I saw people going on about how great BG3 is on this site, so I thought I’d check out a let’s play to see what all the fuss was about. I immediately fell in love with the graphics and the mechanics, such as the classes, races, spells, dice etc, but I disliked the emphasis on gore/horror in the game, and I know I wouldn’t enjoy playing a game with that whole brain horror thing going on. Not to mention the price and storage requirements being excessive. (150GB!)
So, bearing in mind that, is there a game that would match my criteria, and if not, what do you think comes closest?
If you liked these, you can check out the other games by Larian - Divinity: Original Sin (1 and 2). There’s also Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic (very old game though). Also, Never winter nights 2. I’m sure there’s a bunch more.
Divinity: Original Sin 2? I suppose it looks a little bit gorey too, but nowhere near that high definition. Definitely no squirmers…
Pillars of Eternity 1&2? (only 2 has turn based combat) They’re free* on gamepass if you got it. Don’t play the console versions of 2.
Why don’t play on console?
The port wasn’t handled in-house and it’s not very good. Constant crashes, bad performance, minute long load times.
Tyranny is also sweet
I recommend one of my favourite CRPGs of all time: Neverwinter Nights - for the modern hassle-free experience, get the Enhanced Edition. The first single-player campaign is pretty meh by Bioware standards, but the expansion packs (included in the NWNEE) are pretty great. Heard a lot of good about the premium modules (a few of the original premium modules come with NWNEE, the rest are available as DLC).
The official campaigns are set in Forgotten Realms, the same D&D setting as BG3, but you really don’t need to worry about diving headlong into horrors. More fantasy vibes and less visceral stuff. (the second expansion pack is a bit more in the direction of subterranean spooks, but not, like, excessively so.)
However, the real big strength of NWN was not the campaigns. It was deliberately designed for player-created adventure modules created with the included Aurora Toolset. There’s loads of them and some of them had really great production values and writing. They’re currently hosted at Neverwinter Vault and NWNEE also has a custom content browser (though the latter doesn’t have much stuff). Custom modules also have a whole bunch of genres and settings, as expected.
Oh and it’s a game from 2002 so it runs on any ol’ potato. (Well the EE needs a vaguely modernish machine, but not anything unreasonable.)
Divinity: Original Sin 2! It’s by the same devs and it’s absolutely incredible. Different classes and spells and stuff, but you’ll pick it all up very fast, and I actually think character building in Divinity is a lot more fun than D&D, because there’s a lot more flexibility about how you choose powers and abilities.
If you’d prefer to stick with something based on the D&D mechanics, Owlcats games are excellent (it’s Pathfinder, but Pathfinder is just a lightly modified D&D 3.5)
I second the owlcats games, especially Pathfinder Kingmaker, which is less gory in theme, more exploration and kingdom building in addition to the adventuring
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
To be pedantic, PF1 is lightly modified 3.5E. 2nd Edition is rather different
Fair. My experience of Pathfinder was mostly with 1st.
Planescape: torment. Just do it
Seconded. This game is above and beyond my most cherished game.
Absolute best game.
Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics.
Shadowrun Returns.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.
XCOM.
This does only assume by setting you mean “fantasy.” If you just mean Forgotten Realms, there are tons of fantasy turn based tactical RPGs. Owlcat has a bunch of good shit like Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.
Shout-out to Shandowrun Returns! OP start with 1, then 2 then 3. If you do any other order the mechanics of 1 will disappoint you, despite the story being great!
start with 1, then 2 then 3
Do you mean the DLCs or have they actually made 2 sequels that I somehow never heard about?
Shandowrun Returns
Shandowrun: Dragonfall https://store.steampowered.com/app/300550/Shadowrun_Dragonfall__Directors_Cut/
Shadowrun Hong Kong https://store.steampowered.com/app/346940/Shadowrun_Hong_Kong__Extended_Edition/
Shadowrun Hong Kong is the proper sequel. The dragonfall expansion got a standalone director’s cut release too.
Maybe Solasta: Crown of the Magister? I haven’t played it yet, but I have read that it does D&D mechanics pretty well.
