PC Gamer’s “Best RPGs of All Time” List Updated
PC Gamer updated their Best RPGs of All Time list recently, including the likes of Divinity: Original Sin on the list (since it is objectively a great RPG and hadn’t been released the last time PC Gamer updated the list).
Two Ultima titles still grace the list, of course. At the #17 position, we find Ultima Underworld:
Designer Paul Neurath originally conceived of a dungeon simulator that would turn traditional role-playing conventions on their head. Called Underworld, he and his team, the future Looking Glass Studios, built a game that rewarded real-world thinking to solve puzzles and please NPCs. Ultima developer Origin Systems was so impressed by the three-dimensional engine (you could look up and down!) and first-person combat that it bought the rights to the game, and suddenly the Avatar was trapped in the Stygian Abyss instead of some faceless schmuck.
Characters that are normally enemies are friends in Underworld, and we love that you may not be able to tell. Attacking a goblin might be a bad move, because he’s just as likely to be your friend. The first time we popped popcorn with a campfire and an ear of corn, we knew we weren’t in any old dungeon crawler. Underworld was a technological marvel in 1992, but while the graphics are dated, the feeling of exploring the Stygian Abyss is just as exciting today.
And at the #8 position, we find Ultima 7:
The Guardian is one of the most terrifying things my young mind had ever encountered. Looking back, his massive stone face emerging from the screen, with his actual, real-life voice taunting me, both made me want to play and horrified me enough to uninstall and reinstall multiple times.
It was a technological marvel at the time, but Ultima 7 stands the test of time because of the interactivity of Britannia. Most anything could be picked up or talked to, and as I painted a portrait of myself in the game, I wondered if I’d ever finish the game’s plot. But Ultima’s story sucks you in, starting first with a double homicide to solve and expanding into a religious battle for Britannia’s soul. Black Gate’s dialogue design still hold up today, and inspired Divinity: Original Sin a great deal — particularly the way it handles new converts to the world’s competing religion. This is without a doubt the best installment of one of the most legendary RPG franchises ever.
The #2 and #1 spots belong to Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment, respectively. Both fine games, to be sure…but so much so that they can beat what is regarded by most Ultima fans as the best the series has to offer? I have a doubt, even if I don’t personally think The Black Gate is the best Ultima of all time.
I am also bit confused as to how Mass Effect 2 managed to capture the #6 spot, though; it’s a fine game in its own right, and nominally an RPG in its design. But that design is also notable for having discarded most of the RPG elements that were in the original Mass Effect (e.g. inventory management and companion inventories), to say nothing of its much more streamlined, closed-world level arrangements.
How ME2 beats Ultima 7, I can only wonder. But then, I also wonder how it is that Ultima 6 is not on the list, so take what I say with as much salt as thou wilt.
I felt lucky to get Ultima VII on the list at all. It often gets overlooked in these lists for flashier modern titles.
As for Mass Effect 2, it probably is the best of the series, but I’m not sure if it belongs in a “Best RPGs” list considering how many RPG mechanics it tossed aside.
I’ve never played Mass Effect games. Correct me if I’m wrong, they’re FPS games with a heavy emphasis on story and storyline choices. Am I right?
So, essentially, the only difference between Mass Effect and Fallout 3 is that Mass Effect isn’t open world and the FPS element isn’t aided by stats?
Not an FPS, no.
The ME series are third-person games…and you can either think of them as light RPGs with a ton of narrative elements and a basic henchmen system, or as third-person shooters with…a ton of narrative and a decent squad system. Arguably, they straddle the fence between the two genres; the takeaway is that they’re narratively heavy.
And there is a stats system, actually. In all three games. I forgot to mention that. And the stats, as you level them up and unlock abilities, do measurably impact gameplay…and not just the combat side of it. How you progress through certain areas, how situations resolve, and which of your companions lives or dies can all be impacted by stat scores, either directly or indirectly.
I dunno, there’s a lot of debate. I think Mass Effect 1 is clearly an RPG in a similar vein as Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. Yes, it has point and shoot mechanics, but they are just window dressing to an RPG stats and combat system. Mass Effect 2 is where the series really started to diverge from its RPG elements, and you could easily argue that Mass Effect 3 had hardly any.
I don’t know; I thought ME3 had a bit more to offer in the way of RPG mechanics than did its predecessor.
Though it still pales in comparison to ME1.
This reminds me of that Extra Credits episode that defines what makes a WPG and JRPG different. One is more narrative and group focused. While the other is more individualistic and personal expression focused.
They even ask, “Why do we consider Mass Effect an RPG when it has third person shooter elements? While COD is an FPS with a leveling system?” It’s a pretty little video they did. They suggest videogame genres are misdefined. In the same way you don’t define a movie by they cinematography or a book by it’s writing style. You shouldn’t define a game by it’s mechanics.