Looking for an RPG Game recommendation

[Mularac]

Hey, I wanted to ask you for a recommendation in an RPG title.
It doesn't really matter when the game was made, only that it has a rich storyline and plenty of room for roleplaying, where you'll actually have to make decisions...

so... shoot.

[Arparso]

What RPGs did you already play and in what kind of scenario are you interested in the most? Fantasy? Sci-Fi? Post-apocalyptic?

Well, if age really isn't important, then I'd like to mention...

Realms of Arkania trilogy
RoA 1+2 @ gog.com
RoA 3 @ gog.com

This is an old RPG series, based on a Pen & Paper role-playing system, which is pretty popular here in Germany. The computer games are probably the most faithful adaptation of such RPGs to the computer screen, as they don't really hide any of the number crunching and flexibility of the underlying P&P RPG system. Character creation alone for a whole party of six characters will take you quite some time, if you go for "advanced mode", as your character screen spans multiple pages filled with all sorts of skills and spells you can level up individually.
It is really rather hardcore in that your characters will catch the flu, if not dressed appropriately for the climate they're travelling through. Your characters eat, drink, sleep and will be able to contract a multitude of diseases you have to treat by getting the right herbs or finding a healer somewhere. They can also die permanently or get petrified without an immediate way to revive them (praying for a miracle at a specific temple may get you help there but other than that...).
There is little guidance in regard to the story and many seemingly random events happen from time to time. You're mostly free to travel and explore the land all by yourself while following some vague clues you got from NPCs.

I personally never played the first game, but the other two quite extensively when I was young. One of my best RPG experiences I can remember, simply because of all the freedom and complexity. The sense of adventure is great, as is the illusion of a living world that's not just there for your enjoyment and doesn't just revolve around your puny little group of adventurers.
Obviously it's really, really old... so it's not for the faint-hearted. It's also one of those games, where you not only want to read the manual, but absolutely have to... or you'll have no frigging clue as to how to treat numbskul, rabies or any of the other diseases, for example.
Oh and you can also use your same six characters throughout all three games by exporting your saves... talk about "epic adventure"

It's cheap, so if you can live with the archaic graphics, interface and turn-based combat, you might actually enjoy this one. The version on gog.com is the international english one, so no need to learn German for a game

Btw, RoA 3 is probably the one you'd get into the quickest, simply because graphics and interface are much more refined than in the previous incarnations... it does lack a bit in scope, since it mostly concentrates on a single city and its surroundings - meaning you don't really travel through the countryside as much - but there is still lots to do in and around the city of Riva.

Fallout series
Fallout @ gog.com
Fallout 2 @ gog.com

Another cult-classic, but more well-known to the english-speaking parts of the world. As far as games set in post-nuclear scenarios go, this is the place to go. Strong story with lots of choices in lots of creative main and side quests, tactical turn-based combat and also lots of pop culture references and easter eggs. Graphics and interface aren't that much of a showstopper compared to the Realms of Arkania series and the gameplay is relatively easy to get into, but still with a lot of depth.

I only played them several years after their original release and still had a lot of fun. Some really creative story and quest ideas in there with lots of choices to be made. Definitely some of the best RPGs out there, even by todays standards.

Baldur's Gate series
Baldur's Gate @ gog.com
Baldur's Gate 2 @ gog.com

Another big classic, by the now highly-regarded Bioware and Black Isle Studios, which also worked on Fallout. If fantasy and AD&D is your thing, you can't get much better than Baldur's Gate. It's isometric and party-based, has a rather complex character system modelled after the AD&D pen&paper RPG system and features a strong story and lots and lots of interesting dialogue. Probably the best part is the huge scope (around 200hours for the second game alone, not including the addon) and the interactions between party members.

Dragon Age: Origins

The modern brother of Baldur's Gate, with quite a lot of similarities, but a much more novice-friendly character system and gameplay. It's still tactical and has a strong story with lots of choices to be made and it'll take you up to 80 hours to tackle the whole game... unless you get the Ultimate Edition, which also features additional DLC and a full-fletched 30 hour addon, that is...

The story presentation is great with lots of dramatic moments immersing you in the world, although the graphics are a bit underwhelming for todays standards. Of course, compared to previous classics I mentioned, the graphics are stellar

[DreamorCZ]

Lionheart - last title from Black Isles. Fantasy with many interesting features and choices in story-line but has fixed ending. Character development is very similar to Fallout.

