The 10 Most Important Role-playing Games
Feb 05 '02
The Bottom Line Here's a list of the ten most important role-playing games that appeared on PC.
Recently, I have read here a series of articles, describing the ten most important games of all times. I have criticized most of them for ignoring the PC platform, and for omitting some games, which I considered to be far more important than others, which were mentioned. Later, however, I realized my mistake: trying to come up with only ten great games and please everybody is an impossible task. I tried to do it myself, but I failed miserably. Therefore, I decided to write a series of articles about the ten most important games in each genre I am familiar with; this is the first article.
The following games are listed here not only because of their high quality, but also because they revolutionized the role-playing genre in one way or another. Actually, only the high-quality games managed to accomplish this; games with less quality attempted to change the role-playing scene, but failed. Most of the games I am listing here have been released for the PC platform. I do so for two reasons: first, I am not familiar enough with console RPGs to determine which one was important and which not. Second, the PC has survived several platforms already, and most likely will see the disappearance of today's platforms as well. This is a cut through the history of role-playing games, and so I tried to remain consistent by following only the most important platform. Therefore, you will not find here titles like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior.
The following games are being listed in chronological order.
1. Akalabeth
Richard Garriot, 1978
Akalabeth was the first graphic RPG ever created. Written in Basic by Richard Garriot, the mind behind the Ultima series, this game has sold remarkably well for its time: about 30,000 units after the publishing rights were acquired by California Pacific. This game sets the standard for almost every RPG game ever produced: You roam the world and descend into dungeons in order to find and defeat the Dark Lord Mondain. The outside world presented in a top-down view, while the dungeons have a first-person 3D view with real-time combat. This game has appeared on a PC only recently, as Ultima 0 in the Ultima collection; originally it was written for Apple II. It marks the true beginning of the Ultima series, as well as the beginning of 3D dungeon graphics.
2. Rogue
Michael Troy and Kenneth Arnold, 1984
Rogue has made its way onto PC from the Unix platform, and until now remains one of the most unique games ever. Who would have known that a game where monsters are displayed as letters and your character as an "@" will spark the largest freeware genre ever - the rogue-like games. Today, there are dozens of such games. Titles like Moria, NetHack, Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) or Angband offer countless hours of fun for free. In fact, ADOM, which fits on a single floppy, offers more gameplay that both Baldur's Gate games and their data disks combined. In this game, you have the "simple" task of surviving a 26-level dungeon, displayed in a top-down view. On your way down, you collect items and fight monsters: this simple concept has been the recipe for fun for many players until these days.
3. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Sir-Tech Software, 1984
Wizardry I was not only the beginning of a great series lasting until today, this game also began hardcore dungeon crawling in role-playing games. The graphics are similar to those in Akalabeth: very simplistic 3D dungeons, and a text-based interface. However, combat is turn based, giving the player much more options. Due to the fact that you controlled a whole party of diverse members, you needed the extra time. In addition to combat and relatively detailed character development (unique for its time), the game offered difficult puzzles as well. The ten levels of this dungeon took me over three weeks to finish, which is more than the time I need to finish any current RPG, with the exception of Wizardry 8.
4. Starflight
Binary Systems, 1986
Starflight has been called "the ultimate Star Trek game", and is still being listed in the top 50 games of all times. This game created a whole new concept of role-playing, merging character development with an economic simulation. In this game, you are the proud owner of a ship, visit new worlds, pillage or trade. You engage into space fights, but also take care of your spapechip and hire a crew. While very open and non-linear, the game also features a storyline, which you have to follow. The game spawned a sub-genre, which did not become overly popular, but which featured a whole series of high-quality games, such as Space Rogue and the Elite series. The genre is still surviving, and recently has conquered the PalmOS platform with Space Trader.
5. Pool of Radiance
Strategic Simulations, Inc., 1988
Before there was the buggy game that used to wipe out your hard drive, called Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, there was another game by SSI, which marked the beginning of a great series and the merging of AD&D rules and PC gaming. At a time when Wizardry 4 still had very primitive graphics, Pool of Radiance featured a colorful world with a surprising level of detail. And at a time when Wizardry or Might and Magic series gave you a list of choices for each character during combat, the combat mode in PoR was much more detailed: the game switched to an overhead view of all your characters and enemies, which you then moved as you liked, and where the line of sight and distance from enemies played an important role. This game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs in the next few years, which dominated the role-playing genre.
