Joewashere

I don't always smirk at nuArkane decline enablers for deliberately falling from grace in a most deplorable fashion... No, wait. I actually do.

Both RPG and RTS promise a degree of autonomy, the suggestion of risk, reward, and reactivity to actions taken within the game. This title, however, has very narrow parameters which discourage meaningful play let alone player agency. You have a set objective, try anything else -such as preserving a fleet instead of burning it or appropriating arms being smuggled by your adversaries instead of burning them and the game just sends waves of enemy reinforcements until you succumb to sheer boredom. Your legion starts at half strength. Want to bring it back up to full? No matter how few or how many casualties you take in any given combat, you will be attacked every time you cross the 3/4 mark and knocked back down to half strength. Your legion can gain experience. Does it make any difference? No. Does morale make any noticeable difference? No. Do the cards (sorry, "tactics") make any difference? Not really. Big army wins. Any effort to improve gameplay was squandered by conventional industry standard and consumer safe design choices. The voice acting is good; However, in persuading others, you can't be witty, charming, and driven. You have to choose one, which will lock you into that path and out of all others. It would have been far more interesting to have dynamic dialogues where you have to try and figure out what sort of approach was most likely to work with guarded, jaded, and intelligent adversaries instead of just being relegated into predetermined outcomes based upon arbitrary criteria. Could have been great, but as it stands it simply is subpar. The fact that the devs disbanded and went to make NFT games doesn't really come as a surprise.

In 2020 they voted my city the most glitchy place to live in America. Main issues? Sky high rate of bugs, and more people playing below acceptable frame rate line than anywhere else. Can't deny it, it's all **** everybody still wants to live here. This city's always got a glitch for you. Might be a lie, an illusion, but it's there... just around the **** it keeps popping in. It's a city of bugs, and I'm a big beta tester.

Not inclusive and diverse enough. Bigoted and racist against quarians who dindu nuffin deserving to get excluded from this ((((game)))).

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is really a marvel when you consider that it's a triple A production. There's actual discussion of subjects that wouldn't even get a mention in most other AAA games, and the story and characters are more mature than big budget titles usually have. And this is one of the game's strongest points. What also sets the game apart are the visuals. It tries to evoke a cyberpunk renaissance atmosphere and does that well, with the caveat of heavily abusing the brown-yellow color scheme. (The Director's Cut seems to have toned that down, though.) Unfortunately, the gameplay and the story aren't as strong. It shows that the game didn't have the most experienced team behind it; it was actually the first game Eidos Montreal worked on and released. As a result, it doesn't entirely live up to expectations set by the Deus Ex name. The game is, naturally, often compared to its acclaimed predecessor. It couldn't ever hope to be as deep as the first game, of course, for the simple reason that the standards and focus of modern developers do not allow for such depth anymore. But this is also the reason, as I said, that it's still amazing how far along the true Deus Ex path they actually got. Since a Deus Ex game has to accommodate several play styles, the developers couldn't help but attempt to develop satisfying stealth, FPS, cover, dialogue, AI and skill systems. That seems to have been too much for them to handle, but surprisingly enough, they pulled it off in a more or less commendable way. The shooting can be stiff and wonky, the cover too sticky, the stealth too easy or unsatisfying, and the story may get fragmented and inconsistent, losing its focus as it nears the end of the game - the ending itself being the game's lowest point alongside the tacked-on boss fights (which were, again, fixed in the Director's Cut). But overall, Human Revolution is a worthwhile experience, especially as a prequel to the original.

The Infinity Engine produced five games; Icewind Dale II was the swan song to this extraordinary period in RPG history, and perhaps the most controversial title. Greenlit to relieve Interplay's sagging accounts, the game famously had its outline written by Josh Sawyer in 24 hours and less than a year of full development. Critics lamented the lack of cohesion in level design and atmosphere compared to the high standards set by its predecessor, while the plot is not much more than background for combat. But IWD II remains an incredibly fun game. Its adaptation of 3rd edition D&D rules is well done, and the now mature Infinity Engine is pushed to its limit to create its own distinctive challenges. Goblins beat on war drums to call their comrades, who arrive on wargs and continue to fight on foot when their mounts are shot down; orcs can be shot ablaze through flaming barrels, while giants lob rocks the size of ten men at your party. Large dungeons like Dragon's Eye and the Severed Hand are full of little quests, distinctive boss encounters, set pieces and backstory that fully satisfy that good old dungeon crawling itch. IWD II is a solid dose of killing, looting and pillaging that fully deserves a try.

