R8V9F5A2: * having to making choices that affect parts of the storyline
Crosmando: The problem with this is that if you think "choices and consequences" are essential to make a game an RPG, then you basically must think every "RPG" made before Fallout is not an RPG.
Are the Bard's Tale games, the Gold Box games, the Wizardry games, not RPG's? Because none of them allow you to actually meaningfully change the story by your own actions. Yet they
are RPGs. That goes for most dungeon crawler CRPGs of the 80's/early 90s.
I concur. To me many still list things they prefer to be in a CRPG game, not what are the minimum characteristics why they'd call a game as a CRPG, or which parts of the gameplay they consider to be of the CRPG genre (considering that nowadays most AAA games seem to borrow from many genres).
This lead me to think about System Shock vs. System Shock 2. I've earlier said something like I consider the first game to be an action-adventure, while SS2 is an action-RPG (because it has sort of a skill system where you develop the character, and you can select from different "classes" which define at which skills you are good at).
Lately I felt though that I shouldn't really call the first game an "adventure" either, as to me adventure, in PC gaming terns, means there are some kind of gameworld puzzles which are impeding you from advancing in the game. Think of all the Sierra Quest or LucasArts adventure games, or even older text-based adventure games, what was it that you needed to do in them in order to advance? That's what was originally considered as "adventure games", and not e.g. CRPGs, or strategy games, or whatever.
So my new definition in which genres the System Shock games belong to:
System Shock: an action game. A very detailed and story-heavy action game with lots of exploration, but still, an action game. Ok you could say it had some puzzles (like how to open certain doors or turn on lights), but those were merely a spice, not a very integral part of the gameplay.
System Shock 2: an action game with some CRPG characteristics (yes, that skill system thingie). In short, an action-CRPG.