to make it interesting. Not with the war, politics, plague, famine and religious conflicts that took place. The simulation elements and difficulty at first really serves to immerse the player and make them feel like an ordinary commoner without being an annoyance. This does wane as you get more powerful, and some bugs and systems aren’t perfect, but I really admire the effort. Much like the original mafia, the sim elements make the game.

I enjoyed wasteland 2 even in spite of many of its problems, and I think it’s world and characters are more interesting and fleshed out than the sequel. There’s a lot of good content and many different ways to approach and solve problems. A solid new crpg, something that is rather rare and difficult to accomplish.

Pathfinder Kingmaker is a game I haven’t finished, however I think more than any other game has managed to capture alot of the feel of the original Baldurs Gate, a game that really got me into RPGs upon its release. Along with its contemporaries, I have very fond memories playing it as an adolescent. I feel that Pathfinder accomplishes what pillars set out to do but failed; in creating a worthy modern new game in the classic style. The world, combat and characters are interesting and well done, even though artistically and aesthetically it is inferior to the originals.

 

[Shaki]

Troubleshooter, Battle Brothers and Kenshi, in this order, are imho the 3 overall best games made in the last decade or so. They loosely fit into the RPG category though.

Underrail is undeniably the greatest "traditional" RPG of the renaissance age. Followed probably by Shadowrun: Dragonfall and AoD.

I only could vote for 5, so I threw AoD out, since I know enough of people here simp for it anyway, so it will be close to the top regardless of my vote.

 

[Beans00]

Just going with games I've played since I got back into games in late 2019/early 2020

from 2013 onward
Rpgs I enjoyed alot:
Fallout 1.5- Mod for fallout 2 but it was awesome
Fallout nevada- Mod for fallout 2 but it was awesome
Atom- Had alot of fun, some little problems but basically russian fallout with apparently bad jokes that went over my head.
Dungeon rats- Enjoyed this one alot
Dragonfall- IMO improved on alot of the problems in returns.
Dead state- although it did drag on a bit towards the end, I ended up just rushing through the last 20 days to finish it.

Enjoyed but flawed
Wasteland 2- I liked it but it had a lack of atmosphere. Also I found there was a 10 hour segment in the middle of the game before you went to LA that completely sucked.
AOD- no need to go into it again but I wasn't a fan of the CYOA railroading. Also the end of the game after the 3rd city sort of fell off. Still liked it though.
SR Returns- I liked it but it felt like more of an adventure game. Good atmosphere and graphics. Some fun fights.

Sort of enjoyed, mediocre.
Tyranny- I liked the 1st act and the 2nd to an extent. The writing was pretty cringe but I liked the choices. I also liked the black company/roman vibes. The last act sucked ass though. Also the encounter design throughout was pretty terrible.

Bad games
Outer worlds- Not much to say that hasn't been said.
Siege of dragonspear- Absolute dogshit writing, dogshit encounter design, dogshit story. Thankfully I beat it in like 8 or 9 hours since it was easy as shit and I didn't need to grind anything.


Games I own but need to play: Underrail, SRHK, divinity os 1-2. POE 1-2, DXD, TTON, Disco elysium, wl3

I've also replayed some games, and played some older games for the first time which I'll include as well if anyone cares. Including the EE'S.

Replayed/played and either held up or was better then I remembered it-
New vegas was as good as I remember it being
Gothic 1- Played for the first time and liked it alot
Deus ex 1- Was as great as I remember it being
Planescape torment- I beat this game when I was like 12 back in 03-04. I did enjoy it but at that age I probably didn't appreciate it fully. The combat sucked but the story/atmosphere/writing/voice acting are all top notch. Thankfully the EE changed very little.
Kotor 1- I hated this game as a teenager but found it ok minus a few boring areas(including dantooine and star forge which sucked).

Replayed/played for the first time and didn't hold up.
Two worlds 1- sucked ass but the voice acting was hilarious
Oblivion- Didn't enjoy it but it served its purpose as a braindead game in between 2 long turn based games. I also abused the level scaling and beat the game as a level 3.
Icewind dale(ee)- I never beat it, or even got past the vale of shadows as a kid. I was bored as shit. Some of the dungeons were pretty fun like the dragons eye and severed hand. Some of them(especially in the expansions) were ultra tedious.

Baldurs gate 1-2(ee although I ignored 90% of ee content)- This was the biggest surprise for me. I haven't played these games since like 2002 maybe, I think i beat the 1st a few times as a kid, the 2nd only once but I fucked around in the early game before the pirate town alot before quitting various playthroughs.
I feel like baldurs gate fans are constantly in maximum cope mode. Both games are literally 90% trash mobs. Combat was much more tedious then I remember it being. Also both games only features a few really difficult fights throughout. Everything else felt like filler.

BG1-2 were never fallout or arcanum tier for me but I did like them back in the day. I can safely say this is the last time I'll ever replay them though.


Also games I wanted to play but my PC is too shit to run:
KCD, Elex.


So to answer OP:
Best: Atom rpg


Just my opinion

 

[Funposter]

Kingmaker and Kingdom Come are the standouts and I'd label them as modern classics. I couldn't put Divinity OS 2 down on my initial playthrough, but subsequent attempts to replay highlighted a lot of the mechanical issues and made me enjoy it less than even the first game. ELEX is Gothic 2 with guns but worse. Age of Decadence isn't my favourite game ever but it was a really memorable experience. Haven't got around to Underrail or ATOM yet, don't really care about the others. Not much of a renaissance.

 

[DeltaForceOperator]

Atom rpg

Mehh, Atom RPG is not so good. The soviet world after apocalypse is cool setting. But, people looks weird and it lags. Maybe thats just my computer, but I find classic Falout smooth.

 

[NJClaw]

Joined:
Feb 28, 2011

More than 10 years on this forum and still making anonymous polls, dude what the fuck

 

[Lady Error]

Codex "RPG of the Year" Witcher 3 not even on the list - and pretty much nobody cares.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Codex "RPG of the Year" Witcher 3 not even on the list - and pretty much nobody cares.

Can't renaissance with AAA

 

[Lady Error]

Grimoire, Underrail, Shadowrun Dragonfall, Divinity Original Sin and Deadfire (I won it in a Codex contest and enjoyed it).