OT: a nice RPG-ish game?

[deccan]

Alneyan said:

Concured with. If you can find it and run it, Darklands. It will unlikely be anyone's cup of tea, but it is worth a look, and definitively more than that (it came out in 1992 if memory serves).

Heh. I'm glad someone other than me remembers this game. I've had a lot of fun with this. I still remember patrolling the streets of cities at night for cash and xp, sneaking into merchant banks to steal things, feeling the thrill of finding a merchant with high-quality items. But the bugs... *Sigh* I especially liked the historical feel of the game and of course there's the fact that heroes could get old and had to be retired.

[Crandaeolon]

2. Betrayal in Krondor . Graphic is relatively primitive, but the game is amazing. It is the only computer RPG game in existance AFAICT whose story was created by famous fantasy author(Feist). He wrote story, dialogs, item description... (Clip)

Actually, mr. Feist didn't write the game; the Krondor name was licensed to Dynamix, whose creative team is responsible for the writing. The following is straight from the "Author's afterword" section of Feist's book Krondor: the Betrayal, which is based on the game, not the other way around.

Neal Hallford and John Cutter wrote the game. I got to review things, but they wrote it. I talked with them about story, gave them ideas, listened to their ideas, and the game took form. But even I had no idea what it would look like, or play like, until it was finished. I got the script, but John had simply printed everything and sent it to me, without any idea of how it hung together.

Feist adapted the game script into book form, removing silly subquests and focusing on the main story. The book is of quite average quality IMO, Feist's earlier works are much more enjoyable.

All in all though, the game is absolutely great, but let's give credit where credit is due, right?

[tinkthank]

Thank you very much, everyone.
Unfortunately, I have to keep this quick.

Wiz 8: Yes, I liked that, quite a lot, why didnt I mention it? I never finished it, because at one point it got too complicated and slashy (monsters every 5 meters) -- had to break off a session because of work, and when I came back 3 weeks later, I couldnt remember why I was in this gigantic underground labyrinth....

System Shock 2: Looks like I must get this. But I cant! I looked everywhere, and since I live in Germany I can get my hands on the German Version, but I just hate that; any tips on where I can get the English original?

Avernum and Spiderweb: I must say that this label looks very promising. A brief look at Avernum shows many superficial similarities with Fallout -- interesting! I will check them out definately.The Gene Forge also looked interesting, anybody know about that?

Stormbinder, can you tell me more about the availability of the others about which you spoke? Great! I have rarely seen this type of Übereinstimmung in taste.

Thanks so much to all.

[Lex]

fastest (and sometimes ONLY) way to buy games older then a few years, is to go on Ebay.

Although if the game is especially rare (ie, it didn't sell alot of copies), then you might have to wait several weeks for it to pop up, but everything does in the end.

[Alneyan]

Geneforge plays a bit differently than Avernum. While you have a party of adventurers in Avernum, you incarn a single character in Geneforge. The universe is also very different; whereas Avernum is a medieval-fantasy world with a twist (regarding the various races), Geneforge takes place in a stranger universe.

You incarn a Shaper, whose abilities include the control, creation and transformation of life. Geneforge 2 puts you with the question of choosing what to do with this power. While the plot is good enough, what bothers me about this game is its battle system; many battles are fairly easy to do (especially when playing hit and run), but they can still take quite some time. That is mostly true when playing a plain "mage" rather than a summoner or a warrior.

[Cainehill]

Oh - for anyone who enjoyed the Bard's Tale series of games, there's Devil Whiskey, a graphically updated descendant. No connection to the BT developers, but very much designed and implemented in homage to BT - the classes are different, likewise magic, but otherwise quite nice.

So, if you're in the mood for an good old fashioned dungeon crawl, check out their demo and see what you think. An added bonus for the Dominions2 crowd - it runs on Windows _and_ Linux, and is moddable.

I believe it's downloadable via their web site (www.devilwhiskey.com), also via game sites such as pcgameworld, gamespot, and filefront.

[Karacan]

Aaah, I can't believe I forgot to mention "King Of Dragonpass". You roleplay not a character but a whole clan, where every leader is giving his or her opinion to certain choice of events. KoDP enforces roleplaying, because you have to stick to your role to be successful. Tons of options there, though, and incredible immersiveness. If you like well written and exciting interactive fiction, which is what the most part of the game consists of.

[Gandalf Parker]

Karacan said:
Aaah, I can't believe I forgot to mention "King Of Dragonpass". You roleplay not a character but a whole clan, where every leader is giving his or her opinion to certain choice of events. KoDP enforces roleplaying, because you have to stick to your role to be successful. Tons of options there, though, and incredible immersiveness. If you like well written and exciting interactive fiction, which is what the most part of the game consists of.

I agree. Its an excellent game. Its on my list of games that I feel every "I want to be a game developer" should be forced to play.

