What do you think about early and late 90's PC-RPG?

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What do you think about early and late 90's PC-RPG?
What experience did you have with some of those games, and what do you think about it's aesthetics, did you played any RPG from those eras? (PC-98 and foreign oddities are welcome)

Here are some of my favorites
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There's a certain charm to the old Fallout animations, I think. The primitive nature of the technology compliments the ramshackle setting of the world, I think. I didn't like how Fallout 4 looked, and maybe the lack of this crunchy texture is why.
 
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There's a certain charm to the old Fallout animations, I think. The primitive nature of the technology compliments the ramshackle setting of the world, I think. I didn't like how Fallout 4 looked, and maybe the lack of this crunchy texture is why.
The first fallout was really brutal to be honest, if you choose the bloody mess trait for example, (spoilers) in the end you will get an extra cutscene, in which you shoot the overseer, but the way he died, it was the first time i've seen somebody been blow away in half in that way, it was so gory it gives me goosebumps.
 
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The first fallout was really brutal to be honest, if you choose the bloody mess trait for example, (spoilers) in the end you will get an extra cutscene, in which you shoot the overseer, but the way he died, it was the first time i've seen somebody been blow away in half in that way, it was so gory it gives me goosebumps.
I remember that ending. The fallout series in general is pretty brutal. Or was, rather. Fallout 4 and especially 76 bubblegummed the franchise pretty badly.
 
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I remember that ending. The fallout series in general is pretty brutal. Or was, rather. Fallout 4 and especially 76 bubblegummed the franchise pretty badly.
I know, luckily, there is a really dedicated fanbase of modders from the first two games, and their total convertions are basically entire new games, just as good as the first one.

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I know, luckily, there is a really dedicated fanbase of modders from the first two games, and their total convertions are basically entire new games, just as good as the first one.

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I had no idea about this. I played the Fallout MMO, but I never knew about mod projects this large. Which ones do you recommend?
 
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I had no idea about this. I played the Fallout MMO, but I never knew about mod projects this large. Which ones do you recommend?
Well, Fallout: Mutants Rising is still in development, fallout sonora and Olympus 2077 are being translated, because most of this mods come from eastern europe, but yeah, the ones who are totally translated and which one i highly recommend are:

Fallout 1.5: Resurrection, like the name implies, is a fallout game between fallout 1 and fallout 2 located in new mexico, and your quest is basically to find who you are (you have amnesia)
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Fallout Nevada; Is located in nevada, and your main quest is to find an S.O.S (A security system) for your vault.
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What i love frome this games, is that they are totally focused on history and quests, nevada took me around 40 hours to complete fully (1.5 resurrection is shorter, yet you will have at least 20 hours worth of content)
 
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NimbusNursery

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Oh man, I remember being a little kid and watching my older brother play fallout. Even after all these years, the first two fallout games really have a place in my heart. I would love to play them again, and maybe get into other 90s rpgs.
 
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Oh man, I remember being a little kid and watching my older brother play fallout. Even after all these years, the first two fallout games really have a place in my heart. I would love to play them again, and maybe get into other 90s rpgs.
You should give it a try, in GOG is really cheap rn.
 
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Ross_Я

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What do I think? I grew up on those. I love'em. It's just so crazy how much ideas were on the scene back then. Just raw, unpolished ideas, and that was awesome.

Also, I'm in the middle of Albion, like, right now, and I like the art and story bits. I'd post some, but art has cat-people's boobs, and I'm pretty sure that is NSFW, so have just a random lore bit.

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I love the sci-fi/fantasy mixes, and there are so few of them out there for some reason. And good ones are even fewer. I don't get it. It's sci-fi AND magic - you can just literally do whatever you want and let your fantasy go to the wildest places? But, alas.
 
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alCannium27

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I don't recall playing any PC RPG games of that era at the time, the only games I recall playing at that time were Starcraft Brood Wars and Red Alert 2, both RTS so not really comparable. One RPG I did play was Farland Odyssey (1999) on PC, which played very much like a RPGM game, and you get that typical JRPG rpg-lite mechanics (no manual assignment of stats with all preset characters primarily).

What I missed the most about this era of PC games is that aethestics, isometric or side-scrolling, a lot of the PC games I remember seeing had a more constrast and shadow in their sprites. Take Age of Empires II for example, I genuinely thought the sprites were hand-painted at that time. Starcraft: Brood Wars also had that gritty, but not 2000s faded dull sapia feel. It's both colorful and grim, I suppose. The low resolution also helped with that illusion, I suppose
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I've always meant to try out Planescape Torment, since I've always liked playing games where choices do feel like they matter on a personal level, with the in-game characters reacting to certain of my decisions long-term (and in a way that makes some in-universe sense). The closest I've felt in games that has that sort of consequences is New Vegas, but I can't articulate exactly why it is; more modern RPGs like Skyrim and Witcher 3 somehow feels like it's missing something. Maybe it's just that personal touch -- where you feel like every character has some sort of meaningful life of their own even when the game mechanics doesn't support this, be it dialogue, personalities, or just character design, New Vegas made me care about the "lives" of minor NPCs the other games could not.

