Poll: God I miss Isometric

[Shoggoth2588]

I only really played the first Diablo, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and, Megaman Battle Network in Isometric. I played a little bit of the first 2 Fallout games too and I think it would be a good idea to bring it back. The last 3 console games I bought were all first person and the last 4 I played were as well. It's gotten really old at this point and while 3rd person is fine, a new isometric game could do what Symphony of the Night did (ie: utilize a dated perspective so as to load up the game with insane amounts of playable content instead of using that same disc space on making things look pretty).

Also played a lot of the original Star Craft: fun times, especially when using those Nukes.

 

[Fishyash]

Technically it's an inferior view.

I would rather prefer a complete birds eye view so we don't get the bullshit "blind spots". Oh how they pissed me off. But it was a very cheap way to bring in a 3rd dimension. I try and get either a top-down or isometric view when playing dragon age: origins for example, instead of the 3rd person view. If I had to pick between isometric and 3rd person for controlling multiple characters, I would pick isometric every time.

 

[Deadyawn]

I guess I do miss that type of isometric game. They're good. But I liked them for story/mechanical reasons, not because of they're viewpoint. That's not to say I don't like it, it's a perfectly functional system. It's just that developers had to use it if they wanted to make such expansive games. Now we have the technology to do that kind of stuff in a huge pretty open world but the actual RPG stuff has been cut back because it doesn't have widespread appeal and it doesn't make money for the publishers. So no one makes them. Which sucks. So if bringing back isometric would bring back that particular style of game I'm all for it.

 

[Mordekaien]

*cough* *cough* Eschalon *cough* *cough*

And I for one really like that perspective. Still I wanna see more games with top down perspective that aren't JRPGs.

 

[endtherapture]

I liked that Dragon Age Origins combined two view points.

When I was exploring I could go 3rd person and experience all the beautiful views and stuff from a normal perspective.

But when I got into a big battle I'd go into isometric viewpoint mode and I could have complete control over my party. It was awesome

Also one of my favourite RPGs ever so it definitely did something right.

 

[endtherapture]

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?

It doesn't have to have the same lead characters.
Similar game design and same enviroment/setting would do it for me.
I must admit I haven't finished Baldur's Gate 2 yet, so I don't know how that ends, but there's plenty of opportunity to create sequels from where Fallout 2 ended, it doesn't even have to be contained within NA.

Baldur's Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal ended perfectly. All the story threads were wrapped up.

A sequel would just sour that. It didn't need an ending to set up that sequel because it was the end of the Bhaalspawn saga. If there was a sequel it'd just feel incredibly cheap.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Not really. I suppose if you need your isomeetric fix, than get Diablo 3 when it's out (that is if you're fine that it need to be online when you're playing it).

 

[Meight08]

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?

Was it the isometric perspective that made the game great or the game itself?
Alot of games used the isometric perspective.But if fallout had a rotatable overhead-view would it have been worse than if it had a locked isometric view?

 

[The Last Nomad]

Well seen as how the games that use it haven't been all destroyed and actually make up a large portion of my PC games, I don't miss them at all. I still play them, although not half as much as my non-isometric console games.
Why do you miss them... did someone steal them from you?

 

[Tayh]

Baldur's Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal ended perfectly. All the story threads were wrapped up.

A sequel would just sour that. It didn't need an ending to set up that sequel because it was the end of the Bhaalspawn saga. If there was a sequel it'd just feel incredibly cheap.

As I said, it doesn't need to have the same lead characters.
You don't play the same character in Fallout 2 which you ended Fallout with, for instance, but Fallout 2 is still a great game.

 

[endtherapture]

Baldur's Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal ended perfectly. All the story threads were wrapped up.

A sequel would just sour that. It didn't need an ending to set up that sequel because it was the end of the Bhaalspawn saga. If there was a sequel it'd just feel incredibly cheap.

As I said, it doesn't need to have the same lead characters.
You don't play the same character in Fallout 2 which you ended Fallout with, for instance, but Fallout 2 is still a great game.

What's the point in calling it Baldur's Gate then? It will just be yet another D&D game set in the Sword Coast.

