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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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
the difference is cyberpunk has good direction and writing. starfield's got neither. the problem with cyberpunk wasn't the core of the game, it was bugs. once they fixed most of those the actual direction and story of the game had a chance to shine through.
starfield's problem is the exact opposite. it was praised for being less buggy than the average BGS game, which is faint praise, but the problem is that it's badly designed from the very core. it has bad writing, terrible characters, no direction at all, and no vision. bland, boring and basic. there's no amount of updates that can fix that. the problems aren't technical. there's just no talent there.
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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.
shut your whore mouth about faerun
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The article totally misses the big intervening step between Skyrim/old Bioware and the failure of Starfield/Dragon Age: CDProjectRED.
While those studios largely just made "more of the same", CDPR made Witcher 3 and then Cyberpunk 2077. Both games are way better narrative experiences and pushed RPG forward. Starfield looks very dated in comparison to both, and Dragon Age failed to capture to magic. Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 are successes because they also bring strong narratives and emotional connections to the stories.
Starfield would have been huge if it had been released soon after Skyrim. But now it just looks old fashioned, and I think the "wide as an ocean, as deep as a puddle" analogy is good for Starfield. Meanwhile Witcher 3 - which is 10 years old! - has quests and storylines with choices and emotional impact. BG3 and KC:D2 are heirs to Witcher 3.
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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.
What we need is an mmo where you can make a difference. What do I mean by that? How would that work?
For start, the "you're the hero" thing, where 12981891961899 other mother fuckers are in the background doing the same exact thing, or getting the same exact speech as your are, needs to go. Just make me a regular dude that is adventuring. Just like DnD tt.
How do you affect the world then? In DAoC, there were NPC raids on cities. You could go in and kill the leader, then the whole group would disband and run back to their village across the river. There were other similar events like this throughout the world. We need stuff like that. NPCs, or even players if you choose PvP, that affect the world. Instead of staying in one spot and just roaming a set path, they should be attacking the cities that they are mad at or revolting/gathering to revolt against. Make it so they can actually take territory. Take over cities. Assault capital cities. Even just randomly wander on a not set range. What I'd give to play an mmo where I have the chance to be randomly jumped by (level appropriate) NPCs. Even outside of a place they're normally found.
This adds dynamic change to the world. It's not a static area. It makes it so that beginner zones are abandoned as soon as most level out of them. You need to make sure NPCs don't take over the city because you need that flight path/horse route/etc.
We could even have animal infestations. People aren't killing farmer bill's rats? They take over the farm and whatever he supplies isn't available in the local city's stores.
There are so many things that can be done with NPCs to make the world feel alive and more dynamic. Again, I'm not the hero here. I'm just an adventurer, a normal mercenary, that is trying to keep the enemy in line or the rat population from getting out of control.
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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.
none of what you listed is new
yes that's exactly the point. two of these are from the 90s, one is from like 2001. old enough to have good credit and cheap car insurance. im making fun of the title.
morrowind isn't really that weird
no, but it blew a lot of people's minds so i put it on the list.
continues lots of the same themes
citation needed. not that I dislike it, it just feels like the name is tacked on to an otherwise lovely CRPG.
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If I were in your shoes...
The hours I spent on that FUCKING DICE GAME
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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.
Take a look at Exodus.
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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.
I can tell you haven't booted the game up recently because they completely redid the perk system and cyberware not too long ago.
CDPR has been atoning for the sin that was their failed launch for years. In my opinion, the game is a good game now.
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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/
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It’s funny and sad knowing that Bethesda once were the company making weird and ambitious RPGs.
Morrowind is one of the weirdest and most ambitious games of that era.
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Skyrim wasn't "weird" by any definition I'd use. More like bland.
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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.
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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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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.
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shut your whore mouth about faerun
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Should I buy Baldurs Gate 3, its extremely expensive still.
I will always recommend the game. But holding to a budget is not important.
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Faerun is garbage. Aggressively bad even for a medieval fantasy settings. No game set in Faerun can be good.
literally the best crpg games have been set in faerun
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literally the best crpg games have been set in faerun
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Could somebody please explain fo me how either of these two aggressively cliche and generic games are in any way "ambitious, weird, and unexpected"?
List some RPGs that are better and lets discuss.
