I didn’t find Wasteland 3 that much harder to play than the average RPG.
It is a brutal world though, putting the trademark juvenile humor aside. If you like the feeling of being the hero, and saving the world and helping people, it can leave you pretty bummed. A lot of decisions, where there just isn’t a “good” answer.
You know, I’ll admit I forgot it was even an option since you lose so much of the enjoyment of the game with custom PCs.
I saw a game pop up on Microsoft Game Pass called Solasta and decided to give it a try. My first thought was “This is just D&D 5e with the serial numbers filed off” but then I learned they actually got an SRD license from Wizards of the Coast so I guess it’s 5e with the serial numbers intact. They do cut out about half of the classes down to the core Fighter/Rogue/Wizard/Cleric/Ranger/Paladin and further trim things like Arcane schools and Cleric domains to a few semi-homebrewed options but if you’re familiar with 5e, you’ll find it a very familiar environment.
Amusingly, they leave some skills intact with a flag saying it won’t be used in the game campaign but you can pick it if you want (such as Performance). Less amusingly, some race/class/background combos seem to get some of those skills as their package rather than, you know, skills you might use. I assume the hope is that people will use the dungeon editor to make adventures that use those skills. Speaking of, it also shows your rolls so attacking an enemy with Advantage shows two d20s roll and then adds your bonuses to say if you hit. This also gives it a little XCOM feeling of “Well, I only need to roll a 3 or higher to… motherfu—”
It’s a small dev game full of small dev game Euro-jank with bad voice acting and outdated character models (and my dwarf’s beard was sliding off of him in the character creator). The story is serviceable fantasy RPG fare but also very derivative “find the relics, save the world” stuff. But I liked the actual dialogue and characters, the game does cool things with the maps like spiders climbing vertical surfaces or flying critters really using the Z-axis and the AI is smarter than you might expect. The main draw though is playing 5e in a CRPG in a more authentic way than even branded products like Baldur’s Gate 3. If the D&D 5e hook doesn’t work for you, you’re probably better off with the bigger names in isometric CRPGs.
Normally, I hate people who make “That’s not how you’re supposed to have fun!” arguments, but if you’re not playing Kingmaker in turn-based mode, you’re playing it wrong.
FTR, Wrath of the Righteous, the sequel* to Kingmaker, is due out in September.
(“Sequel” in that it’s the same game system, from the same studio, but it won’t follow up on the story of Kingmaker in any significant way.)
Another vote for Solasta, warts and all, it’s good fun.
If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening, you might enjoy it (considering you seemed to enjoy the Mass Effect series).
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is is really, really good - old school RPG in the best kind of way, although the voice acting isn’t AAA level, sadly.
But I absolutely love what a bunch of assholes my characters are. Not even malicious jerks but just full of sarcasm and petty side comments. I can’t love the voice acting itself but I do often enjoy the dialogue.
Oh, I agree completely. The dialogue is great, it just could have used some polish in the delivery.
Specially the rogue character, I’m playing a halfling rogue in real TT D&D now half because of Anton,the pregenerated halfling rogue in Solasta. (though my character is not (yet?) as sassy as Anton, he just wants to earn enough money to eat 6 times a day)
I went the other way and modeled my halfling rogue in Solasta after my “real” halfling bard and am delighted when I hear her say shit that sounds like me playing her at the table.
I did something like that, but only for the fighter character that I modeled after my late dwarf PC (RIP Aran Shatterstone 1997-1999, we still mourn you), but I took pre-gen chats for the other 3 members of my party.
Looks like the Shadowrun trilogy is free of charge right now on GoG. I just claimed it.
By the way, I inspired myself to replay the Dragon Age series. The original game is more interesting than I remembered!
I keep kicking the idea of replaying DA1 around. Then I remember “The Fade” missions, and just go whimper in the corner instead.
If you play on PC, you can get a mod to skip The Fade (you still get the benefits from it).
Now they just need a mod to skip the Junior Prom Detective portion of DA: Inquisition
I didn’t care for them either. They were extremely boring. Fortunately, they also didn’t take very long to get through.
I really liked DA:O/A, it was my favorite out of the series.
Oh, dear God yes. I hate that damn mission.
I kind of like the (mage tower) Fade mission, although the backtracking is a bit tedious.