6. Wasteland
Interplay, 1988
No RPG list would be complete without this game, which is until now considered to be one of the most important games in general. This game has brought little new quality-wise. In fact, the game sported the usual top-down view, reminiscent of the Ultima games. The combat, however, was turn-based, Wizardry-style. This game was unique in a different sense: for the first time, a non-fantasy world was displayed, proving once and for all that it is possible to have a role-playing story in a non-traditional world. The game took place in a post-nuclear world, where your task was to stop an artificial intelligence bound on destroying life as we know it. In a short succession, lots of other futuristic RPGs were created, but this was the first one, and until now remains highly playable, partially also thanks to a groundbreaking skill system applied here. This game has spawned lots of spin-offs, such as the Fallout series.
7. Dungeon Master
Faster Than Light, 1989
Dungeon Master has built upon Wizardry I, adding more action, an unique spell casting system, much improved graphics and mouse support. Once again, you got a party of characters and descended into a dungeon, collecting items and fighting monsters. This game, however, was unique in several aspects. First, your skills improved when you used them, and not when you gathered experience points for killing enemies. Second, for the first time the enemies did not just appear in front of you - they approached you, and you could shoot them from a distance. Lastly, the unique spell casting system required you to create the spells yourself, by combining up to four spell elements. The result was a hardcore action-type dungeon crawl, first of a whole sub-genre, containing the Eye of the Beholder series, Lands of Lore and much more.
8. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Origin, 1992
Once again, the advance in role-playing games was caused by a technological leap. Ultima Underworld was to be just another dungeon crawler, set in the world of Ultima. In fact, however, the game has sparked a revolution, not only in roleplaying games. This game has featured smooth scrolling and full freedom of movement. Instead of step-based movement, you could finally run into any direction you wanted, jump up or down and even swim. In addition, the way you moved your mouse has determined the swing of your sword, a technique later employed by such classics as The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Daggerfall. Even now, Ultima Underworld is one of the best reasons why not to upgrade your computer to Windows XP, which refuses to run this game.
9. Diablo
Blizzard, 1997
Diablo has brought fresh blood into the stagnating RPG scene. It brought pure action in an isometric view. With its random dungeon generator, it offered and unprecedented level of replay value, and with its simplistic interface, it has captured countless gamers. While its graphics were not too original (Entomorph, for example, released a year earlier, featured better isometric graphics), the combination of point-and-click interface and the fast-paced action has caused this game to be so popular. Its inferior successor, Diablo II, still counts among the most played games these days.
10. Baldur's Gate
Black Isle Studios, 1998
Baldur's Gate is the newest phenomenon in the role-playing scene. It combined the story of AD&D games, such as the original Pool of Radiance, with a Diablo-like isometric view. The result was a hugely popular game that spawned several successors and a whole new sub-genre of role-playing games. While some (including me) may argue that these games are nothing more than an endless series of real-time combat, and thus should be listed under strategy games, the truth is that this kind of games represents the most popular sub-genre these days. Only time will see how these games will fare, however.
Even limiting my list to only role-playing games, there were lots of games I could not mention. Some of them were unique but failed to build up a following, others were simply too similar to one of those I already mentioned. These games include:
King's Bounty. A fantasy strategy game, with strong role-playing elements. This game spawned a few Heroes of Might and Magic games, which, however, concentrated more on strategy than role-playing.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Arena and its successors, Daggerfall, gave the player an unprecedented level of freedom to roam a huge gaming world. Graphically based on Ultima Underworld, these games remained somehow empty and extremely buggy.
Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall was first to feature the kind of isometric graphics many games use now. While it featured a strong story, the gaming world and the story itself were so uncommon than many gamers failed to see its strengths and left the game.
Robinsom's Requiem. This game is the perfect example of a potential revolutionary game, which failed. Here, you controlled a character, which was prone to sickness, hunger, thirst and everything else a real human would be prone to. Unfortunately, your character tended to die every two minutes, which frustrated every single gamer I talked to.
The list I just presented was ranked chronologically. Unfortunately, the quality of games seems to be declining over time. You can have much more fun with many of these old titles than the newer ones. Some, such as Akalabeth, have been released into public domain. Others, like Rogue, are freeware to start with. I urge you to look for them on the Internet, as they are worth the time and effort. Have fun playing!
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