List of RPGs I have played and brief judgments

Dragon Age Origins :- Companions/Cinematics/Narration

Icewind Dale :- Atmosphere/Voice Acting

Dragon Age 2 :- Combat Animation

Baldur's Gate 1 : ToTSc :- Quaintness/Mystery Elements of Story

Neverwinter Nights Complete :- Quaintness/Gameplay/Art

Baldur's Gate 2 : Throne of Bhaal :- Variety/Length/Diversity

Neverwinter Nights 2 : Complete :- Story/Gameplay/Atmosphere

Dragon Age Inquisition ;- Graphics/Lore/Connectedness

Pillars of Eternity : The White Marches :-

Divinity Original Sin : Enhanced Edition

Divinity Original Sin 2 : Definitive Edition

Pillars of Eternity 2

Tyranny

Baldur's Gate : Tales of the Sword Coast

Released in 1998, BG: ToTSC is one of the oldest games in my kitty, and in general, amongst RPGs, it's one of the first 'complete" CRPGs as well.

Its PROs are: -

1. It's pretty simple, quaint, and has a medieval feel to it. You are instantly transported to a bygone era, with exquisite wildernesses, vintage towns, and townsfolk. Exploring empty wildernesses with few encounters that can be described as charming, with their dialogues and small rewards, is a good way to inculcate immersion into the gaming world.

2. The Story in the game is pretty well made and unfolds slowly as well. You don't get to understand the mystery behind and the intentions of the happenings until pretty late. From one point to the other, you move slowly, wondering at each step, what wonders do still lie ahead of me.

3. The Side Content is charming, low key, and quaint. Though you might sometimes be a bit bored doing so-called "fetch quests" & "searching someone for someone else", the side quests themselves aren't big enough in themselves to take away the attention of your character from the story. The main focus is still the Iron Crisis, the plot.

4. Lore Unfolding is pretty good as well. Meaning, initially the opponents are tiny kobolds, gibberlings and xvarts while later, the bestiary includes ankhegs, Doom guards, Dopplegangers and Wyverns. Each enemy is preceded by anticipatory warnings. Nothing is suddenly brought out of nowhere. There's only 2 demons in the entire game, both in the expansions, which is good considering that Demons ought to be rare and powerful.

The CONs: -

1. The City Graphics are pretty bland and uninteresting. Even though exploring the wilds is considerably exciting, exploring the city is equally boring with a tremendous number of houses, copy-pasting of the same template everywhere, no meaningful encounter until a long time, and distorting the medieval look to an Industrial era look.

2. The Companions are pretty boring with bland personalities and occasional, average dialogue. Voice acting isn't spectacular either. The text is neither highly medieval nor dark, making it a mishmash of modern writing with few fancy words.

3. Atmospheric locations are far and few in the entire game. Most dungeons are cramped areas with a highly cliched look and the overall scenery is mediocre looking. Music is also not very thematic for the type of game. Durlag's Tower, Werewolf Island, Gnoll Stronghold, and a few other areas have an atmospheric feel to it, but they are the exceptions rather than the rule.

4. Exploration though quaint, is oftentimes tedious. Since the wildernesses are not exceptional, trudging through miles and miles of terrain gets boring sometimes. Compare Pillars of Eternity, where the trudging is not that long and the locations are much prettier.

Icewind Dale : Heart of Winter

Released in 2000, IW: HOW is the first game which introduced me to Isometric RPGs.

Its PROs are: -

1. One of the most atmospheric and beautifully rendered 2D games I have ever seen. The music is charming, the art is excellent, and the locations give an intense feeling of adventuring in the lands of snow and ice. Even the caves with a fiery and cavernous atmosphere, are pretty beautiful to look at.

2. Interesting, tight story with believable complexity. The Events aren't too epic to affect the world at a grander scale nor are they too limited and regional. The Ancient feud between a Devil and a Demon, the Heartstone Gem, and the Lizardman raids on Kuldahar present an epic yet believable story.

3. Tactical combat is tough yet interesting. The enemies change after advancing in the game, the tactics to deal with them vary with the class you are in, and the items found in the game also help considerably. The Loot and the Character spells/Abilities are also random and balanced meaning you don't have a set formula for cheesing through the game.

4. The voice acting and dialogue/narration is of a very high standard. Words are few but carefully chosen and grandiosely presented.

The CONs: -

1. The amount of dialogue and activity in the villages and towns is quite less. Most of the game is combat & exploration based. Interactions are few and far between.

2. Companions are mute, with no personality whatsoever. They don't even contradict or complement each other while solving quests. Plus, there is literally no dialogue describing the scenery or the dungeon, you've entered.

3. Heart of Winter Expansion has very little variety in landscapes and thus consequently becomes boring, hours and hours of white ice and snow with no caves or ruins make it bland.

4. Difficulty levels spike considerably and vary quite randomly in the Expansions.

A lot of the power of Diablo 2 is contained in the human patience and lack of instant gratification back in the day.

However, the music, art, atmosphere and the nomenclature of the game is also pretty old school and thus evokes the primal imagination of our souls lost in the memories of our ancestors.

Tristram of Diablo 1 was a desolate place, untouched by the ravages of civilization with a dark, broody atmosphere that's comparable to the one felt by an adventurer, sitting in an inn, drinking bitter ale and taking in every rumour, all the while looking outside and preparing for the great journey that begins from here.....

Cathedrals with its dark dungeons and dank caves, were scary, bloody and dingy. Around every corner was the brutal surprise of a winged familiar, behind every wall could potentially hold a sanctum with skeletons and demons, ready to pounce on the loner who attempts to extract the treasures within.

Hell itself, has no words. It was the scariest place to be, full of evil devils, goatmen and the master of terror himself, Diablo. The Pentagrams, fire and the ritualistic architecture evoked a very biblical, mesopotamian feel.

Coming to Diablo 2, the foundations were laid by the base camp of Akara. To those who played the demo first, the Rogue Encampment felt like a cozy labyrinth, with avenues that we thought were playable in the full version. which way was supposed to be the outside world tickled our thoughts more often than any modern game does with its glitzy choices.

The Wilderness, Caves and dungeons