Thank you all for your suggestions. I’ve spent some time looking at Let’s Plays, and I think I’ll try Age of Decadence first. My only regret is the lack of wilderness exploration.
Ironically, I had looked at Balrum reviews on my own earlier today, but was put off by comments in this thread: Looking for a good single-character RPG Is the general consensus that it is good? If so, I still have to consider it.
Lots of good ideas here, though. I think the only title in the entire thread which I already played was Baldur’s Gate, many years back.
Gothic 1/2/3 and Risen 1/2/3 have beautiful worlds and great exploration.
Not turnbased though. But combat in first two Gothic games and first Risen is great.
The Long Dark is the one I’d say give a look at. It’s one of the most atmospheric games to come out in awhile, and combat is limited. It is not turn based, but the slow burn pacing of the survival mechanics might appeal to you. Play on Sandbox mode, which up until recently was the only mode there was. The story mode is a little more on rails.
That was going to be my recommendation, but it’s NOT light on combat. There’s a lot of combat in M&M X. But since it’s turn based combat, it’s really enjoyable, so I would still second this recommendation.
Baldur’s Gate is very combat heavy, and it’s not turn-based. It has pausable combat, sure, but a fucking metric ton of it. And it’s not enjoyable at all.
Another vote for Eschalon. A really charming, old school feeling, single player RPG with tons of exploration, puzzle solving, quests, and character development/customization. It’s difficult, there’s no hand holding, fights are challenging, but don’t take long, and don’t happen every 3 feet, and are also usually avoidable by just running away.
You can spend a couple of hours in Eschalon, just re-rolling your dice to get better stats at startup :P
I bounced hard off of Unreal World because I couldn’t grasp the myriad of keyboard based commands and combat seemed like something to be avoided at all costs, which is not really what I think when I think RPG. I know tons of people absolutely love the game, but it just turned me off from the start.
Yeah, it’s undoubtedly a niche game. Too bad really, I would love if there were more than the one guy in Finland making games like this. In my opinion it’s the only game that does the “survival” subgenre properly.
I’d crank the difficulty all the way down and go with The Witcher 3. There’s fighting, but it nails everything else on your list, and there’s less fighting than you would think for a game about a monster hunter. At least there was the way I played it.
Not necessarily on topic, but I realized the other day that I never played Jade Empire. Is there a new HD version coming out? Is it still good? Will the graphics make my eyes bleed after being spoiled by Witcher 3?
No HD Version coming that we know of. And it wasn’t a hit game, so I doubt that’s in the cards.
I haven’t played it since it came out, but looking at screenshots just now, I’d say it still holds up since the art was very stylized to begin with. Plus there was lots of bloom lighting everywhere, which gives the screenshots a dream-like quality even today, like it did back then. I’d say it looks good.
I’d say you should go for it. I enjoyed it a lot back in the day. My best guess would be that it still holds up.
Caveat: I played it with a controller on Xbox OG. If you’re getting it on PC and using mouse and keyboard, I have no idea how it will feel. It’s an ARPG in terms of gameplay, very action-oriented with lots of fun buttonmashing. I don’t think that would translate well to the mouse and keyboard.
I just played it a few months ago. Looked fine at 4k with a high rez texture pack. It was fun, I finished it. Blew the romance, as it’s harder to trigger than most Bioware games.
I’ve been curiosly following this thread as well, but I just assumed you’d already played The Witcher 3, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. If not - GOOD GOD WHY NOT
:) When I first read your comment, I just shrugged it off as your being a wiseass. But when I think it over, there’s a ray of truth to it… only it’s not a game I already played, it’s a book that made an impression on me when I was young.
The Hobbit. It and the Rings Trilogy are, of course, the source of a lot of RPG tropes, from orcs to poisonous spiders to magic jewelry. But I think The Hobbit, in particular, created in my mind the perfect fantasy exploration of other cultures and varied wilderness. Elrond’s elves, Beorn’s settlement, the Misty Mountains, and, best of all, Mirkwood. With meaningful discoveries all along the way. It’s not that there was no fighting, but killing left and right was not the core of the experience, and, in any case, it was not a book about gaining superhuman, god-like powers. And certainly not about fighting random baddies every few steps. And that process being the source of rising powers.
In my mind, the RPG genre has mostly gone off further and further in another direction, and I have often enjoyed it. I loved Wizardry. I liked Icewind Dale and Baldur’s Gate and a fair number of others, many of which I never finished but liked for a time.
But I guess I am searching around for a game that comes closer to the spirit of The Hobbit.
I’m still watching Let’s Plays of games suggested here, being very indecisive. Balrum sounds to have some technical tangles but also sounds like it has much of the spirit. Age of Decadence sounds very enclosed in terms of space, but very promising and I think I’ll end up playing it sooner or later whether it scratches this particular itch or not. Witcher 3 sounds far closer to my tastes than I had previously thought – but this bit about playing a guy with superhuman powers (and right from the get-go) I just don’t know.
But I really appreciate all the suggestions! Thank you all!
Geralt’s powers are… not that impressive most of the time. You can drive your character build in a variety of directions, but mostly I was good with a sword and had some heightened senses. He’s not a crazy wizard by any means. Mostly Geralt’s powers are that he knows things and that he’s prepared. Witchers figure out what they’re facing, prepare appropriately in terms of weaponry, barely-not-lethal alchemic potions, and tactics. And then they sometimes don’t die.
