Open ended RPG for PC

RZetlin · April 14th, 2005

I'm looking to play an open ended RPG for the PC where I can customized my character and take any quest I want. A storyline would be optional to complete.

Does such a game exist?

__________________
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ | 2 GB RAM | XFX Nvidia 6800 GS 256 MB XXX Edition | Win XP Pro SP3
"Asu no Egao no Tame ni!" - So We Can Smile Tomorrow!
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/RZetlin

GryphonKlaw · April 14th, 2005

The majority of RPGs for PC fit that description. To me, those are true RPGs but there is little sense in spewing my hate for console RPGs here.

Fallout 1 and 2 (The BEST RPGs ever created)
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (The second best RPGs ever created)
Neverwinter Nights
Arcanum
The Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind is the latest one so you might like that more than the first 2)
Hell, anything made by Bioware, BlackIsle, Bethesda, Origin (the Ultima series), and SSI (for the old school D&D games).

I'm missing a few so please add to the list.

Mr. Killjoy · April 14th, 2005

Dunno about all the games you said, but Fallout 1 and 2 are NO DOUBT the best you can get on PC (until Fallout 3?), though you'll have to deal with outdated graphics

__________________

Leader of "The Pessimists' Club"

CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz

- RAM: 4GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400)

VGA: (Frying) GF8800GTS 512MB

- Monitor: H233H 23" 1920x1080
Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec NeoPower Blue 650w
24Mb/1Mb ADSL

- Windows 7 Ultimate
---------------------------------------------
All ePSXe plugins up-to-date

http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

makotech222 · April 15th, 2005

I think Gothic 2 is open ended, i never tried the game, but at one ppoint i was pumped up to buy, but never did.

__________________

Custom Built Desktop: [Windows 7 build 7600 x64][Intel E8400@3.8ghz] [DDR2 4gb] [Nvidia EVGA Gtx 260(711/1533/2432)] [Creative Soundblaster] [Corsair 550w]
Lenovo X200Tablet: [Windows 7 build 7600 x86][L9400 @1.86ghz][Intel GMA 4500MHD][2gb Ram][160GB 7200rpm][LED-lit Touchscreen/pen-abled]

Quote:

There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.

XxCrashxX · April 15th, 2005

Ive played morrowind, its reeeeeaaallly open ended

__________________

Exodus · April 15th, 2005

morrowind + 2 expansions is definetly the way to go for an open-ended rpg. you could get so carried away with the "side" quests that you could play the game for days and never hit the actual plot.

wizardry 8 was pretty open ended as well, but not much to do to really warrant moving off the main story line.

the baldur's gates/icewind dales are still a little too story driven since you'd just get killed trying to go to any higher levels, but they have their little side quests along the way.

in the end, morrowind is the best choice, but you'll need a fairly powerful PC seeing as how the engine isn't too efficient.

__________________
No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

WindHydra · April 15th, 2005

Wow, Morrowind sounds great! Especially the wind part

Of the above mentioned I only played Fallout 2 and it's pretty open. And evil. You can go around tipping cows over, killing children, digging graves, ****ing prostitutes, stealing, selling friends into slavery, sniping random people, and do drugs! So much fun......

__________________

My deviantArt :bounce:

We ran like the wind, under the cerulean skies...

Kaiser Sigma · April 15th, 2005

Where the hell is Planetscape Torment? Definitely the most open D&D based RPG...

GryphonKlaw · April 15th, 2005

Ah yes, thanks for reminding me. I'm going to have to dig up that CD and play it again.

Valcrist · April 15th, 2005

Quote:

Where the hell is Planetscape Torment? Definitely the most open D&D based RPG...

agreed, I LOVED that game...still have it around her somewhere I might just play it again.

You can always go for MMO games too, they are uually pretyy open ended...ya know cuz they never really end

. I play WoW myself.

**Kane** · April 15th, 2005

Planescape and Baldur's Gate aren't as open as the Elder Scrolls series; Daggerfall and Morrowind. Compared to console RPGs they are very open, but they have a driving motion behind them which gives you a clue as to what the hell you shoudl be doing, whereas Daggerfall and Morrowind essentialy drop you in it and let you get on with it. I never worked out what the plot of Daggerfall was meant to be.

__________________

>Site Live<
Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators.
Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible
Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business
Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE
Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

Exodus · April 16th, 2005

aye, i found planescape to be pretty straight forward and not open ended at all.

i couldn't get far in daggerfall, although i would have liked to. i just couldn't navigate those dungeons.

__________________
No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

Kaiser Sigma · April 18th, 2005

Story wise yes... more or less Planetscape is straightwforward. However:
* The Main Char (that is, you) development is completely up to you, you don't choose at the beginning of the game a class, you develop it as the game goes on and according to what you want to be.
* How you do something is completely up to you, Planetscape was one of those games that provided multiple alternatives to achieve something. So many dialog lines...

