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Top cRPG to be a cRPG veteran?

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,913
Location
Free City of Warsaw
This list is more selective... the "must have, no excuse" to play, what a veteran cRPG would play.
Okay, so what's a cRPG veteran?
Individuals who have engaged in Jagged Alliance 2 are avid gamers with impeccable taste. A veteran can recognize that Fallout 3 is Oblivion with Guns, Fallout New Vegas Oblivion with Guns and Skill Checks, Disco Elysium is a point-and-click adventure with Skill Checks, and Baldur's Gay is a Reddit Game designed to satisfy the needs of Reddit trannies.
Leeloo?

Or more like Leeloora, am I right?
 

smaug

Secular Koranism with Israeli Characteristics
Patron
Dumbfuck
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
7,074
Location
Texas
Insert Title Here
Wizardry 1
Fallout

I think both capture the essence of CRPG development well from a broad perspective. Wizardry is the archetypal dungeon crawler CRPG that started it all and Fallout is the amalgamation of every significant CRPG element thrown together (or at least the traditional elements drawn from table top role playing games).
 

Vulpes

Scholar
Joined
Oct 12, 2018
Messages
409
Location
Fourth Rome
I don't think playing Codex's Top 10 CRPGs or whatever is enough to consider yourself anywhere close to a "CRPG Veteran". It's more about quantity than quality, so play as many of them as you can and the more obscure they are (like Soulbringer, Al-Qadim, Prelude to Darkness, etc.), the better.
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,496
You can't be an RPG veteran just by playing the RPGs on the list, especially not the ones on RPGCodex. You had to experience them in their era, at release. Now, all you're doing is archaeology, and you won't be able to enjoy them as we did, no matter what you do.One simple example: I remember seeing Pool of Radiance in a shop in 1988. It was expensive and I had to go to a shop in Paris, as computer shops—let alone gaming ones—were super rare. Then, you had to learn English. Those games were awesome in their day, and I was certainly much more excited about RPGs. It was all wonder and mystery—a whole D&D game simulated. But today? Primitive, clunky, and ugly, barely playable. You’ll never be a veteran, just go play Baldur's Gate 3 now.
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2014
Messages
733
This list is more selective... the "must have, no excuse" to play, what a veteran cRPG would play.
Okay, so what's a cRPG veteran?

Someone who finished Deathlord. On original hardware. With no guide or maps.

ps: I never finished Deathlord.
That reminds me I should finally try Deathlord Relorded. Looks like a damn fine remake with all the ass ugly shit ironed out to give an at least a bit less excrutiating experience.
 

Laz Sundays

Educated
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
352
This list is more selective... the "must have, no excuse" to play, what a veteran cRPG would play.
Okay, so what's a cRPG veteran?
Individuals who have engaged in Jagged Alliance 2 are avid gamers with impeccable taste. A veteran can recognize that Fallout 3 is Oblivion with Guns, Fallout New Vegas Oblivion with Guns and Skill Checks, Disco Elysium is a point-and-click adventure with Skill Checks, and Baldur's Gay is a Reddit Game designed to satisfy the needs of Reddit trannies.
..LILURA??

Welcome back
:brodex:
 

babayaga

Educated
Joined
Aug 8, 2024
Messages
185
Location
Innawoods
You can't be an RPG veteran just by playing the RPGs on the list, especially not the ones on RPGCodex. You had to experience them in their era, at release. Now, all you're doing is archaeology, and you won't be able to enjoy them as we did, no matter what you do.One simple example: I remember seeing Pool of Radiance in a shop in 1988. It was expensive and I had to go to a shop in Paris, as computer shops—let alone gaming ones—were super rare. Then, you had to learn English. Those games were awesome in their day, and I was certainly much more excited about RPGs. It was all wonder and mystery—a whole D&D game simulated. But today? Primitive, clunky, and ugly, barely playable. You’ll never be a veteran, just go play Baldur's Gate 3 now.
I love archeology then because if you take your time and play these old games, you realize how much thought and love was put into them and how much better they are than the modern wow graphics and smooth controls slop games.
I get to experience the games for what they are and I'm happy to say that they aged like a good wine.
 

Laz Sundays

Educated
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
352
I think I'll finally try Jagged Alliance 2. I liked Fallout Tactics a lot, lilura praised it since forever, the famous game reviewer from Balkan always derped about it, = must be great.
 

Silvanus

Novice
Joined
Aug 15, 2024
Messages
68
I think I'll finally try Jagged Alliance 2. I liked Fallout Tactics a lot, lilura praised it since forever, the famous game reviewer from Balkan always derped about it, = must be great.
Install Straciatella! In its settings I like to use half of my screen's resolution so that everything is scaled 2x and the UI is not tiny.

The game starts out real slow, but once things get going you can't fail to have a great time.
 

Vulpes

Scholar
Joined
Oct 12, 2018
Messages
409
Location
Fourth Rome
I think I'll finally try Jagged Alliance 2. I liked Fallout Tactics a lot, lilura praised it since forever, the famous game reviewer from Balkan always derped about it, = must be great.
JA2 is basically a campy Soldier of Fortune magazine turned into a squad-based strategy game (calling it a RPG is too much of a stretch). Quests have really poor replayability, fighting swarming AI gets kinda boring, and it has a certain grindy flavour to it. Despite what the Codex circlejerk might tell you, it did not age well. Most criticisms you often hear about FoT are much more noticeable here. Unless you have a high tolerance for inventory management, poor level design (made worse by being a 2D game with verticality) and micromanaging tons of characters, you're better off playing Silent Storm instead.

