My favorite games are RPGs with small party sizes and turn based combat. That means Fallout 1/2, Underrail and AoD are my all-time tops. I am looking for something I haven't played with the following very particular features:
- An RPG, not one of the trillion RPG recommendations on Steam that turns about to be yet another Strategy game.
- True turn based combat, not RTwP. It was hard to even type it, so much do I hate the latter. Not a huge fan of "simultaneous" TB engines such as Balrum either. There are a few full-party exceptions I enjoyed such as ToEE but yeah.
- Very small party size or else party members controlled by AI, scripted or otherwise. Ideally only a single character
- Isometric or top-down, ideally. I enjoyed the MM and Wizardry series but very few do that type well. Excepting Cleve, ofc
- Good combat, and lots of it. I have hundreds of hours into Underrail. Blah blah blah Planescape Torment best game evar blah. No, no it isn't. Shit combat = shit game.
Have I played them all, all 5 or 6 of them? Seems this type of game is extremely rare. Numenera was underwhelming, although the setting was fantastic.
I'm assuming you played Arcanum (in TB mode, which has just as bad combat as FO 1 and 2) so that leaves the following-
- F0 1.5 - very good, high production value. Consider it the real but more indie FO3
- WL2 DC, 4 party character creation, can have 2 recruited companions. Best party based crpg since ToEE. Hands down, only pederasts would not see it this way.
- Expedition Vikings - it is a good crpg with some strategy elements. But scratches the itch. The combat is decent, chardev is decent+, it is worth the money and playing
- RoE BoD remake with all the DLC - awesome. Only for people with sophisticated crpg tastes. Not for sophomores or usual fake rpg loving philistines. Also Star Trail is in EA.
- MMX if you haven't played that (you mentioned MM and Wiz but figured I'd throw it out there).
- The Shadowrun games are okay. I really enjoyed the mmo version called Boston Lockdown - I think it has better combat and better chardev and better itemization.
- Blackguards 1 is a great crpg but isn't 100% traditional. It isn't a strategy game either. It has town maps like Wiz&Warriors instead of real towns. Blackguards 2 is a dumbed down version for idiots who whined about the first one being to much game for them to handle and developers were dumb enough to listen to them. It has great combat and great chardev and your small party is all recruited.
- Dungeon Rats since you didn't list it
- T:ToN - fits you like a glove. I am with you with everything you said for the most part, and I I am the one who started the shit combat = shit game. That is me and has always been me. I dislike PST as a game because of the combat and other shitty game features of the IE engine, but TToN is a great crpg with better than average TB combat and chardev and even itemization. You are dumb if you don't give it a try. Don't listen to the real rpg haters on this site. They like children's games more than real rpgs or even rpg lite games. Real children games like pokeman and shit. They also love Asian rpg-lite games more than anything else besides Asian children games. Don't listen to these philistines.
- Knights of the Chalice - people compare it to ToEE because they are dumb. It is like more like a Spiderweb game with better combat. It is chargen lite and chardev lite, but is based on D&D 3.5 OGL. Well worth the money.
- I'm guessing you know about the Avernum remakes and the new series from Spiderweb, Avadon. The Avadon games are similar to the games you liked but in a liter way. I liked the first but didn't care for the second and the third was okay.
Great games that are not tier ones or perfect fits-
-Sword & Sorcery - FP Blobber in the veins of later Wizs and earlier MMs. TB combat, unlike the later MMs
-Waste Walkers - A good crpg with survival elements in a PA setting. Create one recruit the rest. Weirdish chardev and the game goes for a combat system making combat you are supposed to want to avoid. Rpgmaker so people hate it for that
-Last Dream - Surprisingly awesome cprg made with rpgmaker. It is good and worth the almost nothing it costs.
-Lords of Xiluma - Just look at the steam page. Non-traditional crpg with all the traditional elements. Good game, even better with mods that change the combat system in my opinion.
-Antharion - pure traditional crpg of yore. Good. Worth the few bucks it costs. If it came out on the Amiga when Magic Candle did it would have been OMG THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER. Now, no one even looks at it.
-Heroes of Steel - on tracks linear but for some reason it keeps you wanting to play. I think it is because it has a challenge and most rpgs don't.
RtwP
I fucking hate it. Hating it has been my thing since the beginning. But there is one good RTwP game ever made and no one will play it even though they love RTwP. Probably because the combat isn't click and watch monkey shit for retards and requires thinking. This game is a linear srpg on reels with no chargen all premade characters like a jrpg but has decent chargen and itemization. This game is Aarklash Legacy. It is and will probably always be the only good RTwP game ever made with good combat.
That's all I can think of. I'm sure I left some out.
