Computer games have always remained a form of escapism, a way to get away from the grey reality into the magical worlds and go through unforgettable adventures. RPGs are the best way to fulfill this desire. Despite the fact that they have a story and its final goal, it is a player who decides how the story will unfold and who a hero will become. We can spend eternity discussing the reasons to love role-playing games, but Writercheap.com gaming writers prepared something cooler for you. Take a look at the top 10 RPGs of all times.
In this top, we tried to choose projects based on how interesting they are to play today, and how well they correlate with the “role-playing game” definition.
Table of Contents
10. Dark Souls
Of course, this overly successful and already legendary series couldn’t be ignored. But we decided to stop at the first part of the trilogy, released in 2011. Japanese developers from “From Software” decided to remind gamers of what games looked like before the casual age took off.
But the main feature of Dark Souls is not its overwhelming difficulty and hostility towards the player. Despite being too focused on its slasher fighting component, it is a role game. Dozens of possible character builds, a possibility to join guilds that offer unique abilities and hidden quests, the open world where every NPC or an item found will reveal a separate story to a player. All those features are just amazing.
9. Kingdom Come Deliverance
Another game that can be a refuge for players from the modern gaming industry where developers compete to make games simpler (the “press X to win” age). It’s a pity, but hardcore and medieval Tamagotchi scared most players and made them quit Kingdom Come Deliverance.
But if you let the game unfold, you’ll see the real canonic RPG which offers you a mass of possible variations to choose from even in the simplest quest. The gameplay variation makes players ignore many drawbacks of this project. Like many other RPG’s from Eastern Europe, it is full of irritating gameplay bugs, but it is so interesting to explore its world!
8. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Any top RPG list without games made by the Canadian Bioware studio is an automatic failure, and its authors should be thrown into jail. These Canadian wizards dominated the genre of role games in the early 2000’s, turning it into the mainstream proposition. We love all their games until the Mass Effect Trilogy, and KotOR is forever in our hearts.
The possibility to move between planets freely, non-standard characters, the variability of the story and cinematic scenes could blow the minds of the most skeptical role players.
15 years passed already, but this game still looks good, even better than the trilogy about Commander Shepard.
7. Gothic 2
German products are known all over the world for their quality in almost any field: from technical devices to food supplies. But things are not that good with computer games: the German game development industry has only one remarkable title – Gothic 2. But quality matters more than quantity.
As any legendary game, Gothic 2 had its special charm making it different from its numerous clones like The Elder Scrolls. At first, it was a severe and cruel Medieval age atmosphere. Then it was the world where every character lived according to their unique daily schedule. And of course, the diversity of gameplay. Good RPG’s can’t exist without it.
6. Divinity 2 Original Sin
This game is an excellent example of how even such conservative genres as isometric role-playing games can be modernized and made more interesting for young gamers without breaking the usual canons of role projects.
Here you can find absolutely everything one can love RPG’s for a lot of interesting characters, each one ready to share an interesting story or a quest, versatile fighting system, and many other cool perks.
In addition, developers offered gamers to walk through Divinity 2 in the co-op mode for 4 players at once. Of course, in this case, the feeling of being the chosen hero to save the world is not that strong. But living partners on your team are always better than AI bots, aren’t they?
5. Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines
In 2004, before the vampire setting was tarnished by the hated Twilight franchise, Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines appeared. When talking about this game, almost every RPG fan can find lots of facts explaining why the gaming adaptation of the “World of Darkness” universe is the unique masterpiece of the role-playing genre.
This great Vampire game offers a variety of wonderful features. The hybrid of action, shooter, and classical role play allow players to pass every mission in multiple different ways. Quests themselves are quite distanced from the usual “go and bring” tasks. They tell the unusual story with unique gameplay situations.
4. Fallout 2
A little disclaimer: starting from Fallout 2, all the RPG’s from the top can be deemed equal. I have to specify it just in case. Many old role-playing game admirers might actually find it heretic not to put Fallout 2 on top of the ranking.
What do we love RPG’s most for? Of course, for the possibility to play a role, the maximal variability, the world you want to live in, and the quests peppered with unexpected plot twists.
All these features of role-playing games are present in Fallout 2. The game is more than 20 years old already, but in terms of options and possibilities, it remains one of the best in its genre. If a modern gamer manages to get used to the archaic graphics and gameplay, nobody would ever have enough strength to pull him or her away from the computer.
3. The Witcher 3
So many praises were sung about this masterpiece by CD Project within the last couple of years that we simply don’t want to do it again and sound like a broken record. The Witcher 3 creators invented just a perfect storytelling instrument. Gamers really get carried away by that mystical world full of magical and supernatural creatures.
Why not the first place? No matter how strong our love for The Witcher 3 is, it is weaker than many classical RPG’s in terms of variability and roleplay experience. You can always play as either a cruel or kind-hearted Geralt, so the canonic neutrality of Sapkowski’s books is a rare guest in this game.
2. The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind
Here’s the eternal question: “What is better – Morrowind or Skyrim?” Many lives have been lost on the gaming forum battlefields on both sides. These games are different in many aspects, but they offer the main thing we all want to get from every RPG: the possibility to experience hundreds of hours in a fantasy world.
We prefer Morrowind for the unique setting, the possibility to join one of the guilds and build great mansions, for the huge scope for customization and hundreds of intricate quests.
1. Planescape Torment
The Black Isle game developing studio does not exist anymore. But it introduced the concept of philosophical writing to the world inside its Planescape Torment title. The story of this game is closely connected to the Buddhist ideas which state that the human has to pass through the endless circle of rebirths to break the Samsara cycle and to reach their final death. The search for death is one of the main goals in this game.
All in all, if you like intellectual masterpieces raising difficult questions, you’ll definitely like Planescape.
But the story is not the only asset here. Planescape is the RPG with a crazy interesting world. There you can sell your companions into slavery and examine your own dead corpse while looking for some valuable loot. It is a unique game and not only the best RPG. This is one of the main projects of the whole gaming industry.
Here comes the end of our top 10 RPG games. We hope you could find several interesting games in this article or at least feel some nostalgia while reading it.
