Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 show that the future of RPGs is in games way more ambitious, weird and unexpected than anything Bethesda and Bioware have to offer
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CP2077's story is nice but short (for an RPG these days) but the meat is in the world and side missions.
Doesn't "nice but short but the meat is in the world and side missions" describe most RPGs nowadays?
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I wish there were more new sci-fi RPGs of that quality.
I do hear CP2077 is good now and I keep meaning to play it.
TBH I'll probably end up enjoying Starfield once I get around to trying it as well.
I've heard people take that approach with Starfield and still be very disappointed. If it's space you want and are ok with creating your own story, Elite Dangerous is getting a pretty big revival
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CP2077's story is nice but short (for an RPG these days) but the meat is in the world and side missions.
As I've grown older and busier, I now prefer shorter games. Even when I intentionally try to play games, I may get 2-3 hours a week most weeks. A 100-hour campaign takes me a year to play through.
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If you're even remotely interested in Warhammer 40k, the Rogue Trader CRPG is excellent
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2186680/Warhammer_40000_Rogue_Trader/
That game was far better then it had any right to be.
Still waiting on an imperial guard focused game though.
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Should I buy Baldurs Gate 3, its extremely expensive still.
Depends. How badly do you want to play the game bioware wishes it could put out?
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Doesn't "nice but short but the meat is in the world and side missions" describe most RPGs nowadays?
I rarely play any new ones to be honest so I'm not sure. CP2077 just feels for me like they didn't stretch out the main story longer than necessary and put a lot of effort into the world and what's in it.
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Depends. How badly do you want to play the game bioware wishes it could put out?
Is it insanely good, like Factorio level polish, or was it just hyped due to recency bias?
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I've heard people take that approach with Starfield and still be very disappointed. If it's space you want and are ok with creating your own story, Elite Dangerous is getting a pretty big revival
Its mostly just that I want a Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim with a sci-fi setting. A solid story, lots of side-quests, and a dynamic world that reacts to the player. I'd probably enjoy a modern metropolitan criminal setting as well for an RPG like GTA's settings but Elder-Scrolls/3D-Fallout gameplay but you never see that at all.
Space is cool though.
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CP2077's story is nice but short (for an RPG these days) but the meat is in the world and side missions.
Is it one of those "play the whole main story and then focus on the side content" situations or "Save the final mission for later because its a proper ending" situations?
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Is it one of those "play the whole main story and then focus on the side content" situations or "Save the final mission for later because its a proper ending" situations?
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I concur; we need more of this new breed of aggressively strange RPG's, like earthbound/mother, planescape:torment, and morrowind.
None of what you listed is "new". Also, Morrowind wasn't actually "strange" in the slightest. Plenty of fantasy RPGs had elements of sci-fi and weird bug shit (see: Wizardry and even Might and Magic) and the "you can screw up the main quest" was similarly common at the time. Planescape I'll give you.
Which is also true here. BG3 is not "strange", It is literally the third Baldurs Gate game and continues most of the same themes and concepts. Yeah, it is a whole lot more gay but even that is not out of the ordinary for CRPGs at this point and had been pushed by companies like Larian, Obsidian, and Owlcat. Hell, the Mass Effects and Dragon Ages deserve a LOT of props for how horny and gay they were and normalizing the idea of picking the right dialogue options for a sexy card cutscene (also see CD Projekt Red).
And KCD2 is one of the most bog standard power fantasy games out there.
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A very fair point, but alas… for better or worse, the bar has indeed been raised, and last month only proved that. February 2025 saw the release of a new RPG from one of the most beloved studios in the genre, Obsidian Entertainment. Avowed is modest by design, but nonetheless it's polished, accessible, and visually impressive, with a rich story from some of the best writers in the business—and the backing of Microsoft, one of the most influential and well-resourced videogame publishers of all time.
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The article we're commenting on, after someone said Avowed was missing from this discussion, even though it wasn't.
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I wish there were more new sci-fi RPGs of that quality.
I do hear CP2077 is good now and I keep meaning to play it.
TBH I'll probably end up enjoying Starfield once I get around to trying it as well.
I've had cyberpunk since launch and the only thing that has improved is stability. The game is still a hodgepodge of half baked RPG systems, most of which aren't even necessary to interact with. No amount of polish can change the fact that it's a turd underneath.
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I have no comprehension what this is attempting to imply as I'm not sure who makes what games...
However, I do have some valid input. Kingdom Come Deliverance is the only single player game I've played since literally Metal Gear Solid 2...
Zero interest in single player games, yet I got Kingdom Come Deliverance for free so screw it I was bored hopped on got stoned.
By like hour 14 I realized I was playing a movie. With endless paths true freedom. I almost actually played it... I think I made it 40 some hours in and 20 of those hours were unlocking combos and learning them. Killing randoms on the roads etc.
I enjoyed it thoroughly yet, in the end it was still a single player game. All I could consider the entire time playing it was .... Imagine if this map had 100 players on it. How epic of an mmoprg this game could make.
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Less flash, more passionate people allowed to create. Shocker.
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I have no comprehension what this is attempting to imply as I'm not sure who makes what games...
However, I do have some valid input. Kingdom Come Deliverance is the only single player game I've played since literally Metal Gear Solid 2...
Zero interest in single player games, yet I got Kingdom Come Deliverance for free so screw it I was bored hopped on got stoned.
By like hour 14 I realized I was playing a movie. With endless paths true freedom. I almost actually played it... I think I made it 40 some hours in and 20 of those hours were unlocking combos and learning them. Killing randoms on the roads etc.
I enjoyed it thoroughly yet, in the end it was still a single player game. All I could consider the entire time playing it was .... Imagine if this map had 100 players on it. How epic of an mmoprg this game could make.
No, stop, let us have single player games, with 100-10000 players in an MMORPG you are suddenly diluted and weak, your ability to influence the world and be heroic and become powerful is suddenly dependent on competing for time investment and skill with 100s to 1000s of other people. THATS WHAT I ALREADY DO IN REAL LIFE. If I want to feel mid and not very powerful without putting in a ton of extra work, I'll go outside. Especially when doing that extra work would actually allow me to spend EVEN LESS TIME on myself in the real world.
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I’ve played through DS several times and would expect to get it finished in about five hours
Do you think your experience here is at all the norm?
For people that really love Dark Souls and have finished it repeatedly, including challenge runs? Five hours is probably taking your time, using rubbish weapons for a laugh. For your first time playing through, hell no - probably more like thirty. The first DS has some unreasonable traps for the unwary - one of the stats is a dead end, many of the weapons scale really badly. Maybe better to start with Scholar or 3, that are better balanced.
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You can complete 90% of everything in one playthrough. Then complete the other parts in NG+ so you're not completely starting over. I believe you only need 2 great runes to face the end boss.
Well, yes. But I would argue that if you have the skills to defeat eg. the Draconic Sentinel with just two runes, then it's probably not your first rodeo. Stumbling over all the steps to eg. Varre or Hyettas quests on an unguided playthrough, which require specific things in a certain order in a huge world, are not particularly likely either. Its size works against it in that regard.
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I wish there were more new sci-fi RPGs of that quality.
I do hear CP2077 is good now and I keep meaning to play it.
TBH I'll probably end up enjoying Starfield once I get around to trying it as well.
Yes! BG3 and KC2 devs made amazing games but for some reason decided to have them take place in the most generic, boring medieval/fantasy setting.
I want a pirate RPG, or sci-fi, heck even a hardcore Mario CRPG.
