The Best RPG Games for PC

The Ultimate Best RPG Games for PC

Sometimes when the real world is feeling rather dull, we escape into the beautiful world of gaming. However, sometimes not just any game will do.  We want to become somebody else, someone great in a fantastical world. 

Role Playing Games are where the player assumes the role of a character and interacts with the game world through that character, often following a storyline.

Then, if that’s what you’re looking for, RPG gaming is for you. Below is a list of some of the best RPG games ever to be played on the PC master race. Get ready for some non-stop immersion.

1) The Witcher 3

The Legendary White Wolf, back to back with Cirilla.

Witcher 3 Killing Monsters Trailer

By now, everyone has heard of the Witcher 3 and it’s no surprise why. Polish game development company, CD Projekt Red have truly outdone themselves with this fantastic game. 
Your goal is to explore the world of Temeria in a deep search to find your adopted daughter, Cirilla and help her defeat the deadly legion of wraiths pursuing her, The Wild Hunt. You will encounter many important characters, each with whole stories of their own. Some will help you, some won’t. 

Take control of the legendary Witcher, Geralt of Rivia in your search to find your foster daughter, the child of prophecy. Explore the massive world of Temeria, visiting jaw-droppingly stunning real-world scale locations. Use Geralt’s keen witcher senses, magic and superhuman abilities to overcome your foes.

This Dark Fantasy RPG is packed to the rafters with detail. Each character carrying their own identity and experiences. Along with the fact that nearly all of your dialogue choices can have positive, or negative impacts on the story. It doesn’t stop there! The choices you make, be it actions like: who you kill, wether or not you help someone, or what you say to people,  will have consequences and reactions ranging from immediately evident or 10 hours or more into the game! 

The combat system is gritty and brutal and you really have to pay attention, dashing, rolling, striking, casting spells, throwing bombs, shooting crossbow bolts. It’s not as simple as ‘left click, left click, left click,  right click.’ You have to immerse yourself and get into the flow of Geralt’s monster slaying fighting style. A key combat element is the fact that you can prepare before a fight. A good example is this: You have taken a contract to kill a vampire, you can either:

⦁    Go in swords a’ slashing, guns a’ blazing’
⦁    Or you can craft bombs, poison or oil your blades, craft potions and wait till the optimal time to fight. (Seriously, never fight a vampire at night)

Geralt torching some monsters using one of his main spells, Igni

At least you don’t have to walk. Meet Roach, Geralt’s trusty steed (albeit a bit unintelligent). She will take you anywhere through the land of Temeria. Careful though, going near any monsters will make her panic and buck you off, forcing you to fight. Silly creature. The Witcher 3 map is a staggering 136 square kilometers (That’s excluding all DLC locations, mind you). Luckily there is a fast travel system, allowing you to quickly travel to further corners of the map.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has an estimated play time of at least more than 25 hours, ranging to 200 hours. It took The Witcher 3’s most experienced play tester (even armed to the teeth with exclusive knowledge that hadn’t been out yet) and it still took him over 25 hours to finish the story as fast as possible. This means that he ignored side-quests when possible and always aimed to finish the main story. 

The Side-quests, oh the side-quests. If you thought Skyrim had a lot of side-quests, you need to play The Witcher 3. There are hundreds, if not thousands of quests to do, some are short and can be finished quickly, but others actually have whole long quest chains attached to them, each loaded with as much beautiful story, action and literature as the main storyline. This is certainly very impressive.

Don’t forget to shave, or not. The Witcher 3 has an exclusive immersion feature: REAL-TIME BEARD GROWTH. Over the in-game days, weeks and months, Geralts glorious facial hair ages with you, and you have to visit a barber to keep it in check. Well, you don’t HAVE to.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is so well made that it’s really no wonder how popular it is. In the first 2 weeks of the games launch, it sold over 4 million copies. The game hadn’t even been released yet! Then the fans got what they paid for and so, so much more. 

Geralt Facing off against a Gryphon (Gryphon’s taste like chicken, right?

Here is some PC 60fps gameplay at Ultra Settings:

In conclusion, I can realistically say that this is one of the best Single player RPGs ever created. 

2) Dark Souls 3

The unkindled will burn
 

Dark Souls III Cinematic Trailer

Yes, the notorious Dark Souls franchise is back again with yet another brutally beautiful title. It’s your job to take control of The Unkindled and return the five Lords of Cinder to their thrones. It’ll take brutal battles and you’ll have to climb a mountain of corpses to emerge victoriously. So really, don’t die, we all know that Dark Souls won’t forgive you for being careless. 
 
