RPG of the Decade - Developers' Choice

[DarkUnderlord]

<p>It's been 10 long years of RPGs. In our <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=200">RPG of the Decade - Developers' Choice</a> we take a look back at the decade that's just been and go over some of the more notable events. We then asked a bunch of better-known developers in the RPG field what their RPG of the decade was:</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I mentioned earlier that "choice and consequence" is a catch-cry here on the Codex. Well, choice and consequence is not an ingredient in a Bethesda game. In your typical Bethesda game, you get to role-play everyone. You get to make every choice, typically without any consequences.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">And by God does that make their games hugely successful.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">[...]</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span class="postbody"><strong>Tim Cain:</strong> There were so many good RPG&rsquo;s released in the last decade that it is hard to choose the &ldquo;RPG of the Decade&rdquo;. I am embarrassed to say that I haven&rsquo;t played some of them, and I only want to nominate a game that I have played. And that list is still large: Baldur&rsquo;s Gate 2, Icewind Dale 2, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age (Bioware is on a roll in my list, you can see), Fable, Deus Ex, Fallout 3, Geneforge. So I am going with a game that captured my imagination and that I played for many many hours, and that I think about when designing my own games. And that game is&hellip; </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="postbody"><a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=200">Read the rest to find out</a>!</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="postbody">We're also running a competition. <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/contact.php">Let us know what your RPG of the decade is</a> and we'll give a random entrant <a href="http://af.gog.com/en/frontpage?as=1649904300">a free GOG game</a> of their choice. </span>Competition closes 30th April 2010.</p>

 

[stony3k]

No love for Wizardry 8?

 

[Mastermind]

Do I have to write a longass essay detailing why I picked a particular game to be eligible?

 

[OSK]

I'm glad there's at least one developer that can see that Arcanum is the greatest RPG of all time.

OF ALL TIME.

 

[Volourn]

" and a developer who went out of their way to avoid the sequel round-about - was Troika Games."

Come on. Overlal, it's a solid articvle, but this is bullshit. Troika tried their best to do sequels. They practically begged to them. Troika bosses made it very clear they wanted to do sequels to both ARC and TOEE but the publishers simply wouldn't let them.

So, stop the bullshit. If anything, it was BIo for a while who purpsoefully avoid sequels as they passed on both NWN2 and KOTOR2 before finally getting back into sequel fun with ME2.

 

[Azrael the cat]

And the best developer troll is....Tim CAIN!!!

Ok, there's a good chance he's deadly serious when he says that Oblivion was his favourite crpg of the 2000s. People who work in a design industry tend have views that are so far skewed from their customers (i.e. they're looking at different things; it's like how you'll rarely see an 'intelligent film' director lambasting Michael Bay like 'intelligent film' critics do, because the directors are blown away by his technical aptitude for crisp action shots) that you just can't predict their tastes in advance.

But I still find it hard to believe that he didn't simultaneously expect to wind folks up somewhat.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I'm glad there's at least one developer that can see that Arcanum is the greatest RPG of all time.

OF ALL TIME.

Call me oldfashioned, but I'd say to be a developer you have to put a game out :D

Here's to hoping that when the codex does a 2000s retrospective in a year or so, there'll be that developer.

 

[Pseudofool]

Props for putting that together, interesting read. Thorough.

 

[Jason]

Do I have to write a longass essay detailing why I picked a particular game to be eligible?

Write a paragraph.

 

[Mastermind]

And the best developer troll is....Tim CAIN!!!

Ok, there's a good chance he's deadly serious when he says that Oblivion was his favourite crpg of the 2000s. People who work in a design industry tend have views that are so far skewed from their customers (i.e. they're looking at different things; it's like how you'll rarely see an 'intelligent film' director lambasting Michael Bay like 'intelligent film' critics do, because the directors are blown away by his technical aptitude for crisp action shots) that you just can't predict their tastes in advance.

But I still find it hard to believe that he didn't simultaneously expect to wind folks up somewhat.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess nearly every RPG developer hopes the rpgcodex membership dies in a horrible fire, so if he expected to wind folks up somewhat, it would only add to the zeal of his pick.

