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[Urist McManiac]

Oh great oracles of Bay12, I need your help! For quite some time now, I've been searching for a game and I hope some of you guys can help me.

To be a little more precise, I search for a complex RPG for the PC. By "complex" I don't necessarily mean "DF-level complex", but the more time I can waste figuring out strategies, etc. the better (think of Dominions 3). I would especially like a free, explorable world (like in the TES series), giant skill trees and many different races/classes/whatever. But I'm willing to sacrifice an open world if the story of the game is very good/memorable.

The setting isn't that important either, but I'd prefer good ol' sword and sorcery stuff. What I'm NOT looking for are multiplayer games. So no Ultima Online.

Some games I played (and liked) so far are:
 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Baldur's Gate I + II (the classic games, never played the "remakes"
Icewind Dale I + II
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights I + II (especially liked the first one)
Arcanum
Gothic 1-3
Dragon Age I
The Elder Scrolls III - IV
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup
Unreal World (although it's more of a simulation)
DF: Adventure Mode
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Fallout 1-3 incl. New Vegas
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I + II

So please help me, great gurus of Bay12, you're my only hope!

[Mictlantecuhtli]

PTW

[ghostetler88]

Have you played Divine Divinity? It's more action-y, but it has a very expansive world and I thought it had a really good element of character building to it. There's a sequel Beyond Divinity that I think had a better character creation system, but I didn't much care for compared to the first. There's another game in the series Divinity II that is a bit more 'modern' in how it plays, but is a fun game all the same.

Also, if you're looking for something more along the pen and paper lines, Temple of Elemental Evil is pretty good once all of the community patches and updates have been applied to it. The big fix/mod pack for it is by Circle of Eight and can be found here.

If you don't mind graphics, the Avernum games by Spiderweb Software are excellent and they all feature open worlds with fairly decent character building. The stories to them are pretty fair, as well.

Along the lines of Avernum are the Eschalon games (Book 1, and Book 2). They're single character games, but they feature solid character building and pretty good stories, as well. There's a third game in the series that is expected out sometime this year. I've played the second game in the series and I consider it one of the better RPGs I've played in recent memory. If you're interested in seeing how it plays just poke around on YouTube and I'm sure you'll run into my blind LP of the game and you can see how it runs.

There are some older series that are more 'classic' in how they play like Might & Magic or Wizardry, but I think they might be a bit too archaic unless you don't mind games where the majority of time is spent cutting through hordes of enemies.

[nenjin]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R actually fits this description, although it's a shooty game.

Temple of Elemental Evil is good as well.

The Witcher 1 & 2. They're definitely within your request, although you can find plenty of divisive opinions about the quality of the games.

Dark Souls, which is an action RPG that retains a lot of the mechanical crunchiness of older RPGs. You have to bring your balls for that game, but I think it's worth it.

Deus Ex Human Revolution is a lot like Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines in form and delivery. It's guns and cybernetics instead of vampires and magic, but it's a good RPG none the less.

[ukulele]

Mass effect triology? yeah the ending is pure shit, but the games are good.

Some people liked Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, its not my cup of tea tough.

[Felius]

PTW

[itisnotlogical]

Have you tried the various mods and patches for KOTOR 2 that try and hack some of the unused content back in? It doesn't look like anybody's ever going to actually finish that game, so there's been various efforts by the community to try and cobble it back together from the pieces. I haven't ever used any of them before, so I can't speak to how well they do this, but I think it might be interesting to check out.

By the way, did you manage to get KOTOR 2 running under Win7? I've tried it and it just won't work.

[Sonlirain]

Call me insane but Two Worlds 2 (note TWO since it's the sequel) is actually enjoyable... especially once you get a mage character going.
You can do some seriously crazy things as a mage with some experimentation.

[Deleted by poster]
Guess i'll have to scan my PC now... better safe than sorry.
Anyway it was just a site with several TW2 videos showing off some spells.
Have a youtube video in replacement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4xMc7O3Jho

[ukulele]

Call me insane but Two Worlds 2 (note TWO since it's the sequel) is actually enjoyable... especially once you get a mage character going.
You can do some seriously crazy things as a mage with some experimentation.

http://twoworldsvault.ign.com/pagetools/pagetools.php?act=printnews&id=58969

I got a TON of anti virus warnings from that webpage.

[Xeron]

Alpha Protocol of course.That game is so underrated.It's fun as hell and the choices you are given are pretty interesting.

[Bdthemag]

Alpha Protocol of course.That game is so underrated.It's fun as hell and the choices you are given are pretty interesting.

Definitely, it's completely underrated and often passed upon due to the initial bad reviews. The game mechanics are solid, and it mainly got bad press due to bugs and whatnot, along with the kind of bad PC port. But the writing is frankly superb, and the choices feel meaningful and there isn't necessarily right/wrong choices to make.

[Rakonas]

Judging by what you've played already I say The Witcher series 100%.

[hemmingjay]

Third-ing Alpha Protocol. Two wise gents above me already recommended it and I am adding my 2 cents since it was overlooked by so many and hated upon. It's not perfect, but it was the precursor to Deus Ex Human in design and a bit of gameplay. I have run through the game 3 times due to the meaningful differences choices make. You can buy it on disc from Amazon for $7.79 or from Gamersgate for $14.95.

[hemmingjay]

Judging by what you've played already I say The Witcher series 100%.

The Witcher is very cool if you don't mind button press mini-games. It made it unplayable for me and a small selection of others. I am sure I missed out.

[pilgrimboy]

Skyrim, Mount and Blade, and a slower-paced RPG (but you seem to be okay with them by your list) that I am currently enjoying is Drakensang: The River of Time.