Best Games Ever Made: Part 3
I do have a plan for this series. Eventually, I will go on a Top 20 list, but until then, this is just a good way for me to talk about some of the best games I’ve ever played. As always, this is personal and subjective, everyone will have their own opinions!
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Dragon Age: Inquisition
The Dragon Age series has been weird for me. I didn’t play much of Dragon Age II, and Origins was a weird one. I played it and enjoyed it, but at the same time, it ground on me at the same time. Then Inquisition came out in 2014, and….I have rarely felt so torn between liking a game and disliking it. Yes, I know my series is called Best Games Ever! Man, this is awkward. I need a drink.
How would I best describe this game? Single Player MMO. It has that feel for certain. The game is MASSIVE for certain, with a lot of content. Now, I generally hate MMO’s on principle. Maybe that is because I got burned hard by ArcheAge (An MMO I did enjoy, but it is so Pay2win it just pissed me right off it, and I will never touch another game published by Trion Studios again.) A word of advice to devs. Just because you make a game free to play does NOT make it okay to force players to spend fucktons to get in on a competitive level. It drives customers away, like me.
There was really a lot of weird stuff to Inquisition. I’ve played this game for around 60-70 hours so far, and only just managed to finish it a few months ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like repeating the game again. Just too much effort, you know?
I wasn’t lying in that this game is immense. Bioware knew what they were doing at this time. (Let’s not mention Mass Effect Andromeda.) Huge amount to do, but suffers from “open world syndrome.” Many of the quests are cheap, MMO like fetch quests to me. Bioware did a lot of things right in this game, but many things were also wrong. It’s a good RPG no questions asked, but again, it’s an RPG, and summed up by the problems in such games in a nutshell. Large in scope, a good cast, the combat I enjoyed more than I thought I would, and a funny script which had me laughing throughout.
This game did make me wonder if there’s such a thing as “too big a game.” Lots of good things to do, but how much of that is fetch quests I wonder? It has some technical issues, but overall runs very well, even on my middling game rig (GTX 660M, i5 processor, and 8gb ram.) This was on my old laptop. Now on my newish one (Gtx 950M) it runs even better. It really is a Fantasy Mass Effect (obviously, its ran by the same people) and overall it’s good. Play it, try it out. You may be bogged down though. Is it the best RPG of all time? God no. I can count a dozen better options. Most of them are on my Top 10 of all time. But overall? Well worth the money, especially now it is a lot cheaper.
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Dominions 4
Now, usually, I do not like 4x games. I find the vast majority of them dull and many of them lack any compelling gameplay. There are a few exceptions, of course. Stellaris was quite an enjoyable little game from 2016 (so much so it made honorable mention on my Top 10 games of that year), and of course Civ series was pretty exceptional overall. I’m not going to talk about those, however. This time, I’d like to discuss this little gem: Dominions 4.
Now, graphics knobs (or how I would like to call them, New Age Morons) will blast this game for having archaic graphics, and okay, it is a pretty bad look. It looks like something from Medieval: Total War, but that didn’t stop it from being one of the best strategy games of all time. The graphics in Dom 4 are passable, but they get the job done. The colors are pastel blue, dun, pinkish orange and grey, and they look alright. The buildings such as temples, forts and castles are clear and actually look alright. Terrain features such as mountains, bridges, forests, marshes, rivers and buildings are shown nicely but not spectacularly, and the symbols are clear enough to get the right angle. Graphics aren’t everything, however, and this game proves it.
Do you know what this game reminds me of? A 3d Dwarf Fortress. That game is a behemoth, but it has one hell of a steep learning curve. So does Dominions 4. It’s clunky, difficult, very hard to master and there is a crapton of content all meshed in together, but there is so much depth to the combat system that it’s quite frightening. You know a game is dense when it comes with a 300 page manual! You can lose yourself for days with this game, but it takes some getting used to. It’s a massive game that requires effort, but I don’t think you can get disappointed by it. You need to put in serious hours though. It’s not a game to just step in and out of like a drunk man making love to his wife.
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The Age of Decadence
Yep, another RPG! I play them, get used to it.
This game actually hit the number 3 spot on my Top 10 of 2015. I enjoyed it that much. Now, this game isn’t for everyone. It is hard, and at times brutal. You’re no champion of warfare, or some jumped-up superhero who is a master of all trades. (Hello Skyrim! You are awesome, but man you had some flaws, this being one of them! Your combat sucks.)
This is an RPG, in much the same mold as games like Pillars of Eternity, Baldurs Gate and Planescape Torment (Possibly the greatest RPG ever made, although Divinity Original Sin 2 is one hell of a contender!) Set in a Roman-esque world, there are different factions to work for, large immersive cities, plenty of choices and plenty of believable characters. It’s virtually all text-based, so if reading isn’t your thing, you’re not going to like it.
The combat is tough. Most often you’ll be doing trial and error, and you’ll die a lot. Your character isn’t going to be some combat god, not initially anyway. Muddling through is what I found was often. It can be a turn-off, definitely. Not everybody will like this game. But I did, and it was really endearing, I found. Very solid overall, but it does not make my Top 10 RPGs. Similar in level to Inquisition, actually in my personal feelings.
Yep, only three games for this article, sorry! I’m still going through my list. A certain game from 2017 will likely go into my Top 5 of all time at this rate, so I’m still figuring out.
What are some of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below!
