Gothic II: Gold Edition
The Gothic series and Gothic 2 (w/ addon) has a cult following in both Germany as well as Eastern Europe. Developed by a tiny indie studio it featured absolutely fantastic storytelling in a fantasy world without any of the usual high fantasy bullcrap. The entire Gothic series is low Fantasy, similar to the Witcher series, but not as grim. What makes Gothic 2 really shine, isn’t grittyness, but roughness. It is an unique RPG in the way that there is a difference between knocking someone out and actually killing them, meaning that bashing in a few heads is a viable strategy for many quests, without actually having to become a mass murderer. This allows for very intricate quest design and many memorable moments. It also spoils the inner child in me when I once again have the ability to verbally announce that the player character is going to plant his fist into the face of someone and most of the time, for good reason.
– Real player with 342.1 hrs in game
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With most of the games what you see is what you get. But this isn’t the case. Gothic is a great game but Gothic 2 takes it on a whole new level. The amount of content, creativity and how much work the devs put into it is amazing. Another reminder that quality world building is important in games. Majority of devs don’t realize that having shit world design is a gamebreaker, so they just copy and paste same locations in a huge but empy world, make quests with obvious outcomes and no variety and dumb everything down. With this game though the bar was set so high that the devs from PB never managed to get close again. And likely they never will after Risen\Elex.
– Real player with 196.4 hrs in game
Wizardry 7: Crusaders of the Dark Savant
The Wizardry series is one of my favorite game series, and Wizardry 7 is my favorite Wizardry game. It is tied with the Complete Ultima 7 for my favorite game of all time. I have been playing it since it was released. I still my original floppy disks and physical manual.
This game is hard. Hard as diamond plated NES water levels. Party balance is important. Grinding is essential. If you try to play without a hint book or without the automap mod (or Gold), then you absolutely have to take notes and make maps. And even then, some of the puzzles and riddles are old school hard and unforgiving. Some, like the Bean Puzzle in Munkharama have never, as far I as could tell, EVER worked properly, and require some amount of luck to figure out. Seriously, Back in the old days, i did the puzzle three times on three different play through and the combination was different each time and none of them matched the clue book.
– Real player with 911.3 hrs in game
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This game is a true classic.
There was a dark era, long ago. Back when people were required to know a little command line in DOS just to run DOOM. But in this time, there were sick RPGs. RPGs that required you to invest your time and thought into them. Stuff like Ancients, where you had to draw your own maps of cities to navigate them.
Ok, some of that is a pain in the ass. But the point is that era of RPGs (Temple of Elemental Evil, Champions of Krynn, Pools of Radiance, the Xeen saga) were, for the most part, pretty fantastic turn-based exploration games.
– Real player with 172.5 hrs in game
Betrayal Collection
I got this as part of a bundle on 90% discount.
In my opinion, even at full price it is worth the money. I have already spent many hours playing these 2 games. Both run perferctly on Windows 10, I had no problem whatsoever.
Betrayal at Krondor is a classic old school RPG, comprised of 9 chapters, a must play for RPG fans. The first 3 chapters and the 6th are open world, the others are limited to a specific part of the general map.
I enjoyed each chapter very much, the skills of the characters (e.g. melee) can be improved by reading relevant books available in numerous shops in various towns, by paying NPCs for lectures or by fighting enemies. Special skills, like haggling or barding can be constantly improved by bying items in shops or by playing the lute in taverns.
– Real player with 217.5 hrs in game
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Betrayal at Krondor has some shortcomings. It looks like shit - not even “by today’s standards”, it came out looking like shit, with a horrible 3d world, and ludicrous actors in ren-faire costumes. It’s slow. It has no quest markers, and you have to write down everything you’re told, as there isn’t even a quest journal.
But it allows you to get out there into the wide open world, and do whatever. You want to wander in the entirely wrong direction, and get to the chapter 1 goal by going around the map? You’ll get your shit pushed in, but you’re free to do so.
– Real player with 61.5 hrs in game
Realms of Arkania 1 - Blade of Destiny Classic
RoA1 is complex RPG based on Germany’s best selling pen and paper RPG “The Dark Eye”. The game is very rough around the edges with stiff controls, repetitive graphics and micro management and instant kill dreath-traps; and yet the world of Aventuria is fun to explore and RoA is one of the few game series that tried to get the pen and paper rules as closely as possible onto the screen.
With the classic RPG party of up to six heroes (plus an occasional NPC) you have to travel through and explore the viking-inspired country of Thorwal to find pieces of an old map showing the location of a legendary sword. Find the sword to thwart the impending orc invasion and save Thorwal. The story is as simple as that - but it’s not an easy task.
– Real player with 100.1 hrs in game
Realms of Arkadia series does a great job turning a pen and paper Rpg into a video game. If you’re into P&P RPG this game and series is a must have. If you want HD graghics and intense 3D battles with fast and furious leveling and rewards this is not for you. What you do get is a challenging game with a high sense of accomplishment.
Other games of the time did not go into the game management required by the Realms of Arkadia. Just covering the basic needs of food and water can be difficult if you don’t select the right characters and skills. You must then place points into your skills when leveling or allow the computer to do it for you but not always getting logical reulults. With improperly placed skill points some skills will never be successful.
