Top 10 Lists : The Top 10 Best CRPGs
CRPGs were meant to emulate the Pen and Paper Role Playing sessions as closely as possible, but they are normally more focused on character development and choices and consequences than on story creation. These are, I think, the better ones:
While this game failed at some of the basic concepts of an CRPG, like meaningful consequences (Choices are plentiful, though), it was quite easy to mod, and had a world that actually felt alive, although it was actually more static than Daggerfall's. The expansions and some good mods really enhance the game, though, making NPC's less generic, better AI for companions, control over people of your same faction, etc.
#9: Wasteland (PC)
The classic MS-DOS game, Wasteland. The game that spawned both Fallouts. The game was really a strange thing back when almost every RPG could be classified in "Wizardry Clone", "Roguelike", or "Final Fantasylike", Wasteland was probably the first game featuring choices and consequences. And that's a great plus considering when was the game released.
Daggerfall. If you're a fan of big worlds with 7,000+ towns, 10,000+ quests, and 750,000+ NPC's, this is the game for you. While this descriptions seems to say that Daggerfall is the perfect videogame, it's actually really flawed: Everything's too generic.
#7: Darklands (PC)
Another MS-DOS gem, Darklands is basically the best sandbox-style RPG, featuring a world almost as huge as Daggerfall's. It had a nice job/background/profession change system, too bad the combat system is awful.
One of the finest Dungeons and Dragons based games, but it had the basic flaw found in almost all DnD videogames: No peaceful solutions to quests and being evil means that you'll ask for a reward to make quests.
#5: Fallout 2 (PC)
Fallout 2 theoretically could easily surpass the original game, if not for the fact that the world is incoherent for a wasteland, and it's a big mess compared to the original Fallout's world. The Fallout 2 Megamod really enhances it.
Last Troika's gem... this game featured a nice system of character advancement, and pretty good choices and consequences.
#3: Fallout (PC)
The game that basically defined a good CRPG. It would have been perfect if it weren't for the small world and awful AI.
The highlight of Dungeons and Dragons-based games, too bad it was the exception and not the norm. Torment features a story and words worthy of being put on a book. It's basically the only game that tried to be a narrativist RPG, and it was awesome.
While most of the reviews in the mainstream public gave this gem poor scores, the thruth is that the main complains have been about graphics and the linearity of the game. But Arcanum did it all right: Meaningful choices and consequences, good character development, strategic combat, lots of possibilities, and is a lot less linear than most games today. The setting is pretty interesting too.
While the mainstream market seems to have fallen to the mindless Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, and Diablo clones. The indie scene promises great games, such as Age of Decadence...
List by fargus2 (07/02/2007)
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