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Which RPGs surprised you that they're actually great?
- Thread starter Shape
- Start date
You need DOSBox to run it.
From DOSBox use INSTALL.EXE to install it, and LEGACY.BAT to play it.
Joevonzombie
Literate
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2016
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- 45
Thank you so much!
toro
Arcane
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- Apr 14, 2009
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Yet you are still here.
bminorkey
Guest
My first western CRPG (before I knew that was a genre) was Baldur's Gate II and I was really amazed at the fact I could have so much freedom in choosing what my character says and does. I thought it was going to be some kind of fantasy action game. So that's my #1 surprise. I played it when I was like 13 or 14.
A few years later my next RPG was NWN2 (I was 16). Maybe it's not great to someone who's played a lot of RPGs, but it was just my second RPG, and at the time I was really amazed at how there was another game that let me pick my dialogue options and do quests like BGI/II (I still didn't know this was a genre). I also found the fortress management thing really innovative and enjoyed it a lot, and the voiced companions were very fun to hang out with. I loved the fact that they could banter with each other at the tavern.
Some other RPGs I discovered by mistake: KOTOR2, VtmB, Risen. Risen might be the one that surprised me the most out of the bunch since I haven't heard of it anywhere before and was surprised at how good it is.
A few years later my next RPG was NWN2 (I was 16). Maybe it's not great to someone who's played a lot of RPGs, but it was just my second RPG, and at the time I was really amazed at how there was another game that let me pick my dialogue options and do quests like BGI/II (I still didn't know this was a genre). I also found the fortress management thing really innovative and enjoyed it a lot, and the voiced companions were very fun to hang out with. I loved the fact that they could banter with each other at the tavern.
Some other RPGs I discovered by mistake: KOTOR2, VtmB, Risen. Risen might be the one that surprised me the most out of the bunch since I haven't heard of it anywhere before and was surprised at how good it is.
Fowyr
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2009
- Messages
- 7,671
Just run it! It uses a lot of low memory, so just use DOSBox and check that you have around 580-610 Kb of conventional memory free. But really it should work fine.
Gothic 1 & 2 for sure. Ignored them for years after being put off by Gothic 3.
Wow was I wrong.
Wow was I wrong.
rado907
Savant
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2015
- Messages
- 249
Idk if it counts as an RPG, but Silver from around 2000 really did it for me. Great game.
Divine Divinity 1 was also surprisingly good.
Gothic 2&3. (Never got into Gothic 1.)
I was surprised by how good The Witcher 2 was. (And I'm not saying it's the greatest game of all time, just saying it's a solid game.)
ToEE - thought it was excellent even though I never managed to finish Arcanum.
Divine Divinity 1 was also surprisingly good.
Gothic 2&3. (Never got into Gothic 1.)
I was surprised by how good The Witcher 2 was. (And I'm not saying it's the greatest game of all time, just saying it's a solid game.)
ToEE - thought it was excellent even though I never managed to finish Arcanum.
Jason Liang
Arcane
What a strange question.
I don't think you ever expect greatness, so no matter how hyped up a game is, if it's truly great, it will surprise you.
Maybe this is why I'm so harsh on Fallout/ Fallout 2. Because not only were the games so hyped up for me (I was in high school/ college when the games came out, so no time for games then), but I loved the concept of an RPG in a post nuclear apocalyptic setting as I think only someone who spent at least a part of their early childhood during the Cold War era could. And also I was expecting something as awesome as Freeway Warrior. So I was actually really disappointed by Fallout and Fallout 2. Punching ants in the temple, running around the village doing stupid fedex quests, then you finally get out of there and look! Another town with even more stupid fedex quests. And Fallout 1 was even more disappointing. At least Fallout 2 had New Reno, you could be a gangster or a slaver. I also knew beforehand that Fallout 2 was a little fail on the post-apocalyptic setting, so I had really high expectations for Fallout 1 but it wasn't much better at all.
And the worst part of the Fallouts is: no vehicular combat! Your car is just a teleport device. How can you do a post-apocalyptic setting without implementing real vehicles or vehicular combat?
I also, I think, played the Fallouts in the wrong order, since I'd already played Temple of Elemental Evil and Arcanum before I played the Fallouts. The Troika games do sandbox much better than the Black Isle games. So when I played the Fallouts, in the back of my head I was always thinking, why waste your time on this retarded shit when you could be playing ToEE?
But most of the Great RPGs did surprise me. Baldur's Gate 2, ToEE, Star Control 2, Sengoku Rance and Darklands off the top of my head.
I don't think you ever expect greatness, so no matter how hyped up a game is, if it's truly great, it will surprise you.
