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Which RPGs are the best for beginners?

J_C

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I already played Baldur's Gate, IWD and PS:T.

So, which games a begginer in the genre should play now? Fallout, Deus EX, Arcanum, Age of Decadence, Morrowind...?

Tks in advance for the eventual tips.
Rogue (1980), Wizardry (1981), Ultima III: Exodus (1983), Dungeon Master (1987), Pool of Radiance (1988), Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992), Final Fantasy VI (1994; a.k.a. FF3), TES II: Daggerfall (1996), Fallout (1997).

This will give you a taste of classics in a variety of CRPG subgenres. Ignore those telling you to focus on games in the period 1998-2002 (and even more those telling you to focus on later games).
Yeah, stick to these if you want to stop playing RPGs. I mean, what the fuck. How can you recommend these to a beginners? Some of these are intimidating to even hardcore players these days. Bullshit elitism.

Stick these, as Lilura said:
https://lilura1.blogspot.hu/2017/10/The-Best-Year-for-PC-Role-Playing-Games.html
 

Grauken

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Intimidating? You're talking about playing games, not doing shit like sky diving or mountain climbing

Also, anyone who is intimidated by these games is everything but hardcore
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

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I already played Baldur's Gate, IWD and PS:T.

So, which games a begginer in the genre should play now? Fallout, Deus EX, Arcanum, Age of Decadence, Morrowind...?

Tks in advance for the eventual tips.
Rogue (1980), Wizardry (1981), Ultima III: Exodus (1983), Dungeon Master (1987), Pool of Radiance (1988), Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992), Final Fantasy VI (1994; a.k.a. FF3), TES II: Daggerfall (1996), Fallout (1997).

This will give you a taste of classics in a variety of CRPG subgenres. Ignore those telling you to focus on games in the period 1998-2002 (and even more those telling you to focus on later games).
Yeah, stick to these if you want to stop playing RPGs. I mean, what the fuck. How can you recommend these to a beginners? Some of these are intimidating to even hardcore players these days. Bullshit elitism.

Stick these, as Lilura said:
https://lilura1.blogspot.hu/2017/10/The-Best-Year-for-PC-Role-Playing-Games.html
I played Daggerfall while I was in high school without any problems and every problem I had with the game was solved within the tutorial. Before that my gaming experience was limited to stuff at the local arcade, racing games and Heretic. What's so intimidating about it?
Same goes with Rogue, just had to get used to the controls.
Ultima Underworld? Hah, it's very easy to get into, as well as Fallout unless you're one of these 'wasd doesn't work imma out r00fles'.
Final Fantasy VI is a boring grind but pretty easy to get into.
The only real deal breaker here is prolly Wizardry since it's not for the faint of heart. Personally, I love to plug my CRT into my laptop, turn on the amber color scheme, sit back and relax while enjoying them dungeons and trying to memorize my way through them.
The rest I haven't tried yet, but this is another reason to give them a try.

I'll add that if you liked Ultima Underworld, you might want to take a closer look at King's Field series as well as Shadow Tower, not to mention System Shock.
Also Akalabeth -- it was one of my first real RPGs and remains as one of my favorites if you want to sit back and crawl, crawl, crawl. It's very easy to learn too.
Gothic might be up your alley if you want free movement and an open world as well as nice char progression(KF will also scratch that itch a bit).

And don't you dare to skip Wizardry IV.
 

T. Reich

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For beginners, I'd definitely stick with the non-decline, but basic games that came out in an era when graphic interface that uses mouse became a norm.

For hack'n'slash - Diablo 2: LoD (then throw PoE or Grim Dawn at them).
For infinity RPGs - BG (PsT afterwards).
For biowarean nu-RPGs - KotoR (then forbid them to play any biowarean stuff released after that).
For FPS/RPG hybrids - Deus Ex (then SSII, Fo:NV and VtMB).
For "semi-oldschool" first-person exploratory RPGs - M&M 7 (it's very basic and easy on the eyes, and then you can shom them the earlier M&M and Wizardries).
For blobbers - Legend of Grimrock (if they like it, giving them Dungeon Master should do the trick).
For fallout-style games - Fallout, DUH (then force-feed them Arcanum, until they like it).
For action-RPGs - Gothic I and Morrowind. They aren't exactly newbie-firendly, though, so some previous exposure to some other RPGs is recommended.
I'm not sure how to approach the Goldbox-era RPGs, TBH. They take some getting used to.
 

fantadomat

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For blobers go for MM series but begin from MM8 and go down. MM6 and MM4 are the best ;) . Good third person ones well...begin with Witcher 3 then Vampires bloodlines and then go for Piranha games. Try out spiderweb games and Arcanum. Don't forget Deus Ex. D:OS 1/2 are pretty easy games if you don't go for hard.
 

T. Reich

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In hindsight - I suppose yes.
When writing the post, I was thinking in terms of RPG systems primarily, and Morrowind has plenty of stats and all that. But now I start to recall that you get terribly OP not even halfway through the game, so it'd not really much of a challenge.
 

