Written in order from first to last...
Neverwinter NightsWhat makes this game so special are not its campaigns. Those range from trash to above average depending on whether you play the original campaign or one of the expansions. No, it is everything else. From its toolset, to player made modules, to online play, Neverwinter Nights wins my top spot for the wealth of possibilities it offers. Taken by itself, it would never make my list, but there is nothing in any other game I played that compares to the experience of realtime, dynamic role-playing with friends under the watchful eye of a competant DM. Neverwinter Nights is as close to pencil & paper as any computer game has ever come.
Baldur's Gate 2
What can I say that has not been said thousands of times before? Baldur's Gate is one of two games that sparked my interest in CRPGs. Baldur's Gate 2 took almost everything from its predecessor and improved upon it. The number of classes and spells were staggering. The cast of party members memorable. And the atmosphere was just incredible. From its epic music and tactical battles, to dialogue, weapons descriptions, and graphics. Yes, graphics. I thought Baldur's Gate 2 was a beautiful game in its time, and in some ways its backgrounds still stand out as quite pleasing to the eye; even if the actual character sprites and stiff background animations are terribly dated. It is the watermark by which I judge most CRPGs today. Entertaining dialogue, action, drama, romances and a slew of details that add atmosphere to the lands of Amn. Later BioWare games had deeper and more frequent role-playing opportunities and much more freedom in choice, but Baldur's Gate 2 stands out as BioWare's singular greatest accomplishment in my opinion.
Planescape: Torment
Planescape: Torment was in many ways like Baldur's Gate. Same engine, albeit heavily modified. Same ruleset and classes, except with fewer of the latter; and of course, combat. It fell short of the Baldur's Gate series in all these areas however; instead putting a heavy emphasis on storytelling. The game plays more like an old fashioned choose your own adventure book; wherein you are put in the shoes of a fictional character and have to lead him through a series of personal trials as he seeks to uncover the nature of his existence and identity. The plotline was bold and refreshing for its time. None of the party members were stereotypical, and a few were quite bizarre.
Part of it had to do with the nature of the Planescape setting itself. Although I'm sure as much of it was influenced by the writers' desires to subvert common RPG tropes as well. Despite a reliance on D&D rules, alignment was rarely important beyond what you could equip. It was simply a barometer of your actions. Many dialogues in Torment were extensive and open, allowing you to act in certain ways the game engine itself could not easily pull off. It was immensely descriptive as well and often did a better job of putting my imagination in a scene than the on screen graphics did. Not that I found the graphics bad. They were easily superior to Baldur's Gate 1 and Icewind Dale, and I thought some of the spell effects were superior to Baldur's Gate 2. I still fondly remember blasting enemies with Mechanus Canon. :happy:
I could go on and on about this game. Bottom line: it was something special the likes of which we will probably never see again.
Street Fighter 2
This game spawned an entire genre of imitators and its influence can still be felt in the likes of wildly different 3D fighters. It was a very basic concept: choose one of eight warriors and kick the stuffing out of everyone in your way. What made this game special was how complex it was after you scratched its surface. Button mashing could only get you so far in competitive play. You had to learn your character's moves and get down their timing. You had to know what your opponent's character was capable of and predict how they would attack or react to your offense. And you had to do all of this under pressure. It made it a great game to play against a friend, or hold a tournament with, and it was *the* reason I went to arcades in the first place and was exposed to many other worthwhile games. Its popularity eventually doomed it in my opinion; mainly because Capcom decided to milk it for all its worth with a slew of incremental updates. By the time Alpha and III rolled around it was simply too little too late.
Tetris
A simple concept: stack blocks together to create lines and earn points. The more lines you create at once, the more points you are awarded. The titular Tetris was four lines and worth the most. Of course, you had to do this wirhout letting those blocks reach the top of the screen. Once they did it was game over. A very simple, very addictive game that often helped me pass time with my Gameboy in boring waiting rooms. I played many other puzzle games after Tetris, but the original still tops all its clones and variations for me.