In the character creation you've already got some important choices to make that will influence your playstyle for the rest of the game. You want to join the Holy Nation? well, too bad they don't like you because you've created a female Shek with the Holy Sword background and they will attack you on sight. This also shows one of the core elements of the game: constant learning and improving through making mistakes and failing. Kenshi literally is "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" - the game. your whole party got wiped out in a fight, is heavily wounded or some of you even lost a limb? congratulations, your toughness just went up! overburdoned your inventory, which massively slows down your movement speed and reduces your chances of escaping raiders. bandits or slavers? congratulations, you're leveling up strength right now! Kenshi is a sandbox survival game in a massively sized open world. you can play it however you want, you can actively seek out fights you'll lose to level up your toughness, you can play it safe and mine copper and ore near a city, buy a house inside a city and do some research, build your own settlement in the midst of nowhere and risk attracting some unwanted attention or you can join one of the factions like the aforementioned Holy Nation and fight for their cause. If Kenshi isn't edgy enough for you as it is there are also mods that allow you to play as a slaver or cannibal. this game is literally one of the most sandboxy games to be released since the outstanding Daggerfall and you'll not only see your character's stats rising constantly, but also the number of hours you've played it. sandbox roleplaying hasn't been that much fun in quite some time.

All fruit of creative labor share a sense of joie de vivre, a trace of the creative impulse imparted upon them by their authors. Some exhibit this far more strongly, like an aura -- such is the case with Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the RPG of medieval Czech life made by a Czech team of medieval enthusiasts. This fact alone makes Deliverance worth playing. I've spent massive amounts of time on this game, which mostly had to do with exploring the gorgeous landscape and killing every bandit, Cuman and traveler on sight and searching for hidden treasure chests. the simple card playing game at the taverns was also more fun than it had any right to be. Combat is a mixture of Dark Souls' typical stamina management, blocking and evading attacks and Mount & Blade's directional attacks; fighting is generally fun, if you're not overwhelmed by big amounts of robbers at once. Kingdom Come is a flawed but still immensely enjoyable open world RPG. If good games instill the feeling of being transported, Deliverance achieves this by being a compelling portrait of medieval life in Bohemia. As of now it is one of only a handful of purely non fantasy RPGs, which I am always going to prefer to the nth standard fantasy game.

Nier: Automata is rare example of game that ended up quite more popular than it was made to be. But beside a widely-known fanservice you'd find there a surprisingly good plot full of twists, revelations and with writing subtle enough not to shove morale into your face. In short, it is a story about robots in post-apocalyptic world. And some of these robots show character growth well beyond their flesh and blood counterparts in endless JRPG. And not all of them grow to be better. From gameplay perspective it is not much of an RPG, but combat is fun and fluid, locations are interesting to explore, art design is top notch and music is just godly. All in all Nier: Automata is unique enough to play it and look past its usual for console-port technical issues with blatant trolling in some quests and mini-games that could turn even most reserved android into raging berserker.

Suffering from troubled development, interminable delays and unpolished controls, Alpha Protocol rated mediocre and sold terribly. At the same time, this is a game which features unparalleled reactivity and nonlinearity, Obsidian's trademark writing, and a gameplay experience that is certainly distinctive. This is a game where you don't just choose from two factions, but choose approaches to every character, which has knock-on consequences for the relations between those characters over the course of the story, right up to who you rescue, who helps you, who betrays you, who shoots your nemesis in the face and who rides with you into the sunset. This is a game where those characters' stories and motivations are layered in such a way that you can play several times and never find out their 'big secret'. This is a game where you can raise a false alarm, have the guards run in, blow themselves up on mines you attached to the wall, just before you lob a flame grenade under a truck and the resulting conflagration swallows the rest. This is a game where you can slam a Russian informant's face into the bar table for not cooperating, where your crazy buddy in Hong Kong backs you up with a drive-by machine gun on a subway, and where you can verbally dismantle a man's principles that have defined him for the last thirty years, while dodging his bullets inside a Roman gallery. There are better RPGs than Alpha Protocol, but few of them can deliver the things Alpha Protocol does. Obsidian's best game and an underappreciated classic.

Deadfire represents Obsidian laying down the burden of the Infinity Engine, and as a (perhaps ironic) result the sequel is the superior game in the series. Freed from nostalgic expectations, Obsidian manages to make various improvements to the game systems: The multiclassing system is a fine fit for Josh Sawyer's signature balance philosophy, allowing for an unmatched variety of party compositions; unique items, each with their own mods and upgrade paths, address the blandness found in the first game; the greatly reduced number of filler combat encounters and the swashbuckling open-world put the emphasis on exploration. An underappreciated strength is the sheer customization possibilities of the experience: Five difficulty levels, any combination of eleven challenge modes and new game bonuses, extensive AI scripting capabilities and even a turn-based mode ensure any RPG player will find something here to enjoy. And if you still need more, the DLCs are uniformly excellent. Just ignore the plot.