Cael

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In hindsight - I suppose yes.
When writing the post, I was thinking in terms of RPG systems primarily, and Morrowind has plenty of stats and all that. But now I start to recall that you get terribly OP not even halfway through the game, so it'd not really much of a challenge.
Morrowind? You can get horribly OP right from the start if you invested in stealing and/or know which tomb to go into on the way to Pelgraid!
 

fobia

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My first cRPG wasn't one of the classics like yours Atleticano, but Neverwinter Nights was my first exposure to the genre and the second one was Gothic II + NotR.
So I'd recommend Gothic I and/or II to play next. It might be not the most newbie-friendly game, but I managed just fine and it was a great experience.
Very refreshing after a lot of RTwP. It's also a great introduction into action RPGs. And I think it will set your standards right. :obviously:
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

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When writing the post, I was thinking in terms of RPG systems primarily, and Morrowind has plenty of stats and all that. But now I start to recall that you get terribly OP not even halfway through the game, so it'd not really much of a challenge.

It's not so much how easy it is to get OP but rather just how easy the game is to get to grips with in general, when compared to the Infinity Engine games; it's a dress-up-dolly popamole.
 

Cael

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Now, now, we're talking about RPG beginners here, not seasoned powerplayers with metagaming knowledge.
Found it on my first playthrough of Morrowind, actually. It isn't hard. You just need the courage to blindly charge through the door.
 

fantadomat

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My first rpgs were MM6 in russian with some strange mods/bugs and BG2 on four 700mb CDs,really hated changing the CD.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
As everyone said, just play Fallout 1 & 2

Yeah, Fallout 1 & 2 is the best answer.

Afterwards you could try The Witcher 1 and see if you like it. It's a really nice game and fairly modern.
 

Cael

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My first RPG was Ultima 4. My dad had no clue what he was throwing me into. Hilarity ensued.
 

Kyl Von Kull

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I really don’t understand how so many people on this forum can hate Skyrim and Oblivion with the fire of a thousand suns, but still love Morrowind to death. It makes me wonder why they dislike the new ones so much, because to me they’re all so goddamned similar. I tried Oblivion when it came out; it felt just like Morrowind but with a worse setting, better graphics, and less respect for traditional RPG mechanics like stats. But it was still boring as watching paint dry in all the same ways.

Every Bethesda game since Daggerfall has had the same flaws. A mile wide and an inch deep. Maybe Morrowind was an inch and a half deep. That’s a low, low bar. Here’s the thing about RPGs: the game needs to make you care about something in the game world or it just doesn’t work. Bethesda’s sandbox approach utterly fails to do that, including in Morrowind. “Oh, here’s another cave full of fish people bandits with a little loot... now I’m killing fish people... this is pointless, existence is meaningless, I wish I’d drowned on the boat over/stayed in prison/let the dragon eat me.”

If you must recommend ARPGs to this neophyte who just finished PS:T, please don’t lump
dross like Morrowind in with excellent games like VtM: Bloodlines (which is easy to patch and make work on windows 10), or the first two Gothics, or, Caesar forbid, a modern masterpiece like New Vegas (strong emphasis on the word modern).

Death to Morrowind.
 

Falksi

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Shadowrun Returns & Dragonfall are both nice & simple, but fun & atmospheric.

Get some old-school SNES & Genesis RPGs tucked in like Final Fantasy 5 & 6 or Phantasy Star 4 on emulation.

Also, for something more modern Dragon Age Origins is a great balance between Hardcore & Casual. It'll actually serve as a good marker of whether you like more hardcore or casual RPGs, or both.

A good, dumb action RPG is Divinity 2 TDKS
 

Cael

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Morrowind had you going around trying to figure out what is happening, whether a prophecy is really about you, convincing varying factions to aid/confirm you, finding out that you are the only one who can stop an awakening god that not even the 3 other living gods can stop and more.

Oblivion has you playing courier boy for a bunch of monks hiding in a fort.
 

Kyl Von Kull

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Morrowind had you going around trying to figure out what is happening, whether a prophecy is really about you, convincing varying factions to aid/confirm you, finding out that you are the only one who can stop an awakening god that not even the 3 other living gods can stop and more.

Oblivion has you playing courier boy for a bunch of monks hiding in a fort.

Insert dragons instead of awakening god and you have Skyrim.

Look, I agree that Morrowind is better than Oblivion or Skyrim, but that’s not saying much and they’re still really similar. It’s like the same house with different wallpaper.
 

fantadomat

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Morrowind had you going around trying to figure out what is happening, whether a prophecy is really about you, convincing varying factions to aid/confirm you, finding out that you are the only one who can stop an awakening god that not even the 3 other living gods can stop and more.

Oblivion has you playing courier boy for a bunch of monks hiding in a fort.
And Skyrim.....
 

fantadomat

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Morrowind had you going around trying to figure out what is happening, whether a prophecy is really about you, convincing varying factions to aid/confirm you, finding out that you are the only one who can stop an awakening god that not even the 3 other living gods can stop and more.

Oblivion has you playing courier boy for a bunch of monks hiding in a fort.

Insert dragons instead of awakening god and you have Skyrim.

Look, I agree that Morrowind is better than Oblivion or Skyrim, but that’s not saying much and they’re still really similar. It’s like the same house with different wallpaper.
Morrowind is unique in setting.
 

wyes gull

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It’s like the same house with different wallpaper.

And without level-scaling, an intelligent compass and not set in bland english/norwegian countryside. Which in terms of house analogies, means the walls, plumbing and electricity are gone.
If Morrowind's a house, Oblivion is a shack and Skyrim's a bin.
 

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