50 best RPGs according to RPS

[Syt]

I think the main difference between DAO and Skyrim is that DAO is very story focused and doesn't give you much chance to leave the path the writers have in mind for you.

Skyrim, by comparison is improv theater. The writing is much thinner, and what you do with it (or if you completely ignore it) is for the most part your choice.

In DAO encounters will shake out in broadly similar ways. In Skyrim there's a hundred ways a fight might resolve, often with unintended results, or luck shaping the outcome.

Skyrim has therefore more potential to be "your game," whereas DAO by necessity will always feel somewhat limited in your options.

[Razgovory]

Also, no Might and Magic games.

[Valmy]

I think the main difference between DAO and Skyrim is that DAO is very story focused and doesn't give you much chance to leave the path the writers have in mind for you.

Skyrim, by comparison is improv theater. The writing is much thinner, and what you do with it (or if you completely ignore it) is for the most part your choice.

In DAO encounters will shake out in broadly similar ways. In Skyrim there's a hundred ways a fight might resolve, often with unintended results, or luck shaping the outcome.

Skyrim has therefore more potential to be "your game," whereas DAO by necessity will always feel somewhat limited in your options.

Those features are not really about DAO or Skyrim at all but attributes of the genres they are in. I prefer story based games but I certainly enjoy Bethesda despite their horrible writing. I am not sure by the hundreds of ways an encounter can resolve part though. I either win and take their stuff or I don't right?

Actually beyond the bad writing my main whine about Skyrim and Morrowind and Daggerfall et al is there is a sweet spot where the game is fun. Then I level up a bit and everything gets ridiculously easy. And I generally prefer party based tactical combat rather than first person single player stuff. But that is just me.

[Valmy]

Also, no Might and Magic games.

I was shocked to see a Wizardry game on there frankly.

[Valmy]

"Pillars of Eternity" would be brilliant if I weren't so crap at it. 

I am a huge fan of Pillars but I fail to see how it is substantially different from DAO and its ilk.

[Razgovory]

Also, no Might and Magic games.

I was shocked to see a Wizardry game on there frankly.

It would help if they had more people over 30.  Way to many games that came out in the last 5 years.  Some, like Darkest Dungeon haven't actually come out yet.  I looked at the list again, and noticed that that picture that came with Fallout, was actually Fallout 2.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I was amazed that I played nearly 20 games of that list. Who'd've guessed?

[celedhring]

I played 32.

And yeah, there's way too many games released in the past two years which I don't think won't merit to be in that list in the long run. But at least it gives me a few names to check out (NEO Scavenger that good?)

[Syt]

Haven't played it in a while, but it was hard. And it had rather detailed descriptions of its combat (and it's perfectly possible to kill your opponent and then die yourself because of a bleeding you can't stop, or because you can't move much with that broken leg).

[celedhring]

Heh, it reminds me of the MUD RPGs I played back in the 1990s 

[Norgy]

"Pillars of Eternity" would be brilliant if I weren't so crap at it. 

I am a huge fan of Pillars but I fail to see how it is substantially different from DAO and its ilk.

Less cutscenes make Norgy happier. 

[Valmy]

Less cutscenes make Norgy happier. 

They have cutscenes in Pillars just they are all in text

[Valmy]

Why the hate for rogue likes?

Just saying something is different than Torment is not to say I hate it. I mean I do but that is not necessarily true.





But seriously I spent many a post here spooging all over Darkest Dungeon so...

RPG, together with strategy, is one of the very wide genres where it's hard to draw a line around, not to mention that it's a genre that lends itself to genre mixes. E.g. FTL - I can see why some what see it as RPG (emergent story, decisions, upgrading your stuff), RPG-ish combat), and others would rather see it as strategy game.

Personally, I find genre descriptions not always useful. There'll usually be an easily identifiable core (Baldur's Gate = RPG, EU4 = Strategy, Secret of Monkey Island = Adventure etc.), but things will become frayed towards the edges. Brutal Legend mixes action RPG stuff with RTS. The Elder Scrolls games, while RPG, contain a big amount of action elements. Mass Effect 2 mixes a rich story, character interaction and player decisions with shooter combat. Mount & Blade has strategy mixed with RPG elements mixed with hack&slash fighting.

It's difficult to pigeonhole some games, and I don't mind them showing up on either list they might fit into.

I tend to lump them by the developer. At least in RPGs all the games a particular developer makes tend to be the same thing. Bethesda is almost its own genre

[Syt]

Why the hate for rogue likes?

Just saying something is different than Torment is not to say I hate it. I mean I do but that is not necessarily true.

I may have been facetious.

[Valmy]

I may have been facetious.

I thought that might have been a remote possibility.