Well, hope you like boss fights because there are a lot of them.

For those of you that don’t know about Dark Souls, come closer and listen well. Dark souls is a dark action RPG played in third-person. You, the player can equip your character with a variety of skills and weapons to defeat your enemies. Dark Souls 3 isn’t strictly open world, but rather large areas that the player can explore.

You can outfit yourself with all types of badass armor and weaponry. Or you could even just equip double claws with no helmet or chest armor. Tadaa! You are now wolverine, now go fight some reanimated corpses.

The key element to all Dark Souls games is death (fun, right?). When a player dies in a dark souls game, they receive the humiliating message in full caps lock on the screen ‘YOU DIED’. After which, you respawn at the last bonfire that you rested at. Here’s the catch, you lose all acquired souls and humanity, and human players revert into a ‘hollow’ form. So, don’t die.

The combat system is deliberate, brutal and satisfying and there are just so many weapons to choose from. Your character, pounding enemies into the ground, dancing around, spinning their blades, being a whirlwind of death. Be careful though, enemies are slightly smarter.  While it's not uncommon for an enemy to be just out of your line of sight, enemies in Dark Souls 3 will purposefully hide around corners and wait to ambush the player who has entered the vicinity.

This means that you should always look around the room before continuing.
 
The ‘Whirlwind of death’ that I mentioned earlier

Dark Souls 3 has been acclaimed to be a fitting and entirely worthy conclusion to the Dark Souls trilogy. It’s even become Bandai Namco’s fastest selling game in their history, selling over 3 million copies globally after just 2 months of its release.

Dark Souls III - Ashes of Ariandel Gameplay 

3) Divinity: Original Sin

The main cover for Divinity: Original Sin
 

Divinity PC Gameplay

Do you like beautiful colors? Do you like charming environments solid Turn-based combat? Then Divinity: Original Sin is the perfect game for you. 

Armed to the teeth with your Source Hunting skills, take control of 2 customizable characters and immerse yourself in a beautiful fantasy world. Your Source Hunters’ goal is to find practitioners of the dangerous magic ‘Source’ known as Sourcerers. 

The world of Divinity: Original sin is beautiful and well made. Vibrant colors rush out at you in every area. There are pretty effects during all the combat animations, an almost endless array of possible items to create in your inventory. These being items ranging from weapons and potions to magic starfish.

Original sin is filled with memorable characters and interesting writing, this is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. In your playthrough, you will find lots of quirky dialogues and fantastical situations. Such as a wishing well that teleports you to another dimension in the hopes that you’ll find its’ twin brother.

 
Gosh, it is quite pretty

The game boasts a slick turn-based combat system, cooperative multiplayer, and a highly interactive world. Interactive in the way that you can destroy many things, use others and even combine spells with the environment. For example, a puddle on the ground can channel electricity spells.  

Divinity: Original Sin is definitely a good option if you want a great RPG experience but want to keep it fun and quirky.

Awesome turn-based combat with pretty ability animations

Divinity: Original Sin Gameplay

 4) Divinity II: Developers Cut

Fear the blades of Divinity

Fantasy, Dragons, and Third Person Epicness. Divinity II removed the birds-eye-view camera system that they implemented in Divinity and pushed forward with a 3rd person perspective gameplay experience. However, they didn’t stop there. Ever wanted to crush your enemies while flying gloriously on the back of a roaring dragon? Well, Divinity II has some news for you. 

Divinity II’s gameplay is focused on the traditional 3rd person RPG play style, similar to World of Warcraft.

You start off as a Dragon Slayer at the end of your training and you get draconic powers as a measure to help you defeat the last remaining dragons.

Players can shift into dragons

The Developer’s cut version of the game sneakily lets you have a cheats menu by pressing F11. The cheats menu lets you give yourself any skills you want, teleport anywhere, level up, give yourself any items (including some that weren’t even in the original game) and even turn into a dragon wherever and whenever you want. There are tons of more cheats to fool around with. Oh, and you can shape-shift, Into anything. Some of these being dragons, monsters, giant insects and other fantastical creatures.

Divinity II’s world is pretty enough and has lots of nice visuals to look at. The spells and combat are done well and it’s a lot of fun.

