I was pretty stoked for Grimrock release and that continued for the first few hours of gameplay....and yet, abandoned it halfway through. It did lack that certain somethingold classics had...atmosphere just wasn`t there, also the systems were rather simplistic and it had some annoying design flaws (like that backtrack-to-the-crystal mechanic). Overall, good attempt, but I will test-ride the sequel before buying.
Gothic 1/2 were infamous for its borked controls - the game was originally coded for keyboard only and it shows. It spend some time trying and couldn`t get used to it...probably some day will try again. It`s certainly possible and surely worth it because the games are great though. Meanwhile I recommend Risen - Gothic`s spiritual successor, which is much more modern and an excellent game too.
Some of my favourites:
Captive - DM clone, but one that is highly original and truly innovative. You control four droids trying to jailbreak yourself from a sci-fi prison.
Pool Of Radiance - along with the rest of Gold Box games, hands down my favourite RPG series of all time. I consider its superb, truly tactical combat to be unmatched to this day (even taking on board ToEE and Knights Of Chalice). Super-tense encounters (often on massive scale - 50 kobolds anyone?) where one wrong decision might mean your entire party wiped out - leading to 5 minute deliberations on whether it`s wiser to lob that fireball and hope for carnage or protect the caster with bodies/other spells. Turn-based combat at it`s best.
Darklands- from an era when every Microprose game was a timeless classic, their take on CRPGs was no less epic. True open world, where your character can get old and die, set in an incredibly atmospheric fantasy-medieval Germany, this game simply has it all. Plus, a first serious use of real-time-with-pause combat system.
Arx Fatalis- a real gem from French moodweavers Arkane. Set in a beautiful and immersive underground world, it has a great story and number of interesting features, like drawing spell runes manually in the air (admittedly it can be tricky, but fun too). 3D FP-RPG FTW (it also went open source recently allowing some wiz-kids to recode it improving performance and debugging - look for Arx Libertatis)
Planet`s Edge- one of the DOS era space operas, this one is a very solid entry with bits of everything thrown in - my favourite part is turn based planetary squad- level combat, a thing seldom seen in such games.
Superhero League of Hoboken- hard to classify adventure/rpg hybrid and one excellent game to boot. It mixes point-and-click system from other Legend adventures with classic RPG party based exploration and TB combat to great effect. All sprinkled with post apocalyptic bizarro vibes and excellent humour - a true classic.
Helherron- heard some classify this one as a roguelike though if you ask me it`s just a "normal" CRPG - bedroom coded and released as shareware, it has one of the best turn based systems ever, similar to GoldBox titles, but even more in-depth.
