Prosper I love archery in RPGs, here's my top 10 (sort of).

[Tramboi]

You might be confusing things Wulfric. Legend of Sherwood is a Commandos-style game from 2002.

Yep, he's talking about "The adventures of Robin Hood" (which used the same engine than a game in Rome whose name I don't remember).

 

[Nathair]

I actually have a soft spot for going nearly all archery based in NWN2. Load up on various spells/summons to slow people down and it can work quite nicely. Arcane Archer, Druid (with zen archery), a pure mage and some sort of eldrich knight/bladesinger loaded up with self protection spells as a sort of meat shield. All elves of course, because well..... Have a suspicion that warlocks might do the same job better though - being able to attack a bunch of people and attach slow/blind/whatever to every single attack is a bit much.

Wouldn't call it especially interesting (ultimately I didn't think the combat was) but you really can get archery up to impressively silly levels in Blackguards. Important at times too I suppose. Different again but archery heavy/distortion magic can be a lot of fun in kings bounty.

 

[Aothan]

At least one DnD CRPG where Rangers have some advantage...

Rangers had 'some' advantage but it was mostly consistent role play elements alongside comparable strengths with less consistent character designs. If you were playing on role play orientated servers then chances are you could balance out early differences in prowess with judicious selections of Favoured Enemies, starting with choices between either Undead or Vermin, transitioning into Giants, then following with Aberrations (Beholders..) and Dragons. Sometimes Orcs would be more useful as an early or mid-level range choice but overall the starting choices of Undead and Vermin were usually sound and warranted.

in late game as long as the server allowed for it you could make full use of Animal Empathy and various crafted traps to capture or slow numbers of approaching enemies and also try and stack Called Shot (leg) to further minimise movement speed.

having said all that, yeah it definitely was not the powerhouse type of figure that many other characters, archers or otherwise, could be, but it was fun making your own way in the higher level areas by yourself and venturing around with your animal companion and an empathised high-level creature such as a dire bear. I typically always played 'pure' characters so either Druids, Rangers or Paladins. Interestingly enough Paladins could make versatile characters utilising both dexterity and charisma for melee and archery skills, as with using heightened charisma bonuses (I forget the term) to augment defence at the right times.

 

[Azrael the cat]

8) Deus Ex -- When I get to choose between a GEP gun and mini xbow, I choose the latter. Tranquilizing "terrists" for non-lethal silent takedowns is very satisfying and faciliates the stealth approach for which Deus Ex is famous.

I always make sure I have room for one heavy weapon in my inventory, even though I usually only have a single point in heavy weapons at most. Because while I completely agree on the awesomeness of the tranquiliser darts (probably the most overpowered item in the game - provides a no-explode means of dropping MiBs, one-shot-KOs most enemies all the way through the game, slow projectile actually helps when leaning to shoot someone around the corner and getting into hiding before they can react)...


...one of the beautiful things about Deus Ex is that it's just as much fun when you decide that you really want to use the GEP gun in scenarios where the mini-crossbow is a far more proportionate response

 

[DraQ]

Unless you intend to not use GEP at all it's a much better pick than either SR or MXB, because the two other weapons are common and can be obtained easily even before you enter the statue.

 

[Bliblablubb]

Ironically it was Morrowind's fault that I considered archery my least favorite combat build. Backpedalling like a retard while shooting cottonballs at the enemy was as unfun as it could get. Okay magic was even worse. Then I tried it in LOLblivion and it was fun until the dreaded level scalling (pretty much after gaining 3 levels) started trolling me. The system didn't support switching to melee when the enemy was close and archery improved too slow.
Then Skyrim arrived. I didn't even bother with archery this time, until I had finished it at least seven times and wanted to try something different. To my big surprise Bethesda had actually learned from the game's predecessors! Archery was fun, leveled pretty quick and hitting something from very far away was very rewarding. IF the enemy didn't dodge your arrow while you were behind him, half a mile away AND hidden. Oh well, maybe in the next TES.

That's how I regard archery now: the small hope that Bethesda is capable of learning from mistakes.

 

[DraQ]

Ironically it was Morrowind's fault that I considered archery my least favorite combat build. Backpedalling like a retard while shooting cottonballs at the enemy was as unfun as it could get. Okay magic was even worse.