In Pictures: Tom's Top 50 RPGs

[Joe Newbie]

No Asheron's Call? No NWN?

 

[Guest]

WoW was actually released on November 23, 2004 not in 2005.

 

[MrChie14]

The absence of Neverwinter Nights is staggering. Also even though kind of a Shooter - System Shock series. And Xenogears.

 

[quangluu96]

Did I just see Risen 3? oh god

 

[dawilleyone]

NWN and goldbox series needed to be on this list

 

[I Hate Nvidia]

No Borderlands??? Really????????!!!!!!!!

 

[Rockstaru]

Slide 22 - Final Fantasy IX was single player; You probably meant Final Fantasy XI as the first MMO in the series.

 

[macflood]

No City of Heros or Villians, either...

 

[OneFai]

Some of them I don't even consider RPG. Dark Soul, Diablo and Deus Ex are RPGs?

 

[RedJaron]

Some of them I don't even consider RPG. Dark Soul, Diablo and Deus Ex are RPGs?

Deus Ex is RPG, at least the first one. Big, sweeping story, customized skillsets and augmentations, story branching choices.

I understand you on the other two. Diablo has always been marketed as hack-n-slash RPG lite: heavy on the action, light on the RP aspects. Demon's Souls / Dark Souls is somewhere in the middle. On the surface it acts like a more methodical Diablo, but you do get much more character customization options.

There are arguments for and against many titles on the list. Like I said, Final Fantasy and Zelda play more like adventure games than RPGs and I like them both.

 

[ibjeepr]

Tunnels of Doom on the Ti99 4a, still a game I play on an emulator once and while.

 

[riven65]

If we are going back to Wizardry and Ultima, then we need to look at the FIRST RPG, OUBLIETTE. It even predates DOS.

Here is a nice review of it:

http://therpggamer.com/2013/08/05/review-1983-oubliette/

It was pretty deep for having been made in 1977. In fact, the character generation was unique in that you didn't just choose a character class, but you created your character by selecting professions and working at that profession for 5 years, then it would open up different career pathways (with different perks) based on socio-economic status, attribute scores or even previous career experience. Very cool!

Another one is Darklands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darklands_%28video_game%29

This one often gets left off of reviews for some reason. It was the first one to copy the career-path character development of Oubliette. It was pretty interesting in that you were dropped into 15th century Germany during the Holy Roman Empire. The historical setting was interesting, and a refreshing break from purely fantasy worlds.

 

[NRW92]

Played Bard's Tale 3 on the C64 for over a year. By the end my characters were so powerful the final boss died too quickly. Great game.

Where is Wasteland? Also I recall Gauntlet was a RPG too.

 

[Engerek01]

I would add Neverwinter Nights series and the list would be complete.

My version would also say that KOTOR2 is as good as the first one. And also, FF8 is one of the best game ever made.