And I played New Vegas after Skyrim
 

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Take Age of Empires II for example, I genuinely thought the sprites were hand-painted at that time.
Talking out of my ass here, but quite possible they were "finalised" manually. Since games did not had all that fancy dynamic lightning back in the days, a lot of sprites - and even textures - from those days have shadows and highlights drawn on them manually. That is one of the reasons they stand out this much: today's dev think computers will do everything on their own. They won't.

It's both colorful and grim, I suppose.
That's what awesome when it comes to the "grim darkness" of 80's Warhammer 40K.
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It's so vibrant. And I kind of hate dull colors.

where you feel like every character has some sort of meaningful life of their own even when the game mechanics doesn't support this, be it dialogue, personalities, or just character design,
That's the feeling, right there, right? When something's not there, your fantasy just clicks on and makes it up. I wonder if many people feel the same, but that is definitely the feeling many modern games lack a lot, because they are simply way too polished.

And Witcher series actually were rather good with your decisions, espeicially given that the devs actually bothered to check your previous savegames and transfer whatever you've made in the prvious game into the next game. They kind of half-assed it with Witcher 3 though. Luckily, I've made all the choices that are exactly the same as in Witcher 3, and yet something about that game is a bit off in my eyes, so I still haven't played it, even though I've enjoyed the first 2 parts and quite so.
 
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alCannium27

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That's what awesome when it come to the "grim darkness" of 80's Warhammer 40K.
View attachment 84764View attachment 84765
It's so vibrant. And I kind of hate dull colors.
Oh yeah, that classic 80s Warhammer art. John Blanc had some very strong influence on how that went though -- exaggerating more abnormal features and use only a small color pallettes. It's true the newer, digital artworks GW picked is more detailed, but feels far more bland precisely because of a loss of character.
Personally I think the 4th edition 40K artworks and the 4th edition Fantasy Battle arts were the best representation of the setting -- gritty, silly, and epic all the same time.
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That's the feeling, right there, right? When something's not there, your fantasy just clicks on and makes it up. I wonder if many people feel the same, but that is definitely the feeling many modern games lack a lot, because they are simply way too polished.

And Witcher series actually were rather good with your decisions, espeicially given that the devs actually bothered to check your previous savegames and transfer whatever you've made in the prvious game into the next game. They kind of half-assed it with Witcher 3 though. Luckily, I've made all the choices that are exactly the same as in Witcher 3, and yet something about that game is a bit off in my eyes, so I still haven't played it, even though I've enjoyed the first 2 parts and quite so.
Yeah, that keeping your decisions from the previous games was probably around for a while. The earliest game that I remember actually playing with that sort of thing was the Mass Effect series -- oh, ME1 and ME2 had some really good writing for the squadmates for me to actually care about them. I was basically star trek and in some way a noble bright 40K Inquisitor game. A lot of the decisions in the first two games were given due weight and impact. And I agree with one Youtube known as Mr. BTongue that the first two thirds of the third game is also handled with well, it's really just the end stretch that's really, really half-assed.

As for Witcher 3, never played the second game, and couldn't handle the combat in the first game, so can't comment there; to me that game has the same problem with Kingdom Come: Deliverance -- they use a number of preset faces. There's really only about a dozen or so faces across the whole game (and for Witcher 3, it feels like there are even fewer faces for Elves, Halflings, and Dwarfs), so anytime there's a close up conversion where the game zooms in, the illusion was broken to me. Oh, also the fact I can't properly attack civilians outside of scripted events felt off too. The Guards are overpowered without mods and can kill Gerald easily, it all felt too restrictive even if lore-accurate.

Eh... how about I put it like this: in Witcher 3, upon arriving in Novigrad? there's the scene of witch burning where one can see Geralt was really angry at what had transpired. I tried to kill the Witch Hunter dude by flashing the sword and using the signs -- game won't let me. I threatened him a few times, the guards engaged me; with a mod that debuffed the guards, I succeeded in killing them but the Witch Hunter walked away, and the crowds just went "oh, I guess that happened" and stayed where they stood.

See, that's the problem I've got -- the game wasn't designed to handled player interactions with its systems. No other guards responded to Geralt killing two other guards, no alarms were raised. Every other NPCs simple stood as scripted and did nothing else. KDC:D had the same problem, and I constantly felt like playing with hands tied behind my back. I have no problem playing in a character's shoes -- novel Geralt was probably smart enough and detached enough to not openly flaunt the authorities like I did there -- I don't know, I've not read the books yet. Nevertheless there's no option to take revenge, to assassinate the Holy Flames' leadership in that city. Everything and everyone just felt "unconnected", if that makes any sense.
 

