Poll: God I miss Isometric

[Doitpow]

By all that is holy I miss isometric perspective.

Baldur's Gate, Red Alert 2, Age of Empires 2, Diablo 1 and 2, Fallout 1 and 2. Pretty much 90% of all decent PC gaming experiences used it back in the day. Man isometric perspective rocked.

Why does no one make isometric RPGs anymore? Even on handheld's they're super rare. The iPhone should have at least one decent one.
Why does every RTS need to be able to swing cameras around like crazy? They don't. It's stupid.

So yeah...Anyone with me?
miss isometric?
Want it back?
what were your favorite isometric games?

 

[Doitpow]

oh and this includes oblique and trimetric projection as well, before mathematitians jump on me for fallout

 

[Trivun]

I'm replaying the Megaman Battle Network series right now, and I love the isometric look of the games. Also, I've just decided, I'm going to bring this up with our project leader for the game I'm (meant to be) working on. I'd find it easier anyway to design the levels with an isometric look, and hopefully it would make the graphics look more professional and pretty (and God knows we need something to do that, given what I've had to work with so far. Not trying to be nasty, but even so...)...

But yeah, I've always preferred isometric design to simple square blocks and tiles. It just makes it look, I don't know, more 'real'...

 

[Tayh]

Isometric was awesome.
I hate how everything has to be converted to FPS/TPS perspective these days.

My favourite games are still Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate series and Planescape:Torment.
I wish someone would make a decent sequel to those games.

 

[targren]

Why does no one make isometric RPGs anymore? Even on handheld's they're super rare.

Someone still does. Runic Games' Torchlight II uses it, IIRC, and is due out "Real Soon Now". Supposed to be very good if you're a Diablo II fan, so I'm watching for it.

 

[Wolfram23]

Mmmm isometric. Had a nice throwback with Bastion.

I do like good graphics and all that, but I can see uses for isometric. Some of the best RPGs are isometric.

I think it's a little like how Resident Evil originally had those static cameras, and while annoying it actually greatly added to the scaryness of the game. In a similar way, only showing a top-down view of everything removes a little but it also adds to an experience in a different way.

 

[Smertnik]

I don't. I hate the isometric view. I want to be able to freely look around and when you can't control your character directly it becomes even worse. Isometric perspective can work (like in Bastion) but most of the times I find it just annoying to look at my character(s) from the sky. Third person perspective is what I'm most comfortable with.

 

[boag]

Isometric was awesome.
I hate how everything has to be converted to FPS/TPS perspective these days.

My favourite games are still Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate series and Planescape:Torment.
I wish someone would make a decent sequel to those games.

Fallout 2 and Baldurs Gate pretty much fucked themselves over with their endings, how would you go go about making decent sequels to clusterfucks like those, if you arent satisfied with what came from one of them?

 

[skywolfblue]

I don't miss isometric. 3rd person gives a lot more camera freedom.

 

[Doitpow]

I don't miss isometric. 3rd person gives a lot more camera freedom.

<spoiler=stern face><img=http://idigitalcitizen.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/wolverine-stern-face-1024x768.jpg?w=1024>

You are not welcome here.

I'm joking obviously.

 

[Hal10k]

The downside of an isometric viewpoint is that your viewpoint is limited to a short range around you. Sure, you can get a better grasp of your immediate surroundings, but it essentially restricts all encounters to a ten meter radius.

 

[AD-Stu]

While I'm certainly nostalgic about many of the games that used it back in the day, for the most part I can't say I really miss it. I did use the zoomed-out camera extensively during combat in Dragon Age: Origins but for the most part I find third person a lot more free and visually impressive since you can actually see out into the distance, get a sense of height and don't have to worry about things being hidden by walls.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I like it when a game gives me the option to switch between Isometric and full 3D camera modes. Dragon Age 1 did this particularly well. Dragon Age 2 omitted it so... they could make ceiling textures. That you never see.

 

[Vegosiux]

Isometric was awesome.
I hate how everything has to be converted to FPS/TPS perspective these days.

My favourite games are still Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate series and Planescape:Torment.
I wish someone would make a decent sequel to those games.

Fallout 2 and Baldurs Gate pretty much fucked themselves over with their endings, how would you go go about making decent sequels to clusterfucks like those, if you arent satisfied with what came from one of them?

Clusterfucked? Clusterfucked!? Since when is a story well told and closed properly instead of being a sequell hook translated into "clusterfucked"?

I agree, they ended so that sequels are impossible, but that's in this case a good thing.

Also, bring in some isometric, but hmm, didn't Bastion try it and pulled it off rather well actually?

 

[LookingGlass]

Personally I've had more fun playing Fallout 1 and 2, Baldur's Gate, and Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (all for the first time) in the last year or so than I have with any new games released this generation. So yes, I'm a fan.

It's not the perspective that what made those games great though (moving around was often annoying). Still, perhaps returning to it today would mean more time spent on mechanics and quest design, and less on making everything pretty.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I dunno, the Isometric view seemed to mess with the map quite a bit (in C&C Tiberium sun especially, you frequently got the bottom centimetre of the map cut off)
And I remember the first time I found out that I could zoom right in to my high fidelity units in Tiberium Wars. Compared to the tiny, pixelated sprites of T.S., there was no comparison.

But in a small time, retro-y game for handhelds, Isometrics would still do the business excellently. I'm surpried it isn't used more.

 

[ResonanceGames]

You're missing "it doesn't really matter, the vantage point is not one of the main reasons RPGs have declined."

Several of the pioneering RPG series out there weren't even isometric. Wizardry, Might and Magic, Eye of the Beholder, etc.

Even Pool of Radiance was a 1st person/top down combo.

 

[Cowabungaa]

You're missing "it doesn't really matter, the vantage point is not one of the main reasons RPGs have declined."

Thank you very much.

No, I don't miss isometric. It's an antiquated piece of technology that still has it's uses on low-end platforms (handhelds, phones) but there are way better alternatives on more powerful platforms.

Isometric is just needlessly restrictive for both the player and the developer. It also really fucks up perspective.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Had a nice throwback with Bastion.

I was about to say, imagine an old-school CRPG with a Bastion-type aesthetic.

...shit, gotta go change my pants.

 

[Tanakh]

Why does no one make isometric RPGs anymore? Even on handheld's they're super rare. The iPhone should have at least one decent one.
Why does every RTS need to be able to swing cameras around like crazy? They don't. It's stupid.

So yeah...Anyone with me?
miss isometric?
Want it back?
what were your favorite isometric games?

Isometric is out? Didn't recived the memo, i spent hundreds of hours on SC 2 and DotA 2 last year, will play Tourchlight 2 and Diablo III this year too. Grated, it's not "true isometric", but 3d models with isometic inspired perspective.

Isometric RPG? Wouldn't know, i have been drifting away from RPGs since the end of the PS one era.