THE BORE

General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: Great Rumbler on July 07, 2014, 12:46:57 AM

Title: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Great Rumbler on July 07, 2014, 12:46:57 AM
For whatever reason, loads of developers decided, independently of each other, to work on 90's-style CRPGs. There's already been more this year than there have been in the past decade, certainly that's the case if we focus on games that are actually worth playing. I'm going to list them now [and talk about them], because I can.

Might & Magic X - Legacy: First-person. Party-based. Turn-based. Grids. Hard to believe that Ubisoft would bankroll an RPG like this for release in 2014, but that's what they did, and it turned out really well. It's a tough game and one that doesn't do a lot of hand-holding, you've got a big world to explore and it's full of monsters that want to rip your face off.

Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall: The expansion to 2013's Shadowrun Returns, but the only thing that carries over is the gameplay. The characters, setting, and music are entirely different and it actually ends of being a slightly longer campaign than the original. It's not quite good enough to make a top ten list, but the changes that Harebrained Schemes made were enough to make this a pretty enjoyable games.

Blackguards: Lots of map-hopping and lots of six-sided grids. This is actually the third game Daedelic has made in the The Dark Eye series [previously seen in Radon Labs' Drakensang titles] and their first game to not be a 2D point-and-click adventure. I haven't played this as much as I'd like to, but the few hours I've played have been really good. It's not open like the King's Bounty series, but it does offer some side quests to take on for extra loot and experience and had some pretty good [and tough] combat.

Divinity: Original Sin: The fifth game in the Divinity series and the first to be an isometric RPG since the lackluster Beyond Divinity released a decade ago. This is the game that Dragon Age was supposed to be but wasn't: a massive RPG full of choice, side quests, tough combat, and classic RPG conventions. If you've been waiting to a return to the great CRPGs of 15+ years ago, this is it. I've already dumped nearly 22 hours into it since the official launch this past Monday and I'm still finishing up the first major map [of which there are at least 3, probably more]. Just go buy it.

Wasteland 2: Technically, it's not out yet, still being in Early Access on Steam, but I have played it a considerable amount of time [14 hours into what it roughly 1/3 of the finished game]. It lacks the bone-crushing difficulty of some of the other RPGs [unless that gets changed before the August launch], but makes up for it with a wide variety of places to explore, monsters to fight, quests to handle how you want to, and people to talk to. Also, lots of Mark Morgan musical tracks. If not for Divinity, this would be my favorite by far.

UnderRail: It's basically Fallout and doesn't care that you know it, which I have nothing against. The only downside here is that it's still in Early Access and there doesn't appear to be any real time frame for it to be finished, although it does get updates every couple of months. I've got high hopes for this one.

Pillars of Eternity: Obsidian's resurrection of the Infinity Engine. Not much more really needs to be said.

The Age of Decadence: Another Early Access RPG that's slowly shaping up. This one is heavily focused on player stats, character interaction, and living with the consequences of your decisions.

Sacred 3: Ascaron went bust, but the series got picked up by Deep Silver and is back for a third installment. If you haven't played any of the series before, it's an APRG with a massive world to free-roam through. Lots of quests and lots of loot, a tradition that I assume will continue in the second sequel [but I could be wrong there, I haven't kept up with Sacred 3 as much as I'd like to]. Unless something major changes, it'll be a solid but not great ARPG that will still manage to be a massive time sink regardless.

Dead State: Brian Mitsoda [from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines] doing a zombie strategy game. The focus here is on managing your resources, your base, and the group of survivors you're with. It's in Early Access currently, but is already a pretty fun [if somewhat simple] turn-based RPG.

Unrest: A little bit different from all the other games on my list, but I found the demo to be really interesting so I'll list it anyway. I'd say this is about one-part adventure game and one-part RPG, with a focus on interaction and making choices over simply solving everything with fights [although it does have a few fights]. The setting [ancient India] is a nice change, too, over the usual medieval Europe-esque settings in most fantasy RPGs; it's got a really nice soundtrack, too. This one's out in a few weeks.

Massive Chalice: Double Fine's other Kickstarter game. I haven't really been following this much at all, so I don't know much more about it other than that it's a strategy RPG with grids but also kingdom-level control.

That's everything I can think of off-hand.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Himu on July 07, 2014, 01:06:21 AM
Thank dragon age origins and games like legend of grimrock which helped show there's still an audience. Also notice the increases post-diablo III
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Great Rumbler on July 07, 2014, 01:20:20 AM
Most of these games are directly funded by the audience, though, either through Kickstarter or Early Access. And any influence that Dragon Age had should have been spent before now, since it came out all the way back in 2009. D3 could have played a role, as well, but it's hard to say exactly how much since its release coincided with a lot of the big, early Kickstarters being so successful. Well, regardless of the why, I'm glad that it's happening, because I really love these kinds of games and I was bummed out that for the longest time it seemed like they were gone for good.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: archnemesis on July 07, 2014, 01:43:54 AM
Might & Magic X is the best game I've played this year, I think. I haven't had time to play any of the others yet.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Himu on July 07, 2014, 03:20:52 AM
I disagree. DA:O for pc definitely helped spurn the revival due to top down cam. Until that point, 3d crpgs were all about being 3d and shit for a long time (witcher, fallout 3, mass effect;etc) DA:O pc version's entire premise was to be a new take on the BG formula. A large part of what sold it to pc gamers was the nostalgia value, which was novel at the time. A spiritual successor if you will. After DA:O, which was maddingly successful, a lot more top down rpgs started to show up. First person dungeon crawlers were seen as viable again with Legends of Grimrock, and it's gotten to a point where even Might and Magic went back to its first person roots. After Diablo 3's release, more and more top down traditional crpgs have been made: Divinity, Shadowrun, Project Eternity, new Planescape.