**DarkAurora** · April 21st, 2005

Pretty much any MMORPG.

Guyver2K6 · April 21st, 2005

t( '_' t )....vampire......bloodlines......

__________________

•••Mary Jane is the only thing that makes the pain stop•••
360GamerTag - SteFanO420

**Kane** · April 21st, 2005

Ugh! That has so much promise, but they screwed it up so badly. It performed like crap, and the plot really tailed off about halfway through

__________________

>Site Live<
Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators.
Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible
Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business
Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE
Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

Exodus · April 21st, 2005

I'd still like to play it, but it'll have to be after masquerade which i haven't played either. Besides that, i have a feeling bloodlines wouldn't run well on my PC. unless they have "ugly as crap" settings mode.

__________________
No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

**Kane** · April 21st, 2005

Bloodlines runs crap regardless of your PC specs. At the same speed regardless of your specs. A Duron 1.1/256Mb RAM/GF3 ran it almost exactly the same speed as my current rig with the same settings. Pumping up my settings to max didn't change the framerate in the slightest.

Masquerade isn't really happy with XP BTW, and its' a very different game. They loosley use the Vampire rules, but over-complicate

__________________

>Site Live<
Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators.
Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible
Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business
Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE
Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

Mr. Killjoy · April 21st, 2005

Bloodlines runs at around 10fps in the streets, but in other areas the framerate is
very playable (except some rare exceptions)... and since you have no fights in the street
unless you choose to kill someone just for fun, it's no big deal :I

__________________

Leader of "The Pessimists' Club"

CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz

- RAM: 4GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400)

VGA: (Frying) GF8800GTS 512MB

- Monitor: H233H 23" 1920x1080
Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec NeoPower Blue 650w
24Mb/1Mb ADSL

- Windows 7 Ultimate
---------------------------------------------
All ePSXe plugins up-to-date

http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

Lobo · April 22nd, 2005

Out of all the games listed so far, I'd say only a few truly fit the OP's request for open ended.

Yes Baldur's Gate, Planescape, Fallout, et al. are more open ended than console RPG's. But they still have a main storyline that you must complete. You can't play seemingly infinitely. You'll quickly run into ruts where you've completed everything there is to do in every section of those games (esp NWN & Planescape - in fact, both of those games are much more limited than Fallout with fallout 2's ability to travel where you please).

All games are finite, but only a handful feel unending. Three of them come from Bethesda, and those are the Elder Scrolls games, Arena, Daggerfall & Morrowind; soon to add Oblivion to that list.

In each of these games you can wander aimlessly in any direction and find quests upon quests upon quests, along with tons of area to just explore and treasure raid dungeons, or speak with people and travel with NPC's (not too often but there are some). Even after you complete the main quest you still can go around doing whatever; they are truly the only RPG's I would call open ended.

Fallout 2 is a good choice though, lots of traveling, no real time limit. Fallou has a time-limit though. Take too long and your village will die, so that's not open at all (yeah you can toy with other things but I've played a couple times where I had to reload a save and rush through to make sure I could complete it).

Baldur's Gate II has so many quests that originate from Amn you'll feel like its infinite, it's really quite crazy. But still it has an end unfortuantely that finishes the game (Throne of Bhaal add on makes it even longer!

). BG is really quite short in relation to BG2, you can finish it in 20 hours and do most of what you could encounter, great game though.

Vampire The Masquerade, I would say is extremely limited. Esp for the first half of the game. You can't really choose where to go or what to do, you just do what is available. When you get to the other section of the game then you have a little freedom but it's still quite limited. VTM: Bloodlines is also quite limited, the game unfolds in chapters, there are side quests but nothing too extensive. You could find just as many side attractions in Final Fantasy.

Planescape, as I was saying above, quite limited. One of my favorite games of all time, wish they'd make a god damn sequel (and I hope every day that the modules for NWN will come to fruition, I'm not good enough at them unfortunately). But it's quite limited in where you can go and what you can do (not much backtracking ever either).

Best bet, grab Morrowind, Daggerfall & Arena are so old they're too frickin hard to get working on today's machines without a DOS emulator (I'm playing Daggerfall right now matter of fact) and I wouldn't wish to tell someone to play them because then I have to explain how to get them running

. One word of warning though, the amount of freedom you get in Morrowind, you might lose yoruself in all the side stuff to do and forget what you were supposed to do for the main quest. And hte journal entries will be so far back and mixed in that you'll forget about the main quest at all

(I know a few friends that don't even know what the main quest is ^_^ ). That much freedom is both a blessing and a curse. So if you do want to complete a main quest and have little reminders on occassion, any of the games I mentioned above give you some fun on the side but don't detract your from the quest too much (enough, but not too much more than Star Ocean Till the End of Time would).