The Developers cut trailer can be viewed here, showcasing all the cool abilities and shapeshifting properties

5) Kenshi

It's kill or be killed in Kenshi

Kenshi is quite a different type of RPG to what you’re probably used to. Or different to any type of game at that. Kenshi is a fully open world squad-based RPG. 

Kenshi, to a lot of players, has been a bit of a strange experience. That’s because it’s a game where it’s almost entirely open-ended. Players can do literally anything they want and not necessarily follow any type of linear storyline. It’s quite literally a sandbox game.

Kenshi is set in a giant desert, with an almost ‘Mad Max’ kind of feel to it, just minus the cars. The player is a samurai survivor/scavenger and can completely explore the expansive desert, visit towns, kill creatures and gather items. There are a variety of items you can find, which can help with crafting and survival. For example, Water, food and resources.

In the towns, there are NPC’s with which you can trade or hire, you can visit bars and Inns and the like. Quite an interesting feature of the game is the player damage system. A player can take damage, and realistically take a long time to get back to full health. Not only that. While healing, your individual limbs won't function as well as they heal from the damage they took. Much like the recent Fallout 4 damage system.

Overall Kenshi is an interesting experience with lots of potential, so give it a try.

A vicious melee in the desert
 

Kenshi PC Gameplay

6) Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur is a brutal, beautiful experience

Kingdoms of Amalur Cinematic Trailer

Grab your warhammer, grab your axe, and get ready for some fantastic Single-Player glory.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is one of the best Single Player RPGs ever made, winning awards left, right and center.

Take control of your fully customizable character, the Fateless One, as you delve into the world of Amalur in the Faelands. In the beginning of the game, your dead body is dumped into a pit, followed by your resurrection. However after you’re revived, you have no memory or recollection of how you died. It is your mission to find out what happened to you, what led to your death and who killed you.

The combat system is incredibly well put together and satisfying, a beautiful blend of physical attacks and magic spells. You can combine your blades with magic and poisons to decimate your enemies as well. In choosing your personal character, you get four playable races, two genders, and three class trees with 22 abilities per tree! A really nice feature is that the player begins the game in a ‘blank’ state, not having to choose a class immediately.

There is an almost endless array of weapons and items to suit up your character with, ranging from hammers, axes, swords, greatswords, daggers, and even chakrams. Better yet, you can dual wield most of those weapons as well.
Kingdoms Of Amalur isn’t open world, however, it has 5 large distinct regions to explore, each region filled with collectibles, enemies to fight, things to break and NPCs to interact with. 

Overall it’s a highly recommended well-rounded RPG, with the combat aspect of it being a main element to its’ immense playability. The story is interesting and not too confusing, but really you just want to go to the next area to bash some heads and slit some throats.

Kingdoms of Amalur Gameplay

7) Exanima

Travel down a dark path in Exanima

 

Exanima Trailer

This physics-based dungeon crawler is an incredibly interesting game. A physics-based game puts a lot of emphasis on making the experience realistic. Gravity and weight are noticeably present in most aspects of the game. The physics are attached to nearly every object in the game, even brushing gently up against a rubbish bin could make it move and topple over. 

In terms of story, it’s a little bit confusing, as you as the player have to go through multiple rooms and fight multiple enemies to find clues about yourself. It is your job to find information on your past and how you ended up in the dark and twisted situation that you’ve found yourself in. Your character is deep underground in a dungeon maze for the duration of the game, so if you like a realistic game that gives you a real sense of atmosphere and immersion, with a dark storyline , then this is the game for you. 

Exanima, as I mentioned before, is a physics-based dungeon crawler. This means that you have to pay close attention to everything you’re doing. You can move individual objects with your mouse, lift lids off of bins, move debris out of doorways and more. 

The games lighting effects are eerie and gorgeous

A really cool feature of this game is that the combat system is also physics-based. This means that the power and direction of your weapon swings are dictated by the speed and direction that you move your mouse. This makes the combat seem deliberate and slow in a very realistic way. It really shows what a sword swing would look like in real life.  Also the type of weapon (2 handed or one handed) along with its weight also influences the power of your swings, making fighting a very interesting thing.

However admittedly, when fighting you might feel like you’re playing “Medieval Drunk fighting simulator 2016”.

If you like spooky, dark dungeon crawlers, then you should give this game a try.

Exanima Gameplay

8) Windward

Fire!

Release Trailer

Ahoy mateys! There’s plunder to be had! Ever wanted to be a pirate and mess up everyone elses’ day? Then you definitely need to play Windward.

