Your recommended CRPGs from the last decade?

[J_C]

Witcher 3.

 

[Curratum]

Avernum: Escape from the Pit (the re-re-release, I suppose?)
Grimrock 1/2
Witcher 3
Salt and Sanctuary
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Dark Souls Remastered

 

[Eastwood]

Is PREY a CRPG?

Not sure if I would call it an RPG. The character building is kind of limited compared to its spiritual predecessor System Shock 2.
It's a very fun game nonetheless. Too bad it was a flop.

 

[JarlFrank]

Is PREY a CRPG?

Not sure if I would call it an RPG. The character building is kind of limited compared to its spiritual predecessor System Shock 2.
It's a very fun game nonetheless. Too bad it was a flop.

Both Prey and Dishonored 2 are the greatest masterpieces of level design released in the last decade. Doesn't matter how RPG or not they are, they're absolute must-plays.

 

[Cat Dude]

Trails of Cold Steel 3

I had a blast with this game. Really recommend this one to any open minded and non elitist over 40 years old codexer who never take video game seriously.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

'Tis a short list:

Witcher 3
Dark Souls 1 (2 and 3 are way worse)
ELEX
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (see my modding advice thread)
Zelda: Breath of the Wild (on an emulator) - it's an action-adventure game but really, it's like a thousand times better Skyrim with shades of Gothic, etc
Disco Elysium

Whatever you do, stay away from "Codex recommended" iso-RPGs from last decade. This sub-genre has been dying a slow and painful death since mid 2000s, and codexers are so desperate for a good iso game, they will shill any kind of crap in desperation, but as you saw with PoE, these modern iso RPGs are utter shit, and the other ones (Kingmaker, Divinity:OSs, Wasteland 2, etc) are even worse. Underrail and AoD can be played once for the novelty, but they are completely overhyped here as well.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Yeah, if you want to avoid overhyped games Witcher 3, Dark Souls, Zelda and Disco Elysium are absolute must plays. This is the shit that every serious anti-hyper keeps under his pillow

 

[MajorMace]

I don't recommend a single one of them. That's how refined my tastes are, punk.
M&MX : Legacy is cool though.
And Serpent in the Staglands.
And The Witcher 3.
And the Dark Souls series obviously.
How could I not mention the excellent Siege of Dragonspear.
I might have not been serious with this last proposition.

Have a nice day of summer, friendly lurker.

Tyranny - combat is broken, but the setting and style is great

Yeah but since combat is 95% of the game, you might as well just read the black company and forget about this game.

 

[fantadomat]

Goddamn welcome back Blackadder you used to be one of my favorite posters on here.

Try:

ATOM RPG, decent Fallout clone made by Russkis set in the post-apoc Soviet Union.

Underrail, post-apoc Fallout-inspired RPG set entirely underground. Has some absolute "fuck you" moments (the insect hives in the expansion) but it's a solid game from start to finish (ok not really finish, nobody likes the final area, but other than that it's good).

Disco Elysium is an RPG without combat whatsoever. Ignore Torment: Tides of Numenera, this is the real spiritual successor to PST. You play an alcoholic burnout cop who's gotta solve a case in the city's most run-down district to prove that he still has it in him. Like PST, its structure is linear but you get a lot of choices in how to express your character. Great game.

ELEX! You liked previous Piranha Bytes games so you will also like ELEX! It's their best game since Gothic 2.

Try Titan Outpost for another combat-less RPG. It's made by our very own Codexer MF and is set on Titan in a hard sci-fi setting based on scientifically plausible scenarios. The focus is on basebuilding and exploring the moon, and there will also be intrigue. Good game.

The recently released Knights of the Chalice 2 is the most difficult combatfag RPG ever made. I don't think it's out for sale yet though, it's only been released to Kickstarter backers for now. It's only a matter of months though.

Shadowrun Hong kong and dragonfall
expedition games.....expedition vikings and expedition conquistador
The first Risen game is great
Drakensang:River of time really good rtwp set in the dark eye world
Pathfinder:Kingmaker
Kingdomcome Deliverance
Witcher 3
nu prey
DeusEx HR is not bad
Serpent in the Staglands
Dex
the avernum remake of a remake is not bad if you like vogel's games
The Quest is really good
Insomnia the ARK is janky but interesting
Spellforce 3 is amazing,one of the best written games in the decade

Demonicon.....it is acquired taste,the setting is very interesting,it is an action rpg set in the dark eye world
I personally really like Spider's games like Technomancer and Greedfall,you could check them out.
Dishonoured are pretty good stealth games similar to thief ones.
The Dwarves is not a bad game
The Dwarf run is another decent game

There are a few more good ones but too lazy to remember which one was from this decade. Also would recommend MassEffect andromeda if you can find a release version,it is the most hilarious garbage of game i have seen in this decade . Now i must go,my face is tired...

