I was wondering if anyone could help me pick out an RPG to play. I am looking for a game similar to World of Warcraft, not an MMO, but single player.

I love WoW and played it for a number of years, but as a guy in my 30s with a family, career, and in school, it's not possible to devote that much time to a game anymore. I am looking for a similar game that is single player, but more specifically looking for certain aspects of it. I love the way WoW is just an open world that you can do what you want. I wish they would just make a SP version of WoW already. The following are a list of features I am most looking for:

- Open world
- character customization
- fantasy setting
- mounts!!!
- loot
- possibly a class with pets, like the warlock in WoW
- third person view preferably, not isometric
- I would prefer an action-oriented combat system, but one similar to WoW is fine. I would prefer not being a turn-based system

I've been looking for something like this for a long time and have found different RPGs with similarities, but none that have most or all of those features. I know this is mostly features of MMOs, but I am looking for a single player experience. I understand the Elder Scrolls games are like this, especially the newer ones, but I would mostly be playing this with no internet connection and will not buy steam games. I started playing Divinity Original Sin the other day and am enjoying it, but the isometric view is killing me.

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it!

Yea Warcraft has a very good loot system, protected by critters you have to defeat to get it.

There is a game called Disciples which has a very similar loot system like that, and you can get things to build up your hero etc etc.

There is one fundamental difference with the game though..... its turn based!

Personally i usually go for turn based games because their easier, especially if you have distractions from family etc going on in the background. I don't play WOW because even on the easiest difficulty, its too hard! lol

If you think disciples is too easy, there is disciples 2 which i don't play because its too hard!

Torchlight (with mods)?

I'd say go for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Unsure if there's a class with pets, but it did remind me of WoW quite a bit.

No internet connection and no DRM makes this difficult. Otherwise Kingdoms of Amalur would fit most requirements (I don't remember if there were mounts though). Also, Dragon Age: Inquisition is said to be very MMO-like, but both require a client to play.

Maybe Two Worlds? It's not the greatest RPG though and character customization is very restricted (e.g. no female character).

Have you tried Divinity 2: Developer's Cut? It's not completely open though, areas open up once you advance in the story.

What about The Witcher 3? (You'll be the Witcher though, so limited customization.)

Neverwinter Nights maybe?

Hm, missed that part in the OP. You could play KoA:R offline from what I recall, and I could also play it when I changed my Origin password without logging in to said service (Steam version of KoA:R).
But seems like my suggestion is a no go, at least until KoA:R comes here.

Jmich pretty much nailed it. Amalur is basically a single player WOW. The artstyle and general setting are very WOWesque.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I will check them out and luckily have most of them already. I have KoA on PS3, but I'm looking to play on my laptop. KoA is very much like the experience I'm looking for. I have the Witcher series, Divinity 2, Two Worlds, and Dragon Age: Origins on GoG, so I'll give those a shot and see how it goes.

Oh, regarding Divinity... should the series be played in order? Or are the games not really that much connected? I would love to try out 2 and Dragon Commander, but I was considering playing Divine and Beyond first.

Thanks again!

Honestly I can't wait to finish this school and possibly get back into WoW casually... I'm dying to try the new expansion and wish I was playing this one instead of the time I put into MoP. It will be great to get back on my panther mount

I haven't played them yet but what about the Mount & Blade series?

Two Worlds series maybe - mount to be had, and attitude in loads, in case you like the writing style of Reality Pump.

Bit like Gothic vs Risen 2 between the two titles.

I am a total fan of Mount & Blade which is not easily qualified, but combines real time strategy, bit of RPG, and a lot of mounting.

Plus sorta happy to be an independent gaming agent - and thirty plus. :-D

was also going to suggest Mount & Blade

While I'd recommend any fan of action-oriented RPGs try the original or Warband, I don't think this would exactly scratch his WoW itch. For one thing, Calradia is zero-magic world, and the only monsters are the ones who walk in human skin (and the only mounts, horses). Also, being non-magical, the loot is quite a bit less interesting than in most RPGs. I know there are mods that can "fix" probably all of these "deficiencies", but I doubt the vanilla M&B experience would fit the bill for him.

...But, yeah, try Mount & Blade some time anyway, OP! =D

Most Divinity titles are pretty much independent from each other. Playing on the same world but all different eras. Divinity 2 is 3rd person; its a pretty cool game but as said above not really open world but rather open and linear expanding areas. The only other thing that pops my mind with your guidelines in the OP (and surprisingly not mentioned for some reason would be Morrowind (https://www.gog.com/game/the_elder_scrolls_iii_morrowind_goty_edition). If you can get an older disk-version of Oblivion that will be free of Steam or similar online smut too. Skyrim PC version was the first ES title Bethesda developed exclusively for Valve.

More modern ES titles are rumored to come at some point to gog but... don't hold your breath. It boils down to a mixture of wishful thinking and "I can guarantee you, based on this anonymous source, that games will be released somewhere at some random point in the future". And while the individual telling this is a good & trustworthy one I do not know the source which might completely full of BS.
Seconded. While I do have my blast with a modded M&B Warband version its far from the open world WoW or Elder Scrolls experience. Its the personal 3rd person experience of armies clashing at each other and doing castle sieges. Not much on epic quest story arcs to follow 'cept for the own optional "become King/Queen of the land" goal.

Note that Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition are probably very different in gameplay and camera perspective (just like The Witcher is much different from The Witcher 2 or 3). I haven't played any of them, but Dragon Age: Origins does not really seem to fit your requirements, it's more like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Divinity: Original Sin, not like WoW.