Windward is an action based Sea-battle type RPG, wherein you are given a ship to patrol the gloriously beautiful procedurally generated world. 

Being a fully procedurally generated co-op game, Windward has such great multiplayer value. The seemingly endless islands and oceans make It so much fun to play with friends, plundering villages, destroying other ships and collecting items and upgrading your own. Windward, however, does have its own single player mode, and it’s loads of fun. 

Other ships shouting obscenities at each other

Towns will ask for your assistance and you can help them, restore their economy and extract resources from them.  As you travel further and further away from your starting sea, other pirate ships will attempt to take over your captured locations. You can go back and sort them out good and proper.

If you feel like exploring a never-ending ocean on your own badass ship, then you should absolutely check out Windward.

High-level gameplay footage: 

9) Hard West

Hard West’s flashy cover

Trailer here: 

Do you feel lucky, punk? Do ya?

You’ll find yourself saying things like this to your screen in this heavily fictionalized version of the American Old West. 

Hard West is about your character suffering a tragic incident. This sets him down a path of chaos and revenge (powered by well implemented supernatural elements). 

If you have played any of the XCOM games, you will notice quite a few gameplay similarities. Hard West is in the same way, a turn-based tactical combat game, with an exploration map mode as well. Much like XCOM, the tactical gameplay of Hard West has a player starting each turn with 2 action points which can be spent on either a move or shot each. However normally firing a weapon instantly finishes the current players’ turn.

Looks like they’re trying to summon good ol’ Stan

The combat system is tense and gripping and incredibly satisfying when you emerge victorious. The game features 8 unique story-based missions/ scenarios and also has more than 40 individually designed combat based missions with a squad of 1-4 combatants. Players  can use their tactical prowess to overcome their enemies, using the environment for cover and pushing forward.

Hard West Gameplay

10) Pillars of Eternity

POE Trailer here

Kickstarter has created a masterpiece. 

Pillars of Eternity is one of the deepest most detailed fantasy RPGs made yet. It has a really interesting style, in the way that it’s a game made in 2015 but looks and plays like a game made in 1999. It’s bursting at the seams with detail and charm. The game world is beautiful and colorful, in the crazy fantasy world of Eora. 

Babies that live in Dyrwood in Eora are becoming plagued and infected by a recent occurrence in which they are turned into ‘hollowborn’ when they are born.  This means that the babies are born as soulless shells. The player comes in and discovers they are a ‘watcher’. A person gifted with the power of being able to interact with souls and see into past lives. 

In Pillars of Eternity, it’s your goal to discover why you were Gifted these powers and how to save the hollowborn infants.

Pillars of Eternity is a party-based real-time tactical RPG with a fixed isometric user interface and actually features 2D rendered backdrops in the game world. This gives it that late 90s appearance. This is a really cool feature and it gives the whole game a certain level of charm.

The charming 2D textures are a great element to the games overall feel

POE Gameplay

11) Bard's Tale

Get ready to save the world... or not
 

Bards Tale Trailer

Don’t let this game’s age or appearance fool you, for it is certainly full of fun. 

Take control of the sarcastic musician, opportunist, and adventurer, ‘The Bard’. He’s never actually ever addressed by any kind of name and is just kind of known as ‘The Bard’. He’s not interested in saving the world and is rather motivated by more noble pursuits, like coins… and cleavage…

TASTE MY BLADE AND MY MUSIC

An interesting feature of The Bard’s Tale is that the entire adventure is narrated by a rather mocking voice, who cannot stand Bard, and honestly, Bard can’t stand him. This is revealed many times as the two of them have short arguments during gameplay. 

Speaking of gameplay, Bard has plenty of weapons and magic spells that he can use to dish out loads of damage to monsters and enemies.  This game features a type of level-up system. Bard,  through his accomplishments, can get stronger and increase his skill level. The combat system is fun and satisfying, playing with all loads of ridiculous spells and physical attacks.

A screenshot with Bard showing off his skills

The Bard’s Tale also features a type of ‘choice’ system in dialogue events, known as ‘snarky’ or ‘nice’, meaning that you can choose to reply to someone with a snarky or rude comment or a nice one.

Bards Tale Gameplay

12) Baldurs Gate: Enhanced Edition

Baldurs Gate Cinematic

Set in the mysterious forgotten Realms on the continent Faerun. The characters travel the countryside of this continent and can explore various towns, forests, dungeons, dilapidated castles and even mines. 

