There are some interesting things in there, that's true, and I would agree Forgotten Realms has a distinctive feel and isn't as generic as some settings. Although, the Sword Coast area in particular is really just some interesting sprinkles on top of a fairly generic cake. When I think of non-generic, I'm thinking of settings that aren't based on Medieval Europe.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires is THE generic fantasy game that I know about.

The races seem so classic that it almost feels like Tolkien copied them from the game ;)!

Its also a bloody good RTS game.

Just bought it on sale on GoG :) Thanks, it looks cool !


For having tried the two Two Worlds a while ago, I think it's a good idea, though at the time I actually felt like the first one was closest to what I'm looking for than the second one. Thanks for suggestion !

well, every man for himself in that respect, personally found them to be okeish, outside the wrong character and the whole assassins creed thing going on , lets say,if you became a fan because of the movies you might be more then oke with it , i mean, even i got a bit exited by suddenly getting the opportunity of hunting a ssertain obbit... but yea 5 whole hours i have in that game so .. in the end, who am i to give of such a recommendation

imo Baldur's Gate 2 has a somewhat more "exotic" feel to it than Baldur's Gate 1 though. iirc Amn is kind of based on Spain, with its colonies in Maztica and vaguely Near Eastern influences (even more pronounced in Throne of Bhaal), whereas Baldur's Gate 1 was just your typical pseudo-medieval setting based on north-western Europe.
But maybe I'm nitpicking here, you're certainly correct that it's a setting replete with many standard fantasy tropes.

Have you looked at Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Kind of a RPG mixed with a lite strategy, conquer, build and run your own kingdom things. Oh and as for female armour, pretty realistic, the main warrior knight character is a women in full plate armour. Combat is real time but the game follows most D&D rules.

https://www.gog.com/game/pathfinder_kingmaker_explorer_edition

To add to the topic with regards to Tolkien lore, here's a video that reviews the use of the lore in Shadow of War and Mordor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_P09AzBCgw

My brother likes the game enough, although he also has never sat through any of the movies or read any of the books. I'm not the biggest Tolkien fan but I like Children of Hurin and I've read most of the Silmarillion (my ability to read that one comes in waves).

Oke, so the short version, the game is lore wise a piece of byle, pool of byle. Is driven by greed, holds no relevance to any of tolkiens works and tries to copy its self out of the mundane implementation this game would have been without the use of mechanics loved by many ... so generic ( and still in my opinion nice enough to give it a discounted try if your not overly concerned with, a lot of wrongs in the eyes of the few )

but yea oke, the wording Tolkien lovers is maybe a bit much. I stand corrected.
I'll stay in the strategic corner for the time being :-(

Lore is one thing, but honestly - it was just about the lore I probably wouldn't mind that much. I mean, I love the books, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who cares about them more, not just LotR but the entirety of Tolkien's legendarium and his other, non-Middle-Earth books too, but I get that to make a game with an original story lore may have to be bent here and there. No, what matters is the themes. The thought and emotion behind all the lore, the characters, the events. And that is what Shadow of Mordor get completely, absolutely wrong. It's like if someone wrote a Christmas Carol sequel that's all about how awesome it is to be a rich cheapskate, and if some ghosts bother you about it its best to have a wicked cool fight with them so that you can absorb their powers.

I'm not surprised he likes it then. Like I said, it's not a bad game, it's just a bad LotR game. If it were set in its own fantasy universe, like the Styx games for example, I'd probably enjoy it too, as basically a fantasy reskin of the Arkham games.

Spellforce 3 feels pretty generic. comfy fantasy. Wood elves, warlike orcs, bog-standard humans, wizards running around ... I feel like the dwarf character even had the classic Scottish accent, but I haven't played it in some time so I could be misremembering.

Kingdoms of Amalur btw, story written by no other then the famous dnd writer Salvatore

You are right and I agree that BG2 is more exotic and less generic than BG1, which is probably one of the reasons I prefer it, tbh. It has more interesting 'planar' stuff going on; the underdark section with the Illithids and Ust Natha is pretty interesting; the short underwater bit with the shark people; the part set in hell.

If I recall, some people didn't like the fact that it didn't feature the city of Baldur's Gate. However, imo that was a good choice. That whole sword coast area from Baldur's Gate up through Waterdeep and Neverwinter is about as generic as generic comes and Faerun seems to get progressively less 'generic' the further away you go from that. Setting BG2 in Amn was a good choice that added some needed variety.

Imo, they should have set BG3 on the East Coast of Faerun. I've never even seen that area depicted in a video game :-(

"Baldur's Gate 3: How far away from Baldur's Gate can we go, without falling off the edge of the world?" lol

Here's a free protip: Go here, and adjust all the numbers to their highest value.

I don't know what you mean by "weird planes stuff" but could i suggest, to you, nethack? Don't mind the graphics, there are plenty of graphic mods out there if you so need, but gameplay wise, it seems to be what you're asking for in thispost.

EDIT: Now that i've read all the posts, i get the impression you're not sure what it is you actually want. You seem to be aiming more for the more up-tick type of thing. I don't think it's "planes" in particular that bother you, so much as the separate rules. You want something nice and wholesome, where heroes and bad guys are clearly defined. To that end, i would suggest The Elder Scrolls. You can choose "the dark side," however it's fairly obvious what's going on here. There are 2 "weird races" such as the Khajiit (Cats, their culture being very much a parody of stereotypes of Jews [not parodying jews, but jewish stereotypes]) and Argonians (lizards [largely useful idiots]), however their culture reflecting their race is shallow, not the super strange "we spider people don't believe in murder, unless it's to eat" kind of deal. As of Morrowind (i'd avoid Oblivion if planes get to you, though), the Dwarves are mostly extinct, due to upsetting one of the gods

The storyline is pretty simple to start: You've been convicted (maybe framed, but who knows) of some unmentioned crime (you're never really told what it was), thus you were condemned to being an expendible spy for the crown as you investigate the Island of Vvardenfell on the province of morrowind. Not only is there a strange outbreak of some sort of plague, but there's rumors of a doomsday cult trying to take over, along with a counter-cult being the official religion of the island (in so far as the official religion of the rest of the world being referred to as "The Imperial Cult"). Not far into the story, you're then tasked with becomming the chosen one in the profphecy in order to deeper infiltrate the island's cult. From there, well, that's your business. The game is famous for offering almost unprecedented freedom for it's time, where you're told where to go, but nothing actually makes you do the main quest line. At first, the game seems darker than what you're expecting, but by the end, you realize that little is what it seems at first glance. It does allow you to certainly take the role of representative of the gods, through the lore, anyway, which seems to be what you're aiming for. The game does make it realistically hard, though: you're going to struggle a bit finding out the truth if you're not willing to read the various books around the island and/or understand that the island is a little cultish. By the end, though, almost everything is clearly explained.

And, one of the DLCs has some strong christian allusions if that's your desire, as well.


EDIT: And, also, there's the obligatory Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest suggestions, as well. I get the impression you're looking for King Arthur level stuff, and those provide. Those tend to lack elves, though, but not dwarves for some reason. I've heard tell of actual LOTR games, too, but i'm not sure what your milage would be on them.