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Planescape Torment again... Somehow that was a game I've never played and never wanted to play. Something about the setting, I guess, is just not for me. Since the first time I've saw it on my friend's CRT screen, my thoughts about that game were not any more than just a "meh".

Oh yeah, that classic 80s Warhammer art. John Blanc had some very strong influence on how that went though -- exaggerating more abnormal features and use only a small color pallettes. It's true the newer, digital artworks GW picked is more detailed, but feels far more bland precisely because of a loss of character.
Personally I think the 4th edition 40K artworks and the 4th edition Fantasy Battle arts were the best representation of the setting -- gritty, silly, and epic all the same time.
Yeah, that is way cool. If I'll ever learn to draw, I want my art to look like that.

Yeah, that keeping your decisions from the previous games was probably around for a while. The earliest game that I remember actually playing with that sort of thing was the Mass Effect series -- oh, ME1 and ME2 had some really good writing for the squadmates for me to actually care about them. I was basically star trek and in some way a noble bright 40K Inquisitor game. A lot of the decisions in the first two games were given due weight and impact. And I agree with one Youtube known as Mr. BTongue that the first two thirds of the third game is also handled with well, it's really just the end stretch that's really, really half-assed.
I'm still having my doubts about getting into ME series. My friend likes it a lot and keeps telling me that I can go for a WH40K approach and dominate/exterminate alien species, but I just... dunno, something seems off. And that quite literally epical failure of an ending in ME3 makes me feel like I will be wating my time going through three games just for that.

As for Witcher 3, never played the second game, and couldn't handle the combat in the first game, so can't comment there; to me that game has the same problem with Kingdom Come: Deliverance -- they use a number of preset faces. There's really only about a dozen or so faces across the whole game (and for Witcher 3, it feels like there are even fewer faces for Elves, Halflings, and Dwarfs), so anytime there's a close up conversion where the game zooms in, the illusion was broken to me. Oh, also the fact I can't properly attack civilians outside of scripted events felt off too. The Guards are overpowered without mods and can kill Gerald easily, it all felt too restrictive even if lore-accurate.
First Witcher is probably even better that the second one. Once you get used to the clunky controls, they become part of the charm. I love the first Witcher. Few things rival trying to navigate the streets through the night as drunk Gerald who can barely swing a sword, trying to fight off whatever monsters are crawling into the moonlight. I'd say, the clunkiness of the first game are part of what creates quite a unique atmosphere.
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Eh... how about I put it like this: in Witcher 3, upon arriving in Novigrad? there's the scene of witch burning where one can see Geralt was really angry at what had transpired. I tried to kill the Witch Hunter dude by flashing the sword and using the signs -- game won't let me. I threatened him a few times, the guards engaged me; with a mod that debuffed the guards, I succeeded in killing them but the Witch Hunter walked away, and the crowds just went "oh, I guess that happened" and stayed where they stood.
Aye, this example totally sucks. When something like this happens in a RPG, it is indeed a huge downer for the game.

See, that's the problem I've got -- the game wasn't designed to handled player interactions with its systems. No other guards responded to Geralt killing two other guards, no alarms were raised. Every other NPCs simple stood as scripted and did nothing else. KDC:D had the same problem, and I constantly felt like playing with hands tied behind my back. I have no problem playing in a character's shoes -- novel Geralt was probably smart enough and detached enough to not openly flaunt the authorities like I did there -- I don't know, I've not read the books yet. Nevertheless there's no option to take revenge, to assassinate the Holy Flames' leadership in that city. Everything and everyone just felt "unconnected", if that makes any sense.
I haven't read the books either, but IMO, when you make an RPG - you gotta make an RPG, and therefore foresee how players would interact with your world. If you don't - it's just a bad devving. Though I have to note that Cheat Engine and mods can likely pull things up. They definitely can tone down the guards in Witcher 3, for example. Knowing how to handle memory and files of the game opens up a lot of possibilities... and somehow only deepens the immersion for me, even though I'm right in the code.

I guess that's why Bethesda's games are popular among modders. They can make one wonder what being a game dev even is, since Bethesda provides more of a box of assets. Most of experience in Bethesda's games since TES III arguably comes from the players rather than from the devs.

Overall, I think I've heard about multitude of problems with the third Witcher once or twice. I guess they are one of the reasons I still haven't touched that game. It kind of makes me wonder though why the third Witcher was so praised in the mainstream and why people were so hyped for Cyberpunk game, when it was quite obvious that CDPR lost their touch... if they ever had it in the first place, since it looks like somewhat clunky first Withcer might end up as their best game in my eyes.
 
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