A rousing combination of sandbox exploration, empire building, and visceral combat. Open field battle and siege warfare are where this game truly shines. The excellent game engine provides sound and motion fidelity placing you at the heart of the battle. Listen to swords strike shields, cavalry collide with pikemen, and arrows fall like rain upon foot soldiers. Survey the battlefield as you command units to take formation, charge, or open fire upon the enemy. The RPG elements include building a large party of nobles to join your cause, each of whom specializes in a variety of skills from diplomacy, to engineering, to combat. Along with them, you acquire stat and skill points which you may allocate as you gain levels. Quests are plentiful as you are tasked to hunt down bandits, hunt traitors for bounty, save towns, all the way to becoming a King yourself. Items can be upgraded from the spoils of battle, or bought from merchants. The sprawling and ambitious world design is so complex it breathes, reminding you to balance reputation, diplomacy, castle upgrades, alliances, and more. This game does not force you to play it "as the designers intended", however. It is heavily modifiable, and there are some truly great mods out there (be it companions or diplomacy). You may assign vassals to care for your conquered territories for you, or you can bring everyone along with you as a single marching army. Regardless of how you choose to play, you will feel steeped in the environment, and in awe of the storm of battle around you.

After having **** their ledehosen with Risen 2 and 3, it had seemed that the Piranha Bytes that gave us the GOAT Gothic 2 was no more. The mainstream gaming media was happy to confirm that; they wrote ELEX off as a broken turd. But, as we all know, the mainstream gaming media doesn't know **** ELEX is very flawed, I'm not gonna deny that. Some weapons are overpowered, the Cunning stat is worthless, everything's poorly tutorialized, so on and so forth... but you'll quickly stop caring once you get to the exploring. It hits that "dog looking for truffles" spot in the way only Piranha Bytes can. Just like in the Gothic games, you have a hand-crafted world where you can snoop around for hours, plenty of enemy and weapon variety, and minibosses in fixed locations. After you wander into an Ogre's territory and get demolished, it's just satisfying to come back at a higher level, get your revenge, and never have to deal with him again. Sure, ELEX may not be quite up to the standards of the old PB, but it's fun, and that's what really matters.

Released during the deepest decline of RPG era, The Witcher really stands out amongst the "classics" of that period (Oblivion, Fallout 3). The game depicts the adventures of Geralt, a genetically altered monster hunter, who - in accordance with genre traditions - has lost his memory. The setting of the game, based on the works of Andrzej Sapkowski, is fairly grim and mature, with a lot of violence, profanity and nudity. Most of the storyline is relatively low-key, being centered on finding out what exactly is going on around you, killing monsters, and solving mysteries – though there is also the factional conflict, political intrigue, and backstabbing. The main strength of the game is its focus on choices and consequences. Eschewing the simplistic "good/evil/random" options, The Witcher offers decisions in a morally grey area, often forcing the player to choose between the lesser of several evils. The character system is interesting but not overwhelmingly complex, featuring several different spells and swordfighting styles. A delightful addition is the excellent alchemy system, which allows the player to create a large variety of potions used in lieu of the traditional buff spells. The combat is fun, but while the rhythm-based fighting feels novel at first, it gets rather easy once you get the hang of it. Overall, you should play The Witcher if you are looking for an atmospheric action RPG in a gritty setting with an outstanding story, colorful characters, and a great soundtrack. Oh, and **** Everybody loves ****

A prequel to the earlier Divinity games, Divinity: Original Sin brings an entirely new gameplay model to the series and it's a treat. Turn-based combat and the return of the party system rule the day. The level of freedom while exploring is in some ways unparalleled. Players can combine items into that one great tool you need via an Ultima-inspired crafting system, tactically use those environmental effects in conjunction with your skills, or sneak around to find the unbeaten path. D:OS is an RPG where you can kill everyone on the map or strictly follow the story and everywhere in between in order to complete the game. The game's narrative suffers as a result though, the story is convoluted and ultimately devolves into a save the universe pitch. But what D:OS lacks in storytelling it makes up for in familiar Larian charm and humor. With a substantially more interesting combat system and new emergent gameplay features, D:OS takes Larian's RPG series to new heights.

The second part of Harebrained Schemes trilogy, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, is without a doubt the pinnacle of this RPG series. While Shadowrun Returns was too short and unpolished, Hong Kong is often criticized for an extensive narrative bias and reworked Matrix, Dragonfall has almost a perfect balance of lore, story and combat. Story is closely intertwined with the events that are well-known to every Shadowrun fan, but at the same time the game tells the player everything he should know about common Shadowrun lore. This makes Dragonfall a perfect entry point into the vast Shadowrun community, covering both CRPG and board game. Combat, while been criticized for its simplicity, is fairly competent. it is paying close attention to Shadowrun-specific features such as Matrix or different types of magic. Some combat situations are surprisingly well-thought and require harmonious team work – while your samurais throw some lead into enemies across the hall, shaman summons demons, and decker hacks enemy security system fighting ICs in virtual reality. Overall, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is a pretty good game. If you like cyberpunk style (despite multiple fantasy tropes that is another Shadowrun feature), you shouldn't miss it.