Maybe this is why I'm so harsh on Fallout/ Fallout 2. Because not only were the games so hyped up for me (I was in high school/ college when the games came out, so no time for games then), but I loved the concept of an RPG in a post nuclear apocalyptic setting as I think only someone who spent at least a part of their early childhood during the Cold War era could. And also I was expecting something as awesome as Freeway Warrior. So I was actually really disappointed by Fallout and Fallout 2. Punching ants in the temple, running around the village doing stupid fedex quests, then you finally get out of there and look! Another town with even more stupid fedex quests. And Fallout 1 was even more disappointing. At least Fallout 2 had New Reno, you could be a gangster or a slaver. I also knew beforehand that Fallout 2 was a little fail on the post-apocalyptic setting, so I had really high expectations for Fallout 1 but it wasn't much better at all.
And the worst part of the Fallouts is: no vehicular combat! Your car is just a teleport device. How can you do a post-apocalyptic setting without implementing real vehicles or vehicular combat?
I also, I think, played the Fallouts in the wrong order, since I'd already played Temple of Elemental Evil and Arcanum before I played the Fallouts. The Troika games do sandbox much better than the Black Isle games. So when I played the Fallouts, in the back of my head I was always thinking, why waste your time on this retarded shit when you could be playing ToEE?
But most of the Great RPGs did surprise me. Baldur's Gate 2, ToEE, Star Control 2, Sengoku Rance and Darklands off the top of my head.
Deleted Member 16721
Guest
For me, it's got to be Diablo III.
I was a D3 "hater" for awhile (not really, but a bit). Basically, I saw the cartoon-ish, colorful graphics style and being a big Diablo fan (and to an extent Diablo 2), I thought it didn't look right for a Diablo game. Well, by chance my old man and I started playing it in local co-op on the Xbox 360, and whoa. The game is crazy. It's certainly a Diablo game, even though at times you feel like you're playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on steroids. But, there's lots of loot, more story than usual and all the usual Diablo-style things you'd expect, except they ratchet it up to the maximum degree and polish it to an even higher degree.
The thing that surprised me most was the combat and character development. Holy hell, combat is incredibly satisfying and equal part cerebral, strategic and fast action. You have to develop your character well with the synergies and attributes you want, but you also have to execute under pressure and manage your character in combat well. It almost has the feel of a twin-stick shooter at times, which is really odd, and ramps up the speed and frantic action, but somehow it just works *really* well. I think it's my favorite 3rd-person action combat ever.
Other things of note is how much they squeezed out of the X360. My god, I have no idea how they got this thing running as smoothly as they did with all the particle effects, etc. It's buttery smooth and again polished extremely well. There are downsides, such as the console UI being bad in some ways (what do you expect, I guess), but overall it's really impressive that they got it working as well as they did on the 360. I mean, the game looks really nice to boot (it has nothing on the PC version, obviously, but it's very impressive for the console).
I'd say if there are any D3 haters like I was reading this, stop what you're doing and check it out. At least if you're a previous fan of D1 or D2, it's definitely worth checking out. Or, if you want a looting/character development dream with the combination of fast-paced yet thoughtful combat, you should play it ASAP. Big surprise for me.
I was a D3 "hater" for awhile (not really, but a bit). Basically, I saw the cartoon-ish, colorful graphics style and being a big Diablo fan (and to an extent Diablo 2), I thought it didn't look right for a Diablo game. Well, by chance my old man and I started playing it in local co-op on the Xbox 360, and whoa. The game is crazy. It's certainly a Diablo game, even though at times you feel like you're playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on steroids. But, there's lots of loot, more story than usual and all the usual Diablo-style things you'd expect, except they ratchet it up to the maximum degree and polish it to an even higher degree.
The thing that surprised me most was the combat and character development. Holy hell, combat is incredibly satisfying and equal part cerebral, strategic and fast action. You have to develop your character well with the synergies and attributes you want, but you also have to execute under pressure and manage your character in combat well. It almost has the feel of a twin-stick shooter at times, which is really odd, and ramps up the speed and frantic action, but somehow it just works *really* well. I think it's my favorite 3rd-person action combat ever.
Other things of note is how much they squeezed out of the X360. My god, I have no idea how they got this thing running as smoothly as they did with all the particle effects, etc. It's buttery smooth and again polished extremely well. There are downsides, such as the console UI being bad in some ways (what do you expect, I guess), but overall it's really impressive that they got it working as well as they did on the 360. I mean, the game looks really nice to boot (it has nothing on the PC version, obviously, but it's very impressive for the console).
