Single-Player Turn-Based No-Party RPGs w/ Loot

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 7:46 pm

Just got finished playing Eschalon: Book I, which was a relatively new game (compared to some things) and it was a shining example of a good single-player turn-based no-party(I stress this, I hate managing a bunch of dudes when I wanna make one dude really powerful) RPG with loot. Any ideas?

TwoHandedSword · Post by **TwoHandedSword** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 5:00 am

I prefer turn-based RPGs myself (and have a bunch of them lined up on GoG, ready for whenever I have some time to play) but can only speak for the games which I've actually played through. Hopefully, they're new to you.

Both Arcanum and PoR: Ruins of Myth Drannor offer a turn-based option; and while neither one was designed to be played solo, both of them can be — and in fact, that's the style I prefer.

The former is a sandbox game with strong replayability, and as such sounds more like the experience you enjoyed in Eschalon Book I (thanks for the tip, by the way). Maximum party size is directly dependent on your persuasiveness anyway, and foregoing followers mostly means losing out on some interesting dialogue.

You may want to look online for the hack that lets you take your character past level 50: without it, if you go side-quest happy you'll probably hit the ceiling about halfway through the game. But with it, you'll eventually become the BMOC; since the monsters don't scale, everything becomes ridiculously easy.

The second choice is a hack-and-slash dungeon crawl using D&D v3.5 rules, but one that for some reason has always tickled my fancy. There are almost no random encounters to speak of, so replays can feel like deja vu; on the other hand, as a soloist you can eventually rise all the way to level 32, and with the right build actually be stronger than the final boss (who's designed to be a challenge to a party of six level 16 PCs).

When soloing, it can be a bit tricky to clear the first dungeon level. But once you do, you'll be the equal of a four-man party at the same point; and once that happens, there's no looking back. The traditional challenge, once you've played the game through, is to attempt to solo as a halfling monk; though personally, I think a halfling ranger would be an even tougher choice.

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 4:36 pm

TwoHandedSword wrote:The former is a sandbox game with strong replayability, and as such sounds more like the experience you enjoyed in Eschalon Book I (thanks for the tip, by the way).

Certainly! Glad to help a fellow turn-based soloer

TwoHandedSword wrote:You may want to look online for the hack that lets you take your character past level 50: without it, if you go side-quest happy you'll probably hit the ceiling about halfway through the game. But with it, you'll eventually become the BMOC; since the monsters don't scale, everything becomes ridiculously easy.

I see, I usually find myself doing everything I can possibly do, so that might be convenient. I actually own Arcanum on GoG but I haven't played a whole lot of it (I get side-tracked easily).

I've heard of the Ruins of Myth Drannor, and for some reason I thought it was a much different game (The ORIGINAL Pool of Radiance, oooold game, I think it's actually on GameBanshee).

I checked it out and it looks pretty awesome, I always appreciate games where you're expected to party but you can flourish as a solo-character.

Thanks for the ideas, definitely gonna check that out.

If anyone has anymore ideas I'd appreciate it.

Myrr Disparo · Post by **Myrr Disparo** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:18 am

Easy. Shotgun-totin' gum-chewin' ass-kickin' Fallout. Much like the Clash, it's The Only Game That Matters (C). So you're doing yourself a HUGE disservice by not checking it out. The sequel is pretty awesome too. As a bonus, they're both [url="http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/fallout_2"]on[/url] [url="http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/fallout"]GOG[/url], dirt cheap.
So, go. Buy both of them. Like, now. You can thank me later. What are you still doing here?

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:20 pm

Myrr Disparo wrote:Easy. Shotgun-totin' gum-chewin' ass-kickin' Fallout. Much like the Clash, it's The Only Game That Matters (C). So you're doing yourself a HUGE disservice by not checking it out. The sequel is pretty awesome too. As a bonus, they're both [url="http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/fallout_2"]on[/url] [url="http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/fallout"]GOG[/url], dirt cheap.
So, go. Buy both of them. Like, now. You can thank me later. What are you still doing here?

Good idea, I actually have fallout 1, 2 and tactics as well! Gonna go install those

Still open to ideas, if anyone can direct me to a game directory with a good search engine that'd be sweet as well.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:29 am

Neverwinter Nights can be played turnbased too, IIRC. (Is there a "paus at end of turn" option?) Not sure, though.

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:42 pm

GawainBS wrote:Neverwinter Nights can be played turnbased too, IIRC. (Is there a "paus at end of turn" option?) Not sure, though.

I guess in a way it does

Not exactly what I'm looking for but NWN is my favorite game of all time, so it certainly does something right.

Myrr Disparo · Post by **Myrr Disparo** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:27 pm

Neverwinter is your favourite game? Man, that's an unusual choice! Not that I have any better picks, mind, it's just that in my quite humble experience, that's not a statement you hear often.

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:48 pm

Myrr Disparo wrote:Neverwinter is your favourite game? Man, that's an unusual choice! Not that I have any better picks, mind, it's just that in my quite humble experience, that's not a statement you hear often.

I see, what's your favorite?

