You know like the old Fallouts and baldurs gate 1 and 2, Which game is the most accessible of these lot?
Obviously the old Fallouts aren’t infinity but they’re very similar regardless.
I’ve just been playing through the infinity engine games (Currently on IWD2)
Just talking about Infinity Engine here from most accessible to least:
Baldurs Gate 1 - This one is very accessible you can just pick fighter and go. The Story is basically pointing you towards the next place and ironically good fighters are somewhat rare in BG1
Icewind Dale 1 - This one ranks lower because instead of 1 character to have to make a whole party and that can be quite a daunting task, however it’s very well paced and you aren’t going to get lost if it weren’t for character creation this would be above BG1
Baldurs Gate 2 - Higher level game means you need to figure out how to do buffs, how to deal with enemy mages by dismantling their protective spells requires quite a bit more understanding.
Planescape Torment - This isn’t a hard game from it’s gameplay it’s pretty easy but Planescape is a very dnd ‘meta’ setting so that’s why it is ranked here.
Icewind Dale 2 - Ok listen I love 3rd edition but compared to the others there’s a couple of big hurdles one is that you need to know how feats work, you also need to know how resistances work oh and there’s no official enhanced edition only a modded one since the source code was lost.
Outside of the Infinity Engine some honorable mentions in no particular order since I’m just writing them as they come to my head:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - I generally hate magitech and this one feels the same, it’s set in the industrial revolution in a generic fantasy land. Very fallout very good.
Temple of Elemental Evil - Really solid implementation of 3e, awesome synth ost this one is much more approachable for a 3e game and has great combat which means it would probably rank below Baldurs Gate 2
Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 - Solid modern polished games the most accessible out of any mentioned.
Tyranny - The less polished Pillars but really uplifted by great tight pacing that won’t make you spend 100 hours per playthrough.
Neverwinter Nights 2 - Oh boy another 3.5e game this one honestly is pretty good since it’s super scuffed so you can just go barbarian and not have as much of a headache.
For modern games, Pillars of Eternity 1+2 are probably the most accessible, followed by Divinity Original Sin 1+2, and then Owlcat’s Rogue Trader and Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous. Personally I found PoE a bit too simple, and got tired of DOS 2’s environment based combat, but the Pathfinder games are pretty heavy on mechanics and builds so aren’t great choices for people who aren’t already familiar with PF1/D&D 3.x. I’m currently finding Rogue Trader to be a nice mix of mechanical complexity and accessible gameplay, and I’d definitely say the Owlcat games are the best storywise, with a good array of approaches to dialogue and choices depending on how you want to play the character.
Yeah pillars 1 is great. Could not finish 2 for some reason. Baldurs gate 3 was awesome as well.
That’s kins of why I went back to older games.
Playing though Icewindale EE rn. Will keep yall updated on my experience.
Yeah pillars 1 is great.
That’s subjective. I love this kind of games but i bounced off Pillars on 3 different attempts.
If you liked BG3 you kinda owe it to yourself to try the Pathfinder games - They’re serious about player choice in a way WotC haven’t been for going on 2 decades, so there are a lot more options for building characters, and a much wider range of ways to and reasons for dealing with situations. Admittedly they’re not as pretty, but that’s the only place BG3 beats them.
Pillars of Eternity and its sequel are probably the most accessible CRPGs out there, (honourable mention to Tyranny which was also made by Obsidian and uses mostly the same mechanics and UI). They don’t use Infinity Engine, but it’s a similar sorta thing.
If it has to be an infinity engine game, then I’d say Icewind Dale EE. It’s simpler, more combat-oriented than BG.
But if you’re looking for CRPGs in general, then I’d agree with Wittys picks here, but you could also check out the Pathfinder or Shadowrun games. Or as a little secret tip: Both Drakensang games. I loved those to death when I was a teenager.
Icewind dale was a gold choice tbh. Still has rpg mechanics but is a bit simplified for us kiddies used to action western rpg, like Witcher 3
Thanks a bunch