The centering goal, besides running around, eager to explore every nook and cranny of the Baldur’s gate world is to find out the character’s own ancestry and history, which until playing has been unknown. Along with tracking down and defeating the evil chaotic fighter known as Sarevok, the main antagonist.

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is a remake of the RPG Baldur’s gate in 2012. It’s actually more than just a remake and there are quite large and clear differences between the Enhanced Edition and the Original game.  Major improvements in the game include higher resolutions than the original along with new viewing modes to enhance the gameplay, Along with a higher level cap and more challenging enemies. 

The game features character creation elements such as races, different classes, alignment, abilities, and skills. The combat is strategic and intelligent, forcing the player to really take thought and care with every move they make. As the game progresses, the player discovers new and more powerful equipment and magic, and can recruit a party of up to six characters.

Screenshot taken from the Baldurs Gate: Enhanced Edition
 

13) Baldurs Gate 2: Enhanced Edition

Travel to the land of the Baldurs Gate

Baldurs Gate II trailer

Of course another Baldur’s gate had to be added to the list, this is a list of the best PC RPGs isn’t it?

Baldur’s gate II: Enhanced edition is a direct sequel to Baldur’s Gate 1. The story follows on shortly after the events of the last game and then continues the story with the same protagonist: Gorion’s Ward.

The gameplay is quite similar to that of the original Baldur’s gate game and is, of course, loads of fun. The main quest chain takes over 60 hours! Then, the full game, including all side quests and DLCs consists of over 300 hours- worth of gameplay. If you have a huge amount of time on your hands and love RPGs like Baldur’s gate, you have to give this a try.

This remake was developed by Overhaul games and was published by Atari. The Enhanced edition has the entirety of the original game plus tons of extra content and expansions, plus it’s running on a new graphics engine; the Infinity Engine.

Hey jim, jump!

Baldurs Gate II Gameplay

14) Torment: Tides of Numenera

What dies one life matter?

Tides of Numenera Trailer

Torment: Tides of Numenera is set in the distant future. The constant rise and fall and war between civilizations have set the Earth back several years, leaving it in an almost medieval-like state and time. Humanity is scattered, living in small towns and settlements.

Magic is said to be a science that humanity has not yet fully understood. The world of Numenera  is filled with magic and mystery, beyond that of human comprehension, magic helped create the world that humanity stands upon.

This game is a wonderful hybrid of games comprised of elements from Pillars of Eternity and Planescape: Torment.

Please let me in, sir

The player, the Last Castoff is being hunted down by a vengeful angel. This threat of personal oblivion sets you on a path to survive. You will find many enemies and allies along the way to help you on your quest. 

The gameplay has many creative elements to it and is actually very pretty to look at. The world is rendered in an isometric 2.5d environment, making for a pleasant viewing experience.

15) Planescape: Torment

The cover for Planescape Torment

A hero that does not want to save the world. A hero that wants to die. Yes, this is unusual for any game so far. The story takes place in Sigil, a mystical city in the middle of an infinite multiverse. This setting contains various planes of existence. This can result in strange events, odd creatures that change all the time and even deities are said to inhabit these planes.

Planescape: Torment is primarily story-driven and combat is interestingly not prominent. The game rather relies on its excellent mechanics and really good story writing than combat elements.

A screenshot taken from Planescape: Torment

You take on the role as the ‘Nameless One’. This character is an immortal entity that has lived through many lives but has unfortunately forgotten all about them. This memory loss includes his own name and identity. Hence ‘the Nameless One’. The game's story focuses on the Nameless One’s exploration through the city of ‘Sigil’ and other lands to try and recover his precious memories.

Planescape Gameplay

16) System Shock: Enhanced Edition

Get ready to shock your system

System Shock Trailer

System Shock is a cyber-themed RPG. A large corporation called Troptimum Corporation is suspiciously involved with illegal and questionable experiments which arouse the curiosity of our main character. Take control of a hacker with no name, a notorious cyber-ninja that was caught while trying to these access sensitive files concerning ‘Citadel Station’. He’s then caught and brought to Citadel Station, where most of the game takes place. You are put into a coma, induced by an operation with neural implants. You wake to find the whole space-station being hostile and you have to fight through the station.

