New game desperately needed

[AtwasAwamps]

So, I find myself in a situation where I can't go out terribly much, don't have access to most of my things besides my computer, and have to occupy large stretches of time that would otherwise be blank.

Thus, I need a new game to occupy my time and I need suggestions.

Criteria:

1) I'd prefer something in the RPG flavor, or at least with hints of it...I want to level and improve skills and possibly use hit points and mana.

2) Needs to be PC based...I'm restricted to my PC, which luckily is quite good.

3) Needs to be downloadable.

4) It does not need to be "new", it just needs to be something I haven't played before.

Price is not an issue.

Please help!

[Grif]

Bastion (http://supergiantgames.com/?page_id=242)

Downloadable, fun, and retains enough RPG-like element as you requested.

[Eledragon]

I would suggest looking at gog.com. they have a massive selection of good RPG's that are all downloadable.

[AtwasAwamps]

Bastion is a great game, but unfortunately I've already played and beaten it upside down and sideways.

I've been browsing GoG, the problem is simply that A) I don't know some of the games on there that might fit, and B) I've already had issues with some of the games I've downloaded from them, so I'm wary. But I'll heartily take any reccommendations from there.

[Cogwheel]

Bastion from Steam, Planescape: Torment from GOG, Geneforge from Steam.

Any of these are relatively cheap (Geneforge is currently five huge indie RPGs for $16), and excellent.

Edit: Played Bastion. Never mind.

[Douglas]

4) It does not need to be "new", it just needs to be something I haven't played before.
Well, what have you already played? Without that, we're liable to produce a long list of games that will mostly get shot down because we had no way of knowing you'd already played them.

[AtwasAwamps]

Well, what have you already played? Without that, we're liable to produce a long list of games that will mostly get shot down because we had no way of knowing you'd already played them.

The reason I didn't specify is because that list is very long. I can't imagine going back and dragging through all the games I've played. I'd rather just people make their suggestions and I'll go from there.

I guess assume I have played most of the classic must-have games of the genre...Planescape, BG, Fallout, what have you, and that I'm looking for lesser known games that still pack a punch.

For example, Geneforge...heard of it, but never looked too much at it.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

If you can wait till Friday, Skyrim comes out. You can get it off Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/72850/).

[Illieas]

So, I find myself in a situation where I can't go out terribly much, don't have access to most of my things besides my computer, and have to occupy large stretches of time that would otherwise be blank.

Thus, I need a new game to occupy my time and I need suggestions.

Criteria:

1) I'd prefer something in the RPG flavor, or at least with hints of it...I want to level and improve skills and possibly use hit points and mana.

2) Needs to be PC based...I'm restricted to my PC, which luckily is quite good.

3) Needs to be downloadable.

4) It does not need to be "new", it just needs to be something I haven't played before.

Price is not an issue.

Please help!

there is deus ex human revolution. skyrim is this friday. Fable series
dragon age or mass effect.

[Knaight]

The Geneforge series is basically amazing. You get to play a conjurer who creates living minions, and the battles are both RPG like and highly tactical. Plus, the whole series can be picked up for about the price of Skyrim. Possibly less. Also, you have a lot of freedom. For instance, if you want to try and kill shopkeepers, go ahead. You probably can. Sure, its a terrible idea, but it is an option. Similarly, you can probably sneak around or bargain with most monsters. So on and so forth.

Avadon is also good. Its more typical in its RPGness, you have a party, they are in a fantasy realm, they do stuff. Its just that they are basically a black ops squad that may or may not go rogue. It keeps the fairly open world however. Its the same creator as well, and better fits your use skills restriction, though both fit it quite well.

The free Battle for Wesnoth is turn based strategy, but very RPG like in some cases. The campaigns all have main characters, all have HP and damage with attacks with stuff like chances to hit, and in some cases have options for character growth. For instance, in Under The Burning Suns there are something like five different broad combat options your leader can be involved in, as well as things like stealth, limited healing, etc. It is also free. The Wesband mod/downloadable campaign is basically and RPG dungeon crawl at its best.