 

[Tayh]

What's the point in calling it Baldur's Gate then? It will just be yet another D&D game set in the Sword Coast.

... So?
Fallout did it, Neverwinter Nights did it, Dragon Age does it, Elder Scrolls does it.
Hell, BG2 barely had anything to do with Baldur's Gate, but that didn't stop them from using the same name and tacking a '2' on it. Same with NWN.
Come on, don't make me break out the flowcharts and diagrams.

 

[endtherapture]

What's the point in calling it Baldur's Gate then? It will just be yet another D&D game set in the Sword Coast.

... So?
Fallout did it, Neverwinter Nights did it, Dragon Age does it, Elder Scrolls does it.
Hell, BG2 barely had anything to do with Baldur's Gate, but that didn't stop them from using the same name and tacking a '2' on it. Same with NWN.
Come on, don't make me break out the flowcharts and diagrams.

Have you played Baldur's Gate 2?

It was set a few months after Baldur's Gate 1, in the neighbouring land, with the same player character. It also had appearances by loads of the NPCs in BG1, and continued the story of the Bhaalspawn.

I dont think you have a clue what you're on about if you think BG2 had nothing to do with BG1.

 

[Weaver]

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.

roughly this. in dragon age i spent probably 80% of my time in third person while 20% of it zoomed out in a semi isometric view, just because i liked controlling the camera look better.

I was the opposite. I pretty much zoomed up as high as I could go 2 seconds after gaining control of the camera and left it there for 99% of the game.

 

[Condiments]

What's the point in calling it Baldur's Gate then? It will just be yet another D&D game set in the Sword Coast.

... So?
Fallout did it, Neverwinter Nights did it, Dragon Age does it, Elder Scrolls does it.
Hell, BG2 barely had anything to do with Baldur's Gate, but that didn't stop them from using the same name and tacking a '2' on it. Same with NWN.
Come on, don't make me break out the flowcharts and diagrams.

Have you played Baldur's Gate 2?

It was set a few months after Baldur's Gate 1, in the neighbouring land, with the same player character. It also had appearances by loads of the NPCs in BG1, and continued the story of the Bhaalspawn.

I dont think you have a clue what you're on about if you think BG2 had nothing to do with BG1.

He is right though, a sequel doesn't necessarily have to follow the same characters. Black Isle had the intention of making a third Baldur's gate game, and it didn't follow the Bhaalspawn. It more a sequel in terms of gameplay, which is fine. The story concept sounded awesome as well.

 

[endtherapture]

What's the point in calling it Baldur's Gate then? It will just be yet another D&D game set in the Sword Coast.

... So?
Fallout did it, Neverwinter Nights did it, Dragon Age does it, Elder Scrolls does it.
Hell, BG2 barely had anything to do with Baldur's Gate, but that didn't stop them from using the same name and tacking a '2' on it. Same with NWN.
Come on, don't make me break out the flowcharts and diagrams.

Have you played Baldur's Gate 2?

It was set a few months after Baldur's Gate 1, in the neighbouring land, with the same player character. It also had appearances by loads of the NPCs in BG1, and continued the story of the Bhaalspawn.

I dont think you have a clue what you're on about if you think BG2 had nothing to do with BG1.

He is right though, a sequel doesn't necessarily have to follow the same characters. Black Isle had the intention of making a third Baldur's gate game, and it didn't follow the Bhaalspawn. It more a sequel in terms of gameplay, which is fine. The story concept sounded awesome as well.

Doesn't that mean it's just Icewind Dale then?

 

[ChaoticKraus]

Isometric is still the best for RTS games, nut overall i feel that modern camera perspectives are far more superior.

There's a reason it was phased out.

 

[dyre]

Yeah, I love isometric. Normally I'll accept that modern games are superior to older ones in the technical aspect, but there's something about running around on an isometric map that makes exploration seem more grand.

btw, I noticed you didn't include Arcanum in your list, OP. If you haven't played it yet, definitely check it out (and excuse the mediocre gameplay, the exploration and story more than makes up for it)

 

[Rattler5150]

I miss the old SSI "Gold Box" series (secrets of the silver blades, curse of the azure bonds)
Those were the first games I played when I got a PC of my own