Super Metroid
This game took everything that made the original Metroid great and brought it into the then modern era; making it a much more polished and cinematic experience than its predecessor. As an avid fan of the original it was an immense treat to return to planet Zebes and recognize old haunts such as Norfair. The game was huge, with lots of areas to explore and several weapons that helped in progressing toward the eventual goal of defeating Mother Brain again. Plus, it was one of the very few games that featured a female protagonist that was not hard to take seriously. (Which reminds me, I miss Samus' old armor. Her new suit has too many curves.) If I had any gripe about Super Metroid it was the loss of the original's music for a more ambient soundtrack.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
This, like Super Metroid, updated a classic I simply adored and improved upon it in every way. And it was huuuuge. There were so many maps to explore, and once I thought it was all over, I discovered the world had a flip side to it that was just as expansive! The twist of Agahnim not being the true villain took me by surprise during a time when that japanese storytelling cliché was still fresh and unexpected. The game was loaded with memorable moments for me. Finding the Master Sword, using the invisibility cloak for the first time, blowing things up with bombs while hiding with said cloak...
It also made me think with some tricky puzzles that at the time, I found difficult as heck, but very rewarding once I figured them out.
Final Fantasy VI (III in the US)
My favorite entry in the Final Fantasy series. I adored everything about it. Its cast of characters ranging from wacky to tragic. The combat that was a marked improvement over Final Fantasy IV (2). Its art, music, and villains. This was the second game that made me feel for its cast. Each of them had a story to tell, and none of them quite felt like a main character. Instead, they were all the protagonists of their own little dramas while the main plot brought them all together and led them along. The game had its flaws and I'm not sure I would enjoy it as much today, but at the time it was one of my favorite titles and I will always harbor nostalgia for it.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
My list needed a rail shooter. I played many of these over the years, but this was the one I enjoyed and returned to most. It had everything I look for in a shooter. A great deal of challenge at higher difficulties without reaching insane levels, nice music, and an overall quality that can only be summed up as "cool". Maybe because you get to ride a *dragon* and rain unholy death on all your enemies throughout the game.
Zwei had some of the most epic boss encounters I ever saw in a shooter and a storyline that was incoherent, literally, but I still loved it. It also paved the way for one my favorite JRPGs--Panzer Dragon Saga. Sadly, Azel is probably the last game we will ever see from this series; if ever we see another at all.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Troika's best game; may they be remembered for more than The Temple of Elemental Evil and their horrid quality assurance. I picked up Bloodlines when it released not exactly sure of what to expect. I only knew it was a Troika game with RPG qualities, and that it took place in the World of Darkness; a P&P setting I had fleeting knowledge of at best. I was pleasantly surprised. No, floored is more accurate. Here was a game that epitomized the single player RPG experience for me, and it managed to do it without things I normally hope for such as party members and romances. Bloodlines was all about choice. Certain parts of the story were naturally linear, and it became extremely linear in its last act. But most of the game gave you incredible freedom in when to tackle quests and how. You could stealth through, talk your way out of it, use nifty vampire powers or bash and blast through anything in your path. The idea of awarding experence for completing a quest instead of killing enemies was genius, and something I had never seen outside of tabletop gaming. It made playing a relatively nonviolent and stealthy character viable. Bloodlines made me *like* playing a vampire, and aside from a handful of Whedonverse characters, I *hate* all things vampire.
Bloodlines had so much replayability and just enough changes between some of the clans that it was worth replaying multiple times. Particularly the Malkavian clan; which had some of the funniest, silliest dialogue my eyes have ever been treated to in a game. If not for a slew of bugs and major focus on combat late in the game, this would have ranked higher on my list and may have been remembered as one of the best CRPGs ever made in the mainstream community. It was still more than good enough to make my list, however.
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Now then, having to choose ten favorites out of hundreds of games has left me in the mood to play something fun that could not quite make my top 10, or top 30 for that matter. Maybe the japanese version of Space Channel 5 or Persona 2: Punishment...
Modifié par Seagloom, 26 janvier 2010 - 02:30 .
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