[Cogwheel]

Snip


The part of the freedom in Geneforge that I find worth emphasizing is the story, actually. You're given free rein over the plot and can basically do whatever to change it in a million different ways. Geneforge 1 has... what, 13 endings? Oh, and there's basically a solution for every type of character, too. It's really quite something.

And a sooort of morality system, at least in the first one, that's far better than most and is invisible. Knaight knows what I mean.

[warty goblin]

Bastion from Steam, Planescape: Torment from GOG, Geneforge from Steam.

Any of these are relatively cheap (Geneforge is currently five huge indie RPGs for $16), and excellent.

Edit: Played Bastion. Never mind.

You can get the Geneforges straight from the developer and DRM free. More money to the person who actually does the work and a less restrictive license seems like an entirely good thing to me.

Also, by RPGish, do you mean oldschool turnbased, the real-time with pause that evolved from it, RTSs with significant leveling, or the European third person action RPG?

Taking these categories one at a time:
Actually turnbased:
Mostly older stuff, or stuff that could very well be older.

I've not spent vast amounts of time with them, but I rather like the Eschalon games' style and wonderfully simple turn based underpinning. There are demos about, and the games are available straight from the developer or on pretty much any download portal you care to name.

Temple of Elemental Evil has a nice, if somewhat time consuming to navigate, turn based battle system. Also it looks absolutely lovely in that storybook way that late 2D games sometimes have. Insofar as I know it's only available on gog.com, but I had no trouble getting it working.

If you don't mind your RPG to have assault rifles and smoke grenades instead of swords and wizards, Jagged Alliance 2 is absolutely worth the $10 price of admission. It's a little less RPG in the traditional sense and a little more turn based tactics, but it's still got plenty of RPG feel and is decidedly excellent.

Real-Time with Pause
Not my favorite genre in general, since it loses the elegance of turn based yet all too often takes just as long, but there's some stuff worth checking out. And more stuff that's not, which I also note.
Neverwinter Nights is slow, ugly in the way early 3D is ugly, and has a main story that's very good at making me not care. I suggest not.

Neverwinter Nights 2 is slow, decent looking, features crippling interface and AI issue, and has a main story that's very good at making me not care. I suggest not. I've heard good things about the expansion, but can't speak to that owing to my "don't by expansions for games I don't like" policy.

Knights of the Old Republic is slow, visually bland and even more boring than NWN 2. I've heard it gets better after the first planet, but frankly the first planet is so wretched I've never stuck around to find out. Probably it works if you consider finding out about the Force to be deeply interesting from a worldbuilding point of view or something like that, but I never did.

Dragon Age: Origins is somewhat less slow, has an art style that alternates between decent and terrible, and a story that's genuinely engaging up* to the precise moment the main plot kicks in. After that it missed the left at Albuquerque and ended up feeling like the sort of stuff you make up when you're sixteen and need a new way to justify your fantasy obsession. You know, full of Darkness, Politics and a whole lot of other stuff that you think makes it Relevant, while still allowing you to pretend to be a wizard? You know, stuff like how Elcid VI's violation of the Treaty of Cloven Shields because his daughter was possessed by the evil spirit of Traxhej the Fell Voiced made it about the intersection of family, history and politics? Maybe it's a matter of taste, but I'm at a point where I'm happy to pretend to be a wizard without any attempts at relevancy, which makes the failed attempt feel desperately awkward. Your mileage may vary here.

*Unless you do the Elf origin, which is stupifyingly boring from the get-go.

Drakensang is budget, rather pretty, very German (even played in English), and overwhelmingly pleasant if quite dull. Don't play it. Play the sequel.