I'd say if there are any D3 haters like I was reading this, stop what you're doing and check it out. At least if you're a previous fan of D1 or D2, it's definitely worth checking out. Or, if you want a looting/character development dream with the combination of fast-paced yet thoughtful combat, you should play it ASAP. Big surprise for me.
gotta admire fluent for staying consistent to his well-earned tag
Deleted Member 16721
Guest
D3 isn't my number 1 answer to this question, just a recent example. I have to admit that it impressed me when I wasn't expecting much at all. For what it does (loot/character development/combat), it's fun.
duanth123
Arcane
So there's an even worse game you shamelessly like.
I'm this close |--| to disliking one of your youtube vids.
Gentle Player
Arcane
I'll admit that my expectations were low, but I was pleasantly surprised by NWN SoU and HotU.
Xathrodox86
Arbiter
Gotta go with Wizardry 8. I wasn't expecting much (especially after an entire day of trying to make this shit work) and got a really nice game instead.
MWaser
Arbiter
Positively surprised by Dark Souls. Really expected not to like it at all.
By Fallout: New Vegas. I had little to no expectations after the garbage Fallout 3 brought.
By Mask of the Betrayer for NWN2. Didn't think there was any hope left for that game after playing the original campaign.
Probably some others but can't think of anything else atm.
By Fallout: New Vegas. I had little to no expectations after the garbage Fallout 3 brought.
By Mask of the Betrayer for NWN2. Didn't think there was any hope left for that game after playing the original campaign.
Probably some others but can't think of anything else atm.
ilitarist
Learned
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2016
- Messages
- 857
Was surprised by Fallout New Vegas too. In the beginning it feels like a step back from Fallout 3. Player motivation is very questionable, exploration is severely limited (you probably don't meet anything bigger than 1 room cave/hut till you pass Nipton apart from almost necessary Primm hotel), some early quests are lame (again, Primm is very poorly explained and has lots of problems). All the reactivity and world cohesion is not visible till you get to Vegas itself. I expected limited linear Fallout 3 with a story that isn't shit and with gameplay being shit instead. I also feared that Vegas would be too much of a New Reno and I played this location to death. Interesting perks helped with gameplay, inferior level design and non-explorable world turned out to be tolerable thanks to engaging story. And Vegas turned out to be different from Reno even though it's less interesting.
But it really become great only with DLCs, and those had really surprised me. To be honest, I've dropped FNV in a middle of a playthrough for the first time and premise of Dead Money was interesting enough to lure me back. Honest Hearts was the only one that didn't feel like a truly great experience to me.
But it really become great only with DLCs, and those had really surprised me. To be honest, I've dropped FNV in a middle of a playthrough for the first time and premise of Dead Money was interesting enough to lure me back. Honest Hearts was the only one that didn't feel like a truly great experience to me.
Game of Thrones RPG. Looks like just more Spiders' low budget shovelware and has a lot of shit, like small areas,clunky combat,reused assets..but characterization was surprisingly strong and Mors is a really cool character. The twist at the end,while expected was still powerful due to the well fleshed out main characters making it surprisingly intense and emotional when the decision has to be made.
This was a game I started for the lulz(it was in some bundle)but enjoyed my time with, much more than I expected. I wouldn't call it 'great' so maybe it's not in the right thread for that, but as a game that was more than the sum of its parts,I enjoyed it.
This was a game I started for the lulz(it was in some bundle)but enjoyed my time with, much more than I expected. I wouldn't call it 'great' so maybe it's not in the right thread for that, but as a game that was more than the sum of its parts,I enjoyed it.
That doesn't mean I hate them all, dummy. It means I have no surprises. I can tell the bad ones a mile off and the rare occasional gems are well documented. You would have to be pretty negative to play something like DoS and expect a bad game and be pleasantly surprised. But getting something like PoE and being disappointed is a lot more common.
in honour of Mors Westford.
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2015
- Messages
- 5,110
So you are saying that you could tell that PoE was going to be what it is right from the start of the Kickstarter? That's pretty clairvoyant since no KS crpg of that scale had come out back then.
Personally I was only mildly disappointed by PoE, I bought into hype and expected a great game, but got only a decent-good instead.
hello friend
Arcane
You can often get a pretty good feel for how a game will turn out by seeing how the devs talk about the game and what they do, taken together with what they have done in the past.
I fully expected PoE to be terrible early on. I don't remember what changed my mind, as I was cautiously optimistic at first, but change my mind did.
Full disclosure: I was once seriously asked if I am psychic.
Fuller disclosure: She was high.
I fully expected PoE to be terrible early on. I don't remember what changed my mind, as I was cautiously optimistic at first, but change my mind did.
Full disclosure: I was once seriously asked if I am psychic.
Fuller disclosure: She was high.
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