[Stormbinder]

About Krondor: Well, it is clear that Feist did have a lot of input into scripts, story and dialogs of Betrayl at Krondor, even from these quotes. Also keep in mind that developers relied very heavely on Feist's world and Feist's characters in creating BAK. If, let's say, somebody would write 4th book of "Lord Of The Rings", using the Tolkien's world, Frodo, Aragarn and Gendalf as main characters, and he would do it in close cooperation and under supervision of J.R.R.Tolkein himslef, one should give the Tolkien some credit, don't you think? This being said I agree that Dynamix creative team did a very good job as well. The next Krondor's game created with Feist by different company (Return to Krondor) was not nearly as good as original.

In any case, I think we both agree that BAK was a great game.

tinkthank said:
Thank you very much, everyone.
Unfortunately, I have to keep this quick.

Wiz 8: Yes, I liked that, quite a lot, why didnt I mention it? I never finished it, because at one point it got too complicated and slashy (monsters every 5 meters) -- had to break off a session because of work, and when I came back 3 weeks later, I couldnt remember why I was in this gigantic underground labyrinth....

System Shock 2: Looks like I must get this. But I cant! I looked everywhere, and since I live in Germany I can get my hands on the German Version, but I just hate that; any tips on where I can get the English original?

Avernum and Spiderweb: I must say that this label looks very promising. A brief look at Avernum shows many superficial similarities with Fallout -- interesting! I will check them out definately.The Gene Forge also looked interesting, anybody know about that?

Stormbinder, can you tell me more about the availability of the others about which you spoke? Great! I have rarely seen this type of Übereinstimmung in taste.

Thanks so much to all.

You are welcome thinktank.

As for avalaibility of these games - I would suggest go to Ebay as the best sourse for all these old games. Generally you will be able to buy them very cheaply, most of the old games cost under 10 bucks. More recently released games, such as TOEE and KOTOR you will probably find a bit more expensive, but still much cheaper than in stores. In my expereience the price of relatively new (half-year to year) game on ebay can range between 10$ and 30$ in general.

Also Betrayl at Krondor was decalred a freeware by Sierra some time ago, and can be downloaded from the various internet sites but I think it was refering to none-CD Version only, IIRC.

I bought my CD Version of BOK for 5 bucks on Ebay Last yer, after the infamous and misterious dog eat my own CD.



About some other good games that were mentioned here bu other people:


King Of The Dragon Pass is indeed very good indep game. It is mostly strategy game(simulator of prehistoric tribe living in harsh fantasy world based mostly upon eastern european folklore), but it has some strong RPG elements as well. I would say it is 2/3 strategy , 1/3 RPG. It has no animation but instead shows a lot of beutiful hand drawn pictures. All in all very good indep game, if you like such RPG hybrids.

Avernum1/2/3 (Elite 1/2/3 before remake) and Geneforge 1/2 are good games. All are very old school RPGs, which is trademark of all Spiderweb's games. I have played them all and I liked Avernum 3 the most. You can download it and play first 1/3 if it free (it is huge), and if you like it youcan pay and register it. I suggest you do it to get a feeling if you like this game or not.

Personally I think Avernum and Geneforge are very good and solid RPG, but I don't think it quite reaches the "masterpiece" status like games such as Planescape:The Tournament, Wizardy7/8, Betrayal at Krondor, System Shock2, Falout, et cetera. I think even most Spiderweb fans will agree on it. But after you done with the games mentioned above, you should certanly check Spiderweb's games, they are good.

Might and Magic 6/7/8 (and 3/4/5 before it) seria is also a good one, I agree with Gandalf's comments on it.

Ultima is a good seria as well, some of its fans consider it to be the best one. The best games in the seria are Ultima 7 (with Seprpent Island) and Ultima 4. Ultima Underworld 2 is also a very good game, if you can tolerate Doom1 quality graphic of that period.


Anyway, if I would continue my list beyond 6 games I have mentioned (and those that you have already played of course), these would be the games I would add to it.


BTW while I can answer differently about exact order of top 5 RPG games of all times in my opinion, depending on my mood when you ask it, there is no doubt for me about which game occupies 1st position. I think Planescape:The Torment was the best RPG I ever had pleasure of playing. I am not sure if another one such a this will ever be created, given the recent trends in gaming market, but I can always hope...


BTW ironically PS:T tanked big way in retail, despite riping rave reviews from all computer game sites and magazines. I guess it tells you something about mainstream gaming public, does it? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img] Also almost all companies that made the these great RPG games in the past have gone out of business.

I mean - Microprose, Sirtech, Origin, New World, Interplay/Black Island, Looking Glass, you name it. Personally I think it is quite sad.



Anyway, good luck with these great games, I think you'll love it. I even envy you a little since you will have a pleasure of expereincing these games for the first time. Have fun!

[Kel]

Btw, Fable is about to hit the shelves and is long anticipated by many.

- Kel