If you ever played Baldur's Gate 1 and found yourself thinking "This is great, but I wish it had full party creation, a less confusing area and quest structure, and had a lot more combat and dungeons in it", then Icewind Dale is for you. Buoyed by one of the best soundtracks in gaming, and working off the exquisite AD&D second edition ruleset, IWD was made for those players who primarily enjoy Infinity Engine games for the combat. Graphics range from equal to BG1 quality to significantly better - especially the inventory icons and spellcasting animations are a true joy to behold.

What made Deus Ex so mind-blowingly awesome, such a hallmark of game design, is that it asks you to decide, for each single obstacle you face, which approach you want to use. You're not asked to stealth through the whole game even when combat seems a better approach, or to shoot and kill everyone even when creeping through the shadows would be smarter. It doesn't reward you for sticking to a single course of action during the entire game. It lets you decide what fits any given situation. Deus Ex, in other words, makes you feel like a superhuman spy with a massive toolkit fitted for any obstacle - your success depends on your ability to identify which part of your kit is best suited for the challenge you face. Contrast this to other games in the genre, which all to often restricts you to one set of tools for each and every encounter - since the character customization or reactivity penalizes you if you try to mix it up. Deus Ex understood what each of its spiritual successors has failed to grasp, and for that, I salute it.

Fallout: New Vegas bravely continues the narrative legacy of Fallout and Fallout 2, and it could be, and has been, argued that in some respects it even outdoes them. In particular, the choices and consequences the game presents are - at times - some of the best offered in recent years in the RPG genre, and it also allows for a delightful amount of satisfying role-playing options. For all its flaws, the amount of replay value New Vegas offers compared to other RPGs is nearly unparalleled. In most RPGs with factions, you're given the option of doing quest X for faction A or quest Y for faction B. Not so in this game. Almost every quest has multiple resolutions and methods of dealing with it based on your character build, and I especially liked donning a disguise and doing quests within an organization to weaken them from the inside. This is the kind of stuff I always dreamed about experiencing in a computer RPG, but most have never delivered in the way of reactivity as much as this. New Vegas slightly suffers from the loot hoarding, hiking simulator FPS gameplay it inherited from Fallout 3 and its clunky engine, but it's the best we could have hoped for as a true Fallout sequel.

Atmosphere is the name of this game; it is the greatest achievement of Bloodlines. The realistic art style with abundant use of color; the incredible facial animation that manages to do a much better job of conveying NPC personalities than most of today games; the electronic and low key music; the incredible voice acting and the competently written dialogue - all of that makes the immersion meter go through the roof. Bloodlines is the closest you're going to get to a game making you feel like you're a creature of the night. It never got to be a horror game, but the feeling of creepiness was constant and oppressive - the designers took obvious inspiration from horror movies while adapting their rhythm to that of the World of Darkness lore. All of this would have been useless had Bloodlines fallen prey to the hysterical need of many a modern game to handhold the player and scream the plot in your face; fortunately it didn't do any of that. Another big point in the game's favor is the way different races impact gameplay, and while this aspect isn't perfect, playing as a Malkavian differs a lot from playing as a Ventrue. While it does have some flaws - the action-based combat, the rushed final act, and Troika's hallmark lengthy unskippable dungeons full of enemies - what elements it does well, it does very well. The clever writing, memorable characters, and the atmosphere that is second to none easily make this game worth a playthrough. Install the unofficial patch and enjoy the ride. Oh, and Fat Larry is the best NPC ever created in video games.

Arcanum has its fair share of flaws. Yet it is high up amongst my favorites, because despite its flaws it manages to hit all the right notes. A high fantasy world in the throes of an industrial revolution with a lot of steampunk thrown in for good measure, accompanied by a great and perfectly fitting soundtrack. Likeable companions, a great villain with a well-reasoned motivation to his actions, interesting lore, and a nice twist on the usual Chosen One routine. What Arcanum does best, however, is reactivity. Not only do mages, thieves, inventors, etc., differ in how they play, but also in how the world treats them. Furthermore, almost every choice you make is acknowledged in some way, be it your in-character decisions, stats, abilities, race, gender, companions, or even the things you wear. If you can stomach the boring combat and the occasional tedious dungeon crawl, give Arcanum a chance. You will not regret it.

Shadows over Amn is a love letter to a paradigm: "Content is King." Measured against its production values, this game provides the player with an amount of quality content unmatched, I believe, in any other RPG. The diversity of encounters, spells, quests and, well, just about everything, is staggering, and most of it has a satisfying conclusion with a great piece of loot and a cool fight at the end. Baldur's Gate 2 checks nearly every content-box of an RPG flawlessly: a multitude of quests, vast amounts of unique and interesting loot, a myriad of monsters to fight, and a story which, while not exactly Shakespeare material, is quite solid and has one of video gaming's most memorable villains, voiced by an actor giving the performance of his career. Its sole, lackluster aspect is its mediocre character customization, but even in this it gets more mileage out of AD&D than most games. BG2 might have been the start of Bioware's decline with its angsty, teenage romanceable companions, but it is also the mid era RPG at its pinnacle, filled with so much stuff in so many flavours you'll never get bored. Add to this the multitude of mods available for free through fan sites, and this content-brimming titan turns into an exquisite personalized experience as well.