Vampire: Masquerade - Bloodlines - Vampires in modern world and you are one of them. A lot of talking and little of fighting. Character can be developed in many ways, you can even play as mad person or creature like person that has to travel mainly through sewers. Many choices in story-line and big number of endings.

[Mularac]

Thanks a lot guys for these titles.
I was looking something with a strong character development and a rich storyline, like the Fallout and Baldurs Gate series (yeah, played them both). A game where you actually have to play a role, not just choose your class and abilities.

For example, I couldn't find a game yet that would be similar to BG2 in the sense of the interactions between NPCs. In that game it was so... organic.
And, have you guys ever read any of the Dragonlance books? It's a sort of D&D setting, not D&D per se, but something similar. It even appears in BG2, as an "alternate universe". That series of book and a friend's recommendation some time ago lead me to that game...

I also played Vampire: Masquerade Bloodlines a while back and loved it too. The predecesor, Vampire: Masquerade Redemption wasn't too good though (if want to play that one I strongly recommend going with a Malkavian character, the dialog options are very funny indeed)

I've never heard of Lionheart and Realms of Arkania, and they seem really interesting indeed, I'll look into them, they sound great (Baldurs Gate 2 also had a bit of a fixed ending, and it was still a great game that I must have played three or four times).
I've been getting mixed reviews of Dragon Age from my friends who played it, but didn't got into it somewhy... perhaps now's the time. Anyone played the sequel?

I've also played The Elder Scrolls 3 and 4. But didn't really liked the character development part... it really didn't matter which choices you made along the game, and the NPC didn't have a lot to say aside from classical RPG statements, but the world was huge and ful of action, I¡ll give it that...

EDIT: after a minute or so of looking arround, I must say that the Realms Of Arkania really poked my interest... I think I'm gonna start there. Thank you guys a lot for the recommendations!

[DreamorCZ]

In my opinion, Dragon Age is that type of game that makes you think it's good. RPG system is vague, game has enormous amount of bugs, you must kill hundreds of enemies to get to small piece of story and story has quite a lot holes in it. Generally it is a good game but with many flaws.

Further, I would recommend Fable - The Lost Chapters. Well, one coud say it is more action game then RPG but you can do really interesting things with you character. You can marry, eat to obesity, be drunk and throw up, buy houses and rent them, be evil or good guy, get tattoo and different hair styles etc.

[Arparso]

Well, I immensely enjoyed Dragon Age and didn't notice a whole lot of bugs while doing so. It does have a few pacing issues - for example the underground sections beneath the dwarven city really went on and on and on... with a whole lot of endless fighting and not much story to go by. However, I quickly managed to connect to my own character and the wide range of dialogue options really made it a personal adventure of my own. The chemistry between some of the companions was also pretty enjoyable and the dialogue some of the best I've seen from Bioware so far.

I don't know. It's certainly not a perfect game, but the world felt so rich and detailed, so fledged out, and the sheer amount of content is so overwhelming at times - I can't really think of any other recent RPG even coming close in that regard. Most stuff nowadays is either a crazy JRPG or some streamlined action RPG hybrid, that doesn't really resemble what the genre once used to be.

Fable I'm not sure about. I did very much enjoy it, but i'd hardly call it RPG... more of an action game with some RPG elements and meaningless freedom. Sure, you can marry someone and buy houses and stuff - but it doesn't really serve a purpose in the game's context.

There's also "The Witcher": I personally didn't really get into it, but it's a pretty challenging dark fantasy RPG with lots of choices to be made, which supposedly really do influence later chapters and how the story progresses. It was extremely buggy at release, but most issues are fixed now in the Enhanced Edition or whatever its called... and it's pretty cheap - I heard it'll be sold for around $5 on gog.com soon.

[The Old Dragon]

With regards to Dragon Age:Origins, I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of it's strongest features was the beginning chapter (with six character classes to choose from and each with their own back story for you to play through which leads to specific sections only for that character later on in the game) and four different endings, it's re-playability is quite amazing (I tend to struggle with replays unless I leave a few years - not much excitement if you know what's coming!).

Dragon Age 2: Still a good game, no regrets buying it; get at least three play throughs with it, all slightly different and there's shed loads of  decisions to make (quite similar to ME2 with the character interactions). Downside... quite a bit smaller than DA:O in regards to area sizes and lots more console style combat (if you don't kill em off fast enough, then you get swamped by the next wave who seem to drop out of thin air sometimes!).

Both have big communities so expect (and find for DA:O at this points) lots of modding for PC version.