Don't even think about installing the 1.13 mod during your first playthrough, it's an overrated and overcomplicated junkyard of content that offers a very different experience from the vanilla game. Think of it as an overbloated milsim in a poorly-suited engine rather than an unofficial patch to JA2 like what the name would suggest. It has tons of retarded shit in it like the infamous Drassen Counterattack, nerfs to stealth and your mercs FoV, tons of samey weapons that are poorly distributed and ruin the original game's nice tiered weapon progression, drastic inventory changes that break the balance and lead to you autistically micromanaging gear for hours straight, etc. Even if you like the idea of playing an ultra-realistic and ultra-autistic game about micromanaging high numbers of mercs, 7.62 High Calibre with the Hard Life addon does a much better job at it than this mod.
 

Slaver1

Savant
Joined
Dec 9, 2019
Messages
346
Baldurs Gate 2 with Sword Coast Strategems, core difficulty and minimal resting is the proving ground. If you feel that's outdated you're not a CRPG person. Also, many of the older titles are too archaic to traditionally fit the "top" CRPG moniker.
 

Kev Inkline

(devious)
Patron
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
5,479
A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
You need to complete Crescent Hawk's Inception on your own Amiga.(*)

*)Sorry that's the only way I can differentiate myself from the rest of you kids. In truth, I haven't played many of these classic games, can't quite remember how computers work.
In that regard, I'm like SDG, but it's probably Alzheimer's, not booze in my case.
 

Laz Sundays

Educated
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
352
I think I'll finally try Jagged Alliance 2. I liked Fallout Tactics a lot, lilura praised it since forever, the famous game reviewer from Balkan always derped about it, = must be great.
JA2 is basically a campy Soldier of Fortune magazine turned into a squad-based strategy game (calling it a RPG is too much of a stretch). Quests have really poor replayability, fighting swarming AI gets kinda boring, and it has a certain grindy flavour to it. Despite what the Codex circlejerk might tell you, it did not age well. Most criticisms you often hear about FoT are much more noticeable here. Unless you have a high tolerance for inventory management, poor level design (made worse by being a 2D game with verticality) and micromanaging tons of characters, you're better off playing Silent Storm instead.

Don't even think about installing the 1.13 mod during your first playthrough, it's an overrated and overcomplicated junkyard of content that offers a very different experience from the vanilla game. Think of it as an overbloated milsim in a poorly-suited engine rather than an unofficial patch to JA2 like what the name would suggest. It has tons of retarded shit in it like the infamous Drassen Counterattack, nerfs to stealth and your mercs FoV, tons of samey weapons that are poorly distributed and ruin the original game's nice tiered weapon progression, drastic inventory changes that break the balance and lead to you autistically micromanaging gear for hours straight, etc. Even if you like the idea of playing an ultra-realistic and ultra-autistic game about micromanaging high numbers of mercs, 7.62 High Calibre with the Hard Life addon does a much better job at it than this mod.
So since I really like Fallout Tactics, I will like this too?
 

Laz Sundays

Educated
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
352
Well, people call Disco Elysium a "Isometric rpg" without blinking, I guess Jagged Alliance can be an rpg too.

Nothing against Disco, 10/10 game.. but if someone told me it was an iso rpg before recommending it to me I would've called them all kinds of morons.
 

Vaeltaja

Witchgrove Games
Developer
Joined
Jan 20, 2023
Messages
162
Location
Finland
If you want to be in a league of your own, then play Fate: Gates of Dawn through without walkthroughs or guides. Not many have, if any, but some legends tell that most of those few who ever tried, are now sleeping in nameless graves in some barren wastes that time has forgotten. Too bad that the game is forgotten too.
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,496
If you want to be in a league of your own, then play Fate: Gates of Dawn through without walkthroughs or guides. Not many have, if any, but some legends tell that most of those few who ever tried, are now sleeping in nameless graves in some barren wastes that time has forgotten. Too bad that the game is forgotten too.
Well, I'm not in my prime anymore, but I'm still alive and played Fate in its day. There are a few other Codexers, like Scrooge, for example, an anomaly, who is surprisingly young but actually recovered the Amiga from her older sister. But overall, almost no one knows about it or any of the games from the glorious '80s and '90s era, RPGs that will never make it into the top 100 anymore Codex has always had a stance against those machines; the Amiga thread was never stickied, for example. The same goes for consoles, even though there were some quite good RPGs on the Mega Drive or SNES, for example. If the top 100 were made during the Amiga era, I would put titles like Dungeon Master, black crypt, Drakkhen, Ishar 1-2, and of course, some Gold Box games at the top, as well as Legend of Faerghail and Fate: Gates of Dawn.
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,913
Location
Free City of Warsaw
Thing is Amiga had very few rpg exclusives (Fate: Gates of Dawn among them, Polish Legion also). On the other hand Amiga versions of some late 80s, early 90s rpgs are the prettiest ones available. Later PCs caught up with Amiga and left it behind in theh early 3d era.
 

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