Witcher 3. No contest
Overall, probably Disco Elysium if you count that. If you don't, I've heard good things about BG3 and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
Maybe sprinkle in Age of Decadence and Underrail if you're into indies.
Tyranny was kind of cool, Pillars of Eternity was also ok. Have no idea if they came out inside 10 years. Time is an illusion.
I loved Tyranny. (Kind of a hidden gem in the gerne) My biggest critic point would be it ends just when the story is about to really take off. Shame we probably wont see a Tyranny 2
I think both Pillars and Deadfire are massively underrated. Absolutely loved the world building.
You did this specifically to avoid Skyrim and Mass Effect? Last ten years weren't exactly very rich in good RPG's. Good, yeah but nothing "I'm taking a vacation and shut myself in" good. Probably Baldur 3 or Rogue Trader but both have some significant drops of shit in honey.
No and no. Both are action adventure. And even if they were, GTA bored me in few hours and RD after looking at screens, so naturally i never mentioned them in a thread about favorite games.
EDIT: now that i thought about it, RD2 came out in 2018 which was the height of the worst period for computer games ever, where multishit mobas, looter shooters and fortnite clones reigned supreme and not only entirely eliminated RPG games from new releases but nearly did it to most other single player genres. Thankfully that amok passed in next two years gradually (and 2023 was best year for RPG in a long time), but it was so bad back then that even many players really hailed RD2 as "rpg" game.
GTA and RD2 were fun as fuck but then again, I’m not a gamer/masochist. I just found the stories engaging.
Well i liked GTA 1 and 2 back in the days. Out of later games in that genre Mafia 1 was great. I hated the action parts, especially racing, but story and game climate were good enough for me to finish it.
Starfield.
Only open this spoiler if you've already replied to this comment in earnest
It's actually awful and I've been ranting about how awful it is ever since it came out.
Mods will save it from itself, that's still my hottest gaming take.
I think a number of modders have already come out and stated there's no saving Starfield. That was a while ago though so maybe things have changed? Doubt it though.
I know what the modders say, but when they claim "saving Starfield" they typically meant "making it similar to previous Bethesda games" or "making it similar to Star Citizen." Starfield is neither.
I've honestly lost faith in even that. It needs a huge aesthetic overhaul that completely redoes its cities and outfit designs at the very least, and I just don't see that happening. There's probably no saving the quest design or story stuff at all.
my barometer is if somebody rigs a xenomorph. they haven't yet so they're probably screwed
I heard Bethesda haven't released the modding tools for it they usually put out with a game
Best Western action RPG: Witcher 3
Best Western "crpg": Disco ElysiumIf we talk Western RPGS = Baldurs Gate 3 - Followed by Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous. Assuming CRPGs count as western rpgs in this context.
I've really enjoyed Divinity Original Sin 2. The combat is really engaging, especially with a lot of the creative class mods on the workshop. I've heard great things about Baldur's Gate 3, but unfortunately I don't have the hardware for it yet.
BG3 takes the cake, but I'm not a huge rpg fan honestly. I did really enjoy The Witcher 3, but I havent played it since like, a year after it came out. I've considered pirating the goty or whatever the "finished" version is on pc again, but eh.
And of course, Disco Elysium.
i can never get into western RPGs. disco and BG3 are the only games in this category i actually completed and they both blew me away
I remember in the 90s when Western RPG and CRPG were synonymous. For a while it seemed like the only people even attempting to do RPGs on consoles were Japanese devs.