Drakensang: The River of Time is also budget, even more pretty, very German and overwhelmingly pleasant, but no longer dull. It's quite predictable, but is so wonderfully free of pretense that it's hard to actually be bothered. If DA:O is 16 year old's vain attempt to dress up dressing up as a wizard as something it isn't, Drakensang: RoT is like the stuff the 12 year old starts to make up the first time he sees the Dungeon Master's Guide. You know, completely unoriginal in every possible way with sometimes janky execution, but a hell of a lot of fun and very enthusiastic for all that? For me that's half the charm, that it feels sort of like dusting off that old folder in the attic with all your original campaign ideas scribbled inside. You've got to recognize and accept them for what they are, but somehow that makes them all the more fun. That's Drakensang: River of Time in a nutshell, and it doesn't hurt that the ruleset is very good, far more interesting than the bastard offspring of D20 that most games use.

Also, if you liked Jagged Alliance 2, it may be worth giving 7.62: High Calibre a poke. It's not a very good game in many, many ways, but it's fireteam level tactics engine is fantastic and allows for a huge level of control and tactical depth. It's for instance the only game I've ever played where buying a load bearing tactical vest is more than cosmetic.


Third Person action RPGs I like those of European extraction better, usually.

Mass Effect is fun, slightly janky and hits most of the right sci-fi buttons. The shooting sucks, but in a dependable sort of way one can grow accustomed to, particularly after you get enough levels to be able to hit the broadside of a barn at ten paces.

Mass Effect 2 has better shooting, shinier shiny bits, and a story that I really do not like. ME the first was a poor man's Babylon 5 by way of Halo, but it worked OK. ME the second is just poor in the narrative department.

Alpha Protocol is the slightly unkempt nephew of Mass Effect 1. It has the most staggering number of meaningful player options and choices in the story that I've ever seen, combat that usually works, stealth that mostly works, and a story that occasionally makes sense. Nevertheless it's a mighty fun time and a genuinely interesting logical extension of the choices and consequences thing. Also at one point you can get molested by an ex German commando, which is certainly different.

Two Worlds is bad. Play it only if you love bad games, because it's a perfect bad game.

Two Worlds 2 is actually pretty decent. The story's not the best but generally works, but it has a wide variety of murderable wildlife (including ostriches!) and a solid combat system. I had plenty of fun here.

Venetica is probably the second most obscure game on this list. It's sort of a poor man's Fable, but with a somewhat interesting setting and a deeply melodramatic main story. I sort of like it, but will be the first to admit it's far from excellent. I think it's only available through Direct2Drive.

Risen is a game that likes to kick you in the teeth. I'm probably five or six hours in and coming to the realization that this might be the first time I've ever been so broke in an RPG that it's actually a significant obstacle - because everything (even leveling up) costs money, and I don't have any. The combat is decent, the graphics are good, and the atmosphere of poverty, degradation and everything's going to hell in a handbasket is very well done.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis/Flames of Vengeance/The Dragon Knight Saga is sort of a direct control Diablo, and generally pretty enjoyable. Also, after a lot of time and effort, you can turn into a dragon.

The Witcher is very good, and quite strange. It's hard to describe and make sound good, but it actually is very good. You should play it. In a few words its an RPG that has an actual main character, not the usual main collection of statistics, a twisty-turny plot, genuinely interesting and often delayed consequences for your actions, and absolutely fantastic atmosphere and sense of place.

The Witcher 2 is also very good, and should be played. By everyone. It feels like fantasy written by and for adults, but adults who actually understand how to make fantasy interesting while still being fantastic. The gameplay takes a bit of getting used to, but it is one of the most impressive things I've played in a long time.

[Cogwheel]

Warty Goblin: That's nice, yeah. I'm mostly suggesting Steam because currently it's dirt cheap there. Whole series for $16.

[Jonzac]

X3: Terran Conflict..you can download from Steam.

