Is TOEE everyone's favorite CRPG?

Is TOEE everyone's favorite CRPG?

I am really enjoying it, much more so than Never Winter Nights 2.

One thing that really killed Never Winter Nights 2 for me, is the fact that after every battle all of your dead characters are automatically resurected. That just takes a lot of the flavor out of the game for me.

The original Never Winter Nights is okay, but I don't like the fact you can only have 1 character and 1 henchman.

My favorite CRPG's are in the following order:

Temple of Elemental Evil (with CO8 mod)
Icewind Dale 1 & 2
Baldur's Gate II + Expansions

 

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion are awesome as is World of Warcraft online especially visually but TOEE (with co8 of course!!!) RULES THEM ALL!!! :rock:
Thanks guys! (and gals?)

-M

 

I've never played IWD2, sadly, and I know I should pick it up.

That said, I pretty much agree with your order there, and your reasons for why NWN and NWN2 come up short. I will add though that both BG1 and BG2, while solid games on their own, get significantly better by being played along with their own set of mods done by other modding communities.

For example, playing the original BG with the mods BG1NPC Project by the Gibberlings 3 group, and BG1UB (Unfinished Business) by the Pocket Plane Group, make it a -totally- different game. Seriously. You get even -more- banters and interactions in a game than you do in BG2, and incredibly detailed romances for any gender/alignment combo you can think of. Can't recommend it enough.

The current versions of some of the mods out there for BG2 are currently somewhat unstable, which is sad. (BG2 Unfinished Business in particular). Still, there's plenty of great mods out there for BG2 from those two communities.

There's a great mod in development (and due out soon) at the G3 group for the first Icewind Dale which will create a party of 5 NPC's for you to go through the game with, with banters and interjections and romances (making it more like a BG game). Experienced and talented (female, and russian) modder developing it too. Looking forward to it.

ToEE, though, remains top notch by virtue of (in no particular order):

1. Being turn based. Always superior IMO (well, unless you do it in monumentally stupid ways like in the new Pool of Radiance game... it's the zombie's turn? Time to make a sammich!) Fallout gets very high ranking also for that reason.
2. Using PnP 3.5 rules... much better than 2nd edition rules, IMO.
3. Having the most detailed, faithful and complete application of the combat rules, with tons of strategic options lacking in any other game.
4. The best graphics, hands down, of any of the other games listed. I think even better than NWN2's graphics.
5. A great modding effort by our hosts here that fixes all them bugs Once the effort to rebalance the game for all the new content that's currently underway is complete, I don't see any other game knocking it off it's perch for a long time.

Qwinn

 

ToEE is the best CRPG based on DnD rules. More generally, I would say Fallout is the best CRPG I ever played. It's odd but when I think back most of the CRPGs I'd recommend others to play were made by Troika.

 

I find that Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 has by far the best story and sheer enjoyment-value and related quests. Icewind Dale 1 is OK, but Icewind Dale 2 is way better than the original Icewind Dale in all respects - the trouble is that there are plenty of mods for Icewind Dale , including particularly the Trials of the Luremaster, but no comparably large mods for Icewind Dale 2, - which is strange.

(I agree that BG2's mods are hopelessly complicated as the mods aren't designed to be compatible, in many cases - but, if one is prepared to spend a great deal of time choosing which exact components of the various mods to install(in the right order), one can reduce bugs to near-zero). There was a plan to get BG2 to incorporate the excellent Icewind Dale 2 game-engine, but it never got anywhere, as it was presumably too big a project to undertake in full. A Co8/Bg1-Tutu-like concencus among modders should have been introduced from the get-go to avoid such incompatibility among mods.


Of course, combat-wise/engine-wise, TOEE beats them all. Non-turn-based games, especially NWN 1, are hopeless as they effectively discriminate against spellcasters, except when they are at a very high levels, since they don't have enough time to let off more than one spell before being overwhelmed by enemy fighters etc. So, I usually play with fighters or blackguards when doing NWN. I have never tried NWN 2 as, from the many online comments I've read, it's hopelessly bugged and/or slow, with too much focus on graphics, and not enough on gameplay - plus it's too easy.

So my choice would be:-

Baldur's Gate 1/2/Throne of Bhaal
Icewind Dale 2
TOEE
NWN1(but only because of a few great fan-made modules like the Yartar Trilogy)
Icewind Dale




I'd give TOEE higher values if only I didn't constantly have problems loading the disk and starting the game. Practically, every 3rd time I play, I have to use surgical spirit(my alternative to rubbing alcohol) on the disk in order for it to recognise the disk and load the game. Before I was told about the rubbing alcohol on this forum, I'd bought the TOEE game, 4 times over, in order to play it every now and then.