 

[fantadomat]

Blackadder is really lucky bastard,he gets to play all the good shit for a first time,while i can't find a good game that i haven't replayed three times by now

Also were you in some african prison or what? 10 years is a fuck ton of time to just fuck off to somewhere.

 

[azimovhaas8 (Moth)]

From games i completed:
Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 2 (both games are worth it and provide good mechanical challenge with interesting environmental storytelling without being too hard)
Risen 1 (best post-Gothic Piranha Bytes game in my opinion; gets slightly worse only from medium-to late part of lenght)
Avernum remakes from same studio (exploration and related mechanics are strongest part of series)
Prey: Mooncrash (and Prey to a lesser extent)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (suprisingly immersive A-RPG)
ELEX (personally i love this game, but character progression is not strongest part of ELEX)

From games i want to complete at some point:
Grimoire

From related games i also like OpenXCOM (mostly for total conversion modifications), while it is not RPG.

 

[Humanophage]

Tried and really liked:
Underrail
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
ATOM RPG
Thea - more of a strategy
Thea 2 - more of a strategy
Risen - released in October 2009

Tried and mostly liked:
Age of Decadence - somewhere between this and really liked
Battle Brothers
Lords of Xulima
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Star Traders
Drox Operative - fun mix between Space Rangers and Diablo
X-Com: Long War - more of a strategy; cheatengine required to boost animation speed
Divinity: Ego Draconis - released in November 2009
Path of Exile - tried it a while ago, interesting skill system, probably different by now
Darkest Dungeon - cheatengine required
TOME - didn't like it at first
Caves of Qud

Tried and ambivalent:
Templar Battleforce - opponent turns take forever, and you are supposed to advance slowly so this disadvantage multiplies; not even cheatengine helps
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - nice plot, but pretty railroaded and the character system is woefully primitive
Pillars of Eternity 2 - fights are trivial, but might give it another run because it's gorgeous and I only finished about 40%
Expeditions: Viking - character system is primitive
Six Ages - amazing promise on par with KoDP, but too small and short, so you feel teased
Voidspire Tactics - fun while it lasts and I even finished it, but forgettable
Grim Dawn - a more simplistic version of PoE
NEO Scavenger - might give it another run, don't remember what my issue with it was

Tried and didn't want to continue:
Blackguards - a real shame because it's interesting and inventive, but turns take forever without cheatengine and you get fights with increasingly many opponents, so it spirals out of control. Are you supposed to be doing something else while playing?
Hard West - same as Blackguards, another seductive game that forces long enemy turns with animation, but this one can't even be fixed by cheatengine because it has an RT component
Invisible, Inc. - just pretty easy and boring, feels like a mobile game
Elminage: Gothic - wat (sorry aweigh)
Divinity: Original Sin - tried it a few years before D:OS2, and the writing was too unbearable while the combat seemed to be about juggling the elements
Legend of Grimrock - it's more of a puzzle game
Dungeons of Dredmor - pretty primitive compared to other roguelikes
Bastion - really boring gameplay, nothing good except the narrator shtick

Haven't tried but probably will:
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Witcher 3
ELEX
Disco Elysium
Alpha Protocol
Expeditions: Conquistador
Dungeon Rats
Fallout 1.5
Dragon Age: Origins - released in November 2009
Serpent in the Staglands - tried it, but it was extremely buggy
Legends of Eisenwald - kept crashing
Fallout: New Vegas

Haven't tried but probably won't:
Grimoire
Dex
Might and Magic X
Enderal
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dragon's Dogma
Dark Souls 1
Outward
Sunless Sea
Sunless Skies
Wasteland 2

Likely won't try:
Tyranny
Pillars of Eternity 1
Tides of Numenera
Kenshi - heard it's very grindy and consumes all your time
Witcher 2
Shadowrun, other than Dragonfall
Realms of Arkania HD
Banner Saga - played it a bit a while ago, same problems as Dragonfall

A recurring theme is that TB has made a return and the games are often good in the abstract, so I want to try them. However, they have obnoxious unskippable 3D animation that multiplies the original issue with TB games that process many units.

