Need suggestions on introducing a friend to RPG's for the PC

[dmoney1980]

Hello all!

About 18 months ago I built a gaming PC for a console junky friend of mine who wanted to get into gaming on the PC. As of today, he's burnt out with all things "Call of Battlefield" related. He's looking to get into RPG's but wants to start on the lite side, nothing too hardcore that requires crafting and micro-managing inventory.

I honestly am not sure what to recommend. I'm guessing Dragon Age 1? What else is out there? Maybe a more recent hack and slash?

Thoughts?

 

[futurefields]

Fallout 3 sounds perfect for him.

 

[dmoney1980]

Fallout 3 sounds perfect for him.

He has all the FO games on the console, as well as KoA:Reckoning. thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[DominionSeraph]

Diablo II?

 

[videogames101]

Dragon Age 1 +1

 

[alcoholbob]

Mass Effect
Dragon Age
Jade Empire
Skyrim
Witcher 2

 

[Lil Frier]

. . . nothing too hardcore that requires crafting and micro-managing inventory.

Skyrim

Do you see the problem?

 

[Wingznut]

Torchlight II
Diablo III

 

[Coffinmaker]

Torchlight I or II

 

[jlchoi]

Dragon Age or Knights of the Old Republic

 

[BSim500]

Dragon Age: Origins, Oblivion, Skyrim, Torchlight 1 & 2, Witcher, etc. Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition if you're willing to go back a little further (GFX hold up well for 12 years old and it was a PC-only title from the "golden era" that had a 100% PC optimised HUD, ie, 36x quick-slots (F1-F12 with CTRL & SHIFT modifiers) which you'll never see on any modern cross-platform title designed around a joypad. Huge modding community too (nwvault)). :thumbsup:

 

[Wingznut]

Knights of the Old Republic

Excellent suggestion!

 

[Sulaco]

Do you see the problem?

Yeah, but if Skyrim is "too hardcore" for you, and Skyrim's version of "micromanaging" inventory is a deal breaker, you really shouldn't be playing RPGs.

Yeah, there's some ridiculously lite "crafting", but Skyrim is about as easy as it gets for recent RPGs.

Dragon Age is going to be far, far tougher for a "non-RPG" person to get into and become acclimated to then any Elder Scrolls game.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

If he's a console gamer he may want to start with more er....consolized RPGs, crafting and stuff like that are core the RPG experience the key is to get a more dumbed down RPG where that sort of thing is easy.

Games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim are really genuinely fantastic albeit consolized RPGs they are a great to get started for a casual gamer or a console gamer. The PC variants when cranked up and modded also look really great.

If he likes and wants graduate to something that requires a bit more brains and with less hand holding one of the best RPGs in modern gaming is Dragon Age Origins, that has a kickback to the old (read: good) RPGs.

 

[shadow9d9]

RPG's what?

 

[Ganeedi]

Not really considered RPG in my opinion, but a good jumping off point from straight up shooters:

Mass Effect series
Dead Space series
Bioshock

 

[yepp]

You can ease him in with Darksiders 2.

Or just hurl him in with Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

 

[exdeath]

No mention of Borderlands? Seems like most PC RPGs are invariably always a hybrid with first person shooter, first person slasher, or a Gauntlet style hack and slash. Which sounds ideal if this person is coming from FPS and just wants a little more than "follow arrow, shoot red barrel, big splosions" story and game play.

I consider Fallout 3 more of an RPG than Borderlands only because of VATS, but other than that they are both very very similar and very excellent.

If you go old school, System Shock 2 and the original Ion Storm Deus Ex are pretty much undisputed kings of the PC.

 

[dmoney1980]

Thanks everyone for the insightful feedback! I gave him a list of the games mentioned above. Good thing is battlnet offers diablo 3 starter ed. for free. Steam has some demos available as well, should give him the opportunity to dive in and see what he likes.

As many here mentioned, Dragon Age 1 was the first game that came to mind. There's some inventory management, but he should be fine with it...I mean, Resident Evil had inventory management!

 

[SMOGZINN]

Also, tell him to install Steam and watch the sells. Sure he may end up with a game to complex for his likeing, but he will only have spent 3 dollars on it.

 

[Martimus]

I am just finishing Baldurs Gate 2 for the first time (most of the way through Throne of Bhaal now), and I have to say it makes me sad. It is so much better than any other RPG I have ever played, and I know I have no chance of ever finding another game as fun and in depth since it is 14 years old with nothing coming close since. The funny thing is this feeling has nothing to do with nostalgia, since I had never played it before a month ago when I bought the EE version on Steam.

But if Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition, and Baldurs Gate 2 Enhanced Edition are too tough to get into (the UI was horrendous in the original - enough that I got sick of fighting it on the GoG version, but the EE made it slightly more managable), I would go with Dragon Age as many others have. It is a far less indepth game, but still fun and easy to get involved in.

 

[Lil Frier]

If your friend's really a FPS player, I think that picking something gun-based is going to be the best option. Borderlands plays like a FPS in many ways, but they add leveling and loot to it for the RPG feel. That might be a good transition franchise. I'd also say BioShock but I HATE the second one, and that kept me from getting to the third. Fallout 3 would be closer to an RPG with guns than an FPS with leveling, though. That game's more-open than the previous two, so if he wants something he can run around and explore within, The Capital Wasteland is a good choice.

I'm not a big RPG person myself, I mostly an FPS person. So I fell I'm kind-of coming from a perspective like your friend's, where I want to break up the CoD monotony. Borderlands and Fallout 3 are two games where I had a blast with the leveling stuff.

 

[alcoholbob]

Do you see the problem?

I played Skyrim on easy and never crafted anything. Nope, I don't see the problem, unless you don't know how to change game difficulty. Also there isn't an complexity to Skyrims item system beyond bigger numbers anyway.

 

[Veliko]

I am just finishing Baldurs Gate 2 for the first time (most of the way through Throne of Bhaal now), and I have to say it makes me sad. It is so much better than any other RPG I have ever played, and I know I have no chance of ever finding another game as fun and in depth since it is 14 years old with nothing coming close since. The funny thing is this feeling has nothing to do with nostalgia, since I had never played it before a month ago when I bought the EE version on Steam.

Give Planescape Torment a go.

 

[norseamd]

I am just finishing Baldurs Gate 2 for the first time (most of the way through Throne of Bhaal now), and I have to say it makes me sad. It is so much better than any other RPG I have ever played, and I know I have no chance of ever finding another game as fun and in depth since it is 14 years old with nothing coming close since. The funny thing is this feeling has nothing to do with nostalgia, since I had never played it before a month ago when I bought the EE version on Steam. But if Baldurs Gate Enhanced Edition, and Baldurs Gate 2 Enhanced Edition are too tough to get into (the UI was horrendous in the original - enough that I got sick of fighting it on the GoG version, but the EE made it slightly more managable), I would go with Dragon Age as many others have. It is a far less indepth game, but still fun and easy to get involved in.

did you like the first one? since i played the game when it was released the ui is perfectly manageable for me. the only problem for me is the resolution which the larger resolution of the 2nd game would at least be nicer to have. the only mod i am using right now is the unfinished business mod. so maybe i will look at the widescreen mod. but even the standard resolution of the bg2 would be very usable.