Games Similar to ToEE

What's nice is with the SoZ expansion you no longer need the disc in to play the game.

 

I did not play SoZ because 1: I was too eager to start making my own modules with the toolset and 2 : I wanted to play modules from the hall of fame.But I think the MoTB is the best expansion of a game i have played in many years.And I as well was ignoring NNW2 because I thought it will be similar to NWN1,even though i liked the first.But while I was playing NWN2 all I could think was " how the hell did I not play this game for so long ".I couldnt forgive myself as a gammer .

 

You should've noticed that it's made by a different (better) development company.

NWN1 was also good in its own right, just not the OC.

 

Another cool thing about NWN2 is that you can host a multi-player game from your PC.

Many of the fan made adventures available on the NWNVAULT are created with multi-player in mind.

A few friends and myself played most of the way through SoZ in multi-player mode and it was pretty cool.

 

Yeah, there are quite a few remakes of classic P&P modules made for NWN2, and although I've never had the opportunity, you could play those in NWN2 multiplayer online, with one person being the DM (with special powers).

3.5 edition of Tomb of Horrors was just released a few days ago, in fact. There was also the popular Icewind Dale remake a couple of months ago.

 

That's a common misconception that you have to have a DM, you don't.

One player merely acts as the "Host" for the game and everybody connects to his machine and joins his game.

The IWD adventure brought to NWN2 by slowdive_fan is a masterpiece, he actually ported the movies and dialogs straight over from the Infinity Engine.

If you guys ever want to run a game let me know and I'll host it, my connection is super fast and my machine is pretty strong, (quadcore i7 desktop).

 

I didn't say you have to have one, I just mentioned it as an option for those who like DM-led sessions. I could have worded that to be clearer.

On the other hand, I think some of the ones I played were specifically designed for that, and didn't include as much area text or scripting as a dedicated single-player experience would have, because it was meant for a DM to provide that material.

 

I understand what you meant now, cool.

Yeah, when we built Night Howls in Nestlehaven we kept multi-player in mind big time as to allow more freedom, kind of an open sand box feel.

Many of the adventures that I've gotten to be part of the developing team on were built around multi-player, Pool of Radiance Remastered follows the PnP module almost exactly, well as close as we could with NWN2's version of 3.5e.

Trinity we almost scrapped the entire thing and started over because EC, (the writer) wanted a more DM controlled feel even when playing single player. IE ... the pop up DM dialogs and such.

The offer still stands, if anyone wants to throw a team together and run through a module or one of the official campaigns I'll host it and all, you guys will just have to connect with the info I give you and an up to date version of NWN2. :yes:

SoZ was a blast in multi-player, although kind of hard.

 

Turn-based games:
1. Jagged Alliance 2 (with v1.13 mod, it is easily one of the finest strategic games you might come to play. It's set on a modern real-life with guns just FYI though. But you'd surely love the characters packed with funny one-liners and unique personalities. The gameplay, I couldn't say anything bad about it and it's perfect as it is.)
2. Arcanum (would have had personally preferred it to have Baldur's Gate combat though. Setting and story-wise, awesome!)
3. Fallout 1 & 2 (same as above)
4. Final Fantasy Tactics (most underrated FF game and ironically, the one only of two FF games I've played and loved. PS1 but can be emulated.)
5. Tactics Ogre (haven't tried it, but it seems it has well-received ratings.)

Quasi-real time games:
1. Baldur's Gate 2 (you could skip the first if you'd ask me. But never-the-less, the entire trilogy is one of the best if not the best game I've ever played. Nevermind if you prefer turn-based, if you love TOEE, you'd most likely love BG - perhaps even more. Same world, different and more epic story. Tons of mods. Plus, a new enhanced edition is on its way.)
2. Planescape Torment (supposed to be on-par with BG in terms of epicness. I'm a decade late, I'm still about to give it a try now. Few hours in the game and I'm having lots of fun.)
3. Vagrant Story (PS1 but can be emulated I guess. There are only a few games that can match the greatness of this game; but unfortunately only a few recognize this game title. Good storyline, customization, atmosphere, and has one of the most unique combat.)
4. KotOR 1 and 2 (Star Wars lover or not, this game series has already cemented itself as a classic and one of my most loved games.)
5. Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (pretty damn fine game even though it only came fifth in my list. If you are the religious-sort and can get past it's blasphemy or find a reason why there's no blasphemy after all, then it's a good good game esp knowing there's a new mod that just came out.)

