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[Hudo]

There are some pretty good CRPGs, and none of them have real-time with pause combat.

 

[Wildebeest]

Pathfinder is amazing though and Solasta story is barebones.

Personally my favorite CRPG is probably Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous as the build system and the storyline/characters are great.

If Owlcat could have put a mode in the Pathfinder games that makes normal mode strict tabletop encounter balance rules and cut the number of encounters down to like a quarter then they would be much easier to recommend. As it is they made up their own homebrew sadist GM rules which do not work for everyone.

But yeah the amount of builds and the scope of the campaigns are great.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

In a just world Obsidian would still make CRPGs instead of chasing the mainstream.

 

[Nocty]

Pathfinder is amazing though and Solasta story is barebones.

Personally my favorite CRPG is probably Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous as the build system and the storyline/characters are great.

I found the over complexity of it's systems extremely tedious personally.

certainly would not recommend it for this op as he barely cut his teeth lol. Divinity OS games probably a better shout since he liked bg3.

 

[Labadal]

*Ctrl+F* Arcanum

 

[StereoVsn]

If Owlcat could have put a mode in the Pathfinder games that makes normal mode strict tabletop encounter balance rules and cut the number of encounters down to like a quarter then they would be much easier to recommend. As it is they made up their own homebrew sadist GM rules which do not work for everyone.

But yeah the amount of builds and the scope of the campaigns are great.

I kind of liked it as I never played Pathfinder tabletop and I found WotR encounter design pretty damn good. It gets really exciting as you go through the game.

I found the over complexity of it's systems extremely tedious personally.

certainly would not recommend it for this op as he barely cut his teeth lol. Divinity OS games probably a better shout since he liked bg3.

Well, yeah, it's probably better to get a bit more CRPG "experience" before jumping into WotR. But personally I loved the bell out of it and with improved Mythic paths especially its jaut so amazing.

 

[intbal]

Play the original or wait for this remake. Still scheduled for September release.
Best party combat in a D&D game. Although the story is less involving than other games already mentioned.

 

[calico]

Having impactful choices, agency, and feeling like I'm creating a story rather than being told one on top of the deep and complex mechanics feels like I can really sink my teeth in for a long adventure instead of being on rails.

Wrath of the Righteous would be my recommendation based on these criteria.

Pillars 1&2, BG 1&2, Tyranny, D:OS2, DA Origins are all easy to recommend too.

 

[Nintendo's Witch]

They are fantastic OP, you just discovered a great genre to dive into. Enjoy!

 

[Zacfoldor]

This thread reminded me that I need to play rogue trader at some point. I wonder how the console version is.

It's fine like most big CRPGs on console. Some crashes and control is a little clunky but overall good and nothing gamebreaking...though that may have improved or gotten worse over time. They update the game a lot on PS5 and it has been out a while. A 4.54 user score on Sony store so I wouldn't be scared of it.

The only CRPG I can think to be wary of on PS5 is Deadfire.

 

[struggler_guts]

Without reading any of this thread my answer is: YES

 

[BossLackey]

You might want to put a pause on the Owlcat Pathfinder games as well if you feel like that. Some people prefer Solasta over Pathfinder just because the combat seems more in line with tabletop.

I like combat, I just don't need it to be non-stop. More than anything, I don't want it to be a last consideration by the dev. As long as that's not the case, I'll enjoy a game.

 

[Mozzarella]

I'm on the opposite side, i played a lot from this genre and to be honest a lot of the games are not that good, there is a lot of jank, a lot of mediocrity and bad design in a lot of them, especially in gameplay.
For example Wrath of the Righteous a game that is getting showered with praise here for its "build depth" is a game that i found to be mediocre, the build choices are big, but their actual variety and usefulness is very limited, you have a lot of feats and skills that do the same thing but better, a lot of trap options if you play on higher difficulties and most of them end up being the same playstyle anyway.
I found it to be a feat stacking pre-buff autoclicking simulator with terrible encounter design and mediocre writing, which is baffling to me because it gets a lot of praise from many people.

I also played Wasteland 3 not too long ago and while the combat is decent, everything else was either mediocre or downright shit. Shadowrun a game with interesting story and good writing for the most part (rare thing for CRPGs tbh) is a game with extremely shallow gameplay and level design, back to Wasteland i found it to be one of the ugliest looking game ever.

I really think a lot of CRPGs are overrated by their fanboys simply because of their bloat, a lot of CRPG fanboys think that more skills = good. More words and text walls = well written. grimdark brown area = good graphics and mature.
I don't really think highly of them anymore, ofcourse some of them are top tier games, but i always feel confused when people praise them as some echelon of game design, when most of them struggle to even have passable game design.

