What crpg has the best exploration aspect?

[Shape]

Which RPG had such a good world that sucked you into a 100% (or nearly) world exploration?

 

[Karwelas]

Oblivion
Fallout 3
Neverwinter Nights (First campaign)
The Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age II

Spoiler

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Gothic 1 & 2

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Whoa, that's bad language usage there!

Do you mean which games had the best immersion atmosphere or which games had the best Open World or which games had the best Immersion atmosphere in an Open World setting?

 

[Jaesun]

Wizardry VII

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Do you mean which games had the best immersion atmosphere or which games had the best Open World or which games had the best Immersion atmosphere in an Open World setting?

Gothic 1 & 2

 

[Perkel]

Gothic & Gothic II

Both games have terrific world design and whole thing is hella consistent and amazing to explore.

 

[upwardlymobile]

daggerfall

ok maybe not, but morrowwind definitely

 

[V_K]

Whoa, that's bad language usage there!

Do you mean which games had the best immersion atmosphere or which games had the best Open World or which games had the best Immersion atmosphere in an Open World setting?

...or exploration as a gameplay mechanic.

If we take into account all three (and are somewhat lax on defining "open world"), then:
Legend of Grimrock II
Arx Fatalis
Anvil of Dawn
Tunnels&Trolls
Magic Candle III and Bloodstone
Legacy: Realms of Terror

 

[Shape]

Gothic & Gothic II

Both games have terrific world design and whole thing is hella consistent and amazing to explore.

Do you mean which games had the best immersion atmosphere or which games had the best Open World or which games had the best Immersion atmosphere in an Open World setting?

Gothic 1 & 2

What made the Gothic 1&2 worlds so special to you guys? What sucked you into exploring it? Any examples?

 

[Wizfall]

Fallout 1 (small world but almost every location is a total surprise/awesome) and Fallout 2 (bigger world).
Baldur's Gate 2 (huge world, love how what seems to be at first small/medium scale quests can in fact be very long quests involving several maps).
Wizardry 7 and 8.
Also Ultima 4 way back then.

 

[Perkel]

What made the Gothic 1&2 worlds so special to you guys? What sucked you into exploring it? Any examples?

World design - world is carefuly designed from each cave to the last npc. Each and every place feels unique and you don't have this "this is random mountain/hill" feeling like in other games. Enemy placement also is important as you will quickly learn that the deeper you go into woods the more fun awaits for you.

 

[Rake]

Fallout 1 (small world but almost every location is a total surprise/awesome) and Fallout 2 (bigger world).
Baldur's Gate 2 (huge world, love how what seems to be at first small/medium scale quests can in fact be very long quests involving several maps).

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Fallout: New Vegas - tons of unique dungeons, events and NPCs sprinkled all over the the map and spliced with that treasured classic Fallout atmosphere;

Divine Divinity - huge-ass world, go anywhere from the get go and get your ass kicked by non-scaled mobs;

Might and Magic 6, 7, X - part 6 is so big it can make you dizzy: the world and the dungeons are MASSIVE, and it's all non-random and unique (except treasure - for the most part.); part 7 is smaller but still big; X because it's the last good grid based open-world crawler we're gonna get (and it's a game very worth playing fully-patched, yes);

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Divine Divinity - huge-ass world, go anywhere from the get go and get your ass kicked by non-scaled mobs;

No, you had to clear the dungeon before you were allowed out the hamlet IIRC. Then the huge middle section was the gorgeous open world, and a game I was thinking about listing in the thread, but the end is a lock-in as well. It's only the middle section of that game which has people gushing, not the whole.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Wizardry 7, Dark Souls, Crusaders of Khazan, Fallout: New Vegas, Gothic 2 NotR, Morrowind all have good to amazing worlds to explore.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Divine Divinity - huge-ass world, go anywhere from the get go and get your ass kicked by non-scaled mobs;

No, you had to clear the dungeon before you were allowed out the hamlet IIRC.

So? This middle section is like 90% of the game (can't say for sure, I quit it at the point when it started getting too linear). You could say the same thing about Gothic's Temple of the Sleeper and Gothic 2's Chapter 6. The little shitty things don't ruin the overall impression.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

You say that, but the thought of that opening dungeon did put me off replaying it for about 6 years. And the end drag... someone should make a mod with just the middle bit.

 

[Abelian]

The ones where you draw your own map.

 

[V_K]

Divine Divinity - huge-ass world, go anywhere from the get go and get your ass kicked by non-scaled mobs;

A gameworld with roughly three towns in it is anything but huge. It's also very unrealistically designed, there's never even a hint of a feeling of being in a real place. Same problem with all Divinity games, really.

 

[DalekFlay]

Definitely Morrowind for me. Not only did it have diverse geography and a lot of shit to stumble upon, it also had hand-placed loot and TONS of stuff you'd never find on any quest.

Gothic 2 would be a close number two.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Divine Divinity - huge-ass world, go anywhere from the get go and get your ass kicked by non-scaled mobs;

A gameworld with roughly three towns in it is anything but huge. It's also very unrealistically designed, there's never even a hint of a feeling of being in a real place. Same problem with all Divinity games, really.

Have you tried roaming the countryside? You know, Gothics didn't have many 'city locations' either - I don't think this is an important factor to exploration at all.

 

[Night Goat]

Morrowind. A thousand times, Morrowind.

 

[octavius]

Open world:
Morrowind
Oblivion with the right mods (like OOO and Unique Landscapes)
Never played the Gothic games du to their UI and behind-the-ass-camera blocking the view. If not they would probably rank higher than the TES games.
Sadly there are not many 3D open world games (not single player, at least).

Dungeon Crawls:
Dungeon Master
Chaos Strikes Back
Ultima Underworld

 

[Black_Willow]

Gothic 2, no competition for me.