– Real player with 54.8 hrs in game
Realms of Arkania 2 - Star Trail Classic
Star Trail follows in the tracks of the original game released two years earlier but is still different in several ways with the graphics and general gameplay being slightly more refined. It is possible to transfer the party of the original game over to Star Trail for an easier start along with their stats and most equipment. Different bugs depending on the game version can still make this annoying though as e.g. weapon skills can become messed up and the money gathered in RoA1 is generally greatly reduced.
– Real player with 52.5 hrs in game
Hands down one of the best games of all time. Any fans of old school or pen and paper RPG’s will enjoy this immensely and I can’t recommend this game enough.
Uncompromisingly difficult with a deep skill and combat system this game has so much to offer. If you’re playing this through for the first time I would definitely suggest using a walkthrough as there are many things that can prevent you from completing the story if missed or done incorrectly which can be frustrating as these queue’s aren’t obvious or even mentioned that they have happened.
– Real player with 33.3 hrs in game
Realms of Arkania 3 - Shadows over Riva Classic
Of course it’s an old game now, but classics will always be classics. Nostalgia comes to a great obstacle to review this game without being partial, but the magic and world immersion I experience when I play this game is something have never experienced in any other one.
After 17 years and tons of RPG that surely have better presentation and even better story/quests/features I’m still waiting to a game that can absorve you as much as this one does. Can’t say what is it, probably the amount of time you spend in it walking around the city, talking to everybody, suffering with and for your characters or maybe the care that was put to make each one of them human and unique (those positve/negative skills and that journal….); but sure that you end loving each one of the characters you created and feel that you shared the most amazing adventure ever with them in a world that you can believe and makes you feel that there’s even much more than what you see in the game.
– Real player with 56.9 hrs in game
Many years ago, when I was but a kid, one of my game CDs didn’t work. So you could bring it back to the shop to exchange it for four other really old retro CD games that no one wants anymore. They were not originals of course, no one could ever afford them in my country.
That was how I stumbled upon Shadows Over Riva.
This was possibly the most complex game I’ve ever played at the time. Words like tinderbox or whetstone were not in my vocabulary. But somehow I had some fun making my party spend all day at the bathhouse and improving their swimming. Here I am now, after many years, reading through manuals and embarking on this journey from the first game.
– Real player with 38.7 hrs in game
Arx Fatalis
Highly recommended for those that have played and liked games like Ultima Underworld or Dungeon Master (Legend of Grimrock).
The developers wanted to created Ultima Underworld 3 but were unable to get the license from you know who, which is a shame. With stronger resources this game could have been very special indeed. For an old game (2002), the graphics are pretty good and sound in some instances quite amazing, the game engine has aged well. I played the game of Steam and in Windows 7 and it was more or less playable apart from some memory crashes - I learned to save often using all the save slots - you need to do this too, especially when you move between levels. It is best to play the game without any background noise such as the TV/ music or radio - believe that. Not only will you get immersed in the game world, beautifully crafted by the designers, you won’t miss key information said aloud by your character and then never repeated!
– Real player with 44.3 hrs in game
Anyone who has played Dishonored 2 will have trouble believing that the same company that made that game also made this one, a few decades ago, and I mean that in the best of ways (in the best of ways for Arx Fatalis, the comparison doesn’t favor their later projects). And just to be clear, this was the first time I played Arx Fatalis, I had no nostalgia goggles to affect my judgment.
Arx Fatalis is a metroidvania First Person action-oriented RPG, that “can” be played entirely as a First Person Stealth game, similar to the Thief series, but equal focus has been put into its other playstyles. The medieval fantasy world of Arx is an underground network of caverns and tunnels, as the world goes through an apocalyptic winter above-ground. Goblins, Trolls, Humans, sexy Snake Ladies and recently genocided Dwarves call this place their home, and somewhat coexist.
– Real player with 37.7 hrs in game
CHRONO TRIGGER®
This game will be one of my favorite JRPG of all time. I have known that Japanese gamers has voted this game for the best game of Heisei era (1989-2019). I played it and now I know why. I recommended for both JRPG lovers and those who want to start playing JRPGs.
– Real player with 61.9 hrs in game
Honestly, it aged gracefully, from both a gameplay and a story perspective! 10/10.
– Real player with 58.2 hrs in game
Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
فول اوت 1 مهما اثنيت عليها لن اعطيها حقها . لعبة نزلت عام 1997 قدمت قصة جدا جميلة وذكاء اصطناعي جدا مذهل. عمل جبار صراحتا استمتعت بكل دقيقة قضيتها في اللعبة
– Real player with 70.5 hrs in game
This can be a bit overwhelming to get started with so I recommend looking up a guide at first, and then when you get a feel for the game, you’ll probably end up liking it a lot more than you expect to. Extra points for a stellar atmosphere and a pretty solid storyline.
– Real player with 50.2 hrs in game
Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game
Literal boomer trash balanced like dogshit, incomprehensibly RNG, AND THIS FUCKING GAME KEEPS CRASHING AT THE FINAL BOSS. Cozy to cheese through tho.
– Real player with 101.0 hrs in game
great game. feels like getting punched in the family jewels until you’re used to it then its not so bad, but then later it punches harder. also don’t do what i did and fight everyone in navarro that’s part of the punching harder i spent 8 hours for that alone
– Real player with 73.1 hrs in game