While it took a while, most of this came from the initial nostalgia trip that was advertised with DAO pc as it helped showed that yes, there's still a market for isometric crpgs.

If you played DAO on consoles, all you got was KOTOR. But on pc, Bioware sold it like it was a new BG game.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Fifstar on July 07, 2014, 03:31:34 AM
There's also Paper Sorcerer, played that only for a bit. The basic idea is good, it's basically an old school crawler that's done in a graphical style that mimicks typical AD&D rulebook drawings, but it feels very rushed in terms of UI and music. Atmosphere suffers especially for the latter.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Cerveza mas fina on July 07, 2014, 03:54:14 AM
I haven't checked out Divinity Sin because I thought it was some cheap eurotrash but now I will give it a look!

Great thread GR thanks.

Maybe the resurrection of this genre has to do with the lower cost to make these games vs what games cost now and the big loyal fanbase they have?
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Cerveza mas fina on July 07, 2014, 04:19:58 AM
Sure sure just making conversation you know Oscar
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Fifstar on July 07, 2014, 04:30:44 AM
It's interesting how this happend before with CRPGs. Before the original Baldur's Gate, there were a couple of years were western RPGs were completly dead, then Bioware ressurected the genre. Now the same thing happened again.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: pilonv1 on July 07, 2014, 04:43:13 AM
himumu logic

Game announced in 2004 & released in 2009 with a shitty sequel in 2011 is influencing 2014/15 games that based on a genre that was wildly popular 20 years ago.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
:-*
[close]

Glad these are back in numbers, there's been too few of them over the last decade and unless you were willing to put up with excessive Eurojank (and quite frankly, who wouldn't?) there's been little to choose from.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: pilonv1 on July 08, 2014, 05:41:25 AM
Risen 3 out August 12 :bow2
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Great Rumbler on July 08, 2014, 07:51:32 AM
Quote from: pilonv1 on July 08, 2014, 05:41:25 AM
Risen 3 out August 12 :bow2

Unfortunately, they're going back to generic medieval fantasy world instead of doing pirates again. :'(
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: pilonv1 on July 08, 2014, 07:49:37 PM
True, no more swearing goblin creatures :'( I think I liked Risen 2 more than the original but I'd sadly in the minority.

Will probably wait until it gets under $20, it's already listed at $50 on Steam.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Dennis on July 11, 2014, 01:03:11 PM
Quote
Divinity: Original Sin: The fifth game in the Divinity series and the first to be an isometric RPG since the lackluster Beyond Divinity released a decade ago. This is the game that Dragon Age was supposed to be but wasn't: a massive RPG full of choice, side quests, tough combat, and classic RPG conventions. If you've been waiting to a return to the great CRPGs of 15+ years ago, this is it. I've already dumped nearly 22 hours into it since the official launch this past Monday and I'm still finishing up the first major map [of which there are at least 3, probably more]. Just go buy it.

Wasteland 2: Technically, it's not out yet, still being in Early Access on Steam, but I have played it a considerable amount of time [14 hours into what it roughly 1/3 of the finished game]. It lacks the bone-crushing difficulty of some of the other RPGs [unless that gets changed before the August launch], but makes up for it with a wide variety of places to explore, monsters to fight, quests to handle how you want to, and people to talk to. Also, lots of Mark Morgan musical tracks. If not for Divinity, this would be my favorite by far.

Pillars of Eternity: Obsidian's resurrection of the Infinity Engine. Not much more really needs to be said.

The Age of Decadence: Another Early Access RPG that's slowly shaping up. This one is heavily focused on player stats, character interaction, and living with the consequences of your decisions.

Dead State: Brian Mitsoda [from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines] doing a zombie strategy game. The focus here is on managing your resources, your base, and the group of survivors you're with. It's in Early Access currently, but is already a pretty fun [if somewhat simple] turn-based RPG.


These are all must-plays for me.

I have backed all of them. The problem is going to be finding the time.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Great Rumbler on July 11, 2014, 04:19:07 PM
STOP MAKING SO MANY COOL CRPGS GEEZ I DON'T HAVE THAT KIND OF TIME

Never thought I'd be having that problem in 2014.
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Cerveza mas fina on July 11, 2014, 05:31:08 PM
Best thing is this is enough games for years and you can pick em up cheap from steam then
Title: Re: The Return of CRPGs |2014 Edition|
Post by: Great Rumbler on July 11, 2014, 09:24:07 PM
I don't know much of anything about it, but the tactical RPG Warmachine: Tactics is now on Steam in Early Access:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjH5Ae8pn_Q
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics