My kingdom for a good RPG!

[The Eggplant]

...Well. Not really, but at least it got you here.

So I'm in need of a good RPG, as the title might suggest. And since I have a pretty limited knowledge of gaming (comes with never owning a console and never having anything better than a high-end-of-low PC), I'm turning to the Escapist for advice. Out of my already limited list of RPGs that I've even played, I've enjoyed an even smaller handful of them: The Fallout games, TES: Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, Fable (for about half an hour, and then I beat the game), Planescape: Torment, and Diablo II about sums it up. So with that in mind, here are some ways to endear me to your recommendations:

DISCLAIMER: Everything that follows is open for interpretation. I'm not demanding that everything I want be present...these are just features of past RPGs that I've particularly enjoyed.

1. Tell me it has character customization. I can't stress this enough: I love love love being able to change my avatar's appearance, stats, pick a class and specializations, and all that folderol. Part of it's for replay value, part of it's being I enjoy freedom in personalizing and customizing my character, and part of it's because I'm a hopeless geek.

2. Tell me there's a big game world, with lots to do. I like exploring, I like sidequests, and most importantly I like a game that can last me a while. Linearity is fine for me...but not in my arpuggers.

3. Tell me there's stealthy bits. Not as big an issue for me, but I really enjoy being a sneaky stabby bastard, so anything that allows for that gets an automatic leg up on the competition.

~If you DON'T want to endear me to your recommendation, of course, you could always:

1. Tell me it's turn-based. This isn't a complete deal-breaker, but with the exception of the Fallout games I haven't really been a fan of turn-based RPGs. It feels unnecessarily stiff to me, and can mess with the all-important immersion. Oh, and in a similar vein:

2. Tell me it's a jRPG. No, seriously. This isn't me hopping on the trendy hate-train; I've never liked jRPGs, with the sole exception of FFVI. I don't like the incredibly limited character customization ability, I hate the miniscule control the player gets to exercise over character interactions and the plot as a whole...they're just not my thing.

3. Tell me it's console-only, or requires a HAL-esque computer to play. Like I said earlier, I don't own any consoles, and my gaming "rig" is a Toshiba laptop that, while nowhere near the bottom of the heap, gets scared at the thought of even trying to run Crysis. So even if it's Captain Awesome's Massively Free-Roaming Stealth Adventure, if it's exclusive to PS3, it's probably not going to work out for me.

So that's about it...if the list seems a bit demanding I'm sorry, and I want to once again emphasize that except for the last dislike option, I'm flexible about all of them. Got a great, open turn-based game? Tell me! A fantastic free-roamer with customization out the wazoo but no stealth? Sling it my way! This is a request for advice, after all...I'm not going to get too prima donna about it.

 

[Amnestic]

Was going to suggest KotOR until you mentioned jRPG. Shame.

Can't think of anything else right now. But you should probably get KotOR anyway, because it's awesome.

 

[The Madman]

Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate BALDUR'S GATE BALDUR'S GATE!!!!!

If you enjoyed Neverwinter Night, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment then Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is your holy grail, I kid you not. And no I'm not just saying this because I'm a massive fan of the game, although I most certainly am, but because it's widely considered the absolute best classic RPG ever made and the best implementation of various features from the three games mentioned above ever. But don't just take my word for it!

It's got Character customization up the wazoo, an absolutely massive open world with more sub-quests than you might ever complete (Some of which are better than many a full fledged game in terms of writing and content.), and of course you can not only play as a rogue doing the stealthy thing, but you can play as a mixed class character that comes out of the shadows to kick tremendous amounts of ass!

It's kinda turn based in the same sense as Planescape: Torment, meaning all the calculation for turn-based combat are going on in the background, but you never actually see it yourself except in that you can pause the game and que up abilities before resuming. It's most certainly not a jrpg, being one of Bioware's first and in my opinion best games. And it's around 10 years old now on the PC, so not only can your computer run it but the high-res artwork it uses for backgrounds coupled with some 3D environmental and spell effects means it's still a damn fine lookin game.