Space/trade/fight simulator. Not quite RPG, but the extensive universe/sandbox opens up internal roleplaying venues...combine that with the fanfiction on Egosoft.com site....its a wonderful game.

[psilontech]

Nethack
ADOM
DOOMRL

XCOM: UFO DEFENSE
Jagged Alliance 2

Fallout 1/2.

[GungHo]

I've not spent vast amounts of time with them, but I rather like the Eschalon games' style and wonderfully simple turn based underpinning. There are demos about, and the games are available straight from the developer or on pretty much any download portal you care to name.
Exile/Avernum from Spiderweb are similar deals. There are some narrative differences, but they all run from the "we like old school Gold Box D&D CRPG/Ultima 6" era of game design.


If you don't mind your RPG to have assault rifles and smoke grenades instead of swords and wizards, Jagged Alliance 2 is absolutely worth the $10 price of admission. It's a little less RPG in the traditional sense and a little more turn based tactics, but it's still got plenty of RPG feel and is decidedly excellent.
My favorite part of this game was being able to send roses to the Evil Queen and all the merc's reactions to running into Mike. It's also very unforgiving in the later levels if you've just been trying to zerg your way through, which is actually a welcome sign. Tactics that worked in the northern section of the map do not fly when fighting elites. You have to work at getting better.


Neverwinter Nights Neverwinter Nights 2
The value in these games depends on how much you get out of the fan-written modules. Some are written well. Some are a giant mess. If you're willing to experiment and waste a weekend afternoon, you can find a lot of fun. But, realize it's an experiment.


Two Worlds 2 is actually pretty decent. The story's not the best but generally works, but it has a wide variety of murderable wildlife (including ostriches!) and a solid combat system. I had plenty of fun here.
With this one and Drakensang, it's amazing to consider how much changed between the first and second game of a series. The biggest amazment: they actually got someone to give them money to make a second game.


Risen is a game that likes to kick you in the teeth. I'm probably five or six hours in and coming to the realization that this might be the first time I've ever been so broke in an RPG that it's actually a significant obstacle - because everything (even leveling up) costs money, and I don't have any. The combat is decent, the graphics are good, and the atmosphere of poverty, degradation and everything's going to hell in a handbasket is very well done.
I hated this game when it first came out. I was perplexed as to why they were going to make a Risen 2 (see above). I then tried it again after the POS that is Arcania came out, and I actually liked it better. The greatest adjustment was that I'd been spoiled by a lot of American RPGs, so it was harder adjusting to the game not telling me what to do and where to go. Once I got over that and I figured out I was going to have to work for my fun, it got better.


The Witcher

...

The Witcher 2 is also very good, and should be played. By everyone. It feels like fantasy written by and for adults, but adults who actually understand how to make fantasy interesting while still being fantastic.
This, very much so. Once got get past your inner-thirteen year-old and stop giggling at the nekkid women and bad words, both Witchers are fantastic. You should play them in order... not due to plot confusion, but because it's hard going back to the more archaic interface of Witcher 1 (which was built off the NWN 2 Aurora engine).

In addition to Warty's list, I'd second psilontech's recommendation of Fallout 1 & 2. Tactics is ok, too, but it's a different animal.

[factotum]

Let's see, good, maybe slightly underappreciated RPGs? I echo warty_goblin's recommendations of The Witcher 2, Two Worlds 2 and Risen, and add Gothic 2 (earlier game from the same team who did Risen, and the better game, IMHO, despite its age). Arx Fatalis is a oldish RPG that has many similarities to the Ultima Underworld series...liked that one a lot, although you may have to hack it around a bit to get textures to display on modern graphics cards.

As for stuff that isn't RPGs, I think I have over 100 hours of play time put into Just Cause 2, which is a truly awesome game!

[Castaras]

Bastion is a great game, but unfortunately I've already played and beaten it upside down and sideways.

I've been browsing GoG, the problem is simply that A) I don't know some of the games on there that might fit, and B) I've already had issues with some of the games I've downloaded from them, so I'm wary. But I'll heartily take any reccommendations from there.