__________________

~You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.~ Bullettooth Tony (Snatch)

April 14th, 2005	#1 (permalink)
RZetlin General of Tangerines Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Defending the Sea Posts: 3,913	Open ended RPG for PC I'm looking to play an open ended RPG for the PC where I can customized my character and take any quest I want. A storyline would be optional to complete. Does such a game exist? __________________ AMD Athlon 64 3700+ \| 2 GB RAM \| XFX Nvidia 6800 GS 256 MB XXX Edition \| Win XP Pro SP3 "Asu no Egao no Tame ni!" - So We Can Smile Tomorrow! Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/RZetlin

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

April 14th, 2005	#2 (permalink)
GryphonKlaw V Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Near New Orleans Posts: 91	The majority of RPGs for PC fit that description. To me, those are true RPGs but there is little sense in spewing my hate for console RPGs here. Fallout 1 and 2 (The BEST RPGs ever created) Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (The second best RPGs ever created) Neverwinter Nights Arcanum The Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind is the latest one so you might like that more than the first 2) Hell, anything made by Bioware, BlackIsle, Bethesda, Origin (the Ultima series), and SSI (for the old school D&D games). I'm missing a few so please add to the list.

April 14th, 2005	#3 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy Translator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,805	Dunno about all the games you said, but Fallout 1 and 2 are NO DOUBT the best you can get on PC (until Fallout 3?), though you'll have to deal with outdated graphics __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 4GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: (Frying) GF8800GTS 512MB - Monitor: H233H 23" 1920x1080 Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec NeoPower Blue 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - Windows 7 Ultimate --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

April 15th, 2005	#5 (permalink)
XxCrashxX Registered User Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 400	Ive played morrowind, its reeeeeaaallly open ended __________________

April 15th, 2005	#6 (permalink)
Exodus ...and now they do. Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Null Posts: 16,923	morrowind + 2 expansions is definetly the way to go for an open-ended rpg. you could get so carried away with the "side" quests that you could play the game for days and never hit the actual plot. wizardry 8 was pretty open ended as well, but not much to do to really warrant moving off the main story line. the baldur's gates/icewind dales are still a little too story driven since you'd just get killed trying to go to any higher levels, but they have their little side quests along the way. in the end, morrowind is the best choice, but you'll need a fairly powerful PC seeing as how the engine isn't too efficient. __________________ No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

April 15th, 2005	#7 (permalink)
WindHydra Wind, Life, Eternity Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: El Monte Posts: 1,331	Wow, Morrowind sounds great! Especially the wind part Of the above mentioned I only played Fallout 2 and it's pretty open. And evil. You can go around tipping cows over, killing children, digging graves, ****ing prostitutes, stealing, selling friends into slavery, sniping random people, and do drugs! So much fun...... __________________ My deviantArt :bounce: We ran like the wind, under the cerulean skies...

April 15th, 2005	#8 (permalink)
Kaiser Sigma ~ Lord of Darkness ~ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: A place darker than the night. Posts: 14,637	Where the hell is Planetscape Torment? Definitely the most open D&D based RPG...

April 15th, 2005	#9 (permalink)
GryphonKlaw V Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Near New Orleans Posts: 91	Ah yes, thanks for reminding me. I'm going to have to dig up that CD and play it again.

April 15th, 2005	#11 (permalink)
Kane 邪魔ゎ指せない Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Gosport, England Posts: 26,305	Planescape and Baldur's Gate aren't as open as the Elder Scrolls series; Daggerfall and Morrowind. Compared to console RPGs they are very open, but they have a driving motion behind them which gives you a clue as to what the hell you shoudl be doing, whereas Daggerfall and Morrowind essentialy drop you in it and let you get on with it. I never worked out what the plot of Daggerfall was meant to be. __________________ >Site Live< Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators. Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

April 16th, 2005	#12 (permalink)
Exodus ...and now they do. Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Null Posts: 16,923	aye, i found planescape to be pretty straight forward and not open ended at all. i couldn't get far in daggerfall, although i would have liked to. i just couldn't navigate those dungeons. __________________ No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

April 18th, 2005	#13 (permalink)
Kaiser Sigma ~ Lord of Darkness ~ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: A place darker than the night. Posts: 14,637	Story wise yes... more or less Planetscape is straightwforward. However: * The Main Char (that is, you) development is completely up to you, you don't choose at the beginning of the game a class, you develop it as the game goes on and according to what you want to be. * How you do something is completely up to you, Planetscape was one of those games that provided multiple alternatives to achieve something. So many dialog lines...

April 21st, 2005	#14 (permalink)
DarkAurora Back from the dead Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seymour, TN Posts: 3,741	Pretty much any MMORPG.

