Huh?
AAArgh!!!
Before the hamsters ate it my OP was asking for suggestions of non sword & sorcery RPGs. I loved the Fallout games, and when I played tabletop RPGs I played Gurps, especially the Autoduel gameworld, but most non-fantasy RPGs I’ve played are “strategy RPGs” like Freedom Force and Jagged Alliance 2 on the PC and Front Mission 3 on the Playstation.
If anyone has a recommendation of a game similar to Fallout 2 for PC or PS2 I wanna hear about it.
:smack: damn… the original post was so much better written that that.
Most Sci-Fi RPGs have some element of fantasy in them, of course. Right now there is nothing like Fallout, and there won’t be any time soon. Well, except perhaps for Static.
As far as Sci-Fi RPGs go, though, most of them have some fantasy element to them. Personally, I would recommend:
Anachronox – A console-style RPG played for laughs, and in some spots its particularly hillarious. It’s got a robot who joins your party, which is always a bonus in my book, but the robot does have a bit of an irritating Steppin Fetchit voice. It didn’t sell well, and can probably be picked up pretty cheaply.
Septerra Core – Also console-style, and the party progresses by winding through mazes that contain switches that open other parts of the mazes. Also, sometimes you have to look all over creation to find out how to advance the plot next. But the story is terrific, and it features the most intriguing female protagonist. She’s not a mother or a lover, but she is a big sister, which is not the same as being a mother at all, and its an archetype I can think of very few examples of – she is the oldest of the children (in the classic burgeoning womanhood stage of life), and she takes on the burden of raising them all, and protecting them. As events unfold, she gradually becomes big sister to the entire world, wiping noses and trouncing bullies on an epic scale.
Albion – It’s old, and it’s relatively crude by modern standards, but it has a lot of interesting stuff. There’s a lot of dialogue, and a good deal of though went into the design of the alien society. Unfortunately, a lot of wild speculation went into the Earth’s own history. It follows a theory that some people actually hold in real life that the Celts were a peaceful people who lived in what modern environmentalists would recognize as harmony with nature (and yet were, it is often claimed, very good warriors just the same, somehow), but were then corrupted by the encroachment of the `Heliromers’ (i.e., whitey (note: I have in fact heard nutty Celtophiles claim not to be white, though they are commonly thought to be whiter than the mediteranean peoples they characterize as their own version of the White Devils)) who introduced war (which the Celts were already superior at a priori, natch) and generally made life on earth unlivable by violating nature over a barrel with their technology. Well, the Celts got transported to another world ages ago, and now the Heliromers have just stumbled on that world and are coming with their big phallic spaceship to have our way with the new planet. Once you get to the point where they explain all this, you may feel like you’ve been at a scrumtious banquet and ate until you could hardly move, and then your hosts turn out to be Scientologists, and they’d like to explain some things to you.
Deus Ex – It’s a first person shooter style RPG, but the gimmick is that you’re a cyborg, and you actually do a lot more sneaking than shooting. It’s possible to get through the game hardly killing anybody. The plot revolves around a lot of X-Files stuff, and I’m not into that, but it was a lot of fun anyway, especially since the main character has a terrific deadpan voice, and the sewers of Paris are full of French Philosophers with guns. You may have trouble playing the pacifist after you get the sniper rifle with the scope and the laser sight, but still you’ve got options. A great game, and now it’s available on the PS2.
System Shock 2 – Another shooter-style RPG which was probably designed in cahoots with the adult diaper industry. You’re a cyborg on a ship being taken over by zombie mutant cyborgs controlled by a megalomaniac AI. Everyone you meet is dead, but you pick up their message modules and hear their voices as you look at their terrified corpses. The lights, which are never very bright anyway, tend to flicker. You can hear the voices of the zombie mutant cyborgs calling out to you in mechanical voices. Join us. You do not hide for long. I’m sorry. The AI watches you through the cameras. You spend the whole game in a state of quiet, lonely despiration, punctuated now and then by pants-crapping terror.
Arcanum – It’s sci-fi in a Jules Verne kind of mode, with a strong fantasy element as well. It was created by a good chunk of the original Fallout team, and is as close to a Fallout 3 as we’re liable to see soon. Fantastic game. Great story. You shouldn’t do without it.
I’d second Arcanum is a good choice. You don’t have to play swords and sorcery, but there’s always the option. Think of the classic D&D “orcs-dwarves-elves-trolls” etc. world, but throw in the Industrial Revolution so there’s smokestacks polluting the sky, mass-produced items, and a new interest in science. It’s a great setup.
Trust me, once you start taking down Ogres with an elephant gun, you won’t look back.
I did play Arcanum, I was a half-orc technologist.