Born and raised in Vault 13, you are unceremoniously dumped in the post-post-apocalyptic outside world to look for a replacement to a vital part of the facility's water processing system. World War III lies decades in the past. The world was blasted to ruins by nuclear warheads and the survivors' descendants have begun to slowly rebuild, but your isolation in the vault makes you a stranger in a strange land. In Fallout, your choices have consequences and your character is what you make of him or her, not just a race/class combination. Couple that with a believable antagonist (in the context of the game), B-movie shlock monsters like super mutants, radscorpions and deathclaws, over the top death animations, the dark humorous contrast between the blind pre-war optimism and the current post-war state of affairs, a 50's retro-futuristic aesthetic as well as a moody soundtrack by Mark Morgan, and you get one hell ****. Combat is devoid of challenge but entertaining, in no small part thanks to the death animations. Compared to its direct sequel, Fallout is shorter but has a more tightly focused plot and atmosphere. It also features fewer pop-culture references and easter eggs. Finally, I love the ending slides narrating the impact of your journey on the people you've met and places you've visited. Fallout is good stuff.

Probably the best story in any video game ever, Planescape: Torment is much more than just that. Allowing the player to explore one of the most unique worlds in the history of computer RPGs and interact with some of the most interesting characters ever created, PS:T is also a very solid game underneath it all. Everything you do in this game matters: how you create your character and develop it, how you approach people and what you say to them, what you do and what you decide not to do. Torment will destroy your assumptions about what to expect from a fantasy RPG, as it comes with zero elves, zero dwarves and only two swords in the whole game, and it will also leave you wanting more from every RPG you play afterwards. Obviously it's not perfect (nothing is), with combat especially in need of some improvement, but so far it is as close to perfection as it gets.

Modernity is a tribe of pygmies furiously trying to bury the Giants that came before them so as not to feel inadequate. It is sad to see Baldur's Gate name associated with this trash, but what can you do? It seems in the Current Year, games made in Canada have a 'Duty of Care' and social responsibility to be ****, losing Beamdog the hope to make Bladur's Gate III in the process. Congratulations to Larian Studios.

Soul Harvest is a very satisfying gaming experience, considering it's labeled an expansion. This game offers great additional factions, the 2 new one being a blast to play, much superior gameplay and writing than SpeelForce 3 main campaign, and a great improvement in the RTS mechanics. My only gripe is that the RTS part is heavy compared to the RPG aspects, where stats and inventory could have used a bit more love from the THQ Nordic. Probably my SpellForce 1 nostalgia speaking, but the much the game resemble its glorious predecessor the better, and this expansion is the best game in the franchise yet since The Order of Dawn. The last couple patches squashed any bug I experienced at release, so if you plan on getting a great RTS game with interesting RPG bits, or if you're a fan of SpellForce, now is a good time as any to buy this gem.

Micro-transactions, bugs, unoptimized settings, and a couple protagonists who have even less charisma than a cucumber sandwich. If this is the future of the Wolfenstein franchise you're envisioning then by all means buy this game, me I rather just press F and move on.

If there's ever any doubt about if recent "retro-revival" games can be any good, let Underrail lay it to rest. Granted, it is heavily influenced by Fallout, but it also has its share of fresh ideas that elevate it above your average wannabe. For example, its world is designed like a maze of interconnected areas and hallways, rather than an open map. There's also the Oddity system which awards you XP for discovering hidden items, the Thought Control skill which gives you a variety of telepathy-based abilities, and a whole bunch of little twists that keep the quests interesting. Though, what truly puts Underrail above the rest is the execution. The world is not only densely packed with content, but it's content you'll be looking forward to. That especially goes for the combat; it's just the right amount of skill as opposed to luck, and I always felt like hot **** after beating a tough group of enemies. Underrail is, simply put, one of the most enjoyable CRPGs since Baldur's Gate 2.

Plagued on release by ridiculously long loading screens and a plethora of game breaking bugs, Pathfinder: Kingmaker hasn't been warmly received by the mainstream. Once you get past the technical issues, though, you will find an extremely ambitious spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series. Kingmaker is more than just a clone, however; it adds a few twists of its own. Most notably, there is the kingdom management system, where you build and upgrade your towns, and assign NPCs to solve various problems or participate in numerous projects. Also, the game finally solves the rest spamming problem the Infinity Engine games always had, by combining heavy and costly camping supplies with (fairly generous) time limits, thus giving you the incentive to make as much progress as possible before replenishing your health and spells. Finally, the Pathfinder ruleset allows for a wide variety of builds, making character development more involved than the game's major source of inspiration. While most technical problems have been fixed since release, the quality of the game still sharply drops in the last two chapters; the good parts, however, still offer more unique and interesting content than most other RPGs, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Kingmaker to any fan of Infinity Engine games.

