Western RPGs

[NeoZeedeater]

While I didn't really appreciate them as much in my younger gaming days, I am growing increasingly fond of Western RPGs. As a genre it has a lot of depth and a rich history. This thread is a tribute to Western RPGs. I'm certainly not going to attempt and list everything but here are some of the more important developers and games.

Company - Origin Systems

The saga begins here. Richard Garriott was the first to bring the pen and paper concept of role playing to video game form with his Apple II game Akalabeth in 1979 published by California Pacific. Despite the name, this game is pretty much the first game in the Ultima series.


Early Ultima games were published by Sierra. Garriott founded Origin Systems in 1983 and began publishing his own games. Ultima remained Origin's flagship RPG series throughout the years although they did produce other ones like Moebius, 2400 A.D., Space Rogue, Tangled Tales and Knights of Legend.

Ultima VII


Origin oversaw the production of Looking Glass Technologies' spin off game Ultima Underworld in 1992 which featured a 3d engine more advanced than its more popular action rival Wolfenstein 3D by id Software.


Since Sierra was mentioned, another RPG to note of theirs is Betrayal at Krondor(1993). I don't remember much about it except that it had an impressive 3d world to explore and some bad live actors. It's not a pretty game today, that's for sure.


Company - Mattel

It's a common misconception that consoles didn't have RPGs in the pre-NES era but that wasn't the case. The most notable console RPG of that time was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin for the Intellivision in 1982. Like so many first-party InTV games it was developed by APh Technology Consultants.


Blizzard

RPGs have had their popularity ups and downs on PCs and heading into the mid '90s wasn't a peak period. Blizzard's Action/RPG Diablo did a lot to repopularize the genre in 1996. It was a lot more mainstream friendly and addcitive than the average RPG and it probably brought in new players. I'm not going to mention this subgenre anymore except for its origin.

Diablo II


Company - Automated Simulations/Epyx

Pretty much every ARPG dungeon crawler can be traced back to The Temple of Apshai which is almost as old as Akalabeth. These games are sometimes called Roguelikes after Epyx's Rogue.

Temple of Apshai Trilogy


Company - Bethesda

The Elder Scrolls series is known for taking open-endedness to the extreme. While Arena and Daggerfall remained cult favorites on PC, the third game in the main series Morrowind hit it big on Xbox as well as PC. For the longest time there was the belief that console gamers didn't want complex games and that PC ports needed to be dumbed down. Morrowind proved this theory wrong as it made it to console with all its depth intact. I was blown away by the sheer ambition, freedom and scope of the game.


Daggerfall


Company - Datasoft

This company was better known for releasing action games like Bruce Lee but they did release Philip Price's revered Alternate Reality: the City for the Atari 800 in 1985(later ported to other computers). It was one of the earliest games to feature a character's morality defined by the player's actions as to being pre-chosen D&D style.


Company - Sir-Tech

Sir-Tech's Wizardry was one of computer gaming's longest running RPG series beginning in 1981 and ending in 2001. It's probably the only game series to originate in Canada that managed to achieve some following in Japan.


Wizardy 8


Company - FTL Software

No, it's not Fruit of the Loom; it's Faster Than Light. FTL made a few big contributions to RPGs. Sundog: Frozen Legacy was ahead of its time, mixing in roleplaying and space combat with detail unheard of for its time. It was originally released for the Apple II but it really shined in 16-bit form on the Atari ST in 1985.


A couple years later they released the first-person fantasy RPG Dungeon Master which was considerably more successful.


Company - Strategic Simulations Inc.

SSI began as a strategy/wargame developer in the late '70s but they gained a lot of popularity branching out into RPGs based on the D&D license. SSI's "Gold Box" games are considered classics by many although they were never my kind of thing.

Death Knights of Krynn


Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed


Company - BioWare

Bioware hit it big in 1998 with their D&D based Baldur's Gate.


Since the Baldur's games they have moved onto 3d games like Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Star Wars: KotOR is especially significant in that it was released on Xbox first and achieved mainstream success.


Currently BioWare is developing the ancient China inspired ARPG Jade Empire.


KotOR 2's development was given to Obsidian Entertainment and the game just came out. Here's a bit on who Obsidian are taken from their website:

The five founders are: Feargus Urquhart, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, Chris Avellone and Chris Jones. Many of Obsidian's talented employees have worked on award winning products for companies such as Black Isle Studios, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Neversoft, and others.

. They are also currently making Neverwinter Nights 2.

