When I beat Baldur's Gate II EE & it's expansion what are the best similar games?
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I am basically talking about isometric RPGs similar to Baldur's Gate on steam GOG or other downloadable formats.
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Icewind Dale:
An excellent game which uses the Infinity engine, just like Baldur's gate. The main difference compared to the BG series though is that Icewind dale is a dungeon crawler game. It sacrifices the detailed side quests and character detail of BG in exchange for better character customisation and much more combat, both in quantity and quality.
The classes in IWD have more abilities than in BG, as well as many more spells to choose from (especially priests and more bard songs). There are many more items to choose from as well, and rather than recruiting NPCs, you can create 1-6 custom characters at the beginning of the game.
Overall, pick this if you enjoy tactical combat, as well as personalising your characters. However if you are more keen on dialogue, character development, and side quests, you may instead want to consider...
Planescape: Torment:
This is probably the most niche of the Infinity engine games, and the polar opposite of IWD. Planescape: Torment is admittedly rather poor in terms of combat and character customisation. There aren't many battles, and you are forced to play a character called 'The Nameless one,' who can only be a fighter, mage, or thief.
However, do not let that deter you, as PST is unbelievably detailed in terms of its characters and in the world around you. There is so much to discover by talking to the NPCs you recruit and by interacting with the world around you. You could play this game hundreds of times over and have it be a radically different experience every time. It also actually explores a lot of thought provoking themes, mainly about the conflict between living life to its fullest and fear of death, so you may leave this game feeling more the wiser. BTW it is also the only video game that I cried in, it is genuinely emotional.
Overall, play this if you like exploring and discovery, as well as character development and dialogue. Avoid if you prefer combat and customisation.
Neverwinter Nights:
Admittedly, I have not finished playing NVN yet so I can't say too much about it. It seems to be similar to BG in that it finds an equal balance between combat/customisation and characters/story. Note that it uses a different engine to BG so it looks rather different, but it is still isometric. It is also based upon a different set of rules in DND so the various classes and rules function differently also. However from what I have experienced so far it is thoroughly enjoyable.
Neverwinter Nights was entertaining but I wouldn't put in the same category as those games. NWN isn't isometric, isn't party-based and doesn't have much in the way of role-playing.
It isn't as similar to BG as the other mentioned games, but it is definitely in the same ballpark.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a bit closer to BG, but it’s much harder to make custom maps. Also, to be honest, I’m not a fan of 3rd edition’s class system. I won’t go into detail here, but it’s a lot harder to role play a character without lots of crunchy planning. It also heavily penalized multiclassing spell casters without using special prestige classes specifically for that purpose.
Its funny people mentioned Fallout. Been playing it on and off since it came out in 97, never once even got the water chip. Fired it up and started again last week, and am shocked at how short the game actually seems. Granted Ive put in some long hours playing it, but in just a couple days Im already at the last two points you go to in the game. For all the hype its gotten over the years, I would've thought it was alot 'more'.. But then again, it helps when you know how to score unlimited caps, power armor and stat upgrades right off the bat when you start hah..
PoE 1&2 and Tyranny are all great games. I preferred PoE2's class system, but enjoyed PoE1 story and setting a lot more. The whole pirate/carribean theme as in PoE2 just isn't a favorite of mine. Tyranny is a gem in it's own right. Similar to many other games but still has a very, very different feel to it. Also, you seldom get to play representing the "evil" side in games, not really. I absolutely LOVE the magic system in Tyranny and think it's one of the best new and innovative ways of implementing magic in a game.
Regarding Fallout I believe a lot of the hype comes more from FO2 than from FO1. 1 is good, but 2 is a masterpiece. If you haven't played them, you might as well start with FO2 and if you like it, then play 1 since the first one is more frustrating regarding ie NPC control and some experience can help you. Storywise it doesn't matter that much either since they are not completely interlinked like BG1 and 2.
Arcanum is amazingly good and amazingly frustrating at the same time. An EE version is a dream come true, because I've started the GOG version a couple of times but I just can't ever go through it all.
Pathfinder:Kingmaker is similar but also quite different. I both like and dislike it at the same time. Personally I think it's interpretation of PnP is refreshing, however, it also make the player having to rely a lot of meta knowledge and/or save scumming. Example, you can miss many interesting places to visit without high enough Perception skill so you need to know that you have to have at least one char with maxed out PER always and know where PER checks are made so you can save scum if you fail a check. Of course you can just play the game and skip doing this, but then you miss out on a lot of places (and loot, exp, story). As a casual player, like I am nowadays, this becomes a bit frustrating when I read up afterwards and realize I missed several places in the first chapters.
It's not quite out of the same wood, pretty far from it actually, but since no one mentioned it yet you might also look into Divinity: Original Sin. Great game with lot of freedom to approach things in so many ways that it's almost baffling. I haven't tried the sequel for that either yet but I've heard it's great.
I tried out Kingmake, but so far it seems so generic, that it hurts.
I like exploiting mechanics and min-maxing characters to do things a little differently. Like in IE games bumping up my fire resistance to immunity levels and self bombing groups of enemies. Pillars of Eternity caps many of these stats out (or effectively does so with diminishing returns) so that you can neither be completely weak at something in favor of being godlike at something else, and that's a part of character building that I've always found compelling and fun - something that really drives my replay value upward.
I havent played as much Divinity Original Sin but what I have played so far gives me that freeform tactical play that feels more reminiscent of my play on IE games. If you're expecting Baldur's Gate out of PoE you may find yourself as disappointed as I was given how much the game was marketed as a Baldur's Gate successor. That said, it's a game that, when standing on its own merit, is a fully forged game and is worthy of a playthrough. Just do not go in with the direct expectation of creating an adventure on it as if it were a continuation of this series in spirit.
Kingmaker, a new crpg seems like a great game. Set in Pathfinder. Sure it's still buggy, however they are still fixing the game. I have a lot of fun and you can even build a Kingdom! It has romance and from what I have been told you can have your romance by your side. But fuck, the game is long. 7-8 chapters each long as hell. But worth it.
Avoid Icewind Dale. It feels empty.
Planescape Torment is fun, especially dialogues like you using your intestines as a rope. God, it makes you want to vomit, but it's fun.
NWN seems like a good game. I'm still in prologue however because I'm on Android and it's a bit...of a clusterfuck on Android for now.
If however you are willing to go beyond crpg, there's mass effect and Dragon Age.