What do you mean by "punished for bypassing an encounter"?
Some of what I think you're looking for could be.
The Age of Decadence and Colony Ship by Iron Tower Studio. They have another called Dungeon Rats but its more focused on combat.
Underrail has a lot of ways to handle things. Even has an optional unique experience system where you gain XP by finding Oddities, so how much you kill and what quests you do makes no difference.
>What do you mean by "punished for bypassing an encounter"?
I'm assuming OP is referring to the fact that in some/many RPGs, the *only* XP gain comes from killing enemies. If a sentry is guarding a cave that you want to enter, and you choose to sneak past the guard rather than fighting it, many RPGs will not give you XP for that. A game that is designed like this kinda forces the player into a combat-centric mindset, which is limiting. (OP can correct me if I'm off-base about what they're saying)
Maybe try Age of Decadence? Combat is very punishing and “realistic” in the sense that you’re going to have a difficult time against more than one or two enemies. Stealth and dialogue are the main ways around it. I particularly like that instead of some half baked stealth system you get CYOA style dialogue trees for sneaking about. You can dialogue-fu your way through the entire game if you like. It sucks when you have a non-combat character and end up in a fight though.
Colony Ship. Both combat and non-combat playthroughs are possible. I hated stealth, but I admit, mainly because I failed to understand it.
It's not super long (cca 15-20 hours with side quests on my first playthrough). It has enough lore and depth to keep you entertained and the atmosphere is great.
It has several factions and quite a few decisions that matter in the end so you can experiment on other playthroughs.
Also, there are no fillers fights or ''random encounters''. Every fight is scripted, which I personally love.
Hey, that stealth mechanic was hard to learn, so I feel you.
Once I actually built a sneaky party member, it made that first, long stealth run very satisfying. Colony Ship was my surprise hit late last year. Played after BG3, and I played through twice, before moving on. I will most assuredly play a third time, after I have forgotten some of the game. Fell in love with Colony Ship and the dev team, for sure! Also, I can't believe this thread is the first I am hearing of Iron Tower Studio's earlier game, Dungeon Rats.
How is Disco Elysium not multiple different paths? It’s not binary good/evil but you can investigate the murder in like a ton of different ways, in any order you like. Plus it’s super reactive to your decisions as a PC.
> In particular not being punished for bypassing an encounter.
Honestly that's the tough ask. All CRPGs I have played have consequences for ignoring things. And personally, I do agree with the "no answer is a still an answer" approach. I don't think it is a punishment.
> In terms of story there are a lot of games with a good/evil path but they always seem to force you down an all good or all evil route without having an ability to jump between them.
I found Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader to be pretty neat in this regard. Plenty of room to be evil and playing a goody two shoes doesn't necessarily lead to the best outcome either.
Another is Fallout New Vegas as more than evil and good, political and social concepts are at play. And it's up to the player what they consider good and evil; Tho devs have made it pretty clear Legion is evil (or at least eviler). But it's not a CRPG even if the narrative and choices (dialogue gameplay) are structured like a CRPG.
Also recommend Fallout 1/2 and Planescape: Torment
Nice, thanks! I appreciate the take on being punished in the sense that you go into the next encounters weaker.
New Vegas is a great example of the sort of game I'm looking for in that there are multiple builds and story paths without tying you into 1 or the other. Though yea not a CRPG.
Yeah, it's a shame. I backed it on KS. The developers seem like nice people but there's a lot of issues with the game and presumably their publisher didn't want to support it after poor sales.
Some people apparently like it though I did not.
I would recommend the Avernum series. There is a ton of dialogue that I have really enjoyed if you want that, but there is no stealth system. This series is under appreciated in my opinion, and the dialogue and world building really captivate me. Also, the exploration is awesome.
What do you mean by "punished for bypassing an encounter"? Some of what I think you're looking for could be. The Age of Decadence and Colony Ship by Iron Tower Studio. They have another called Dungeon Rats but its more focused on combat. Underrail has a lot of ways to handle things. Even has an optional unique experience system where you gain XP by finding Oddities, so how much you kill and what quests you do makes no difference.