Just go look it up. Baldur's Gate series. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn remains one of my favorite games ever made, nevermind just rpgs, but games full-stop.

Was going to suggest KotOR until you mentioned jRPG. Shame.

Can't think of anything else right now. But you should probably get KotOR anyway, because it's awesome.

JRPG was on his Don't tell me it is list, so Kotor is an excellent suggestion.

 

[The Eggplant]

Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate BALDUR'S GATE BALDUR'S GATE!!!!!

If you enjoyed Neverwinter Night, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment then Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is your holy grail, I kid you not. And no I'm not just saying this because I'm a massive fan of the game, although I most certainly am, but because it's widely considered the absolute best classic RPG ever made and the best implementation of various features from the three games mentioned above ever. But don't just take my word for it!

It's got Character customization up the wazoo, an absolutely massive open world with more sub-quests than you might ever complete (Some of which are better than many a full fledged game in terms of writing and content.), and of course you can not only play as a rogue doing the stealthy thing, but you can play as a mixed class character that comes out of the shadows to kick tremendous amounts of ass!

It's kinda turn based in the same sense as Planescape: Torment, meaning all the calculation for turn-based combat are going on in the background, but you never actually see it yourself except in that you can pause the game and que up abilities before resuming. It's most certainly not a jrpg, being one of Bioware's first and in my opinion best games. And it's around 10 years old now on the PC, so not only can your computer run it but the high-res artwork it uses for backgrounds coupled with some 3D environmental and spell effects means it's still a damn fine lookin game.

Just go look it up. Baldur's Gate series. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn remains one of my favorite games ever made, nevermind just rpgs, but games full-stop.

Two things: First of all, your avatar made me grin tremendously. I might have to go reread that book tonight. Secondly, BG sounds poifect for me...although even after doing only a tiny bit of research, I'm pretty embarrassed I hadn't heard about it on my own. Eh, well.

Was going to suggest KotOR until you mentioned jRPG. Shame.

Can't think of anything else right now. But you should probably get KotOR anyway, because it's awesome.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't KotOR a Bioware game? Set in the Star Wars universe? I wouldn't think that would lend itself to the whole jRPG thing much...unless I'm missing something.

 

[klakkat]

Was going to suggest KotOR until you mentioned jRPG. Shame.

Can't think of anything else right now. But you should probably get KotOR anyway, because it's awesome.

Wait, what? KotoR isn't a JRPG. Do get it though.

If you want a really good one, go for Deus Ex; it's an FPS/RPG, and probably the best of that sub-genre. Not much in appearance customization, but plenty of skill/ability customization. Stealth? oh, definitely. Real-Time? Check. Exploration? Well, a fair bit; I love looking for alternate routes into missions, there are so many that are easy to miss. It is a bit old, but you can buy it through Steam for peanuts nowadays.

 

[Amnestic]

KOTORS NOT A JRPG LOL

It's late, I missed the separation into the don't list. Whoops. My bad.

Get Baldur's Gate+2+Expansions, get KoTOR, get Jade Empire...

 

[Dr. Danger]

I... I'm not sure what to say. You don't have consoles and you can't play PC games.


What about the likes of Dragon Age: Origins or Mass Effect?

Edit: PC gaming eludes me. Soz mate.

 

[LordMoose]

Xcom games? (For the love of god dont use the... *shudder* 3rd person shooter version
Jagged Alliance 2 (BIG WORLD, old game, could run on your laptop i'd bet, and you can pick it up for a handful at GoG.com, Get the official unoffical patch/mod, jagged alliance 2 1.13, and you'll have tons of fun. It even has multiplayer

 

[The Eggplant]

I... I'm not sure what to say. You don't have consoles and you can't play PC games.


What about the likes of Dragon Age: Origins or Mass Effect?

I can run them both. The whole Crysis line was mostly for dramatic effect; I can run it on medium-to-low settings, so anything less graphically intensive should be fine. I may have a laptop, but it does OK for what it is.