April 21st, 2005	#15 (permalink)
Guyver2K6 Graphic Designer Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: I AM CANADIAN! Posts: 858	t( '_' t )....vampire......bloodlines...... __________________ •••Mary Jane is the only thing that makes the pain stop••• 360GamerTag - SteFanO420

April 21st, 2005	#16 (permalink)
Kane 邪魔ゎ指せない Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Gosport, England Posts: 26,305	Ugh! That has so much promise, but they screwed it up so badly. It performed like crap, and the plot really tailed off about halfway through __________________ >Site Live< Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators. Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

April 21st, 2005	#17 (permalink)
Exodus ...and now they do. Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Null Posts: 16,923	I'd still like to play it, but it'll have to be after masquerade which i haven't played either. Besides that, i have a feeling bloodlines wouldn't run well on my PC. unless they have "ugly as crap" settings mode. __________________ No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

April 21st, 2005	#18 (permalink)
Kane 邪魔ゎ指せない Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Gosport, England Posts: 26,305	Bloodlines runs crap regardless of your PC specs. At the same speed regardless of your specs. A Duron 1.1/256Mb RAM/GF3 ran it almost exactly the same speed as my current rig with the same settings. Pumping up my settings to max didn't change the framerate in the slightest. Masquerade isn't really happy with XP BTW, and its' a very different game. They loosley use the Vampire rules, but over-complicate __________________ >Site Live< Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators. Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

April 21st, 2005	#19 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy Translator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,805	Bloodlines runs at around 10fps in the streets, but in other areas the framerate is very playable (except some rare exceptions)... and since you have no fights in the street unless you choose to kill someone just for fun, it's no big deal :I __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 4GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: (Frying) GF8800GTS 512MB - Monitor: H233H 23" 1920x1080 Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec NeoPower Blue 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - Windows 7 Ultimate --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

April 22nd, 2005	#20 (permalink)
Lobo Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 408	Out of all the games listed so far, I'd say only a few truly fit the OP's request for open ended. Yes Baldur's Gate, Planescape, Fallout, et al. are more open ended than console RPG's. But they still have a main storyline that you must complete. You can't play seemingly infinitely. You'll quickly run into ruts where you've completed everything there is to do in every section of those games (esp NWN & Planescape - in fact, both of those games are much more limited than Fallout with fallout 2's ability to travel where you please). All games are finite, but only a handful feel unending. Three of them come from Bethesda, and those are the Elder Scrolls games, Arena, Daggerfall & Morrowind; soon to add Oblivion to that list. In each of these games you can wander aimlessly in any direction and find quests upon quests upon quests, along with tons of area to just explore and treasure raid dungeons, or speak with people and travel with NPC's (not too often but there are some). Even after you complete the main quest you still can go around doing whatever; they are truly the only RPG's I would call open ended. Fallout 2 is a good choice though, lots of traveling, no real time limit. Fallou has a time-limit though. Take too long and your village will die, so that's not open at all (yeah you can toy with other things but I've played a couple times where I had to reload a save and rush through to make sure I could complete it). Baldur's Gate II has so many quests that originate from Amn you'll feel like its infinite, it's really quite crazy. But still it has an end unfortuantely that finishes the game (Throne of Bhaal add on makes it even longer! ). BG is really quite short in relation to BG2, you can finish it in 20 hours and do most of what you could encounter, great game though. Vampire The Masquerade, I would say is extremely limited. Esp for the first half of the game. You can't really choose where to go or what to do, you just do what is available. When you get to the other section of the game then you have a little freedom but it's still quite limited. VTM: Bloodlines is also quite limited, the game unfolds in chapters, there are side quests but nothing too extensive. You could find just as many side attractions in Final Fantasy. Planescape, as I was saying above, quite limited. One of my favorite games of all time, wish they'd make a god damn sequel (and I hope every day that the modules for NWN will come to fruition, I'm not good enough at them unfortunately). But it's quite limited in where you can go and what you can do (not much backtracking ever either). Best bet, grab Morrowind, Daggerfall & Arena are so old they're too frickin hard to get working on today's machines without a DOS emulator (I'm playing Daggerfall right now matter of fact) and I wouldn't wish to tell someone to play them because then I have to explain how to get them running . One word of warning though, the amount of freedom you get in Morrowind, you might lose yoruself in all the side stuff to do and forget what you were supposed to do for the main quest. And hte journal entries will be so far back and mixed in that you'll forget about the main quest at all (I know a few friends that don't even know what the main quest is ^_^ ). That much freedom is both a blessing and a curse. So if you do want to complete a main quest and have little reminders on occassion, any of the games I mentioned above give you some fun on the side but don't detract your from the quest too much (enough, but not too much more than Star Ocean Till the End of Time would). __________________ ~You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.~ Bullettooth Tony (Snatch)