I stayed away from Deus Ex and System Shock because I don’t like shooters- if you can really play through without having to do a lot of combat I may reconsider.
Albion sounds like it may be interesting, as well as Anachronox although that one looked a little too final fantasy-ish for my taste…
Septerra Core is the one that sounds most interesting to me right now. I may have to look for that one at the store.
Septerra Core left me a bit cold, but I’d second the vote for Deus Ex and System Shock 2, although they aren’t what you’re looking for.
Since it sounds like you have a Playstation, you might want to dig up Xenogears sometime–fairly entertaining, even if the excessive use of cutscenes tends to make the game drag in places. Plus you get to pilot big ass robots. How cool is that? 
How about the game that allegedly inspired Fallout? Wasteland is from the same people who brought us The Bard’s Tale series, uses the same engine, and can be found if one googles for abandonware. I see it’s also part of a bundled set up for auction at eBay for the next six days.
I bring this up because you said you played Arcanum and because this is in the top 3 games of all time for me (even though I, like you, would prefer my games to be non fantasy). Thief 2.
Thief 2 has some Steampunky kind of elements to it. On the scale, it would be here:
Fantasy |---------------------------------| Steampunk
^
The badguys are steampunkish. You are more D&D thief-ish although you do have a mechanical eyeball.
It is first person shooter visually, but if you ever get into a fight you are probably doomed. Lots of creeping around. Lots of sneaking past the guards or automotons. Lots of wolloping guys on the back of the head with your sap and stashing their bodies behind the barrels.
While the sci fi Deus Ex has similar elements (although very high tech obviously), it does devolve into a shooter fairly often (at least how I played it it did). You can probably find it fairly cheap, so at least you won’t be out much if it is too fantasy.
Absimia
WHOOPS!
[note to self, preview]
That’s what I get for trying to be cute. It is probably 75% fantasy 25% steampunky.
Absimia
The sad truth is that despite great variety in paper and pencil games, there are very few computer or videogame RPGs that use a non-swords and sorcery setting.
absimia wrote:
Maximizing your stealth does require a certain amount of patience. But it wasn’t until the end for me that I just couldn’t find enough ammo for my non-lethal weapons. By then, though, I did have the sniper rifle. And a lot of problems can be solved by planting explosives, which is also an un-shooter-like activity.
Hey, Jeff Olsen, thanks for mentioning the abandonware thing- I just found the old Autoduel RPG… Good times!
I heard a rumor that, for Deus Ex 2, they’re planning on making it possible to get through the game without killing more than a half-dozen people or so. Me rikey. 
I tried to be extra-sneaky in Deus Ex, but the Dragon Sword was too tempting - sneak behind the enemy in complete silence and slice! Addictive. Just don’t try it on Men in Black!
“The sad truth is that despite great variety in paper and pencil games, there are very few computer or videogame RPGs that use a non-swords and sorcery setting.”
Why is that sad? Its a good setting with familiar archtypical characters. Forgotten Realms is the Shiznat!
Deus Ex Rocks.
Septerra Core is good, but you have to be patient with it. Its a beautiful game by any measure.
Does anyone else think it’s a complete oxymoron to be talking about Computer RPGs?
You’re welcome. On the subject of abandonware RPG games, I recall an Amber game for PC. Dunno how good it is though.
“Does anyone else think it’s a complete oxymoron to be talking about Computer RPG’s”
Have you played Planescape: Torment? Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, and PS:T are true RPG’s in every sense of the world. They all have diffferent styles and settings:
PS:T - Philosophical understanding, mystery
BG - Epic adventures
Fallout - Explorations/Adventure and survival
Now, most console style RPG’s don’t really fit in the exact definition to any degree more than that most shooters do. Yet you still take the perspective of a character and get to, for a short time, become that person. You may not have choices so much, but there is still role-playing. Your are just playing a predefined role. Its nto all that different from DM’s making up pregenerated character sheets.
I’d recommend Planescape:Torment. It’s still got magic, but it’s FAR more steampunk. You don’t go to any forests or quaint little villages, and there are NO elves or dwarves in it. Actually, other than the main character (an immortal human) there aren’t any typical fantasy characters that join your party: you get quarter-demons, walking talking computers, succubi, and stuff like that. No elves though!
It’s an extememly atypical RPG.
As for Deus Ex, I played the game through only killing 4 people, 3 of whome it’s impossible NOT to kill. I did however frequently shock people or bludgeon people into unconciousness.
And Dues Ex 2 is being designed so you can go through the game without killing ANYone.
Oh, and forgot to add, Torment was made by almost exactly the same team that did Fallout 2. (Not 1 though, they made Arcanum.)