You may have read recently that The Witcher 3 game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz issued a challenge. Can you name five characters in Skyrim? CalmDownTom asks if you can name 5 characters in these games. He even tries himself.... with limited success.
Replaying Skyrim after 13 years is a reminder of the progress made in western RPGs over the last decade, but also what's been lost.
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Not only glorious jank, but the idea that the story can completely change depending on what you do, or say, or side with, makes it one of the most forward thinking games ever. The amount of story permutation is the equivalent of a Hitman level but in Story Form. And it wasn't just that the story changed, no, it was that you met completely new characters, or missed them, depending on your choices. Made Mass Effect feel static in comparison.
Alpha Protocol was absolutely glorious, indeed. And it was, and still is, more Next Gen than most anything out there these days. In this regard at least.
Pity.
A new Partner Spotlight Sale is now live on the Switch eShop, including Skyrim, lowest price ever for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and more.
Roche, Ves, Trish, Iorveth and Saskia.
Wow...he actually has a good point. Just off the top of my head I get Geralt, Roche, Triss (not trish =P), Iorveth, Saskia, Henselt, Dandelion, Zoltan, and Foltest. That's without even having to think hard.
The only other series I can do that with is Uncharted because I've played A LOT of it.
He's 100% right! Skyrim's NPCs are boring as hell. The Witcher 2's on the other hand... they have colorful and unique personalities. Loredo, Sile, Geralt, Triss, Zoltan, Iorveth, Roach, Dandelion, Saskia, Philipa, Foltest, Letho, Demavand, and a few more, all great. Can't wait for #3 ^^
Character's need to have time invested in their development, this usually means dialogue, which usually means no exploding set pieces or shooting during it.
There's nothing that makes games inherently worse with characterization than any other media, TWD should be proof of that. Developers just need to put actual EFFORT into it instead of just having the story and characters as windows dressing for the gameplay.
This guy has a very important point. I could not be more excited for the Witcher 3.