Ok, I played Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes at a friend's house not too long ago and it was really fun. I never really have played an RPG, the closest game to an RPG I have is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Now, D&D:Heroes was cancelled for PS2 and GC (I own a PS2) and I already beat the game at my friend's house so I scratched that game off my list. I did, however, see Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. I looked it up online and the storyline looks really interesting to me. It follows characters that were only in the background of the movie, following completely new storylines that intercept the LoTR storyline every now and then. Also, You can play on the side of Sauron, which sounds super cool. But the game is turn based and I haven't really played any turn based games. So does anyone here own it? Would I like it, or is Turn Based more of an aquired taste? What is your opinion of it? Does anyone know of any fun RPGs like D&D:Heroes for PS2?

To sum up what the game is like:

Final Fantasy: The Third Age.

Bauldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1 and 2, and Champions of Norrath. They are all action RPGs like D&D heros. I have BG:DA for the gamecube, and it's tons of fun when you play co-op.

The Third Age is a very basic RPG. It's mainly combat-oriented, there's no character interaction, shops, money or sub-quests. You basically spend the entire game, going down a linear path, getting into battle after battle, getting XP and levelling up combat skills. It's not a bad game by any means, just a rubbish RPG.

So it's basically a more RPG'd version of Return of the King? And the combat, I'm more used to real time combat. Is the turn based combat really slow? And thanks, Morg, I'll check those titles out.

If you're looking for a real-time RPG, you might want to check out Morrowind or Vampire-The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

ok, now I'm confused, I'm looking for the RPG action genre like D&D where you can use gained skills in combat by just hitting an assigned key. Is that the same as real time?

I'm going to have to second the morrowind idea.

Sort of, the main differences are that the combat is turn-based, you can equip your character with items that you just find lying around, and skill points actually go towards skills and attributes as opposed to special attacks. You can unlock similar special attacks just by using a character in battle, the more often you use a character, the more attacks you will unlock.



Yes, that's real time. Most RPGs are turn-based (where each side takes turns in attacks), the only ones I can think of that are real-time are the Deus Ex and System Shock games, I'm sure there are more.

Screw Morrowind: Get Neverwinter Nights, Platinum edition. It's D&D 3rd Edition rules in a videogame, simply put. It requires a lot of patience as a DM, but is pretty strait foreward and fun for a player, AND is MP, but ISN'T Monthly paid. A very fun game, indeed.

I personally hate turn based RPGs, but play them regularly because I value their storylines far more than anything. If an RPG could come out that was more on the lines of MGS, with realtime action with great storyline cutscenes, I'd be ovulating for manbabies.

JediKirby

Ok, thanks. That clears up alot. I'll go check above mentioned games out. I no longer buy games after staring at the back for 5 minutes. Just a few more questions about The Third Age. It says it is free roam, is that a lie? And is the storyline as good as it sounds? and who do you get to play as if you choose Sauron's side? I want to be an Uruk Hai Berserker:D those guy are the coolest characters in the games and the movies.

Now I'm gonna go check out Neverwind Nights.

I got KoToR, and that was ok. People kept bugging me to play though it again, but turn based combat gets boring really quickly. If only people would make an RPG that had an FPS, or a TPS combat system like the JK series. Now that I would buy any day.

You'd be better off getting an SNES emulator and 'acquiring' some classic RPGs for it. I would tell you where to, but massassi's policy on emulation is rather strict. Everyone may know where to get the good stuff if you look hard enough, though. I mean, the net is full of resources like these.

Third Age is not a good game.

It is not free roam.

The combat is ridiculously slow-paced.

There is no storyline to speak of (essentially the storyline and your objectives are relayed to you by Gandalf's voice talking in your head)

You don't get to choose Sauron's side, there's this dinky Evil Mode thing you unlock every time you complete an area and all you basically do is kill off the party of adventurers sequentially with every party of enemies.


Don't check out NWN either. It's like a slower-paced 3D version of Diablo. If you want a game that's like LotR:Third Age you should check out Final Fantasy X (the game it's based off of). FFX is, you know, actually good though. Definitely check out Morrowind - it is a persistent-world, like a MMORPG only you play it offline.

D&D Heroes, itself, is more based on Gauntlet than real RPGs. So that's something you can check out, Gauntlet Dark Legacy.

Whoa whoa, wait. NWN is a great game, especially with mods and a good DM (our own sir Burrie comes to mind). I mean, not to say that it's for everyone, but if you like D&D, NWN is ownage.

Yeah, I also heard that the Third Age has absolutely no character development.

It doesn't. It also has no noticeable character advancement and powers are basically useless.

