50 best RPGs according to RPS

[Syt]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/10/best-rpg/

Well, more RPG-ish games rather than what you would usually consider an RPG. When I saw BG2 and Planescape were on 3&2, I was wondering what #1 would be, and I was surprised. But I do kinda see their point:

Discussions and declarations about the difficulty of Dark Souls tend to undermine the discussions and declarations that we should be having about the quality of Dark Souls. Let's put the difficulty to one side before moving on. Dark Souls isn't the most challenging game on this list. It's not the game that will kill you the most (hello, roguelikes) and it isn't even mildly unfair. It's a game that understands the value and incline of a decent learning curve and its central rhythm of progress, death and repetition, teaches rather than tortures.

If it's not the most punishing RPG ever made, then what is it? Among other things, the Souls games are an intimidatingly assured re-invention of dungeon crawling and, in fact, the entire concept of dungeons in RPGs. Everything from enemy placement to the twisted lay of the land contributes to the challenge of the game, and to the lore that is stitched into the fabric of the world. The combat system is exemplary, combining inch-perfect animations, timings and agonising tension to make every encounter memorable. Stats are almost invisibly woven into the build of your character, whose abilities and proficiencies are recognisable at a glance, and whose behaviours you'll adopt and modify as you go, creating and fussing at the role you're playing without the need for dialogue or morality meters. There are details as well as broad strokes, for those who choose to pick at them, and those details are devilishly satisfying.

It's a mark of the game's quality that completing a single playthrough feels like a great achievement but that there are people who continue to play, time after time, and continue to learn. Dark Souls teaches you how to play as you travel through its horrors and mysteries, but it also teaches you how to read games, making you alert to the fact that every texture and scrap of flavour text can contain clues. Those clues might save your life, point you toward a diversion or shortcut, or they might help you to understand that there's meaning and history in every part of the world. You just have to look closely. Pay attention and you'll find the choices no character points out, and discover consequences whose warning signs you were keen to overlook, an optimist in a dying world.

From their comments:

Yeah. I mean, to me an RPG should have, you know, some choices, with consequences, some storyline interaction. In Dark Souls you kill a lot of monsters and that's it. I mean, yeah you can kill few NPCs (sometimes by mistake, pressing wrong button, yay), but I would hope that's not the RPG standard we should strive for.

Reply:

Dark Souls has a lot of choices and consequences, but it doesn't tell you they're choices or that there'll be consequences. I like that an awful lot.

Full ranking:

1. Dark Souls
2. Planescape: Torment
3. Baldur's Gate 2
4. Morrowind
5. Utima VII
6. Deus Ex
7. The Witcher 3
8. System Shock 2
9. FTL
10. Fallout
11. Dragon Age: Origins
12. Divinity: Original Sin
13. Legend of Grimrock II
14. Ultima Underworld II
15. Dwarf Fortress
16. Mass Effect 2
17. Pillars of Eternity
18. Zanbgand
19. Vampire: Bloodlines
20. NEO Scavenger
21. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
22. KOTOR
23. Anachranox
24. Fallout: New Vegas
25. Avernum: Escape From The Pit
26. UnReal World
27. Din's Curse
28. ADOM
29. Sunless Sea
30. Daggerfall
31. Banner Saga
32. Titan Quest
33. Skyrim
34. Darkest Dungeon
35. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
36. Shadowrun Dragonfall Director's Cut
37. Wasteland 2
38. Wizardry VIII
39. Betrayal at Krondor
40. Darklands
41. Eye of the Beholder
42. Brogue
43. Torchlight 2
44. Pool of Radiance
45. Space Rangers 2
46. Recettear: An Item's Shop Tale
47. Diablo II
48. Risen
49. Dungeon Master
50. Hand of Fate

Overall I agree with the selection of games (as representing the breadth of the genre), though I think Risen should be replaced by Gothic 2, if anything. And I guess you could argue that if you include Dark Souls, you should also include e.g. Shadows of Mordor.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Dark Alliance is missing. 

[Syt]

Dark Alliance is missing.

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance? Not a PC game. Should have mentioned, RPS is a PC only site.

[Tonitrus]

I've always thought Ultima V was the best of that series.  Though I liked the classic Apple II graphics better than the "enhanced" PC graphics.

By VII, Richard Garriot had already started to let his ego get the best of him.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance? Not a PC game. Should have mentioned, RPS is a PC only site.

Ah I see.  Fair enough.

[celedhring]

Happy to see Neverwinter Nights 2 making the list; I have always thought it is a very underlooked game.

[The Brain]

The list is bullshit.

[Lettow77]

 I would've hoped for Arcanum to make the cut.

[Josquius]

No suikoden 2 ergo invalid.


Briefly looking over the list- deus ex human revolution? That was terrible, nothing on the original.
And dwarf fortress is an rpg ?

[Syt]

No suikoden 2 ergo invalid.

Not a PC game ergo invalid.

Briefly looking over the list- deus ex human revolution? That was terrible, nothing on the original.

Which is probably why the old game is higher on the list.

And dwarf fortress is an rpg ?

It has an adventure mode?

[celedhring]

Slightly amusing there isn't any J-RPG, yet they troll us with "Recettear" (yeah, I played it too).

[Razgovory]

I would've hoped for Arcanum to make the cut.

I found it very disappointing.  Also, isn't Dark Souls a JRPG?  No Arx Fatalis, a game I had a lot of fun with.

[Caliga]

List sucks.  Dwarf Fortress?

[Norgy]

I know a lot see "Skyrim" as something else than a pure RPG, but 33rd? Really?

Behind "Dragon Age: Origins"?

[Caliga]

Yeah I was going to bitch about that too Norg, but as soon as I saw Dwarf Fortress, I just plain gave up.

Also, if JRPGs count then Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross should be on there.