For me:
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Shadow Over Mystara
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Pool Of Radiance
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Neverwinter Nights
SOM is my favorite arcade game of all time as well as beat 'em up, the cherry on top is that it’s a D&D game. Does it follow the rules and mechanics of the game? Hell no, but it’s fun in that it’s the soul of the game mixed with fighting game mechanics.
Pool Of Radiance is the only Gold Box game I’ve beat so far. It’s primitive but it really does the rules and campaign of AD&D justice. Best to play it with the Gold Box Companion that maps the game for you.
NWN is great since it’s 3D D&D while like POR it sticks to the rules of 3.5 D&D. Plus it allows you to make your own campaign if you wish or play fan made ones (some of which are really good and outshine Bioware’s own).
NWN was my shit back in the day. I have great memories of playing with friends online, and we goofed around griefing a
RP server lol.
Baldur’s Gate 2 is super good, I just don’t think I like the combat of high level DnD, let alone ADnD specifically.
NWN2 is super underrated, and the expansions are cool.
Uhhhh also shout-out to those stupid Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance hack and slash games that were kinda fun to split screen co-op.
PS:T is True Kino Gaming. I wish Tides of Numenera had captured the magic in the same way, but it scratches a similar itch if you like very narrative heavy games.
Yeah, problematic bits of Chris Avellone aside, PS:T is the best execution of the same ass story he recycles every time.
I’ll always remember the Ranged Touch boys quitting that game lol. I enjoyed Tides of Numenera enough to finish a playthrough, but it always seemed like a game I’d never want to replay.
I only wanted to play a second time because there was a quest I finished but could never turn in in the first area because events transpired when I took a nap one time.
Gah I wish I had a pc or a console to play it.
I hope you get to play it in the near future! If you’re nostalgic for all the old ass games, you’ll probably enjoy it. It’s not a perfect game, but it does a good job of providing a TTRPG experience on a computer.
I forgot Icewind Dale, which has a ton of fun subclasses on the recent EE
BG 1+2 are in my backlog
They’re pretty dope, but I grew up playing BG2 at a friend’s house when I was young.
I still need to dip my toe into the Gold Box games lol
They’re old, ngl, and kind of cumbersome to play but if you want a game that let’s you do some ad&d 1st edition (or was it second, memory is hazy) it’s great for that. Like most CRPGs the beginning is a tough slog but by the end you’ve got levels under your belt and gear you can clean up. Protip: play single classes don’t multiclass because it takes forever to level.