(My other ideas have already been mentioned by others.)
Solasta is one of my current favorite games :)
It’s (imo) better than bg3 for dnd mechanics, combat is good, and the story is ok (it lacks the vastness of choice you get in bg3).
I recommend using the Unfinished Business mod (you can find it on nexusmods) as it adds lots of species and classes and some QoL improvements.
Planescape Torment, the shadow run series of games as well.
Divinity Original Sin 2
There are Pathfinder games by Owlcat, that is a round about earlier version of DnD (based on DnD 3.5? But its system is slightly different). I’d say they’re as good of a successor to Baldur’s Gate before BG3 that you’ll get. The settings are similarish but not exactly the same as Baldur’s Gate. I sort of lump in most DnD settings together though, Kingmaker is transforming a land and becoming a ruler, Path (Wrath*) of the Righteous I haven’t played as much to recall the overall setting but definitely has a more other planes feel to it than Kingmaker does.
*Edited for title correction, thank you commenter that noted it.
Wrath of the Righteous*
Wrath has you running armies on the world map in addition to taking your party on traditional CRPG adventures. I wasn’t a fan of the army management
Is any form of violence or blood a no-no? If you can accept some, Larian (bg3’s developper) was already well known for the Divinity series. Many even say that BG3 is kind of Divinity:Original Sin 3 with a DnD license. You’ll still be killing some people though. Otherwise, I suggest searching for Turn-Based games which BG3 is. You might like Battletech which is a mech warrior themed game or the X-Com series where there’s an alien invasion.
And also, you might have been mislead by the videos. Yes the brain parasite is important but you’re really only directly dealing with mind flayers (the tentacle clad monsters) in the very beginning and very end. The rest is just a classic fantasy setting.
The rest is just a classic fantasy setting.
There’s a lot of really grim and dark fantasy, but it’s definitely not all of fantasy. BG3 is full of super dark stuff with or without the gore.
Yes but it’s not all of the stuff, far from it
It’s not all as much gore as the brain parasite, but it’s full of scenes that are every bit as dark and fucked up. I won’t list anything in particular detail because of spoilers, but i’ve seen dozens of things that are super fucked up, and I’m not even out of act 1. I’ve had numerous people want to rip out eyeballs, failed a dice roll to mind control an enemy into eating himself, been suicide bombed, had a slave incubator for a witch go apeshit on me for rescuing her, and loads more. It’s absolutely super dark.
Not all violence is a deal breaker, just really grim stuff, like those pus balls exploding, or the worm burrowing into the characters’ eyes, exposed brains, that sort of thing.
So I’ll reinforce my first suggestion to look into turn-based CRPG as a genre and see for yourself. That’s where you’ll find most of the mechanics you seem to want and you won’t have to take the opinions of strangers as to how much gore is too much for you.
I think Fallout 1 & 2 have a lot of parallels. The first two fallouts are a lot more like ttrpgs, it was when Bethesda bought them they became FPS rpgs.
Oviously older, but they hold up pretty well and certainly a different setting.
Are you playing with a controller or M/KB?
There are plenty of other CRPGs (good search term) that are fine with a mouse/keyboard. Larian kind of stands alone in terms of how well they handle with a controller though. Divinity Original Sin 2 is still dark, but not as in your face about it.
Other terms that have similar battles (but generally more closed maps) are tactical RPGs, strategy RPGs, turn based tactics or turn based strategy. I can’t break down the lines between any of those sub-genres, but they’re all kind of in the neighborhood. A lot of them are also dark, though.
I use mouse and keyboard, so I don’t need to worry about console support. Thanks for the suggestions!
BG3 follows the formula of Dragon Age: Origins very closely.
Dragon Age: Origins is pretty gory (for an RPG from that era.) Their whole marketing campaign was basically “look how bloody this game is—even our logo is made out of blood.”
Edit: I would recommend Wildermyth as a whimsical, party-based RPG that doesn’t include stuff like this.
It also has sexy times
yea, crazy that you can raw-dog in Wildermyth. Did NOT expect that cutscene.