 

[silver crowaxe]

Props for putting that together, interesting read. Thorough.

Indeed.

 

[Derper]

My pick is Arcanum

Probably the one RPG I've done most playthroughs of, just to try new options, new methods, new characters. Playing as a technologist is a hugely rewarding experience, and the game seems to always trick you into playing just a little more, like needing to play the next round in Civilization. Might have spent more time with Fallout 2, but Arcanum is just as massive, engaging, well-written and immersive. On top of that you get your C&C, original character system, an extremely interesting world to explore and and a true feeling of being in a living place that goes on for miles and miles. Bugs and combat are the obvious minus, but nothing that bothers me too much.

 

[WholesaleGenocide]

Great article.

My pick is without a doubt Dungeon Lords. Most of the codex will likely select some boring rehashed bioware infantry engine shit like Balder's Gates, or perhaps Fallout 2, but these are very stale games for the aforementioned reasons that I will explain to you.

Firstly, Dungeon Lords is fresh, and made by renowned developer D.W. Bradley, maker of Wizardry 5-7 of which are certainly the best Wizardry games to hit worldwide shores here, 8 being a relatively weak sequel to good previous good installements of Wizardry franchise. Its fresh because of its very many different features of which a minimal amount of titles possess in these years, as most games are led by large marketers that do not allow innovation in today's games anymore.

Graphics in dungeon lords are perhaps lacking for console generation, but they are good for time period they came out (~2005). Gameplay and story, however, are through roofs. Dungeon lords features very unique never-before-seen caster system that is more than just right click of today's generation, and you had to combine various things to create new spells -- very unique. Many races and classes were available for the get-go, and combat was available against many seperate enemies of very interesting natures.

You can also do weapon combos via mouse movements, not unlike mouse gestures on Macs, and Black and White. Game has arching storylines and many diverse branches in different arcs.

RPG of the decade?

Dungeon Lords

 

[Jason]

Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

 

[Shannow]

It [actually "they" because DU was talking about D1 + D2] inspired Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale 2,

The key to understanding DU.

While big Western studios stick mostly to action games, European developers...

Quick, somebody inform Obama! Europe isn't part of the "West" anymore!

Here they created an interesting mix of FPS and RPG in a game that unfortunately developed a reputation for being a bit buggy.

In contrast to Troika's other games...

So what was this decade all about? CD Projekt best proved how hard it is to survive in the RPG industry, managing to release their acclaimed title The Witcher and just barely avoid going bankrupt afterwards. This is a company founded in 1994 who survived quite well as a publisher until they attempted to make an RPG.

Well, the Financial Crisis didn't just hit the "West"...

It was Troika's game of passion, a game that truly redefined RPGs by showing just how much is possible, if developers focus on gameplay instead of graphics for a change. Unfortunately, this innovative approach didn't really work out for Troika

because Arcanum's gameplay sucked...

And after bitching about you guys I now offer my entry to the competition. (After all, I love proving my social intelligence):
Since the decade started in 2001 (yeah, fuck you, too) that neatly eliminates BG2 from the possible list. Which in turn makes my choice quite easy: G2 - NotR
Because it seems so effortless. Just like Gothic it was intended as an action adventure, but nevertheless it blew most of the aRPG competition out of the water when it came to RPG elements. It was one of rather few sequels that actually managed to improve upon the prequel while retaining consistency and feel. It has great dialogue, NPCs and story (yes, I manage to completely ignore the Dragons *shannowmindtrick*). But the best parts are definately the melee combat and exploration.
Combat: The combat actually deserved the adjective "action" because it did not just consist of clicking fast or worse clicking fast and being able to pause and issue orders as in Diablo, Dungeon Siege, et al. Combat required skill and timing. The only drawback being that you could never hit multiple enemies simultaneously. The way skills affected combat style is also the best I've seen yet. From holding your weapon clumsily to becoming a weapons master. And the difference wasn't just graphical and damage wise it also changed speed and the timing required for combos. The better the character's skill was the easier it was to get the timing for combos right. (And the prettier the combos looked.)
Exploration: True open world exploration that is only limited by the player/character's skill and inventiveness. My fondest memory of any exploration danger vs reward scenario is my acquiring of the Drachenschneide, one of the best two-handed weapons in the game. I came across a cave in a none too dangerous area with two skeletons in it at a rather low character level. I managed to lure them out, one by one, and after some fiddling, dying and reloading I managed to put them to rest. With that feeling of success I explored some more, turned a corner and stood in front of 3 undead paladins who quickly made mincemeat out of me. After a lot more fiddling, dying and reloading I had to accept that I couldn't kill even a single one of those bastards... So I made an inventory of my possibilities and found 3 scrolls of smite evil in my inventory... Well, since I only had enough mana to use one at a time, the ensueing fight still put me on my toes but I persevered and found the Drachenschneide as a reward. It took another 3-5 level-ups before I had the strength to actually use it, but my, was that a sweet experience.

