Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
It almost seems cliché to say that Baldur's Gate 'saved' or 'revived' the cRPG genre from its mid-90s slump. The problem is that I really don't see it. Yes, there were some good games released in its wake (PS:T, Arcanum, Gothic, even Morrowind for some), but they seem to come from vastly different lineages. My main problem with this thesis is where are all the birdmen games? Every time a surprisingly popular games is released, there is always a slew of copycats produced by two-bit developers trying to cash in on a 'fad.' Of course these games always merely copy the 'feathers' and end up sucking, but they are still produced. When Super Mario Brothers became popular, lots of developers made 'Mario-clones', and thus the 2-D platformer genre was born. When Doom became a hit, lots of 'Doom-clones' followed. The same thing happened with Warcraft II, Diablo, God of War, Myst, Grand Theft Auto, and several others. Hell, even Ultima and Wizardry have spawned dozens if not hundreds of clones each! So, where are all the Baldur's Gate clones?
I guess to be a Baldur's Gate clone, a game needs to have fantasy combat from an overhead perspective and play like an RTS (maybe with a pause feature); it also needs a dialogue tree. These seem to be the 'feathers' of Baldur's Gate. Here are all the clones I can think of (that were not developed by Bioware).
Planescape: Torment
Icewind Dale 1 & 2
Drakensang: The Dark Eye (maybe)
Gorasul: Legacy of the Dragon
Hell, to be generous, why not throw in Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor and ToEE!
As you can see, this is not a very long list. Are there any others?
I guess to be a Baldur's Gate clone, a game needs to have fantasy combat from an overhead perspective and play like an RTS (maybe with a pause feature); it also needs a dialogue tree. These seem to be the 'feathers' of Baldur's Gate. Here are all the clones I can think of (that were not developed by Bioware).
Planescape: Torment
Icewind Dale 1 & 2
Drakensang: The Dark Eye (maybe)
Gorasul: Legacy of the Dragon
Hell, to be generous, why not throw in Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor and ToEE!
As you can see, this is not a very long list. Are there any others?