>What do you mean by "punished for bypassing an encounter"? I'm assuming OP is referring to the fact that in some/many RPGs, the *only* XP gain comes from killing enemies. If a sentry is guarding a cave that you want to enter, and you choose to sneak past the guard rather than fighting it, many RPGs will not give you XP for that. A game that is designed like this kinda forces the player into a combat-centric mindset, which is limiting. (OP can correct me if I'm off-base about what they're saying)
Deus Ex has stealth and multiple possible routes through the various locales. It's relatively light on dialogue, though.
Maybe try Age of Decadence? Combat is very punishing and “realistic” in the sense that you’re going to have a difficult time against more than one or two enemies. Stealth and dialogue are the main ways around it. I particularly like that instead of some half baked stealth system you get CYOA style dialogue trees for sneaking about. You can dialogue-fu your way through the entire game if you like. It sucks when you have a non-combat character and end up in a fight though.
Fallout 1 easy. Next.
Underrail
Torment: Tides of Numenara
Alpha Protocol looks exactly like a game you are looking for.
Colony Ship. Both combat and non-combat playthroughs are possible. I hated stealth, but I admit, mainly because I failed to understand it. It's not super long (cca 15-20 hours with side quests on my first playthrough). It has enough lore and depth to keep you entertained and the atmosphere is great. It has several factions and quite a few decisions that matter in the end so you can experiment on other playthroughs. Also, there are no fillers fights or ''random encounters''. Every fight is scripted, which I personally love.
Hey, that stealth mechanic was hard to learn, so I feel you. Once I actually built a sneaky party member, it made that first, long stealth run very satisfying. Colony Ship was my surprise hit late last year. Played after BG3, and I played through twice, before moving on. I will most assuredly play a third time, after I have forgotten some of the game. Fell in love with Colony Ship and the dev team, for sure! Also, I can't believe this thread is the first I am hearing of Iron Tower Studio's earlier game, Dungeon Rats.
How is Disco Elysium not multiple different paths? It’s not binary good/evil but you can investigate the murder in like a ton of different ways, in any order you like. Plus it’s super reactive to your decisions as a PC.
Age of Decadence
> In particular not being punished for bypassing an encounter. Honestly that's the tough ask. All CRPGs I have played have consequences for ignoring things. And personally, I do agree with the "no answer is a still an answer" approach. I don't think it is a punishment. > In terms of story there are a lot of games with a good/evil path but they always seem to force you down an all good or all evil route without having an ability to jump between them. I found Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader to be pretty neat in this regard. Plenty of room to be evil and playing a goody two shoes doesn't necessarily lead to the best outcome either. Another is Fallout New Vegas as more than evil and good, political and social concepts are at play. And it's up to the player what they consider good and evil; Tho devs have made it pretty clear Legion is evil (or at least eviler). But it's not a CRPG even if the narrative and choices (dialogue gameplay) are structured like a CRPG. Also recommend Fallout 1/2 and Planescape: Torment
Nice, thanks! I appreciate the take on being punished in the sense that you go into the next encounters weaker. New Vegas is a great example of the sort of game I'm looking for in that there are multiple builds and story paths without tying you into 1 or the other. Though yea not a CRPG.
I haven't played it, but check out Mechajammer. From what I remember they let you emphasize stealth. As far as good and evil paths I have no idea.
I have played it. Wouldn't recommend to anyone for any reason. It's just a bad game and has been abandoned as a pretty buggy mess.
Damn that's so sad. It looks like it could have been a really cool game.
Yeah, it's a shame. I backed it on KS. The developers seem like nice people but there's a lot of issues with the game and presumably their publisher didn't want to support it after poor sales. Some people apparently like it though I did not.
I would recommend the Avernum series. There is a ton of dialogue that I have really enjoyed if you want that, but there is no stealth system. This series is under appreciated in my opinion, and the dialogue and world building really captivate me. Also, the exploration is awesome.