Honorable mentions in no particular order:
Mount & Blade: If only it were a full game and not just a combat simulator with some fluff tacked on.
Wizardry 8: If only there had been less filler combat.
M&M 8
IWD 1+2
ToEE: Less bugs, a more stable engine, a story, no Hommlet and most importantly better encounter design.
Incursion: Finish the game already!

 

[Wyrmlord]

I like the wonderful minds of the Codex who conveniently ignored the "a paragraph" part.

 

[SuicideBunny]

(and don't bitch about wrong release dates - they varied for different regions; also, the list is expansion-free)

avernum 6 came out 2009.11.20 for all regions.

 

[Jaedar]

For me it has got to be MotB.

It may very well be because I never really got into Arcanum, or because I never played whatever game 'X' you feel is best, but MotB is the best RPG i played this decade. I like the character creation, Love the story, setting and NPC's. Oh, and I think I'm one of the few that don't mind the engine or camera. On top of that, the quests were usually interesting and the incredibleness of the evil path was good enough to actually DEMAND a second playthrough, and not just a flip-flop at the end like in most other RPG's with this system.

Rpg of the decade?
NeverWinterNights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

Oh and good article btw, wish more big name devs had joined though.

 

[mondblut]

Hm, why Silent Storm is there yet Jagged Alliance 2 or 7.62 are not?

 

[Achilles]

My favorite RPG for this decade was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. There was just so much to love about this game: From the kick-ass introduction with Captain Picard, all the way to the fantastic and believable game world, I felt immersed in a game like never before. Oblivion perfectly captured the essence of RPG, which is running around on a horse killing stuff. There was that handy GPS that allowed me to find the action (hard and) fast, without roaming aimlessly and all the enemies were cool. Also, they were a decent challenge, not too easy but not too hard - I liked that because it made me feel like a true hero. The storyline was awesome to the max, with big fucking dragons and demons battling it out, plus I could join all these guilds and be the supreme ruler of all of them. I used to avoid RPGs like the plague because they were boring with stupid text and words, but Oblivion dragged the genre kicking and screaming to the next generation. It wasa extreme, awesome and looked great. 10/10!

 

[Derper]

My favorite RPG for this decade was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 10/10!

2/10 for the effort.

 

[Darth Roxor]

This article:

 

[Elwro]

(and don't bitch about wrong release dates - they varied for different regions; also, the list is expansion-free)

avernum 6 came out 2009.11.20 for all regions.

For Macs.

Oh wait, I forgot some people use Macs (I just use eMacs lollololol herp). Hm. This site has always been against PC, so let the list be PC-only. Get it?

 

[kris]

Do I even need to motivate why I would pick Arcanum?

Ignoring the sub-par combat mechanics it was a great game. With well written dialogue, with good quests, a well-defined world and people that reacted to you in a realistic way. And creating a character in it was just awesome.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

While big Western studios stick mostly to action games, European developers...

Quick, somebody inform Obama! Europe isn't part of the "West" anymore!

Just admit reality, it's only a matter of time before Europe becomes it's own thing and the US is all that remains of the modern notion of the West.

But yes, I do have a notorious habit of using "the West", meaning only North America and not including Europe. Is fixed now.