 

Honestly, I'm holding off on KotB till it's complete I won't be surprised at all if it's at the top of the heap then though.

Qwinn

 

I love the Elder Scrolls series, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion. Recently I discovered a proper xp/dosbox setup for Daggerfall so the last few days I have been playing that.

Some may say I'm crazy to play a game that has such old graphics, but there has never been a game with so many dungeons (over 2,500), so many cities, so many guilds and so much customization before or since Daggerfall.

I particularly enjoy making my own custom class and raising ranks independently in the guilds, I just became and Enchanter in the mages guild so I'm making enchanted jewelery to increase my stats. Custom spells are also so nice to have. :hug:

I really really enjoy the Daggerfall dungeons still! I get scared all of the time, something that just doesn't happen to me in Morrowind or Oblivion, I think it's due to the music.

I beat Daggerfall 1 time legitimately. It took a month, this time I'm just playing a guy who is more interested in dungeon exploring and guild(s)/order(s) advancement.

:love: Proper setup for Elder Scrolls 2: DaggerFall using DosBox program (free), http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=95645

 

ToEE is pretty darn fun, but I still think the Baldur's Gate series is the best of the best -- I don't think those will ever be surpassed in pure quality of experience.

I get the urge to play Neverwinter Nights (the original) every now and again as well, but I like ToEE better. The same can be said for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but I think it ties with ToEE.

Oh! How silly of me. There's the CRPG that got me hooked to begin with. It's not exactly along the same vein as these games, but few who ever played Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption will ever forget it. :yes:

 

When it comes to rules implementation nothing is better than ToEE
it's Co8 upgrades and KotB. But I'm pretty sentimental towards
Black Isle's RPGs especially Baldur's Gate series.

 

I love:

Mars Saga for artwork
Wasteland for sense of humor
Daggerfall for atmosphere (and dying instantly when Ancient Lich gets LOS on you)
Morrowwind for world size and lack of linearity
Oblivion for being unplayable on any system
Fallout for for overall experience
Baldur's Gates for NPC's (I still get verklempt when Jaheira finds her husband)
Icewind Dales for character development (Can we get drow, asemir, tieflings,etc. into ToEE ?)
ToEE for artwork and for being turm-based like a war game and, especially, all the dedicated and patient modders at Co8

 

Boy do I love lists :mrhappy:
Mine would go something like this;

Favorite - Baldur's Gates 2 - High level gaming at it best, a little over the top where magic items are concerned, but one hell of a ride.

Best - Planescape: Torment - Took me about 6 years to finally give it the shot it deserves. If you have not played it give it a shot. Best game I ever played. The writing, NPC’s, music and voice acting is all top notch. Combat leaves something to be desired, but than again, that is not what this game is about. Not even a game really more like an experience

The rest:

Icewind Dale - A blast to play, excellent music (rivals Planescape: Torment) and voice acting. The world is really fleshed out, big fan of random treasure drops and the items descriptions are second to none. The atmosphere is impressive. I have played and finished this game more than any other.

Fallout - Not to be missed, love the rule set.

Baldur's Gate - Love the openness of the game world. Again great NPC's and music.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer - Best RPG that I have played in a long time.

Neverwinter Nights 2 OC - Fun game and really enjoyable on Hard difficulty as well as with Companion and Monster AI By: Tony_K

Icewind Dale 2 - Good game but it's predecessor was so much better.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - RPG goodness set in the Star Wars Universe

Temple of Elemental Evil - The only reason this is as high as it is is because of all the hard work done by people on this forum. Took me back to the old days of PnP.
Bugs, bad voice acting, and lackluster storyline really hurt the original product.

Neverwinter Nights:Shadows of Undrentide - The best NWN has to offer. Which is not that much I'm afraid.

Still playing but have not finished;
Fallout 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2


Can not recommend these game;
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark - Totally ruined Undermountain
Neverwinter Nights - Boring
Morrowwind - Not my cup of tea
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - Nothing like their PC counterpart
Demon Stone - :yawn:

Last and Least
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor - Any game that erases your hard drive deserves this spot.

 

favorite CRPG = ToEE

 

After KotB is released, I'd like to see other modders and developers embrace the awesome TOEE engine and churn out some mega-epic RPGs... TRUE spiritual successors to BG2, PS:T and FO2.... extremely heavy wrt roleplaying, NPC depth and dialogue.

Many of us never really got our fix of party-based, isometric RPGs... the solo FPS genre came along and basically wiped them out.