And NWN is only a good game if you *do* have a DM. The OP is new to RPGs which means he probably doesn't know anybody who has NWN and probably doesn't play tabletop D&D. Which means he'll think it sucks, get frustrated, and probably never touch the genre again. Suggesting NWN was just wrong.

Wow, thanks Jon. You just saved me a bunch of money.:)

Or maybe he just swayed you to not buy a game based on his own experiences...

NWN:P is only 30 bucks now. It's worth every cent, and if you can find a good DM, which isn't hard, you'll have LOADS of fun. Find a party that works quickly and fluidly, (A tad harder, but not at all unheard of) and you've got a game worth millions more than the 12 dollars a month you'll spend on some idiot MMO.

Seriously, even though it's NOT for everyone, it's not like it's foreign to anyone. You just have to do a little work before it's as fun as Jon'd like it to be.

JediKirby

NWN is one of the best games ever made IMHO, but I don't think it's for you, and I don't think you'd like Morrowind either. Personally I don't like NWN that much. I'd say FFX/FF7 or KotOR are all excellent "first steps" into immersive action/RPGs.

I got into NWN never having touched D&D before, and I didn't know any DMs. I'm typically not a big RPG fan either. But it really is a great game. From the character creation, to the music, and the general mood of it all - it's all fantastic. Singleplayer is too hard if you play alone though.

As Jon pretty much said, the dark side mode is just some silly little add-on they tacked on at the end so that they can list it as a major feature on the box. You essentially go back and replay all the battles to each area you've completed, but this time you command the enemy side. You get to control things like Cave Trolls, and the Balrog, which undoubtedly LotR fans would wet their pants over, but it is very different to the actual game itself.

One of my complaints about the singleplayer was that it was too easy...

Ach, if you're going with NWN, I'd definately recommend staying off the Official Campaign that comes with the game. Awful stuff, if you ask me. There are some pretty good modules out there, be sure to look for them at the neverwinter vault (basically the center of resources for NWN).

For me, the very heart of NWN is its multiplayer and toolset options, the SP modules being pretty fun diversion(and as I am pretty much a SPlayer over a MPlayer, it surprised me very much). The options that are opened when you're playing with a DM is unlike anything you can imagine with a regular SP RPG. And if you enjoy storytelling a bit as well, the DM Client is very versatile, especially coupled with the community-created DMFI wands. If you'd be interested in trying out a game, definately visit neverwinterconnections, a perfect place to find like-minded folks. That site practically made me a long-time fan of NWN.

For the MMORPG fans out there, there are also numerous Persistant Worlds out there, which are basically mini-version of MMORPGs from what I've heard. My experience with those are pretty nill, I don't really prefer MMORPG gameplay, but there are quite a few vocal fans of them out there.

The toolset is quite ace as well, although some of its restrictions would frustrate the average level editor, specifically those who like to craft beautiful landscapes. Summed up, with the tilesets, your options are very limited, although you can do some fun things with placeables and the right scripts to create a proper atmosphere. Creating items and armor is pretty easy to do, if again restricted. Still, if you DM once a week and have to do proper changes on a weekly basis to reflect what the players did, the ease-of-use is just what you need.

(and psssst... I'm possibly thinking of starting a new campaign, utilising one of the modules at the nwvault, specifically for Massassians if anyone's interested)

NWN was fun, I even enjoyed the SP. But the graphics.... ick.

Meh, looking at the things I was expecting,

Light/Dark side storylines and gameplay
Good character development
Interesting, origional, immersive storyline
real time/fast action
Free roam
Varied gameplay/submission/quests



I've been ripped off before (Bounty Hunter):mad:

Never again...

Bounty hunter could have been one of the best, but ended up being the worst SW game I've ever played. A shame, since it had such a great setup and lara-croft style fighting. Bad level design, annoyingly tough enemies, nonsensical level objectives, and no alternative gameplay had me bored out of my mind.

JediKirby

Not to mention you couldn't keep any of the weapons, the bonuses sucked to high heaven, and the gameplay was horribly repetetive. I seriously could not play 5 minutes into the game when I picked it up to play it. The camera was painful and the end boss was waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy too easy (2 tries, 5 minutes tops) I got rid of the game the next day.

A shame. They could have done really cool things with the feel, like you said, Lora Croft gameplay, and the undead banda gora preists. It could have been so good.

Yeah, what was with that? The normal enemies were harder than the bosses!

Although it was kind of sweet how Jango let the bandogora have at that other mandalore. That's like the only part I liked.

"I'll see you in Hell, Jango!"

"Save me a spot"

"Auuugghh!"

The only good part, IMO.