Company - Interplay

The Bard's Tale


Also published by EA in Interplay's pre-publishing days was the post-apocalyptic themed Wasteland was a nice change of pace from the more cliche RPG themes.


1997's Fallout is unofficial sequel to Wasteland.

Fallout 2


Planescape: Torment is considered by many to be the darker, cooler, more well-written Baldur's Gate. Sadly, I think the box art probably turned away potential buyers as it's ugly and doesn't represent how nicely animated the game actually is.


Interplay's RPG division Black Isle Studios was shut down earlier this year. People often get BioWare and Black Isle mixed up so
if anyone's still confused about them they should read this GameSpy article - http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/...le/index2.shtm

The Bard's Tale creator Michael Cranford has a few notable RPG contributions outside of Interplay. Maze Master for the C64 was his first original game in 1983. His sci-fi creation Centauri Alliance is considered by many RPG enthusiasts to be his greatest contribution despite having nowhere near the level of recognition of The Bard's Tale.

Company - Troika Games

Troika was formed from former members of the Fallout development team. They created Arcanum and The Temple of Elemental Evil.

Arcanum


Their latest game is very morbid Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines based on the White Wolf license. Games like this are what personally interest me in the future of Western RPGs. It strays from the norm in that it has real-time action-ish gameplay and a mixture of classic adventure elements. The influence of Ion Storm's FPS/RPG Deus Ex can be seen here.


Development of Fallout 3 has been handed to Bethesda.

Company - Blue Sky

The Genesis certainly isn't known for Western RPGs but one game stands out, Shadowrun. Unlike Beam's SNES game based on the same FASA license this one is considered to be much truer to its RPG roots.


MMORPGs and text-based RPGs were omitted for space reasons but I would encourage adding them along with anything else that relates to the topic. I have a lot to learn about this genre myself so I'm hoping for a good discussion.

[Roufuss]

I'm proud in the fact I own a big chunk of games off of that list.

No love for Icewind Dale though?

[animegirl]

The only western RPGs I played and actually liked were Ultima: Quest of the Avatar and Knights of the Old Republic. I really tried to like Morrowind, but it was just too damn boring. I thought Fallout had a really cool story and setting, but the combat was not that exciting. Jade Empire looks awesome, it's pretty close to the top of my wish list.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm proud in the fact I own a big chunk of games off of that list.

No love for Icewind Dale though?

I was under the impression that Icewind is a Diablo-ish game(although more complex) and I decided not to list many of those. It's not that I don't like them as I do. Having them in the discussion is cool. I just left them out of the initial post.

[Roufuss]

I was under the impression that Icewind is a Diablo-ish game(although more complex) and I decided not to list many of those. It's not that I don't like them as I do. Having them in the discussion is cool. I just left them out of the initial post.

Icewind Dale is Baldur's Gate, basacially, but with just not an involved story and a different environment. Alot of people did call it a "Baldur's Gate style dungeon crawler", but it still had a story, it still had all the choices in the dialogue, it just focused more on combat.

It was still really really good, and if you're a fan of the BG / Planescape games, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

I'm pretty sure you can get Icewind Dale + expansion / Icewind Dale 2 packs cheap at EB still, around 20 bucks.

[Eightbitbreaks]

Is Arcanum good? If it's half as good as Fallout, then I'd love it.

[AstroBlue]

Another awesome thread from NeoZ.



Was the Star Trek for the NES made by a western company? It had a lot of RPG elements.

[Roufuss]

Is Arcanum good? If it's half as good as Fallout, then I'd love it.

Arcanum was awesome, but it had it's share of problems.

I'd mainly buy it for the brilliant setting and atmosphere. It's magic meets old western technology. If you're a big time mage, you won't be able to ride the train since your magical energies will mess it up. It's little touches to the world like that, that are really cool.

The combat was blah, and I don't remember the story, but it was decent.

[rectal_area]

Icewind Dale is basically Baldur's Gate but without pre-made characters. More depth I suppose, but alot harder to become involved in. Icewind Dale 2 is based on third edition rules, same as NWN. Both run on the same engine as Baldur's Gate.

[Eightbitbreaks]

I'd mainly buy it for the brilliant setting and atmosphere. It's magic meets old western technology. If you're a big time mage, you won't be able to ride the train since your magical energies will mess it up. It's little touches to the world like that, that are really cool.

That sounds awesome. I can handle blah gameplay over good atmosphere. I'd imagine this shit is pretty cheap nowadays?