They don't make games like this anymore, and it's a damned shame. Diablo II is a masterclass on how a professional AAA game should be made. It expands upon the successful features of its predecessor while cementing seminal new mechanics like sockets, runewords, skill trees, and skill synergies. The gameplay is seamless, fluid, and intuitive. Easy to learn, difficult to master. With all of the hallmarks **** age Blizzard title represented in full force. Exceptional production values, the best voice acting I have ever heard, spare but pitch perfect writing, music that lavishes every scene with atmosphere, and the best itemization I have ever seen. All held together with addicting gameplay that keeps people coming back to this title after nearly twenty years. If you love RNG loot, theorycrafting, roguelikes, and fantasy roleplaying games, you are almost certainly going to love this game. If you enjoy co-op, trading, or PVP, the online lobby system and online gameplay is excellent. In fact, at the time of this writing, there are more people playing Diablo II online than are playing Diablo III. Diablo II has dozens of imitators, and after twenty years no one has managed to surpass it.

When The Witcher 2 appeared, I was highly disappointed that CD Projekt completely ditched the combat system of the first game instead of improving upon it, and went for an uninspired somersault-ridden hack'n'slash that tasted somewhat stale even before leaving Flotsam. The addition of QTEs didn't help the matter at all either. Things weren't as bad as they looked, though. The depiction of the world in turmoil, the many well-crafted characters and the storyline featuring a political power struggle really carried the game from start to finish. The choices and consequences, despite being only limited to the narrative and not the gameplay, were decent and did not shy away from leaving out a significant amount of content based on your decisions. The (perfectly warranted) negative things about the combat aside, it did not get in the way and ultimately managed to get challenging enough and even slightly tactical at times. The Witcher 2, while not without flaws, is overall a well-crafted and written game that - whenever it doesn't bog you down too much with its combat - always leaves you curious to see what outcomes your decisions may lead to.

A lone hero arrives to a dismal village and receives the quest to explore a dreadful dungeon reaching from the accursed damp catacombs of a desecrated church down to the flaming depths of hell. This isn’t about raising numbers, it’s about going down all alone. The strong sense of place and momentum, a remarkably simple yet effective combat system and a prodigious soundtrack which cannot be complimented enough push the player into descending through walls of wailing demonic flesh until reaching Diablo himself -this is a horror tale with nightmarish sounds, grim visuals and a bare-bones RPG system fueling an aggressive gameplay more akin to id’s shooters than to anything else. Everything works like a clock, even that which taken by itself seems unfitting -such as the limited inventory and speed of the playable character- forces the player into constantly making relevant choices with both delayed and instant consequences (i.e. life or death), which account for the rather slim character building. As a proper masterpiece, Diablo is the father **** characterized by a brutal immediacy, set apart from the hordes of clones it spawned -a classic.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is really a marvel when you consider that it's a triple A production. There's actual discussion of subjects that wouldn't even get a mention in most other AAA games, and the story and characters are more mature than big budget titles usually have. And this is one of the game's strongest points. What also sets the game apart are the visuals. It tries to evoke a cyberpunk renaissance atmosphere and does that well, with the caveat of heavily abusing the brown-yellow color scheme. (The Director's Cut seems to have toned that down, though.) Unfortunately, the gameplay and the story aren't as strong. It shows that the game didn't have the most experienced team behind it; it was actually the first game Eidos Montreal worked on and released. As a result, it doesn't entirely live up to expectations set by the Deus Ex name. The game is, naturally, often compared to its acclaimed predecessor. It couldn't ever hope to be as deep as the first game, of course, for the simple reason that the standards and focus of modern developers do not allow for such depth anymore. But this is also the reason, as I said, that it's still amazing how far along the true Deus Ex path they actually got. Since a Deus Ex game has to accommodate several play styles, the developers couldn't help but attempt to develop satisfying stealth, FPS, cover, dialogue, AI and skill systems. That seems to have been too much for them to handle, but surprisingly enough, they pulled it off in a more or less commendable way. The shooting can be stiff and wonky, the cover too sticky, the stealth too easy or unsatisfying, and the story may get fragmented and inconsistent, losing its focus as it nears the end of the game - the ending itself being the game's lowest point alongside the tacked-on boss fights (which were, again, fixed in the Director's Cut). But overall, Human Revolution is a worthwhile experience, especially as a prequel to the original.