Mass Effect Series is more on the side of being a shooting game, but it has its RPG side and a pause system much like BG and KotOR to provide some strategic elements) - belongs to my top 5 games so I think it deserves a mention from me. I've arranged those games in order based on my personal taste by the way. And oh, there's NWN, IWD, DA series that everyone seems to have discussed here already - top-notch games as well. You might want to wait for the upcoming X-COM game too - my most awaited game. That's about it for me, any of those games should keep you occupied for a long long time.

 

Have you tried Jagged Alliance Back in Action?

It's the same old JA2 but with a completely new game engine.

I'm a fan of all of the Jagged Alliance games, but this new one is by far the best version I've experienced.

You can even see the enemy's line of sight and the blood from the kills ... good times! :dead:

 

Nice to know someone else knows the game. but I thought JABiA turned out to be a bad remake of the classic and legendary JA2? Voice overs were very amateurish and nothing like its original game; the portraits are ugly and you just couldn't find the souls of JA2 characters that we loved dearly; no IMP which is a huge disappointment; no destructable environment (meaning you can't just punch a hole in the wall with C4 or other explosives); and the major lag issues even with good rig should be annoying. At least that's what they say, bit discouraged to try it.

I'm satisfied with that their patches addressed many of the other issues. Still, I thought it was a step-down from that of JA2, other than the more than a decade year-old graphics of course. But, I guess I shouldn't be too quick to judge it as I haven't even tried it; if you'll still recommend it, maybe one day I'll give it shot.:thumbsup:

 

I second Illustair's suggestion of Arcanum, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, and Planescape: Torment. I also own several of those others, which are no doubt also very good, but I haven't played those enough to put in my own vote on them, so I speak only about these.

One caveat on PS:T: After the second act, it becomes much more combat-heavy and linear, so I recommend playing it on an easier difficulty, because the combat in that game is, to put it diplomatically, not the reason for playing it.

I found Arcanum to be difficult to learn in terms of its interface and preventing my uncontrolled party members from pulling an entire horde of enemies onto us, but once I got the hang of that, the rich, complex world and alternate means of achieving goals really shone through.

Unlike Illustair, I would not suggest skipping the first Baldur's Gate game, because I really, really enjoyed it. I was, however, running it in the BG2 engine via BG TuTu, and using several mods that added some personality to the companions (NPC Project) and provided some conveniences like infinite ammo stacking.

All of these games have hacks or mods to provide high resolution modes, including widescreen.

 

There's a combat-heavy side in store for PS:T? Nice, I actually find that to be a good news. Not that I don't like the heavy narrative style of PS:T...no, not at all. But for someone that came from BG, I can't help but sometimes miss BG's amount of combat. I'm still too early on in PS:T, and that's something to look forward to. Mage here, with 18Wis 18Int and 18Con, Str decreased to 3 thanks to mods. Now that I think about it, TNO has some uber stats eh?

Fair enough for BG1, buddy. I did enjoy it too to be honest...but significantly less than BG2. And yeah, now that you mentioned it - I played Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod with several other mods installed. I'll change my stand then. BG1 was also nice, and it's best played with BGT. That mod was quite something; never encountered a game-breaking bug and can't recall a time my game crashed. Prepare for a hack-and-slash game with BG1 though.

Nexus: Jupiter Incident is also quasi-real time. It's all spaceships though. Extremely fine game. The next best sci-fi game after Mass Effect, IMHO. My only qualm with it is that it deserves a sequel, something that devs can't literally afford to have. There are plans, but there's not enough funding. Sad news!

 

I would have welcomed in PS:T the amount of combat that was in BG, if the combat had been as smooth and polished as in BG and IWD, but I'll just come out and say that I found combat to be clunky and unpleasant in PS:T by comparison with those others. Of course, these are personal tastes, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

I was a mage in PS:T as well, and one thing that I liked about that was how the higher-level spells started getting some bigger and more impressive visual effects. I don't think I've seen its like in any other D&D-based games.

 

If you're half the JA fan that I am, you're gonna love the new version of the old.

It really isn't a remake, just uses a lot of the same story and such ... just check it out and then come back and thank me.

Man, I'm gonna fire it up again right now!

Also, Cheat Happens has a great infinite ammo trick for it. (wink wink, nod nod, say no more).