 

[Sansha]

Fallout3.

I'll be taking that kingdom now.

 

[praetor_alpha]

I was about to say the Witcher, but that's more story and morality driven, rather than having customization or a huge world.

I second the Mass Effect recommendation.

 

[Raiha]

definately KOTOR and KOTOR2. the first one has one of the best plots in any video game ever played, the second one improved the gameplay, but the plot suffered.

 

[praetor_alpha]

definately KOTOR and KOTOR2. the first one has one of the best plots in any video game ever played, the second one improved the gameplay, but the plot suffered.

Huh. Replace "KOTOR" with "Mass Effect", and that's my exact opinion of Mass Effect.

 

[The Madman]

Two things: First of all, your avatar made me grin tremendously. I might have to go reread that book tonight. Secondly, BG sounds poifect for me...although even after doing only a tiny bit of research, I'm pretty embarrassed I hadn't heard about it on my own. Eh, well.

You are the third person ever to comment on the Avatar across all the various places I've used it! You, my good sir, have excellent taste in books!

And Baldur's Gate is pretty much right up your alley judging by the other games you've enjoyed. I can all but guarantee it'll soon be among your favorite games just as it's among mine. The whole series is ridiculously cheap nowadays as well, and offers easily over 100 hours worth of gameplay on the first playthrough (Of the two games) alone. You can carry over your character from the first game into the second so it plays like one amazingly long adventure rather than separate stories and game.

A few tips if you do end up picking them up. Baldur's Gate 2 is widely regarded as the better of the two games, but that doesn't mean you should skip the first although you can if you choose. There are however a pair of mods that increase the quality of the first game quite a bit such as the BG1 Tutu mod that ports the content from the first game into the much-improved second games engine, allowing not only higher resolution and more abilities, but the full range of character options and class right from the start. Plus the BG1 NPC Project is also fantastic, allowing more inter-party dialogue and banter all extremely well written and implemented in such a way you wont even know what's part of the mod and what isn't. Both I suggest even for a first playthrough.

The second game needs no mods, it's amazing as is right out of the box.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

 

[Doctor VonSexMachine]

Fallout3.

I'll be taking that kingdom now.

He mentioned it in his OP.
OT: Mass Effect is pretty cool: custom character, not japanese, decent world... no stealth as far as I recall, though. It's not turn based... and I can't imagine it not on the PC as the keyboard comand map is HUGE LIKE XBOX, but I imagine they figured out some way to make it work on the 360 as it did very well.

 

[klakkat]

Xcom games? (For the love of god dont use the... *shudder* 3rd person shooter version

I'm pretty sure X-Com doesn't count as RPG, but they are fantastic games (well, the first three. UFO Defense, Terror from the Deep, and Apocalypse. The others are bad).

 

[Worgen]

just get the witcher, really the only thing is lacking is customization appearance wise but other then that its great, they really improved it from the original release

 

[PixieFace]

I feel like I'm on this lonely little island of people that hated the Witcher something hardcore and can't for the life of me understand what people find appealing in it. Ah, well.

Like other have said, Knights of the Old Republic. Seriously, that is the best game I've ever played in my life. Great story, great characters, excellent music. It's become something of a basis of comparison for me whenever I judge a game. ("Well, Dragon Age wasn't as good as Knights but it was pretty close!")

And, yeah. Dragon Age: Origins was great. I don't like high fantasy garbage that much, but Bioware always manages to pull out some great characters and intriguing stories so it didn't even matter to me in the end that I was an elf fighting dragons.

I'm playing through Neverwinter Nights right now and I like it so far. The story isn't as great (as Knights lololol!!1) as it could have been but it's still pretty neat, especially with the character customization you can do. It really should have been called Looting: The Game because I swear to Moses I've been getting an absolute arse-ton of vender junk every time I take a tip-toe around the map. I'm not complaining, but it is kind of silly how much crap I end up towing about.