 

[toro]

There are only 3 proper CRPGs that will be remembered as classics from the 10s.

1. Underrail
2. Pathfinder Kingmaker
3. Fallout : New Vegas (2010)

Everything else is either subpar compared to those titles, or not an actual CRPG.

Fixed.

 

[buffalo bill]

Infra Arcana

 

[Cat Dude]

Tried and really liked:
Underrail
Pathfinder: Kingmaker
ATOM RPG
Thea - more of a strategy
Thea 2 - more of a strategy
Risen - released in October 2009

Tried and mostly liked:
Age of Decadence - somewhere between this and really liked
Battle Brothers
Lords of Xulima
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Star Traders
Drox Operative - fun mix between Space Rangers and Diablo
X-Com: Long War - more of a strategy; cheatengine required
Divinity: Ego Draconis - released in November 2009
Path of Exile - tried it a while ago, interesting skill system
Darkest Dungeon - cheatengine required
TOME - didn't like it at first
Caves of Qud

Tried and ambivalent:
Templar Battleforce - opponent turns take forever, and you are supposed to advance slowly so this disadvantage multiplies; not even cheatengine helps
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - nice plot, but pretty railroaded and the character system is woefully primitive
Pillars of Eternity 2 - fights are trivial, but might give it another run because it's amazingly gorgeous
Expeditions: Viking - character system is primitive
Six Ages - amazing promise on par with KoDP, but too small and short, so you feel teased
Voidspire Tactics - fun while it lasts and I even finished it, but forgettable
Grim Dawn - a more simplistic version of PoE
NEO Scavenger - might give it another run, but it seemed like it was more about item construction

Tried and didn't want to continue:
Blackguards - a real shame because it's interesting and inventive, but turns take forever without cheatengine and you get fights with increasingly many opponents, so it spirals out of control. Are you supposed to be doing something else while playing?
Hard West - same as Blackguards, another seductive game that forces long enemy turns with animation, but this one can't even be fixed by cheatengine because it has an RT component
Invisible, Inc. - just pretty easy and boring, feels like a mobile game
Elminage: Gothic - wat (sorry aweigh)
Divinity: Original Sin - tried it a few years before D:OS2, and the writing was too unbearable while the combat seemed to be about juggling the elements
Legend of Grimrock - it's more of a puzzle game
Dungeons of Dredmor - pretty primitive compared to other roguelikes
Bastion - really boring gameplay, nothing good except the narrator shtick

Haven't tried but probably will:
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Witcher 3
ELEX
Disco Elysium
Alpha Protocol
Expeditions: Conquistador
Dungeon Rats
Fallout 1.5
Dragon Age: Origins - released in November 2009
Serpent in the Staglands - tried it, but it was extremely buggy
Legends of Eisenwald - kept crashing
Fallout: New Vegas

Haven't tried but probably won't:
Grimoire
Dex
Might and Magic X
Enderal
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dragon's Dogma
Dark Souls 1
Outward
Sunless Sea
Sunless Skies
Wasteland 2

Likely won't try:
Tyranny
Pillars of Eternity 1
Tides of Numenera
Kenshi - heard it's very grindy and consumes all your time
Witcher 2
Shadowrun, other than Dragonfall
Realms of Arkania HD
Banner Saga - played it a bit a while ago, same problems as Dragonfall

A recurring theme is that TB has made a return and the games are often good in the abstract, so I want to try them. However, they have obnoxious unskippable 3D animation that multiplies the original issue with TB games that process many units.

Want a TB rpg with skippable 3d animation? Try Trails of Cold Steel 3.

 

[Sranchammer]

None they are all shit.

 

[Humanophage]

Want a TB rpg with skippable 3d animation? Try Trails of Cold Steel 3.

Looks like a JRPG.

