Depends what you like, of course, but out of the DnD games, Temple of Elemental Evil has the best and most challenging combat system. It loses marks for being horrifically buggy, though, but many of the bugs have been fixed by fan patches.

The Avernum games also have some great dungeon-raiding gameplay that I always found immensely satisfying, as well as always having a dozen or so quests and side-quests on the go, so that you always feel like you're accomplishing something.

Fallout's gameplay is a love/hate thing, but I love it. There's something immensely satisfying about targeting a super-mutant's eyeball with a plasma rifle and watching his face melt off. The horrific ally AI (they're as likely to shoot you in the back as hit an enemy) is a major turn-off to some, though.

Pfff........ Arcanum has a really robust character creation and skill tree set, but it's a very difficult game starting off.

Baldur's Gate is easier, I don't think the character creation is quite as varied but the combat works well.

The Witcher is one of the most advanced titles on the site, no character creation but it has the most flexible system in choice of combat, skill and magic upgrading, despite being limited in your spending for armors, weapons and items, and a lack of spells.

Deux Ex is the most simple. You have a bunch of skill sets, you start them at 0, you raise up what you want, But it doesn't have many options, it comes down to guns, computers, lockpicking, a few other things, but there are separate abilities you can find in the game (Augmentations, can equip 9 out of 18 at a time. Haven't found any yet)

Haven't played Divine Divinity series yet, it seems quite a bit like Diablo 2 for the first title so take that as you were.

Fallout series, kinda like Deux Ex, except that it mixes in social interaction and economics with a more flexible range of weapon, armor and options.

Haven't tried the Icewind series.

Ultima series: The one game I tried, it kicked my ass. Hard.

Vampire the Masquerade Redemption: Slow to start, it's supposed to open up much more later in the game but I haven't gotten that far.


That's about all the RPG games I have that I can comment on.

Planescape Torment has an amazing story and very special atmosphere (you play as an amnesic immortal), the companions in this game do not just follow you, but interact with each others, they are part of the story, and you care for them after a while. I highly recommend it if you did not play it, but you must enjoy reading, as dialogues take a huge part of the game. The music in this game is brilliant

Fallout 1 and 2 are among my favourites games, the 2nd is pretty buggy though (but there are plenty of patches/mods). They have this post-apocalyptic atmosphere you can find in Mad Max movies, where the outside world is pretty messy, it is full of dark humour, weird encounters/creatures. Both are fantastic games with great soundtracks (same composer as for Planescape Torment: Mr Mark Morgan).

Arcanum is a great game as well though I felt that some classes had the advantage over some others (at the beginning at least) but that should not stop anyone from giving it a try. I love the Victorian era style in this game (steampunk) mixed with magic. Soundtracks are also very good in this game. I do not own this game on GOG but would love to own a digital copy of it.

Gothic 1 is a very good game as well. I did not have the chance to play the 2nd nor the 3rd yet.

I own the Witcher 1 but cannot enjoy it for the moment as my computer is quite old, but I heard positive feedback regarding this game.

Also, if you are looking for visuals, then I am affraid there's only the Witcher in the list I gave, as for the others could be qualified as "ugly", "outdated", but do not care about that, they are some of the best RPG ever

Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale.
Probably (haven't played it yet) Temple of Elemental Evil if you like tactical combat.

Games with the deepest character creation:
Darklands, Realms of Arkania games, Icewind Dale 2 (and ToEE, I guess). Darklands and RoA gets lower scores on the audiovisual part, though.

I think people are missing what you're asking for here. I think I get it though. A game like Planescape Torment would be high on most lists but due to it's reliance on story, dialog & atmosphere for this list would not.

I'd think old school dungeon crawlers would be high on this list. Legend of Grimrock only has one real tileset, and has virtually no story. But it has solid old school mechanics, good graphics, and a pretty robust system of character creation.

And while I've never learned how to play the games, Realms of Arkania have the most in depth RPG mechanics I've ever seen. I've played RPG's most of my life, and I've yet to figure out how that thing works.

Temple of Elemental Evil with the Co8 patch gets a nod too. The story (...what story?), dialog and atmosphere are no good. But it has the best representation of what D&D is period. No other game comes close. And with Co8 most *most* of the bugs are ironed out, but you run into some here or there.

Pure mechanics probably the Icewind Dale games or ToEE... those are the ones that focused on combat and mechanics.

Planescape and BG2 for story.

Arcanum and the Fallouts for exploration/world design.

That's just the isometric games, of course.

Regarding character creation, Fallout & Fallout 2 provide a huge variety. You can play the game through as very different characters and it matters. Sadly this isn't as true for Fallout 3....

I played an updated version (not the original mess) of Two Worlds on Xbox 360 almost 2 years ago, and it was quite good. From a gameplay perspective: the world was big so you can do a lot of exploring, different types of enemies from every region, different kind and levels of attacks (melee and magic), big cities, a high level of customization... And as far as I know, the PC version is superior in every way (graphics and performance). I really enjoyed Two Worlds, maybe you should check it out, because GOG.com has the Epic Edition of the game. I recommend it.

For total package I'd go NWN. It is NOT my favorite RPG by nay means but it's sheer size, character options, complexity, and mission number make it a steal for both price and it's ability to hold up over time. Myself, I prefer DD, Fallout, or Sacred but even those games have their major detractors, not so much with NWN.

I seconded this. :)

What about Might and Magic games?

I would say Fallout. When I imagine how much I'd like a RPG on this or that theme (for instance, having a good open Old West RPG), with that or this sort of story, by default I imagine it with the same engine as Fallout, the same type of graphism, the same combat mechanism, the same sort of movements and animations, the same structures of perks and such, etc...

Strip Fallout of its universe and story and flavour text, you get the squeleton on which I think RPGs should be built. At least the 2D, overhead, isometric ones.



That said, I'm an immense fan of the wheel menu in Temple oF Elemental Evil.

I think Arcanum tops Fallout in this particular regard. You get a very different treatment regarding your race, for instance, beside the "usual" inteligence-based dialogue lines.

ToEE sounds exactly like what the OP is asking for.