Might and Magic VII or VIII are good. Baldurs Gate is good. Planescape Torment is more like an interactive story than a game, but is damn good. Arcanum is awesome. Neverwinter Nights is a lot of fun too.

I'd recommend the most out of those the Might and Magics or Planescape or Arcanum, if you're looking for RPGs.

[warty goblin]

Let's see, good, maybe slightly underappreciated RPGs? I echo warty_goblin's recommendations of The Witcher 2, Two Worlds 2 and Risen, and add Gothic 2 (earlier game from the same team who did Risen, and the better game, IMHO, despite its age). Arx Fatalis is a oldish RPG that has many similarities to the Ultima Underworld series...liked that one a lot, although you may have to hack it around a bit to get textures to display on modern graphics cards.

I actually own Gothic 2 on two separate download services, but it falls past my critical 'too ugly to play' limit.

Arx Fatalis recently (like in the last year) got a patch by the developer so it now plays nice with modern hardware. Haven't tried it, but I've heard good things, and Arkane usually does interesting if somewhat flawed work. Personally I like interesting and somewhat flawed, it's genuinely more fun than bland and polished.


As for stuff that isn't RPGs, I think I have over 100 hours of play time put into Just Cause 2, which is a truly awesome game!
If we open this to non-RPGs I might wear out my keyboard. I didn't even cover RTS games with significant RPG mechanics before, so let's role on that.

RTSs in which RPG mechanics show up:
Warlords: Battlecry III is an RTS that is also an RPG, right down to creating a character and going on quests, the only difference being that your quests usually involve bases and armies. It's old, somewhat janky, has a rather crazy number of options, and is pretty fun.

Somebody will inevitably tell you that Warcraft III was Blizzard's somewhat unsuccessful attempt to create a new RPG/RTS hybrid genre. These people apparently do not understand the concept of 'new' as it relates to linear time, since the first Warlords Battlecry came out three years before, and definitely hybridized the two. Personally I found Warcraft III to be a slightly cramped RTS with the usual obnoxious campaign missions during which there was some extremely light leveling, but nothing in the way of story altering choices available. I'd say skip it, there's games that do RTS better, games that do RPG better, and games that do the combination much, much better.

Spellforce has about ten billion expansions, and is a pretty much straight cross of RTS and RPG, which is to say you have a hero and party members with whom you go on fetch quests, and also build bases and destroy enemy armies. It does both pretty well, but I'd say skip it for the sequel.

Spellforce II tones down some of the RPG side, but generally integrates the two together much, much better - it's generally no longer possible to set up a vast number of towers around an enemy spawnpoint to reap infinite experience for example, and although the quest density is perhaps a bit lower, the quest quality is significantly higher. The story's not completely horrid, most of the missions are only minimally annoying to pretty fun, and there's a crazy amount of content. Personally I'd say it's the high point of the serious crossbreeding of the two genres.

Company of Heroes has only very light leveling mechanics. You should play it anyway, it's probably the best semi-straight RTS in a very long time, with graphics that still hold up quite well, some actually genuinely good campaign missions, stuff that blows up real good, and the absolute best sound and voicework in the genre. Really, nobody else even comes close, and their deficiencies become painfully clear after you spend some time with CoH. You should also absolutely get the first expansion, which makes it about three hundred times better. I've heard some horror stories about getting the Steam version patched all the way up to current, so I'd avoid getting it there.

The Majesty games probably sit here, but there's a healthy bit of Sim in there as well, and while hitpoints, leveling and mana are certainly among your worries, you don't control any of them. In fact all you do is build stuff, place bounties, and zap things with spells, while your heroes putter about doing their own thing on their own. Hopefully this involves killing the dragon burning down your palace, but it also might not. The original is probably more atmospheric and fun, the sequel is probably the better designed game (certainly it has the better atmosphere), but lacks the appeal of the first.

