Looking for an old-school (style) PC CRPG

[JesterRaiin]

That is quite a list, thanks!

My pleasure.

I have played through most of the old SSI-released games (though I remember rage quitting Dark Sun after it managed to corrupt my save games for the 3rd time! That game was worse than daggerfall.).

I don't think Dungeon Hack was by the same people as Eye of the beholder. EotB was made by Westwood, who went on creating Lands of Lore when they lost the rights to EotB (this is also why EotB 1-2 are better than 3).

I was under the impression that Superhero League was an adventure game. Seem like I was wrong on that one. That one needs to be played. I seem to have been wrong about Hired Guns as well. When I found a box in a bargain bin, way back, I thought it was a Space Hulk rippoff.

If you enjoyed Darklands, you might want to check out King of dragon pass. While a very different game, I think it might appeal to the same kind of people.

The Legacy is a game that I had not even heard of, but it looks great. I'll make sure to keep an eye on the local ebay counterpart for it.

Thanks everyone for your advice! Now I think I have some CRPGs to play

I never had that kind of problem with Dark Sun. Dark Sun 2 on the other hand has its issues - there are whole corrupted areas like UnderTyr and you better forget about high level Mage spells. Pity - it would be wonderful to hurl a Sirocco against enemies. However i strongly encourage you to try both of them. There's something unique in this setting - no gold, scarcity of metal and magic items, lack of your typical AD&D 2.0 limitations (dual wielding for everyone, no matter the class), unique characters (thri-kreens, half giants, mules).
I was very excited when Darksun was ressurected in newest edition of D&D. After reading the core book i felt depressed. :|

BTW : There was this game, i don't remember its name. It was something like "Crimson Lands", or something. Very old, very simple yet challenging cRPG taking place in post nuclear world. Some people liked it very much, since it recreated the atmosphere of Mad Max better than Fallout. So i was told.

DungeonHack is very similiar to EoB series. It actually reuses some textures, objects and sounds - that's where i got my impression.

I know King of Dragon Pass. Currently i'm trying to work it in a window, but it seems it's impossible. :|

SuperHero : LoH really IS a cRPG. Adventure oriented. Silly. Full of uncommon solutions. But still, a cRPG.
Same story with Hired Guns. Now that's the game to debate over.
There is no levelling, no character building, no storytelling. However there is micromanagement, weapons, "magical" techno devices, healing potions and energy bars, cave exploring, hordes of enemies. People always argued what kind of game it really was. Then again, some regard "Elvira" series as cRPG and others forget that "Lord of the Rings" belongs to this genre, so to each his own.

Anyway.
You may find it useful : http://www.ppa.pl/hiredguns/bronie.html
It's in polish, but google translator does the job well in this case.

BTW : Thunderscape ? Stonekeep ? Entomorph ?
Those old school games are hard to play now, with everything what Skyrim has to offer, but still. They are often much more unique than whatever we're used to now.

 

[Pearwood]

Ah I figured you'd just get an emulator. Mask of Eternity and the Gothic series are the only ones I remember but that's going back a bit and I can't really remember what they were like.

 

[Isaac The Grape]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronox

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_268/8027-The-Best-Planet-Companion

Obscure, underloved, critically acclaimed, and made by the other half of Ion Storm that didn't make Daikatana.

 

[Deadyawn]

Bloody hell mate, you did a good job of shutting down any sugestions I had. There was a game called lionheart that was of that kind but apparently it was shit so I don't know. It was interesting because it was made by interplay and used the special system as seen in fallout. But again, poor reception. I haven't played it personally.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Fallout 1 and 2? They are extremely old and old-school.

 

[Tallim]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronox

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_268/8027-The-Best-Planet-Companion

Obscure, underloved, critically acclaimed, and made by the other half of Ion Storm that didn't make Daikatana.

I love Anachronox but I doubt the OP would like it because despite being a western developer it IS a JRPG in style and presentation, especially the combat.

Might have overlooked it but I don't spy Temple Of Elemental Evil on the list. VERY good providing you get all the fan patch stuff to fix and improve it.

 

[Wolfram23]

Did you ever play or hear of Silver? That was a really good game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_%28video_game%29

I guess it's more JRPG than you want, but you've already played far more RPGs than I've even heard of so, yeah, check it out.

 

[ResonanceGames]

I'll second Prelude to Darkness, especially since it's freeeeeeeeee.

X-Com is not an RPG.

