Looking for a story-driven RPG

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:17 am

Tracking hunger is something I can do without in an RPG. I recall the demo now: it was a bit clunky.

Nymie_the_Pooh · Post by **Nymie_the_Pooh** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:09 am

I don't remember tracking thirst and hunger in the first one. I'm pretty sure it wasn't part of the first Eschalon, but it has been a while. For the second it is presented as an option when you start a new game as part of the difficulty system.

If you are looking to buy the first one, you might want to look at places other than Direct 2 Drive. That is where I bought my copy and there were some problems once I had the mapping skill. Luckily it is a known issue with Basilisk Games. They gave me a key for a regular copy and I had no problem copying over the character I had been playing so it wasn't tied to the character or saves themselves. I'm not sure what exactly causes the problem, but it looks like Basilisk Games has not been able to get the fix into the Direct 2 Drive version for whatever reason.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:48 am

Good to know. By now I have picked up Skyrim, which is surprisingly storydriven. For a Bethesda game. But it's cursed with the most horrendous UI ever seen.

Sereth1728 · Post by **Sereth1728** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:36 pm

SpiderWeb Software

You still got a long way to go before you miss out on some of the best story driven games ever made.

Enter Spiderweb Software. An indie game company that has been making fallout type story driven games since 1994. Avernum-Party/turn based icewind dale combat.

The real keeper is geneforge series. 5 games that are so unforgetable and driven by story and choice, that the creator has said with high charisma, you dont have to fight one battle. He is currently remaking the original avernum series with perk system like fallouts. Its going to be epic.

There are 6 titles in the avernum series, i would recommend the second trilogy 4-6 if you dont like old graphics. There also is avadon which is basically a bioware epic with unforgetable characters and classes.

To be completely honest, spiderweb software has made better games than all those mentioned, except fallout of course. Its too close to call. If you check out the [url="http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/"]site[/url], there is at least 16 games to peak your interest based on what you are looking for.

BRKO · Post by **BRKO** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 6:20 am

Id recommend [url="http://games.cinemax.cz/inquisitor/"]Inquisitor[/url] which is somewhat unique game that folks shouldnt miss.
The English version is being worked on atm. The game has always had delay issues as it had been developed by a team of non-professionals so patience is advised .)

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:00 am

Ah, thanks, I'll keep an eye out for Inquisitor. I like the clear graphics, from what I can tell.

Lord Chaos · Post by **Lord Chaos** » Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:30 pm

Mass Effect series. The only downside being the series last 10 minutes. But everything up to that is pretty good and some great side quests too.

Unless you're only interested in fantasy settings.

Also Spell Force 1&2: Though these are RTS-RPGs, a very rare combo that combines RPGs with real time strategy elements. Pretty good story.

Nymie_the_Pooh · Post by **Nymie_the_Pooh** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:06 am

The first one was okay. Quite fun until realizing I was heading into the other games again. The second was fun on my first playthrough, but I simply couldn't play it a second time. There are no real choices in the game other than which extreme on the polite/rude scale I wanted to slide toward. Shepard is still the hero and you still make all the same choices no matter which way you actually decide. The cool stuff choice wise was carryovers from the first game like getting a message from the Rachni queen.

It felt like nothing I did in the second game ultimately mattered, but that wasn't readily apparent to me until my second playthrough where I tried making different choices. The only place I felt like my choices meant anything was during the end mission where I was assigning different roles to my squad mates. That was the best part of the game for me outside of seeing the affects of my choices from the first game, but it felt like I was playing a different game for that section as nothing I did for the rest of the game mattered. This was before ever looking at the third game or hearing about the ending or anything like that.

The classes felt more similar than in the first one as far as mechanics went. The exception might be the infiltrator in that you could basically carry two heavy weapons as the sniper rifles were that good. The way they changed cooldowns on powers meant that all classes were more dependent upon their guns. All-in-all, aside from that last bit where you decide who does what job it felt like it was as much an RPG as Half-Life 2 was. Half-Life 2 actually had a better story than ME2 did (well, the episodes did at any rate), but was ever so slightly more linear with a bit less customization.

I haven't played the third one to the end. I would like to say that the reason is because of the ending, but I have a habit of being drawn to games that people slam so I can see it for myself. No, the big thing that stopped me was having Wrex's brother instead of Wrex show up as I don't have my old game any more. It shows that it doesn't matter that I saved Wrex in my old game. I've come upon a modified Rachni queen, but it wasn't the same as the one I saved in the first game so I am curious about that choice's impact on the third game as I don't know what the default is when a save isn't imported. Other than the possibility of something going on with the Rachni queen that I can't check until I do a complete playthrough again the only thing that seems to really hinge on something from one of the previous games is that Miranda has popped up, and her survival depended solely on the last part of the second game.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:51 am

I've played Mass Effect, and wish I could banish the last 10 minutes of part 3 from my mind.

zemstvos · Post by **zemstvos** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:54 am

The only one I can think of is Gorky 17 but it probably doesn't fit your requirements. The atmosphere was great and the story interesting but there's a lot of difficult turn-based squad combat. And by difficult I mean hear-tearing, I-want-to-curl-up-in-bed-and-weep difficult. Then again, people tend to descride this game as chess with guns and I've never been all that good at chess. You'll find it on GOG.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:17 am

It's ion my GoG library, but I never got around to playing it.

dahauns · Post by **dahauns** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 5:32 pm

It was mentioned in passing already, but have a look at Albion:
Albion for DOS (1995) - MobyGames

I still have fond memories for it, and the story definitely isn't your run-of-the-mill standard stuff.

The only major downside are the (graphically) rather weak 3D parts.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:56 am

The problem with those old games is, that the resolution is too low: I have trouble reading the text. I have it on my GoG account.

BRKO · Post by **BRKO** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:50 am

Inquisitor is now English beta! Great news Id say, looking forward to comparing the original and english version...and also finally beating the game. The original was played by only a small group of players here, hopefully english version will draw larger audience and revive the game a bit

http://inquisitor-rpg.com/

Nyro · Post by **Nyro** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:40 am

So many story driven RPGs.....ALL of the Final Fantasy games are driven by the storyline and relationships. Even though Bethesda makes rich story based games so the elder scrolls games and fallout games tend to quench the thirst. Jade dynasty by Bioware was a good story.

If you are looking for stories i would avoid hack n slash and Action RPG games they tend to be narrow and to the point in storylines. Baldur's Gate and the Forgotten Realms stories are great but the games themselves were narrow and to the point also. BUT if you want a great hack n slash they are easily the best next to diablo and torchlight.