ethanThomas

Recommendations for non-fantasy Western RPGs

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I'm looking for some RPG goodness, but I have little interest in swords and/or sorcery. Any recommendations?

Games like this I'm already aware of:

Fallout franchise

KOTOR I&II

Mass Effect

Arcanum (it's admittedly half fantasy, but the steampunk was neat-o)

Alpha Protocol (not out yet of course)

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If you're going with Anachronox, be sure to install the unofficial fan patches. The original was rather buggy. I remember it being a funny game when I played it. I never finished it, because a bug prevented me from doing so...

I was going to suggest

, but alas. Why, man, why? It's such a badass game.

Does something like Planescape Torment count?

Jeez, I'm thinking, but all I can come up with is Space Siege (which sucks) and Borderlands (which isn't out yet). Is it just my failing knowledge to remember, or are there not that many non-fantasy western RPG's?

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Vampire Bloodlines is a great game. By the guys who did Arcanum. Even though it is about Vampires and their lore, I would consider the setting - present day USA - and the quests and the characters to be often more mature and real - or at least a little deep and interesting - than in a lot of other games. Some grim stuff there. (Just to be clear: As with all games I say this wearing my trusty game-goggles nonetheless.)

For this game you can find some useful fan-updates as well.

Thumbs up for Anachronox.

Edited by castorp
typo

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Seconded on VtM: Bloodlines. I love that game. I recommend this fan made patch.

STALKER is often considered an RPG/FPS hybrid.

If superheroes and making fun of superheroes is your thing, then the Freedom Force games come highly recommended, and are cheap on Steam.

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Anachronox. If you don't mind the Final Fantasy-ish battle system and the Quake II engine graphics, then you're in for a game that's as cleverly written as the ole Lucasarts adventures.

One of my all time favorites \o/

Actually, it's Quake 2+ graphics, it has colored lights. And yes, the battle is a bit like Final Fantasy, bust much less tedious.

You could try Freedom Force, I never managed to play either game for a long time. It's more action oriented than story.

Not sure if Jade Empire qualifies as non-fantasy. It's like KOTOR but set in the far-east.

And there is On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, high recommended.

I cannot recommend Space Siege, it's not really an RPG it's more like a top down shooter like Shadow Grounds. And just like Shadow Grounds it's playable, but not really good. It's fun as a budget title.

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Bloodlines was really cool, but it didn't work on the first version of xp when I converted over so I stopped playing it and now i can't find my cd. I'm sure it works on it now though, it was cool.

When I read the thread name I asked myself "How many cowboy Rpgs could there actually be?" I realized I was wrong when I read the post, lol.

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VtM: Bloodlines was neat, but it kind of discouraged social characters. There were all sorts of little things social character could do, but most of the story progression came down to killing dudes before they killed you. I had to exploit the weak AI during every boss fight just to keep playing, and never actually defeated the final boss, because surprise, surprise, temporary invisibility and a high subterfuge stat don't help one bit when you're locked in a 10'x30' room with something that kills you in three hits.

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Lord Korax might be right, Bloodlines isn't that well balanced, but even if it makes combat more troublesome, I think a character with maxed talky skills is the better choice for this game, because it rather shines in its dialog than combat. (I have to admit, I never finished the game, but I heard and experienced, that it just becomes uninteresting in its last quarter or something. The first three quarters I played twice and highly enjoyed. So maybe not being able to kill the end-boss isn't that much of a problem.)

And I would second the recommendation for 'Planescape Torment'. It is fantasy, but not the Tolkin-kind. For me it has the most interesting and rich setting in a game thus far. And the 'deepest' writing. (Sorry for the superlative, but it is my favorite game.) Not dragons and elves but rather necro-noir steampunk.

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I think this is where I mention that I'm in Arcanum.

Also, I can confirm that Vampire: Bloodlines is pretty cool. It got impossible at one point, but I was able to finish it using god mode.

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youknow, if you did the talky talky right, you can end up with not having to do that last bossbattle... I'm just saying, you can have your cake and eat it too.

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Two things:

Toblix, what do you mean by "in" Arcanum?

I bought Vampire on Steam a while back, and from my experience, it simply does not work with either Vista or a 64-bit OS. No luck every time I try to run it. Now that I have a laptop running the same version of Vista but with a 32-bit system, I'm going to download it again and see if that helps. Sigh. I've really wanted to play this one for a long time.

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Toblix, what do you mean by "in" Arcanum?

My name is on a couple of gravestones, which has to mean I'm part of the Arcanum canon.

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Just had to throw my ticket in the Anachronox camp. I'm very happy to see a handful of fellow lovers-of-good-and-funny! That's aybe the only RPG that's intentionally made me laugh.

HALF-SPOILER THAT'S TOTALLY NOT A SPOILER IF YOU REMEMBER WHEN IT CAME OUT:

If you like it and play to the end, it ends on a SUPER CLIFFHANGER. It was publicized before its release that it was only the first half of a two-part story but of course Anachronox 2 never happened so anyone curious about the plot or invested in the characters were fucked.

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Two things:

Toblix, what do you mean by "in" Arcanum?

I bought Vampire on Steam a while back, and from my experience, it simply does not work with either Vista or a 64-bit OS. No luck every time I try to run it. Now that I have a laptop running the same version of Vista but with a 32-bit system, I'm going to download it again and see if that helps. Sigh. I've really wanted to play this one for a long time.

Try to open up Steamapps folder and find the Vampire.exe file and run in compatability mode with XP Serv 3. (Don't do it with the shortcut, as that is a shortcut to steam.exe)

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Seconded on VtM: Bloodlines. I love that game. I recommend this fan made patch.

STALKER is often considered an RPG/FPS hybrid.

If superheroes and making fun of superheroes is your thing, then the Freedom Force games come highly recommended, and are cheap on Steam.

I want to try Bloodlines, it looks cool. Also, I second STALKER. It's not an RPG per se but it presses a lot of those buttons. Great game.

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youknow, if you did the talky talky right, you can end up with not having to do that last bossbattle... I'm just saying, you can have your cake and eat it too.

I think it depends on your allegiances.

By the end of the game, I had the choice to kill LaCroix, kill Ming, or kill both. LaCroix wasn't so bad, Ming was. Unless part of the talking bit allowed me to convince them to kill themselves, I don't think I missed it.

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Anachronox is awesome! Torment, Vampire, Arcanum have been lingering in my backlog for years...

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I remember being blown away at how great Anachronox looked, especially the camera and animation. Didn't it use a heavily modified Quake engine or something? Anyway, whatever it used, it had some awesome animated sequences.

I also remember getting stuck at one point and giving up, which still annoys me, since the game was so great. However, learning that the game has a frustrating cliffhanger, maybe it was all for the best.

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BloodNet plays like an adventure, but it has RPG elements and some superbly enjoyable dialogue.

I was going to chime in and mention Bloodnet earlier then thought better of it remembering how brutally difficult the combat could be (to say nothing of how dated the combat system/mechanics/ui are) in that game.

Some really good writing in there though. The Umberto Eco wannabe guy who speaks in nothing but quotations was brilliant as was the multiple choice quiz character generation (although by no means the first to employ such a method).

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I also remember getting stuck at one point and giving up, which still annoys me, since the game was so great. However, learning that the game has a frustrating cliffhanger, maybe it was all for the best.

I don't think it was a frustrating cliffhanger, it had quite some closure, but it wasn't a final closure.

At the end of the game the current universe is saved

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