 

[Jaeger_CDN]

Another oldie that runs along the lines of the early Ultima series (infact it was partially licenced from Richard Garriott) is Questron [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questron]

It's an abandonware title so you'll have to hunt for it and it does have a sequel but I never had the chance to play it.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Honestly, if you've already been following indie stuff like Grimrock, this probably isn't the best place to look for a new RPG. You've probably played more RPGs than anyone on here, myself included. The Codex might be a better bet...if you can manage to wade through all the mindless excrement that passes for "discussion" over there.

But places like this and other mainstream sites don't have 'mindless excrement' that passes for discussion ?

At least over there you can actually find some intelligent in depth discussion about games that aren't named Skyrim.

Yeah, we get it. You love to waggle your e-peen about how everyone except you is an idiot because they don't exclusively play rgps. You've made that abundantly clear, and no one cares.

 

[Sinathor]

Eschalon Book 1 and Book 2. Amazing old-school RPGs that sweeps the floor with most modern RPGs. Waiting patiently for Book 3.

 

[TopQuark]

Redundant.

 

[Herbert_v1legacy]

I never had that kind of problem with Dark Sun. Dark Sun 2 on the other hand has its issues - there are whole corrupted areas like UnderTyr and you better forget about high level Mage spells. Pity - it would be wonderful to hurl a Sirocco against enemies. However i strongly encourage you to try both of them. There's something unique in this setting - no gold, scarcity of metal and magic items, lack of your typical AD&D 2.0 limitations (dual wielding for everyone, no matter the class), unique characters (thri-kreens, half giants, mules).
I was very excited when Darksun was ressurected in newest edition of D&D. After reading the core book i felt depressed. :|

BTW : There was this game, i don't remember its name. It was something like "Crimson Lands", or something. Very old, very simple yet challenging cRPG taking place in post nuclear world. Some people liked it very much, since it recreated the atmosphere of Mad Max better than Fallout. So i was told.

DungeonHack is very similiar to EoB series. It actually reuses some textures, objects and sounds - that's where i got my impression.

I know King of Dragon Pass. Currently i'm trying to work it in a window, but it seems it's impossible. :|

SuperHero : LoH really IS a cRPG. Adventure oriented. Silly. Full of uncommon solutions. But still, a cRPG.
Same story with Hired Guns. Now that's the game to debate over.
There is no levelling, no character building, no storytelling. However there is micromanagement, weapons, "magical" techno devices, healing potions and energy bars, cave exploring, hordes of enemies. People always argued what kind of game it really was. Then again, some regard "Elvira" series as cRPG and others forget that "Lord of the Rings" belongs to this genre, so to each his own.

Anyway.
You may find it useful : http://www.ppa.pl/hiredguns/bronie.html
It's in polish, but google translator does the job well in this case.

BTW : Thunderscape ? Stonekeep ? Entomorph ?
Those old school games are hard to play now, with everything what Skyrim has to offer, but still. They are often much more unique than whatever we're used to now.

It might have been Dark Sun 2 that gave me all those issues, I have not played those games in a long time, so my memory might be a bit foggy.

As SSI had the rights to the D&D license back then, it is not unlikely that the deal with them and Westwood was that SSI would retain the rights to all the assets from Eye of the beholder, basically putting Westwood in a position that they had no real rights to their own game, and that is why the EotB assets can be found in Dungeon Hack.

I downloaded Stonekeep from GOG a few months ago, and I could not really get into it. Some people seem to love it, other hate it. I have not played Entomorph though, so that game gets added to the list. It looks an awful lot like Al-Qadim.

Ah I figured you'd just get an emulator. Mask of Eternity and the Gothic series are the only ones I remember but that's going back a bit and I can't really remember what they were like.

Mask of Eternity was an interesting game. It mixed classic adventure games with CRPGs. King's quest fans hated it, I thought it was alright. Gothic is on my played list up there

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronox

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_268/8027-The-Best-Planet-Companion

Obscure, underloved, critically acclaimed, and made by the other half of Ion Storm that didn't make Daikatana.

As others said, not quite what I'm looking for. I have played it though, it was a great game.

I'll just copy and paste a list i posted somewhere else, so just overlook games that you played or were already mentioned.
Dark Heart of Uukrul

Thanks for the list. I'm afraid that I have played almost all games on that list, and those that I have not played (that are CRPGs) have already been mentioned, apart from Dark heart. I have not played that game (though I have heard of it). Another game to add to the list! (And I have played X-com, and I thought it was great! Xenonauts [http://www.xenonauts.com/] might be a game to keep an eye on for anyone who like X-com)

But places like this and other mainstream sites don't have 'mindless excrement' that passes for discussion ?

