What RPG are you playing right now?

[PartridgeSenpai]

I think I missed the boat on isometric WRPG's. I don't see myself ever getting into them by this point.

I love them because they combine my two favorite things: Strategic battles with persistent units and epic loot to find. Bauldur's Gate II's expansion has some of the most ridiculously epic loot in it as well (as well as some of my favorite self-referential jokes about the D&D engine).

If you can only give one classic one a try, I'd say Bauldur's Gate II. If you wanted to try a newer one though, I'd say Pillars of Eternity. I'd only say Divinity: Original Sin if you have a friend to play it with. D:OS is very good, and I REALLY like the combat system in that game (kind of D&D meets X-Com with how it uses time units), the story, especially your companions' stories are just so much more lacking in D:OS compared to PoE.

[Xeogred]

Divinity: Original Sin looks like a good bet for me. I've been curious about those.

It's weird because in ways I love the aesthetics to those games. But then when I sit down and play them, I'm bored pretty fast. I hate to say it, but I could not play much of Planescape at all. I gave that one a shot because of its prestigious legacy, but yikes. I'm also one that knocks on Fallout 1-2. I beat the first, but the second was even larger so I gave up after awhile. Entering a town and I knew I was going to be spending about 1-3 hours worth just walking around and engaging in walls of text. I thought Fallout 1 had an excellent story, writing, atmosphere and all that, but everything else was a real slog to me. Didn't care for how bare bones the gameplay was, and the ally NPC's would just shoot you up or vice versa around tight corners and hallways. So I'm a rare case that likes the newer games WAY more, Bethesda jank aside...

I did play Jagged Alliance as a kid too and revisited them when GOG was new. That also probably soured my experience with Fallout 1-2, JA's combat was 10x better.

After that it's basically just Starcraft, Total Annihilation, and some other RTS's for me.

Very weird. I can't pinpoint my feelings on it. I think I have a better chance of enjoying point and click adventure games more instead, I'm still pretty curious about that genre (only played Shivers growing up haha), and I still have some interest in stuff like Civilization, since base building in RTS's was my favorite thing about them.

I own Shadowrun Returns on Steam so I'll at least give that one a shot someday.

[MrPopo]

Slowly working my way through Might and Magic 2. You can definitely see the game going through the transition from the first one to the third one. MM2 introduces skills (though each character can only learn two) and hirelings, as well as the Ninja and Barbarian classes. They also introduce needing to learn spells from more than just leveling up. You get some spells at level up, some when training at the mages guild or temple (for sorcery or cleric spells), and then some are gotten from quests. They've also definitely improved the graphics compared to MM1; there's a lot more going on screen and more animation.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I hate to say it, but I could not play much of Planescape at all. I gave that one a shot because of its prestigious legacy, but yikes

I love that game, but I can see how it'd be a hit-or-miss thing. It's very dialogue heavy with minimal combat. I think I once read that it's possible to beat the game with only five or so enemies defeated.

This compilation is simply amazing. All the best isometric D&D stuff together. Seems out of print though, may be cheaper to find this all on GOG.com???

Slowly working my way through Might and Magic 2

I just got the SNES port of that. Boss game.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I hate to say it, but I could not play much of Planescape at all. I gave that one a shot because of its prestigious legacy, but yikes

I love that game, but I can see how it'd be a hit-or-miss thing. It's very dialogue heavy with minimal combat. I think I once read that it's possible to beat the game with only five or so enemies defeated.

This compilation is simply amazing. All the best isometric D&D stuff together. Seems out of print though, may be cheaper to find this all on GOG.com???

Planescape is definitely the D&D CRPG that makes the biggest effort to replicate the "Role Playing" element rather than the combat. Hence why you don't even make your own character or parse out your own stats. That game is absolutely brilliantly written though, and I'd highly recommend anyone who's going to play through it at least consider using a guide, because there's just so much stuff you'll miss if you don't know quite what to do.

I will say that you can get like EVERY isometric D&D game on GoG. That pack even goes on sale fairly often. On regards to that physical bundle though, I don't have that one, but I took one that's just Bauldur's Gate 1 & 2 with the expansions out of the free bin at the local resale store (they don't sell PC stuff, so whenever people bring it in and don't wanna take it home they just put it in a free bin "as-is").

[Ack]

Since I tested it and got it to run, I decided to sit down with Crusaders of Might and Magic last night. It's...rough. The "open world" consists of narrow railroaded corridors with vast amounts of empty space that you have to traverse on foot to get anywhere. The combat system feels stunted and uninteresting. But by far the worst is the hideous voice acting. It sounds like someone asked their friends and family to do the voicework. Heck, I've noticed at least one lady was way too far from the mic when she did her lines, which tells me there wasn't any sort of quality control. It just feels sloppy.

[Xeogred]

A chunk of those Might & Magic games looked interseting to me, but I have no idea haha...

@PartridgeSenpai: How are the enhanced editions of BG?

I've thought of the idea of watching an LP of Planescape, if there's a well done run of it out there on youtube or something. I guess the irony is that I've loved most of Obsidian's newer works and anything Chris Avellone seems to touch has insanely good writing, but yeah.

Along with what you're saying above about the "Role Playing", it might not come to surprise that the rare few times I did play D&D in middle school years ago, it was basically just the dungeon crawling and combat that I enjoyed. But I had friends that just wanted to talk and role play everything, I couldn't handle that. I need SOME gameplay/combat, videogames and board games... lol. Otherwise I'd probably rather just read a book.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Since I tested it and got it to run, I decided to sit down with Crusaders of Might and Magic last night. It's...rough. The "open world" consists of narrow railroaded corridors with vast amounts of empty space that you have to traverse on foot to get anywhere. The combat system feels stunted and uninteresting. But by far the worst is the hideous voice acting. It sounds like someone asked their friends and family to do the voicework. Heck, I've noticed at least one lady was way too far from the mic when she did her lines, which tells me there wasn't any sort of quality control. It just feels sloppy.

It's a shitty game. I enjoy it.

Ah, the good old days when "3DO" was a game publisher...

[Ack]

Yeah, it is one I will beat, put away, and never look at again.

[Ack]

Since I tested it and got it to run, I decided to sit down with Crusaders of Might and Magic last night. It's...rough. The "open world" consists of narrow railroaded corridors with vast amounts of empty space that you have to traverse on foot to get anywhere. The combat system feels stunted and uninteresting. But by far the worst is the hideous voice acting. It sounds like someone asked their friends and family to do the voicework. Heck, I've noticed at least one lady was way too far from the mic when she did her lines, which tells me there wasn't any sort of quality control. It just feels sloppy.

It's a shitty game. I enjoy it.

Ah, the good old days when "3DO" was a game publisher...

Hey Bone, I discovered last night while reading up on Crusaders of Might & Magic that the PlayStation and PC versions are different. Which one did you play?