OT: a nice RPG-ish game?

[tinkthank]

Hello, thought I'd ask here, cant find the thread which dealt with this topic before, so I'll post anew and try to be specific:
Anybody have a nice tip for me regarding a good SP RPG kind of a game, can but does not have to be fantasy setting, can but does not have to be hack-n-slashy, can involve lots of strategy/tactics and group control, can but does not have to be newer than 3 years old? I am looking for a good present for someone, but dont know enough about where to look.
These ones I tried and liked very much, something along these lines:
- Baldur's gate series (good story, chars, sound, gameplay)
- Planescape: Torment (great story, great atmosphere)
- Fallout series (story, flexibility, gameplay too to a lesser degree, humor)
- Arcanum (idea, story, details, humor)
- Deus Ex original (a game made with love for detail)
- Thief II (gripping and well done, although not really an RPG)

These I found much less enticing, or downright bad:
- Icewind Dale (bored me, never got far)
- Morrowind (good idea which became stale fast; all NPCs just stood around waiting to be robbed)
- Neverwinter Nights (great tool for modders/MP, but a hastily shod-together dungeon crawl which was boring as hell SP)
- Pool of Radiance (ouch, the memory pains me)

Thanks much for your tips.

[Arralen]

Gothic and Gothic2 ... maybe you like them. The first is said to have rather annoying controls, but I havn't played it myself. At least all NPC seem to have a life on their own (not standing around). v2 I've played for an hour or two, and while I feel it's rather straight-forward and story-bound, it's quite enjoyable. Graphics are great (more grass and details than morrowind), high differences a rather great. In fact, the map is kind of "folded up", and you have to do long detours to get to a place you could see right down at the foot of the cliff (jumping not recommended - you'll not only die in a splash, most likely the territory down there is ment to be accessed much further "down the story" with a higher level character)

[tinkthank]

Thanks, will check into that -- just curious, you only played 1 hour or so? Is that normal for you, or you didnt find it that engrossing?

[Arralen]

Actually, it may have been 3 hours. Wasn't my PC, and it was late at night after a LAN session .. everyone was asleep but me

Personally, I like Morrowind + 50 Plugins more than G/G2 - I'm an avid table-but-no-paper-n-dice roleplayer, so I simply make the missing NPC "life" up in my head, and act accordingly. After all, comp AI doesn't get it right anyway.

What puts me off from G/G2 is mostly the tight correlation between story progress and map location - most times you simply cannot deviate from the given path. This is especially obvious if you play the very first part several times in a row to try out different starting possibilities.
I must admit, I only played up to the point where you decide about what "main path" you put character on, but from having a look at some walkthrough in a game mag I found my suspicion confirmed - once on a "path", it's basically the same again.

On the other hand, athmospere is very "tight", dialogues are quite well done etc.,so I think it's a matter of personal preference and taste.

And it should be easy to get a used copy on ebay .. so financial risk should be rather small

[Karacan]

Gothic is brilliant. Both parts are absolutely playworthy, though all in all I find the first part more atmospheric, while the second part was better balanced. They're both incredible playable.

For a great story, check out Anachronox - while the arcade interludes and the Final Fantasy combatsystem isn't exactly my preferred medium, the story is fantastic and always makes me weep that the publisher went broke and there won't be a sequel.

If you haven't done so yet, play System Shock 2. This is the FPS/roleplaying-hybrid where both parts are incredible well executed. I just started playing it again with two friends of mine, and the three character classes definitely play very differently as they advance.

For the "I don't care about graphics at all"-crowd, there's Spiderweb's Avernum series. Very good stories, and Avernum III is huge.

[Boron]

yeah gothic , especially gothic 2 is really nice .

one warning though :
the gothic series has almost zero replay value . you play as a single character and you can chose from only 3 different classes and all 3 are similiar . it is like diablo 1 with classes . A mage can still fight but not as good as a fighter and a fighter can still cast spells but not as good as a mage .

so you play it normally only 1 time through . gothic 2 is not too long but once you start you want to continue until the end . the feeling is really real and the great graphics enchant it .
in no other rpg i felt almost like i am the character i play .

you may go everywhere from the beginning but you have to follow mostly 1 strict path because the other ways you may go there but they are blocked by too strong monsters .

so if you buy gothic 2 you will be entertained for 50-150 hours depending how many sidequests you do and if you explore everything of the world or not . but after that there is almost zero replay value .
oh and in the beginning until you are familiar with gothic 2 it is rather hard but the Last 1/3 is way to easy .


another nice rpg : grandia 2 . the story is great .
if you like japanese anime films give it a try .
it is now budget Version so only 5-10€

[Cainehill]

Also, you might look at the games put out by, mmm, Spiderweb Software (www.spiderwebsoftware.com). There's a number of RPGs there, with demos (which include roughly 1/3 the game) there for download, so you can see if they're to your taste.

A lot of people, on this forum and elsewhere, have had quite favorable things to say about them.

[Kristoffer O]

Karacan said:

For the "I don't care about graphics at all"-crowd, there's Spiderweb's Avernum series. Very good stories, and Avernum III is huge.

Avernum III (or Exile III as it was called before the interface was remade) is a very good game. Original setting. The mood/setting is great and the world is huge with lots of little stories and adventures besides the grand plotline.

Spiderweb is an indie developer like us. Do not hesitate to aid them

[Gandalf Parker]

NeverWinter Nights was rather sparse when I got it but lately if you reload it and go looking you will find that the promise of MODs has indeed turned it into something worthwhile. In fact some of them have created things which completly changed my view of what was going to happen with it.

[Boron]

Gandalf Parker said:
NeverWinter Nights was rather sparse when I got it but lately if you reload it and go looking you will find that the promise of MODs has indeed turned it into something worthwhile. In fact some of them have created things which completly changed my view of what was going to happen with it.

can you change rules too a bit with the mods ?

cause what disappointed me a lot in base nwn with the 2 expansions was that though the rules were well implemented some things were extremely overpowered .
e.g. a weapon master / fighter with 2 kukris with critical hit from 10-20 was just boring , while playing as a very special , rpgwise cool character like a bard becoming a harpner as second class was too implayable too .

all kinds of fightercharacters like weapon master , monk or special bard were just too strong i think .
in pvp though isaacs greater missile swarm was unresistable iirc so there mages were unbeatable .
perhaps my experience there was too limited though .