What other games complement your Dominions 3?

[DonCorazon]

I have had the RPG itch of late. Was about to re-load NWN2 and see if I could get into it when I came across this German game - Drakensang. Wonder if its any good?

[Ruminant]

Originally Posted by DonCorazon

I have had the RPG itch of late. Was about to re-load NWN2 and see if I could get into it when I came across this German game - Drakensang. Wonder if its any good?

I too have recently had that most horrid of gamer-diseases, the RPG itch. Specifically the urge for a new Morrowind-esque atmospheric exploration RPG. I looked up Drakensang, it looked very promising at first until I discovered that it's really, really old-school in its style. As in, some reviewer said he fought only 6 different enemy types (mostly animals) for the first -fourty- hours. I don't really think I could stand that kind of repetitiveness.

I've started playing Arcanum through again, I didn't really get that far last time. It's more comparable to Baldur's Gate with the world map and isometric perspective than Morrowind's massive 3D countryside. The graphics aren't exactly top-notch either. However, the atmosphere is rather awesome if you like steam-punk-esque fantasy and they've put a fair amount of work into the world and its lore. If you haven't played it you might give it a try. Picture a world of magic VS technology, where half-ogres, dwarves, elves and half-orcs wear tophats, carry shotguns and ride in steam trains. You can create a mage of incomparable power, but because of the negative effect magic has on technology you have to ride in the very back of the train in a special compartment or alternatively you could create the gnomish equivilent of Nikola Tesla but none of your party's mage's healing spells are guaranteed to work on you. Or make a dashing rogue who robs banks with a pistol and metal armour ala Ned Kelly, a foppish half-elven dandy who can't do anything much on his own and relies on his way with words and cotrie of thugs or anything in between, it has quite a robust character creator (just not much difference in graphical representation).

Anyone played any comparable games to Morrowind they wouldn't hesitate to recommend?

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Ruminant

I've started playing Arcanum through again, I didn't really get that far last time. It's more comparable to Baldur's Gate with the world map and isometric perspective than Morrowind's massive 3D countryside. The graphics aren't exactly top-notch either. However, the atmosphere is rather awesome if you like steam-punk-esque fantasy and they've put a fair amount of work into the world and its lore. If you haven't played it you might give it a try. Picture a world of magic VS technology, where half-ogres, dwarves, elves and half-orcs wear tophats, carry shotguns and ride in steam trains. You can create a mage of incomparable power, but because of the negative effect magic has on technology you have to ride in the very back of the train in a special compartment or alternatively you could create the gnomish equivilent of Nikola Tesla but none of your party's mage's healing spells are guaranteed to work on you. Or make a dashing rogue who robs banks with a pistol and metal armour ala Ned Kelly, a foppish half-elven dandy who can't do anything much on his own and relies on his way with words and cotrie of thugs or anything in between, it has quite a robust character creator (just not much difference in graphical representation).

I think it really needs to be stated, for the old guard who are not aware - Arcanum was done by a studio who made a bid for the Fallout IP. They didn't get it, and they chose instead to implement the majority of Fallout2's character design features, and seemingly many of the game mechanics. In my eyes their only real failing with their conversion, was that the combat is not true turn based, sometimes it's just a bit silly, really. I should get back into it, I look at the icon sometimes, and try to remember exactly what I was up to in my last save.

I tried Titan Quest. I even liked D2 (I played that damned game until I beat Baal on Hell difficulty with every class in the game, twice with Druid since Shapeshifter and Elementalist were so fundamentally different - playing D2 as an Elementalist Druid is just painful though.....) - But I felt Titan Quest missed the boat, since they didn't manage to provide randomized maps, which meant any alt, and any subsequent playthroughs lacked any real feeling of adventure. Also the final boss battle was retardedly, sadistically, mercilessly difficult, in contrast with a mostly fairly easy game. Apparently in the patch before I got ahold of it (most of my games come used ) they really buffed the end encounter, because the fight had really abusable/exploitable flaws on initial release. I give a HUGE thumbs up for their character creation though, so many skills, and so much interesting synergies..... If only there was a cool hack and slash game in there to use them in.

Oh and BTW - Et tu, Brute!

Maybe we should make an OT thread for the Brutes, for as long as they remain entertaining?

[chrispedersen]

Anyone remember Darklands (post patch however, prior to the patch it was unplayable).

[sansanjuan]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Anyone remember Darklands (post patch however, prior to the patch it was unplayable).

I have it still somewhere. Bought it from a discount rack years after it was in its prime. Played it for a few days, got distracted by something else and forgot about it. Had heard raves about it way back when. Seemed interesting.

My brother and I played Ultima 1 way back when. Turned up a year ago in a pile of old junk. He sold it on ebay for $90 (?) bucks if I recall.

-ssj

[chrispedersen]

Had the best system for clerics I ever saw...

[S.R. Krol]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

I think it really needs to be stated, for the old guard who are not aware - Arcanum was done by a studio who made a bid for the Fallout IP. They didn't get it, and they chose instead to implement the majority of Fallout2's character design features, and seemingly many of the game mechanics.

Actually, Troika were the main designers behind Fallout. After finishing Fallout 2 they left Interplay and formed their own company, hence the similarities with the FO series and Arcanum.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by S.R. Krol

Actually, Troika were the main designers behind Fallout. After finishing Fallout 2 they left Interplay and formed their own company, hence the similarities with the FO series and Arcanum.

Fair enough. The little blurb that I found about it, did not explicitly mention that, only that they had tried to (re)purchase the IP.

While I think that the revision of the combat system in Arcanum left something to be desired, the world truly is as detailed and interesting as FO 1+2, and character advancement is very interesting. Cool game, highly recommended. <3

[Illuminated One]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

While I think that the revision of the combat system in Arcanum left something to be desired, the world truly is as detailed and interesting as FO 1+2, and character advancement is very interesting. Cool game, highly recommended. <3

Second that.
Imo the battles were better than FO, thanks to the ability to give your character access to some nice item/spell combos during character creation, but then I don't think FO had very interesting combat.

Another game by Troika (Temple of Elemental Evil) allowed very good tactical battles but the setting was just so boring.

[JimMorrison]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

Second that.
Imo the battles were better than FO, thanks to the ability to give your character access to some nice item/spell combos during character creation, but then I don't think FO had very interesting combat.

Well you lose the true turn based aspect, as well as attack targeting. The ability to pinpoint specific body parts added a lot of strategy in Fallout - strategy that you don't get with VATS in FO3, simply because the game is too fast paced to make it matter much most of the time. I agree though, the magic system is very robust for that style of game, and allows you a lot of flexibility in overall tactics.