Myrr Disparo · Post by **Myrr Disparo** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 7:38 pm

Well, am I allowed some leeway? I've got a bunch of favourites, and picking just one is hard. They are all outstanding for different reasons. Ps:Torment is THE game. You've got to have played this to have an standard for what can be done, narratively, in a videogame. It's pretty ****ing amazing. So, thumbs up. Not really what you're asking for, but among my favourites.
Fallout (specially Fallout 2, but even 1 could contend for first place), yeah, what can I say? The sense of scale, the writing, the humour, the absurd and offbeat, the crazyness, the beauty of it all. It's pretty delightful, you'll see.
Arcanum. Oh, man, Arcanum. It's pure, unadultered, uncut fun. Dwarves with guns! Dwarves with motherplonkin' machineguns! What's not to like?
I know you hate it, but I have a soft spot for Alpha Protocol. It's not really on par with Fallout or Ps:T, but I put it here mostly to annoy you

In all seriousness, for me, it's one of the best RPG experiences since Troika closed shop. I **** you not.
But, ah, what do I know? I didn't like Baldur's Gate.
By the way, Neverwinter Nights? I did like. One of the few Bioware games that did something for me, truth be told

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 5:27 pm

Myrr Disparo wrote:Well, am I allowed some leeway?

Yes, it's not a simple question, I completely understand

Myrr Disparo wrote:Ps:Torment is THE game. You've got to have played this to have an standard for what can be done, narratively, in a videogame. It's pretty ****ing amazing. So, thumbs up. Not really what you're asking for, but among my favourites.

I have always intended to play Planescape, but I'm such a stickler for sales and as of yet I haven't seen it on sale on GoG, but when I do I'm picking it up.

Myrr Disparo wrote:Fallout (specially Fallout 2, but even 1 could contend for first place), yeah, what can I say? The sense of scale, the writing, the humour, the absurd and offbeat, the crazyness, the beauty of it all. It's pretty delightful, you'll see.

I know I started playing Fallout and I think I was either doing too well or I hadn't gotten far enough, things seemed too easy (I think I just had a really basic good build). That was a while ago though, I reinstalled it not too long ago, juggling a few games atm.

Myrr Disparo wrote:Arcanum. Oh, man, Arcanum. It's pure, unadultered, uncut fun. Dwarves with guns! Dwarves with motherplonkin' machineguns! What's not to like?

Same problem with Fallout, I was doing too well and I'm pretty sure I just never that far. As with Fallout, I own this and I intend to play more later.

Myrr Disparo wrote:I know you hate it, but I have a soft spot for Alpha Protocol. It's not really on par with Fallout or Ps:T, but I put it here mostly to annoy you In all seriousness, for me, it's one of the best RPG experiences since Troika closed shop. I **** you not.

No problem here, I have no problem with people having opposing opinions to mine. I do definitely recognize that it does some things well and it did have a lot of potential. IMO it has an rpg problem that I find a lot of rpgs have these days: that is, giving me a hard choice and making my options unclear, to the point that I feel like I have almost no control over what I'm actually trying to affect, apparently some people don't have this problem (which boggles my mind, tbh) but as long as you enjoy it, w/e to me.

Myrr Disparo wrote:But, ah, what do I know? I didn't like Baldur's Gate.

Didn't like Baldur's Gate? Lol, that's not something I hear often. TBH I actually liked the original BG more than the 2nd one, which I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone say. As I stated a few posts back, I prefer games that don't focus on party-play, so I kind of recognize that as a flaw; though you can function without a party, which is cool.

Myrr Disparo wrote:By the way, Neverwinter Nights? I did like. One of the few Bioware games that did something for me, truth be told

NWN is pretty much the closest to best worlds in games I've ever played in. There are countless RPGs that I enjoyed but really were just killing time as I systematically finished every aspect. NWN? I almost felt like the world was real, I want more games like it, but I have yet to see them.

Sadly enough (as with many Obsidian games, not letting it go) NWN2 didn't even reach the bar for what I considered to be pretty good. I'm not even entirely sure what it was that bothered me. The fact that they forced parties on you and I'm pretty sure I hated every single party member certainly didn't help...

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 10:19 am

This may sound strange, but my biggest annoyance with NWN2 was the camera and its clunkiness.

Have you considered Sacred 1 & 2? Both are very longwinded (not the good kind), but fun games nonetheless. You have no party, and plenty of loot.

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Fri Nov 04, 2011 5:19 pm

I have played Sacred 1 pretty extensively (though not for some time now) and I got Sacred 2 on the 360... and I never ended up playing it THAT much, I got somewhat far but there were always problems, mostly brought on by game developers never using regular tvs to test their console games, I can't read anything...

I've heard it's fun to play with friends, so I might eventually find myself doing that with my brother.

I don't remember the camera too much from NWN2, but overall the only thing I remember being better than NWN (the graphics weren't really better IMO, I didn't like how they looked) is that they had a number more prestige classes, which I appreciated- BUT on the other hand you could only get 10 levels of a prestige class and the max lvl was 30, so it offered much less uberness than the original even then.

robertwillton · Post by **robertwillton** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 12:50 am

Im looking for a game, not turn based, thats single player and im really looking for is just a game in which i can basically level my party, head into random,collect the loot, find some rare stuff..