Fable was quite good, very light-hearted & fun game to play.

The Witcher, very much the hack & slash (and burn to a crisp on occasion) style game. Enjoyed once again and waiting for the sequel. Don't get if easily offended as there's swearing, gambling, sex & violence aplenty (not so much for the american version I hear ). Vast amounts of exploring and quests involved with large areas full of fairly intelligent nasties to get you. Only bad thing really is that the story (although quite rich) is fairly locked and linear.

Out of curiosity, anyone tried "Two Worlds"? Quite good graphics and an immense world to play in, hard as well. Must get back to playing it really...

[DreamorCZ]

Ah, Two Worlds 2. Very nice game with a really big world. Magic and potion creating is great there. However, you can see that developers did not have time to implement everything, so there is strong feeling of incomplete game. Story-line is strongly fixed.

Witcher is also great, mainly for those who read book series. As said, linear story is quite setback and it quite kills re-playability. With latest patch it is game surely worth to play.

PS: Expansion for Two Worlds 2 is coming. It's called Pirates of the Flying Fortress.

[Arparso]

Two Worlds 2... bah. It was better as the first one, I'll give it that. As soon as I learned that the big huge island covering 70% off the map was just a decoy and that it's mostly blocked off to the player, I literally threw the game in the trash bin. I expected the game to really start off when I would reach that "main island" and could start to explore and do tons of quests there... but no, there's nothing at all except the last boss fight, more or less. What a disappointment. Basically, the first proper island you visit, the desert island, is the biggest one in the game - which really is a shame, cause it's quite small compared to other open world RPGs. The first Two Worlds was worse in the gameplay department, but had sooo much more content and stuff to do...

[Mularac]

Two worlds... can't really say I'm familiar with the franchise....
The witcher, on the other hand... quite good game, the graphics are still quite good now a days, and the potion creation side of the game created a whole new array of gameplay possibilities, instead of just slashing your way through the game you were given the option to blind/burn/stunt your opponents while you could buff yourself to fit most scenarios... I must say that the gameplay department was much better though off than the general storyline and choices system, excluding your bad-ass PJ

[DreamorCZ]

And one more game - Overlord. Great deal of fun and interesting gameplay but same case as Fable, more action then RPG. Player is evil (or less evil) overlord with growing army of minions fighting obese hobbits, gay hippie elves, skinflint dwarves etc. When getting Overlord I, be sure you will also take RisingHell expansion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlord_%282007_video_game%29
http://www.overlordgame.com/gb/homepage

[Mularac]

Tried installing RoA, but it didn't quite work... gonna leave it for later.
I did got Planescape: Torment, from Black Isle. It's quite good, actually. It has that pinch of black humor that only yhe guys at Black Isle and interplay know how to pull it off...

[Arparso]

Tried installing RoA, but it didn't quite work... gonna leave it for later.

That's odd. I've only recently bought RoA 1+2 myself and didn't have trouble starting them. The desktop shortcuts worked just fine. The Dosbox configuration they come with isn't ideal, though. I got a stretched image and a black bar on the bottom of my widescreen monitor - probably because the requested resolution is just way too low for current hardware. You can edit the .conf-files in the RoA folders to tweak the settings. I personally disabled fullscreen, set the window resolution to 1280x960 and aspect=false
I tried different scaler settings to get a smoother picture out of it, but the font and parts of the interface didn't look too good then.

If you're going to play RoA 2, remember to disable stepwise movement in the options (F3) - this makes moving around way less disorienting. I think in RoA 3 it's disabled by default. Sadly there is no such option in the first game and the houses in towns also nearly look all the same, which only adds to the confusion. Takes some getting used to and the map screen and the maps in the cluebook prove rather invaluable here.

... and get some healing potions before venturing into the first dungeon - I just got trapped not even THAT far from the exit with no healing potions or herbs left and half my party badly injured. I tried resting for a few hours (cause I got enough water and rations), but got ambushed by some ogres and goblins... wasn't pretty, I tell ya...

Oh and saving outside of a temple costs 50xp in the first game, to add insult to injury

[Blazar]

I am not a RPG gamer, but i did like Mass effect and 2. And also because it takes place in space and the future. Two subjects i really like.

[Sargoth]

As much as I hate being a necromancer.

If you got a psp system, then FF 1 and 2 and 7,8,9 for ps3/ps1/psp.

Xbox360/ps3 - Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment (this is more like Final Fantasy Tactics)

Icewind Dale 1 + 2.