At least over there you can actually find some intelligent in depth discussion about games that aren't named Skyrim.

The problem with that place are not the intelligent discussions, but all the 4chan memes that is used between them.

Another oldie that runs along the lines of the early Ultima series (infact it was partially licenced from Richard Garriott) is Questron [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questron]

It's an abandonware title so you'll have to hunt for it and it does have a sequel but I never had the chance to play it.

How did I miss that game? SSI's first fantasy game, that is something that needs to be checked out.

Damn, you've made a list of almost every RPG ever released (at least since the 1990s) and are asking for more? xD
Well, let's see... for one the obvious stuff:
Did you play Jade Empire (I know a lot of people were put off by the Asian setting but I thought it was a great game).
Also you said you hated Neverwinter Nights (I did too, up there with Dragon Age 2 one of the worst Bioware RPGs they made... at least the SinglePlayer), does that mean you never tried Neverwinter Nights 2? That was developed by Obsidian and I kinda liked it, also it's first expansion (Mask of the Betrayer - a completely stand-alone campaign) was excellent.

Silver was already mentioned, and while it's somewhat of a consoley game and rather focused on combat it's worth a look...

Also Summoner, which is Volitions only attempt at an RPG might be worth a try, although it is also more on the action-y side of things:

Other than that... uhm, have you ever tried Albion? xD
I remember I had lots of fun with that ages ago, it was a mix between 2D and 3D and quite intriguing from its setting, story and gameplay etc.


Also I know you said you didn't want JRPG-style games, but Septerra Core was one of em I actually liked even though I was never a fan of Final Fantasy or similar games, it had a nice story/world, was playing on multiple "layers" of landmasses that were flying around through space after a planet exploded, the several layers had different social rankings and all felt very different e.g. on the lowest ones I believe there was some sort of jungles, above lived the "poor" people, then a big city and above the rich people and monarchs. You could travel between them using "flying ships", of which you got one of your own during the game... Unfortunately as much fun as it was through the first 3/4 of the game the last quarter turned into mind-numbing combat after combat and I never really got to complete it).

And Cthulhu Saves the World on Steam, it's cheap and it's damn fun(ny). xD

What can I say, I love CRPGs above all other genres, and I started at an early age I've played Jade empire, and thought that the setting was outstanding.
I bought Neverwinter nights 2, but never finished it. It was not the story that was the problem, but the bugs, the AI and the camera.

I have played through summoner. It was a long time ago, but the game was good enough. After having seen this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zng5kRle4FA] it is a bit hard to take it serious though And I know that that is not the original source of those voice clips, that honor goes to the Dead Alewives.

Albion is one of the greatest games of its time. I can't believe that I forgot to mention it in my first post! It is nice to see something that is not fantasy (for once!)

The GOG version of septera core crashes on my computer, for some strange reason, and I have not been able to figure out why. The game just jumps to desktop as soon as the intro video starts.

And Cthulhu saves the world was a nice little bite sized game. It was only 4h long, which was just about right for a game like that. I have not played its companion game, Breath of death VII yet though.

 

[JesterRaiin]

BTW : Thunderscape ? Stonekeep ? Entomorph ?
Those old school games are hard to play now, with everything what Skyrim has to offer, but still. They are often much more unique than whatever we're used to now.

It might have been Dark Sun 2 that gave me all those issues, I have not played those games in a long time, so my memory might be a bit foggy.

As SSI had the rights to the D&D license back then, it is not unlikely that the deal with them and Westwood was that SSI would retain the rights to all the assets from Eye of the beholder, basically putting Westwood in a position that they had no real rights to their own game, and that is why the EotB assets can be found in Dungeon Hack.

I downloaded Stonekeep from GOG a few months ago, and I could not really get into it. Some people seem to love it, other hate it. I have not played Entomorph though, so that game gets added to the list. It looks an awful lot like Al-Qadim.

Yeah, same here. There titles like that - for example i never could really accept Bloodnet. Good game, nice character creation system, interesting story and setting, but i died each and every time there was a fight. Where's fun in that ?

But i have to admit : i like Al-Qadim. It's not your typical cRPG, actually i'm not sure if it's really crpg, but hell, i had my fun.