Set in the Talos I space station, Prey stands as Arkane Studios's attempt to create a spiritual successor of sorts to the legendary System Shock 2. However, players are well advised not to walk into it expecting System Shock 3, on pain of courting disappointment. Whereas SS2 was a hybrid between the immersive sim formula associated with Looking Glass Studios and survival horror elements centered on resource and tension management; Prey, on the other hand, eschewed any survival horror elements and focused on creating an ambitious immersive sim that gave the player ample gameplay and character-building options. At this the game undeniably succeeds, primarily through the diverse suite of powers - many of which are highly environmentally interactive and combat symmetrical - that are implemented. The powers are unlocked through the use of consumables dubbed Neuromods, and they include skills for combat, sneaking, manipulating the various interactive elements in the station, and an impressive suite of psychic abilities that allows the player to become an unstoppable Esper. This diversity of options in character capacities is definitely one of the perks of immersive sims, and it is something which Prey delivers in spades. Apart from this, the game also boasts excellent level design. The flip side of the game's plethora of options is that it suffers from some balance issues, as the player can become so powerful that even the strongest enemies eventually cease to pose a threat, not to mention that the abundance of Neuromods means that the player will often be able to pick so many abilities he will not even have to specialize in a given role. Nevertheless, the game's environmental storytelling and interaction, emphasis on observation, and an open-endlessness that minimizes scripting in advancing the narrative all ensure that there is a symbiosis between Prey's excellent lore-world building and its gameplay that is rare in gaming. That, and the qualities of said gameplay, make it a worthy successor to the classics that inspired it.

This is quite a traditional RPG that went under the radar and got a lot less attention than it deserved. Logic Artists clearly took a lot of influence from Fallout 1 and 2 -- time limits, map-view travel and everything. The Danes really did an ace job with the historical setting, quests, music, visuals and pacing, which always felt even and high quality. They also added a non-lethal toggle to combat, which was probably one of the best ideas in the game, due to how they often acknowledged that you didn't kill certain characters in dialogue and quest outcomes even if you had the option to do so. Overall I think the game is really well rounded, not lacking in very many aspects other than a under-cooked travel/camping system and a somewhat scuffed leveling and skill point system. It's a deeply engrossing game with a few quirks that don't detract from its charms.

When Wasteland 2 got released in 2014 after an extraordinarily successful Kickstarter campaign and a long winded development process with several delays, it unfortunately failed to live up to its expectations. However, Inxile released a revamped Directors Cut version which fixed many of the base game's flaws and is now a really fun mix between Fallout 1 and regular combat oriented turn based S-Rpgs like X-Com or Jagged Alliance. The game is more linear and structured as its spiritual successors, but also a much larger one and you could even say that the different setpieces contain as much branching game progression as other rpgs in total. The different paths to solve a quest each pose various skill checks, though you can pass most of them easily if you skill your squad appropriately. The writing is decent and like Fallout filled with references and over the top trash movie charm like in Mad Max, Badlands or Solarbabies. The combat is fun, the itemization works, the perk system leads to some pretty interesting and unique play-styles, the quests are well crafted and filled with interesting C&C. A true classic.

Do you remember the days when "Open World" still sounded like a promise? When exploring a vast, beautiful continent without artificial boundaries seemed to be the future of RPG's? When the hope for freedom wasn't yet tainted by games with countless repetitive quests, boring trash mobs and soulless landscapes without any memorability? Enter Gothic 3, the latest part of Piranha Bytes' iconic action-RPG - series, released in 2006. In a beautifully handcrafted world you, the nameless hero, can decide to either help the human rebels to fight the Orcs who have occupied the kingdom of Myrtana, - or to help the occupants in their strive for power. Depending on your choice, in the course of the game the world will change, and so will the ending sequence, of which there are three. Rarely has an open world game managed to build such a poetic, yet believable world. Here, exploring still is a real adventure. But the memorable scenery is not the only aspect making the game a unique experience: Gothic 3 has probably the most wonderful soundtrack ever created for a videogame. Kai Rosenkranz, who was responsible for the first two Gothic's soundtracks as well, managed to create his ultimate masterpiece, and it would be worth playing the game for the soundtrack alone. Once again, Piranha Bytes have proven to be masters of creating an exceptional world with dense atmosphere, and playing this gem is highly recommended! If you do so, make sure to install the latest Community Patch though, since playing it without these unofficial patches can make it a hassle. With the latest patches installed however, Gothic 3 is an example of what open world RPG's could be.

Tyranny setup is a breath of fresh air. The main character is empowered by a powerful entity and yet has to cope with the mighty Archons, the introduction is original, NPC and companions a real piece of art and the story enthralling. What's not to like? The combat system, RTwP, with a "new" mechanism, team skills isn't that bad, compared to recent similar games, but the enemies lack in variety, particularly in the old wall area where you're going to be sick of fighting. The outsourced companion's quest are also underwhelming and Obsidian treated loading screens like a piece of art, letting us enjoy it as long as we can endure it and beyond. Overall, if you're in for the story with a 1 month old gaming computer, you'll probably enjoy it, if you love the RTwP system, probably as well, otherwise it's going to be a mitigated experience. Still, it's probably one of the most legitimate entry, amongst the recent AAA cRPG.