[Howler Dagger]

As you can tell, Im partil to Titan Quest. You can download it off steam for quite cheap, and meets your criteria. There are bugs, so you could get the fan-patch on TQ.net. It has amazing graphics. It can get repetitive though.

[Jahkaivah]

The Binding of Isaac is fairly cheap and has some nice Roguelike/RPG elements to it if you aren't bothered by the game's tone and setting.

[Ashery]

So many games, but no mention of the fan made patches/mods that make them substantially better.

ToEE: Troika's games are notorious for being bug ridden at launch and still having significant problems even after being patched. Fortunately, all three of their games had/have a devoted fan base that improve the game over the years. In ToEE's case, this would be the Circle of Eight modpack. It comes in two varieties, one of which is pretty much straight bugfixes and minor gameplay tweaks, while the second introduces a bunch of new combat oriented content as well, the most important of which is the option to skip the initial Hommlet fetch quest grind and, instead, clear out some kobolds and undead. Anyone that's ever played ToEE will understand why I consider that addition to be the most important, heh. Look it up on Google for more details.

JA2: The fan made 1.13 "patch" and assorted mods that are developed along side it improve the gameplay in pretty much every imaginable way. It's been a while since I've done a serious playthrough, so I'd just suggest you google it if you're interested.

Now onto other bits.

NWN2: The two expansions are well worth looking into, provided that the engine doesn't drive you to the brink of insanity. The first, Mask of the Betrayer, is a fantastic epic level game that has some of the best writing done since Planescape: Torment. The second expansion, Storm of Zehir, isn't nearly as good as MotB, but it's still an enjoyable game that's more in the vein of Icewind Dale with an overland map and some light trading elements stacked on. It's not without its flaws, however.

Other recommendations:

Knights of the Chalice was an excellent dungeon crawler that was released a couple years back. The graphics will be off putting at first, but underneath is one of the best adaptations of the various D&D rulesets. Again, like any D&D based game, it has its faults re:rules (Only three classes are available, fighter, cleric, wizard; both casters use sorcerer casting rules), but the gameplay more than makes up for those shortcomings. Hell, despite the praise that ToEE gets for its gameplay, I actually gave up shortly after the Boathouse on my initial ToEE playthrough simply because the encounters were so much less satisfying than those present in KotC. Oh, and the in game help is the best I've seen in any game, bar none.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is a good roguelike to serve as an introduction to the subgenre. The tiles version that's available is actually quite nice looking if the ASCII that's usually used in roguelikes is a turn off. The gameplay itself is a bit more forgiving than many other roguelikes and you aren't forced to look up every single spoiler in order to win. Ultimately, nearly every death will be because you, the player, screwed up at some point. Players wouldn't be able to streak a dozen plus wins if the game relied heavily upon luck.

[Cainen]

Arx Fatalis recently (like in the last year) got a patch by the developer so it now plays nice with modern hardware. Haven't tried it, but I've heard good things, and Arkane usually does interesting if somewhat flawed work.
It's pretty much Ultima Underworld with a very neat spellcasting system. It's actually very good.

If you've never played Divine Divinity, you'll probably want to do that. It's pretty much Diablo's gameplay in the framework of a normal RPG, but with an open skill system.

Frozen Synapse is one of the more interesting games I've played lately, if you didn't pick it up during the Humble Bundle a month or two ago. It's what happens when you take Rainbow Six's planning phase and turn it into a full fledged strategy game. It ends up playing not too differently from X-COM's combat. There's no RPG to it, though.

I can almost recommend Knights of the Chalice, but, just like 3.5, it's far too easy to tear most of the game apart by replacing your frontliners with Clerics and having your Wizard focus on battlefield control, buffing, and debuffing. It's not easy at first no matter your party composition, but right after you take down your first dragon your entire party starts snowballing in power uncontrollably.