Thing is, strategies generally manage to overcome this silliness. Nu-King's Bounty is perfectly fine, for example, as is Civ4. So are 2D games like HoMM and Eador. Many indie games are just fine in this respect, like Underrail. But with 3D RPGs, they insist on us watching the same animations ad nauseam for every opponent. Imagine if you were playing chess, and each figure had a 10-second animation where it does a little dance before it begins to slowly trudge as it wiggles every extremity. Now multiply that by the number of computer-simulated opponents who for some reason can't move simultaneously. It might sound a little conspiratorial, but I suspect they want to bloat playing time on Steam and such, otherwise I don't understand why they wouldn't implement something so basic that has been present in turn-based games for a long while. Plus I heard that the artists get upset, bizarrely.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I totally forgot about NEOScavenger myself. This one is gold for me, because it gave me a completely new view on trash. A game where the world is so utterly fucked up that you are happy to find a crappy plastic bag to carry the meagre items you collected from rummaging through abandoned houses and picking berries and mushrooms in the woods (that can potentially be deadly) - that's really something special in my book. And the constant fear and uncertainty and the incredible happiness if you find some great loot (for example one single shoe to put on your sore foot or a half decomposed pair of khaki trousers) in an derelict building. I still remember a situation when some bastard stole my stuff while I slept and later I was able found the guy, murdered by an animal possibly or died by poisoning, and was able to get my stuff back. This living environment really excited me. It's also the only rogue-like/permadeath game I actually enjoy and where dying indeed is part of the pleasure.

 

[Serious_Business]

As far as I'm concerned, Battle Brothers and Bloodborne were the games of the decade. Latter is only on ps4 though, so I guess it isn't a crpg

Other than that :

Underrail : p. good, but not what you'd expect. Much more about character-building and exploration than anything else.

Kingmaker : fucking elves, elves fucking. Dislike Pathfinder but it's pretty alright anyway. Better than Pillars I'd say.

Age of Decadence : this is the game that you can find very interesting, it's worth playing but pretty much single-handedly showed that C&C wasn't what made crpgs interesting. The concept isn't even defended that much on the Codex anymore.
+ Dungeon Rats : better from a tactical standpoint. Base game should have allowed you to control more than one character ; it was a mistake not to.

Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2 : alright. First one has a horrid, non-existent atmosphere (don't ask me how atmosphere can be non-existent, it just is in this game), second is a bit better but doesn't hold up. Pretty okay combat system, but the itemization is utter shit, the quests are banal, the character system is shallow. Said like that, it does sound pretty bad, but eh, it's alright ; you can make shit explode and such. Also it will make you ready for BG3 (fuck yeah, cultivate hate, poke out your eyes or something)

Shadowrun games : good, I liked them. Good writing overall. They are small games though, but it's all about the setting.

Expedition games : also fairly small games, but worth playing.

Witcher 3 : it's worth the Codex praise, even if it made crpgs "cool" and it'd make anyone from 2005 vomit in their graves. You can go for mods if you want sharper gameplay.

These are the ones that come to mind. There's a shitton more tho that are worth playing. Otherwise you can be Authoritative and play BG2 for the 43th time, I guess

 

[kangaxx]

As a result of this thread I've added Underrail to my own list and promoted it pretty much to the top.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Elex has also entered my shortlist now. Just reading about it on various sites, and it seems to have the same ups and down as Gothic, Risen, etc. Perfect...

It's a good game but it's also missing a bunch of things you'd expect in any RPG.
Fancy things. Like a character sheet.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

ELEX is interesting... It has a more interesting setting and premise than any other PB game, and a lot more quests and C&C. The exploration is also expanded vertically with the jet pack.

On the other hand, the world is larger and emptier than the ones in G1, G2 or R1, and the combat is far worse. Still, if you enjoy PB games, this is a good one.

 

[The_Mask]

Likely won't try:
Tyranny
Kenshi - heard it's very grindy and consumes all your time

You should try Tyranny. Not because it's the best RPG ever, but because it feels like a good try towards something unique. And the spellcasting system is brilliant.
And Kenshi got a bad reputation because of fucking Fluent. Kenshi's pretty awesome. A bit niche, you have to like certain things, and be a bit autistic, but it is an amazing experience once you get the hang of things. Much like most of the better RPGs.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

 

[The_Mask]

As a result of this thread I've added Underrail to my own list and promoted it pretty much to the top.

Underrail is a must-play for sure. I've played almost all the notable western RPGs of the past decade, except Underrail, which I am currently working towards beating, and I don't know if it is amazing or not, but I just can't stop playing it, unlike most others.
It feels like someone actually gave a shit when they made the game. I usually don't go out of my way to shout out what I'm playing, but I will recommend Underrail to my irl peers.

It feels almost sad more people don't know about it.