CRPGs Today and 5-10 Years Ago

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The graphics and game mechanics are better now, but the plots were better ten years ago.

I would love to be able to play Baldur's Gate or Torment on some of the engines available today.

 

I'd agree with this too. There seems to be less released but what does it matter when I don't play them all anyway? Also, it's a long time since I've played games at their time of release (DAO excepted). Up until reading this thread I would have called KOTOR a new game, as it wasn't that long ago since I played it.

Modern RPGs have come on a ton in ease of use and that really helps to ensure it's enjoyable the whole way through. Going against that there's a few bad things stemming from the fact that they're now made for consoles first. A real bugbear of mine is the small party sizes. DAO has a party of four and you pretty much need to have one fighter, one mage and one rogue. That doesn't leave a lot of choice. The other problem is the lack of information given. It's very unclear in DAO sometimes what talents do and which talent is better than which. That's annoying when you've a limited choice in levelling up.

The actual games I was playing 5-10 years ago were Japanese console RPGs. I've no idea what this scene is now like (I don't even own an Xbox360 or PS3) but there were some absolutely fantastic games back then. Vagrant Story and Disgaea were awesome. I wouldn't mind seeing a PC RPG that wasn't some Bioware/D&D format. I suppose I should get back to The Witcher.

 

I think they're different more than "better" or "worse".

For one thing, the action-RPG sub-genre is taking more and more place, Oblivion and Fallout 3's commercial success helping. Off the top of my head I would have said that I prefered older RPGs if it weren't for one game: Mass Effect 2.

I know ME2 has a lot of detractors within RPG circles. For one thing, it seems like many people didn't quite digest the lack of an inventory system (which is a decision I personally applaud, inventory management was getting too annoying and unrealistic lately). It's also very strong on the FPS side (which is a genre I normally don't like). But I don't think these things make the game any less of an RPG.

We tend to forget that RPG stands for role-playing game. A good RPG is a game that lets you play a role. And as far as I'm concerned, I think Mass Effect 2 allowed me to play my Shepard very well. I also liked the story with its focus on the characters. Overall, the game really was a surprise hit for me, since the first ME had left me unimpressed. I really cared about my Shepard and felt like the way I interacted with people and the world truly meant something, more so than in any other RPG I've played.

As for Dragon Age, it's definitely a strong title though in retrospective I feel like they did a bunch of mistakes with it. For starters, I found the class and skill systems to be bland and unimpressive. In ME2 it made sense to skim the skills since it was pointless in the first game to have ~10 ranks in each skill with small increments in damage. In DAO mages were fine but warriors and rogues lacked interesting and unique skills that could be actively used. Even though some battles were arguably hard, I find that the need for actual strategy (which should make the bulk of the game's interactive aspect) was slim. But the bigger problem lies with the story, which is quite trite when you think about it (unite humans, dwarves and elves against orcs led by a dragon? Oh my). Also, like in NWN, I didn't really feel involved with my character, at least not at the level I did with ME2. But unlike NWN, DAO doesn't have multiplayer and (so far) a good module-making community to back it up. It's definitely a great game, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Then again, I had been waiting for it since it was announced way back in 2004. In contrast, I picked up ME2 almost as an afterthought. So perhaps in both cases my vastly different levels of expectation add a bit of subjective data into my analysis.

As for other RPGs outside the BioWare sphere, there really hasn't been that much lately. I liked Oblivion for its freeform factor, though not quite as much as Morrowind. Fallout 3 was disappointing. Very strong atmosphere, pretty decent story with the whole dad aspect, but otherwise rather bland. I played through once, had about 30 hours of decent fun, but it's pretty much gathering dust now. NWN2 turned out to be little more than a facelift with smaller areas and a near-dead community. What made NWN1 strong was its awesome community and the dozens of great modules that were made for it. Deprived from that like NWN2 is, it's quite lacklustre.

 

I thought DAO had a great story which measures up to the older games. Sure, the darkspawn part is poor. But more time is probably taken up with the civil war part, which is very well done I think. It's a lot more 'real' than many other plots in the past have been and would probably work outside a fantasy setting. The Witcher also has a great, gritty plot. In contrast KOTOR is an old game with a terrible plot. I knew the twist before I played and must say I didn't find anything noteworthy at all about it and quite a lot which was stupid.