Recommended RPG games?

The Game Room
#1

My friend who loves Morrowind & the Thief series is looking for new RPG games for a PC that are similar to these.

Her requirements are-

free range possibilities (class alignments, house, etc,) as in Morrowind,

first-person/third-person ideal,

not small characters or graphics as in Balder’s Gate,

realistic graphics & sound effects as in MW (including sunsets & sunrises, constellations, etc.), not the stupid cartoony/anime crap that’s in Fable,

lots of upgradable clothing, armour and weapons,

completely open world, not scripted as in Fable, where you can’t even go off the roads and into forests,

something that lots of mods exist for would be ideal,

long-lasting game with a cool storyline,

something that plays like Thief would be ideal because you feel like you’re in another world,

difficult or complicated quests, moreso than the ones in Morrowind.

#2

Well, Oblivion would be obvious, as it is Morrowind’s sequel.

The Witcher has just been re-released all patched up and fine tuned.

Has he played Planescape: Torment? It does not fit all the requirements you listed, but it is brilliant and my favorite PC RPG of all time.

#3

What other kinds are there? I’m trying to figure out how a second person game would work…

#4

Suddenly, you felt the need to wave the rod.

#5

There are text adventures that I’ve played that use the second person.

Sorry, Friar Ted, I don’t have anything to offer since the RPG’s I like go against at least one of the criteria. I’ll toss out a mention for Fallout 3 which comes out in a few weeks since it will apparently be like the recent Elder Scrolls games.

#6

There aren’t many good sand box type modern RPG’s outside of Oblivion. Assasin’s creed is more adventure sand box game than RPG so that’s out. Fallout 3 will be a good game to get, but that’s not out for another month.

I would recommend maybe Neverwinter Nights or Neverwinter Nights 2. They are not sandbox games though, they are very story driven, and while there is a lot of exploration to be had, it’s not like Oblivion where the whole world is explorable.

But what NWN lacks in huge open terrains it more than makes up in all of the other categories you mentioned. Lots of items, spells, classes and skills/feats to customize your characters, Alignment and consequences for various different role-playing paths (indifferent, evil, good, etc), there’s crafting as well as upgradeable items.

The NWN series is the king of mods. NWN 1 has an untold number of these + thousands of hours worth of user created adventures. NWN 2 doesn’t have quite as many mods and adventures, but the numbers are still pretty high, consider it hasn’t been out for as long as NWN 1 (check out nwvault.ign.com). NWN 1 has a total of three official adventures (the original campaign + 2 expansions), that alone offers hundreds of hours of gameplay. NWN has the same, the official campaign + 1 expansion already out (with one of the best story lines since planescape Torment, IMHO), and another coming in a month.

I’ve also heard ok things about Dungeon Siege, though the focus in those games is definitely hack and slash and linear gameplay.

#7

wipes slobber from chin As a self confirmed Oblivion junkie, with so many mods and so many hours wasted. (As in I spent 20 hours at least just making my homes look lived in. Sad eh) Fallout 3 looks absolutely wonderful and I cannot wait to get my grubby paws on it.

#8

Deus Ex 1 and 2 are a little older, but they should fit the bill. The first is clearly the stronger of the two, but the second is playable.

They’re from the same era as Thief, so expect the same quality.

System Shock 2 is friggin’ awesome. It uses the engine from Thief. It takes place on a pair of spaceships, so don’t expect any sunrise graphics, but there is a are several mods out there to update sounds, models, and textures.

#9

You might try Knights of the Old Republic, the sequel, or the spiritual succcessor, Mass Effect. My opinion is that the first is the strongest out of the three, but all three are enjoyable. Mass Effect is rather short and more action oriented, though, but very immersive.

There’s also the Gothic series, the latest being Gothic 3, I think. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve read good things about them.

#10

Gothic, Gothic, and a thousand times Gothic!! The first one has the best story line, but is a little rough around the edges. If she is likely to only play one of them, have her play the 3rd one, as the developers finally got everything right. The controls are a bit intimidating in the first one, but they get progressively better as the series goes on.
Think of it as a ‘solid’ and less-proceedurally generated version of Morrowind. Lots of quests, lots to see, many factions to join, reputation systems, equipment upgrades, 3rd or 1st person, etc. Personally, I like joining the orcs as a mercenary and enslaving my fellow humans, rather than joining the rebels against their orcish oppressors, but that’s just me. YMMV.

#11

DS is pretty boring–it’s essentially a clickfest on rails. There are times where you could just about leave the computer to get a sandwich and come back to discover that the other characters in your party have cleared out the level for you.

#12

Yes, SHE’s played Planescape:Torment. It’s one of her favorite games, but there’s not much challenge when you’ve got the whole game memorized.

She’s heard The Witcher is a good game but she isn’t much into the Big Boss types of games.

She has Fallout 3 reserved.

Re: NWN- Thanks for the descriptions. They’re very helpful. But the graphics on the box look kind of cartoonish to her. How do you find them to be?

RyJae: My friend Erin wants to marry you. She is offering her hand. She’s like that with MW, can’t wait to play Oblivion! (Psst- I think she just wants to get her hands on your CPU.)

She played SS2 but after going through the basic training, she thought it sucked so bad, she threw it in the garbage. “I can’t believe Looking Glass Studios produced it! How could the makers of Thief, my panthon of gods, produce such garbage as this!?”

I don’t think she cared for it.
What did you like about SS2?

Re KnightsOtOR- she doesn’t do Star Wars stuff. Is Mass Effect also SW-related?

“Gothic, you say? I’ll have to have my pet monkey* look into this! Thanks for this awesome pick. I sure hope the graphics live up to the description.”

*That would be me.

Thanks to everyone who responded! Keep them coming!

#13

The graphics in NWN 2 aren’t any more cartoon like than Oblivion. Actually i find almost all the people in Oblivion to be butt ugly.

Marc

#14

For me, the best thing about it was the setting and atmosphere. It’s the kind of game you play at night with the lights off, to encourage the proper feeling of paranoia.

Mass Effect is sci-fi, but not Star Wars.

I’d recommend all three of those games: System Shock 2, KotOR and Mass Effect.

#15

NWN graphics: Right, the graphics in NWN 1 are slightly more cartoony than Oblivion and morrowind, but not by much. The animations are much more realistic though, so in motion, the game looks less cartoony than on a still image.

NWN 2’s graphics are even less cartoony than NWN 1’s.

#16

I don’t really do Star Wars stuff, either, but I enjoyed KOTOR a lot.

She definitely needs to try Oblivion, and don’t be afraid to mod it. The game is good out of the box. The game is extraordinary when you throw mods on top of it, mostly because it’s fine-tuned to the kind of game you want to play.

And great news about Fallout 3: the worst criticism I’ve seen leveled against it by the gaming press is that it’s Oblivion with guns (but without the character-based leveling that was the biggest criticism of Oblivion). If you liked Oblivion, the game is going to be fantastic (of course, that’s bad news if you didn’t. I loved Oblivion; probably played for around 500 hours).

#17

I remember fondly my first 500 hours, ahhh to be a beginner again. :smiley:

#18

One of these days I’ll even finish the main storyline.

#19

I have about 20 different character saves, all in various stages of the game. Some I went vampire, others I went all good you know every possible combination of playing. But I have only beaten it two times, the main quest is just something to get in the way of the fun stuff :slight_smile:

Back to the OP, it doesn’t cost much to get Oblivion to run, what are the current specs of her computer?

#20

I recently started playing Silverfall again and realized it might fit the OP’s requirements. If not, well, it’s only 20 bucks.