This RPG is quite unique in that it combines top-down-view exploration (similar to Baldur's Gate) with blobber-like combat (similar to Wizardry or JRPG's). This combination works surprisingly well. The world of Xulima is huge, ranging from icy regions, to forests, jungles, deserts, as well as towns and castles - all with beautiful, fairy-tale-like graphics. Exploration of extreme weather regions is actually dangerous since you run out of supplies much faster, adding a lot to the fun. What can be criticized about this game is that it has relatively few dungeon areas, as well as a somewhat formulaic design where the same elements are repeated on several maps (one castle, one town, one witch house). Also, the end game is not very well done and could have been trimmed down somewhat.

Unabashedly wearing its influences on its sleeve, ATOM may not have the philosophical pedigree of its idol, but it does have the dual advantage of evoking nostalgia while still managing to present itself as something fresh. Bopping around post-apocalyptic Russia makes all the difference in rekindling the sense of discovery that accompanied the earliest Fallout games, and the distinct Eastern European outlook also manifests in an unsanitized writing style to open up roleplaying opportunities many of today's leading Western RPG studios would balk at. This confidence is what allows the game to touch that late 90's glow without being wholly consumed by it, ensuring ATOM won't go down in our memories as merely a decent homage to a better game.

D:OS 2 is quite fun if you can get past its mot glaring issue: the infamous armor and initiative systems. Aside from those admittedly poorly implemented mechanics, however, the game's combat engine has anything a fan of the genre could ask. It's turn-based and squad-based, while also boasting environmental interactivity, a proper positioning system, now with elevation mechanics, and an impressive array of spells, status effects, buffs, debuffs, and moves. Even the reviled armor system brought something to the table by limiting the effectiveness of the CC spam and alpha strikes that dominated the first game, allowing for more challenging and varied encounters. That is why despite its flaws, D:OS 2's combat remains a rewarding experience for those who can look past some of its more inelegant design choices. Even though combat is arguably the game's central aspect, it's worth highlighting some of the improvements made in other areas: a more varied and nuanced skill system, greater race variety, increased reactivity, and better art direction, writing and exploration. This last element is especially noteworthy, as the game boasts detailed maps for each Act packed with diverse loot, encounters, quests, and secrets, which, combined with the game's environmental interactivity and open-endlessness, allow for engaging expeditions full of surprises. This game is well worth your money and your time.

Dumbed down game, with simplistic mechanics and skeleton content, 6 factions but no discernible tactics differences. I guess Paradox Interactive who excel at churning DLCs ad nauseam will milk every bit of this game. Maybe it will be worth playing in a year, but right now it's nothing short of disappointing.

It's a non-game that takes itself so seriously you can't help but laugh. The very slow walking simulator bits are broken every once in awhile for some toddler-friendly version of third person melee combat, and some chimp-level puzzles that will blow your mind. Oh, and there are whispering voices that give you hints and/or taunt you. So profound. I'm a **** for everything Viking/Nordic, but even I can't stomach this tripe. The fact that it's getting such high scores across the lolmedia is the icing on the cake. What a joke. The graphics are pretty garbage - screen is smeared by every filter under the sun, 10x over, to mask substandard asset quality. The camera/fov is smushed too close to the character. She looks like Spoony. It's that bad. Tumblr approved and Neogaf GOTY 2017. Muh videogames as art.

I would have rated this release much higher if it was sold for original price + 5 or 6€. It doesn't offer anything new aside from some conveniency for the lazy casuals, which are not the audience intended for this game to begin with. It is especially grating with the GOG release considering that the Soundtrack of "Planescape: Torment" has been available for all owners of the game, ever since GOG relaunched seven years ago... up until now. Beamdog, the new publishers of "Planescape: Torment", have chosen to sell the Soundtrack for a price that used to cover both the Soundtrack and *the game itself*. To make matters worse, they've also removed the original edition of the game from the store and effectively doubled its price by bundling it together with the twice as expensive "Enhanced Edition". The end result? Customers now have to pay 30€ for what used to cost 10€, a prime example of despicably unethical price gouging. Sad since Planescape Torment is a timeless classic whose name will be now associated to a shady company who aims to milk established RPG franchises by adding mods and ugly UI targeting the android market while forgetting about its main audience. There was a real opportunity for Beamdog here to finally do something right by hiring Mr. Avellone to add the original cut content and develop some areas he clearly stated would like to expand on in several interviews, But God forbid, that would have cost Beamdog some money and this EE would not be the easy cash grab presented to us now. "What can change the nature of a man?" After this, I've come to believe that the true answer is dialogue option number 5.