Quote:
Originally posted by nigel vibations@Jan 25 2006, 07:49 AM
I know nothing's going to come close, but what other RPGs would you guys recommend to a total noob who just spent the last four weeks of his life obsessively wandering around Midkemia? Ideally something similarly old school, as free is a very good price and my laptop's a piece of crap.
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Nothing was ever done again that was quite like BoK. There were two attempts at followups, whose histories I know well, thanks to knowing some of the primary and secondary figures involved. But Return to Krondor was a rather unoriginal, dumbed down and linear game, while Betrayal at Antara was a braindead attempt to redo BoK using programmers utterly unfamiliar with writing or with previouis game design experience.
If the epic quality of the game gets you, consider Ultima VII: The Black Gate. It's a very different game, but also doesn't dumb down things for the average player. (Back then, publishers weren't telling developers that they had to make a game for everybody from 8 to 80.) This usually can be purchased for a few dollars/Euros. There's an excellent engine
here that you can download which lets you run Ultima VII on WinXP, and offers a few more features (extra key commands, higher resolutions) than the original. Very long, epic story, with some inter-party dialog as you go.
Also Planescape: Torment is worth getting. Another intelligent RPG, it probably boasts the best writing of any RPG to date. Fascinating characters, interesting setting, solid AD&D system.
Much the same can be said of Baldur's Gate II, though the party interactions here are very extensive. (There are even a couple of instancces where if you have certain NPCs in your party, they will take over command of decision-making for you because of their personalities.) Very long game, again, lots of quests, good add-on, and a lot of interesting mods created by users that add available party NPCs, shops, and new quests.
Finally, check out King of Dragon Pass as
www.a-sharp.com. This is a unique game, an RPG/strategy/sim hybrid that mixes roughly 500 plots and mini-plots, many in a different order (leaving some odd) in any given game. It's all menu driven, so combat is rather boring, but you have to make so many decisions as head of a clan, and interact with quite a few clan chiefs; and the result is a game that never ceases to amaze.
I'd recommend some earlier RPGs to you, but none of them have the same visual flavor or chapter outlook as BoK, and none of them include those wonderful riddle chests or 3D maze traps. However, you should check through the RPGs on Abbandonia (the *best* site for abandonware, bar none) and take a look at some of the reviews that have been offered.