 

[Wildebeest]

I like combat, I just don't need it to be non-stop. More than anything, I don't want it to be a last consideration by the dev. As long as that's not the case, I'll enjoy a game.

Sure, and Solasta is known as being a good representation of current D&D combat. While the Pathfinder games are known for having a lot of everything but the combat shuts you down with no hesitation if you choose poorly from the thousands of possible builds you can go for.

 

[BossLackey]

Play the original or wait for this remake. Still scheduled for September release.
Best party combat in a D&D game. Although the story is less involving than other games already mentioned.

I saw this. Definitely have it on my wishlist.

Now I'm drinking from the firehose lol.

 

[The Cockatrice]

assessment of them is TRASH

 

[StereoVsn]

Sure, and Solasta is known as being a good representation of current D&D combat. While the Pathfinder games are known for having a lot of everything but the combat shuts you down with no hesitation if you choose poorly from the thousands of possible builds you can go for.

Thats the fun though! And there is respect built into the game, there are difficulty settings AND on PC there are utilities and mods to help.

Actually do explore mods for all these games, there are a ton… unless you are on console of course.

 

[StereoVsn]

Play the original or wait for this remake. Still scheduled for September release.
Best party combat in a D&D game. Although the story is less involving than other games already mentioned.

Seeing a blank white background. Which game is coming in September?

Edit: Oh… ToEE has amazing combat, non existing storyline and was bugged to hell. There were mods that helped.

I think I like Pathfinder combat (esp. in WotR) more now days though.

Oh, and of course Divinity and BG3 have environmental and reactive destruction that is amazing.

 

[struggler_guts]

Oh man OP, if you haven't played Dragon Age Origins, you must! The only time I felt like a game always had the exact choice I wanted to make, and they were all impactful.

Of course it's older so I can't say the combat is great, in fact I barely remember it compared to the characters and choices I made with them

 

[SScorpio]

While not strictly a CRPG. If you want something a little different there's the Spell Force series which merges RPG and RTS.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Rogue Trader is awesome and is the best CRPG of 2023 even better than BG3 despise being many times lower budget and also a good game to get into 40k.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I'm on the opposite side, i played a lot from this genre and to be honest a lot of the games are not that good, there is a lot of jank, a lot of mediocrity and bad design in a lot of them, especially in gameplay.
For example Wrath of the Righteous a game that is getting showered with praise here for its "build depth" is a game that i found to be mediocre, the build choices are big, but their actual variety and usefulness is very limited, you have a lot of feats and skills that do the same thing but better, a lot of trap options if you play on higher difficulties and most of them end up being the same playstyle anyway.
I found it to be a feat stacking pre-buff autoclicking simulator with terrible encounter design and mediocre writing, which is baffling to me because it gets a lot of praise from many people.

I also played Wasteland 3 not too long ago and while the combat is decent, everything else was either mediocre or downright shit. Shadowrun a game with interesting story and good writing for the most part (rare thing for CRPGs tbh) is a game with extremely shallow gameplay and level design, back to Wasteland i found it to be one of the ugliest looking game ever.

I really think a lot of CRPGs are overrated by their fanboys simply because of their bloat, a lot of CRPG fanboys think that more skills = good. More words and text walls = well written. grimdark brown area = good graphics and mature.
I don't really think highly of them anymore, ofcourse some of them are top tier games, but i always feel confused when people praise them as some echelon of game design, when most of them struggle to even have passable game design.

What about other genres that are not crpgs?

They have even less of what you want out of them.

 

[Loomy]

And Wrath of the Righteous possibly has the best CRPG magic and build system I have seen but play that after the others!

I keep putting this one off. Might make the top of the list for games I start next year.

 

[Last Hearth]

What I wouldn't do for a remake of planescape torment like BG3, fully voice acted, voiced narrator, fully cinematic animated cutscenes, it would be the greatest game of all time for me.

 

[CashPrizes]

Baldur's Gate II is the best. But you should play and beat BG1 first so you can import your character.
Fallout 1 and 2 are both amazing and still very playable.

 

[Wildebeest]

Thats the fun though! And there is respect built into the game, there are difficulty settings AND on PC there are utilities and mods to help.

Actually do explore mods for all these games, there are a ton… unless you are on console of course.

Fun is different for different people. More people would have had fun with the games if the default normal mode had tabletop rules with normal encounters with enemies that were not over-leveled with jacked up stats and immunities so they resisted most normal things in the players kit at a too high rate. Sure add harder challenge modes for the player who can't resist trying to break the game or who just doesn't feel like they have played the game unless they are dying and reloading 10+ times for the harder encounters.