System Shock (1994) was a first person shooter in a 3D environment. The plot is set inside a large mysterious space station with multiple levels, allowing the players to explore, fight enemies, collect items and solve puzzles. The game is actually non-linear and the player is given a satisfying degree of freedom, employing the use of ‘emergent’ gameplay. (This means that situations in the game’s storyline are more often activated by the player mucking about, pressing buttons and things.)

The Enhanced Edition has a higher resolution option

The gameplay involves the player using the freely movable mouse cursor to shoot their equipped weapons and to interact with objects in-game. There are view and posture controls present on the HUD, allowing the player to choose between: lean left, lean right, take cover, crawl and to navigate the passages. The player can explore the areas and shoot their enemies, whilst looking for items to help them on their way.

The Enhanced Edition of System Shock makes the gameplay a little more user friendly. It adds better movement and a proper mouse-look feature, along with higher resolutions for a crisper experience. System Shock: Enhanced Edition came out in 2015 and was well received. 

System Shock Gameplay

17) System Shock 2

The official System Shock 2 cover

System Shock 2 trailer 

The original System Shock was popular enough to warrant the creation of a sequel, System Shock 2. This is a first person shooter survival-horror game. Similar to its predecessor, it has familiar gameplay elements with new features thrown in.  Their gameplay was designed as a standard First-person shooter, but they added in character customization and a player development system, a breakthrough for  modern day RPGs.

The player can use melee attacks and equip weapons to defeat their enemies. The player can also make use of hacking skills and psionic abilities.

Screenshot of the more refined FPS gameplay

The game’s story takes place aboard a large starship in the year 2114. The player takes control of a soldier that’s attempting to slow down or stop an outbreak of an infection that has plagued the entire ship. You awaken in the beginning of the game  from cryo-sleep with amnesia. You soon realize that you were implanted with an illegal cyber-neural interface. You then explore the ship, finding allies and fighting enemies.

18) Darkest Dungeon

Don't drop your torch in Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon Trailer

We have another Dungeon Crawler here, but it’s completely unlike Exanima.

Darkest Dungeon is a 2D scroller RPG developed by Red Hook Studios. The player can control a group of heroes to explore the eerie dungeons that are located below a gothic mansion that the player’s character lives in. The player inherited the estate from a relative who had unearthed portals to creepy dimensions, which lead to the release of deadly creatures into the world. Your relative then took his own life, leaving the house to you, along with the delightful task of dealing with those monsters in the estate.

The gameplay has an interesting but fun mixture of real-time character movement and turn-based combat. This makes the gameplay feel more fluid, but still keeps it rooted in classical turn-based strategy. 

A screenshot of the Darkest Dungeon gameplay

Darkest Dungeon has a unique feature that makes its gameplay stand out from other RPGs quite interestingly. The player’s characters each have individual stress levels. This means that a character that is extremely stressed can actually become afflicted by it, resulting in the hampering of their performance as a Dungeon Explorer.

Strap in, and prepare for some tough dungeon adventures.

Chop, chop
 

Official gameplay playthrough 

19) Rebel Galaxy

See that ship? Yeah you can blow it up.
 

Official Rebel Galaxy Trailer

This intergalactic space trading and combat simulator is that good dose of intellectual science-fiction adventure you are looking for.
You might be seeing some similarities in this game to No Man’s Sky, however, it’s not quite on that level. The game features space trading and combat in a randomly generated universe, much like the aforementioned No Man’s Sky.

However, it’s not as big and doesn’t play in the same way.

Rebel Galaxy has heavy focus on the space combat, and you’ll notice that throughout most of your gameplay you’re in the middle of raging space battles. Which, by the way, is incredibly satisfying. You have a huge amount of ships to choose from and a ton of weapons and weapon types. This makes for fun customization and the satisfaction of making a beastly war machine. 

Screenshot of an intense space battle

The generated universe gives you the feeling that the universe is large. Even though it’s not as big as the actual universe, it’s still impressive.

There is much freedom when it comes to your activities. There are main quests for you to do but it is very easy to become side-tracked. There are lots of side-missions to do and of course, there’s the whole trading system. A great feature of Rebel Galaxy is that the money system is completely dynamic. Prices can change daily based on the galactic economy and you can have some influence on it with your actions; attacking cargo ships, etc.

Rebel Galaxy Gameplay

20) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Dragonborn looks on

Skyrim Official Trailer

It would impossible to make a top RPG games list and exclude Skyrim. That would be almost sacrilegious. 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the greatest Open-World RPGs ever made. Bethesda’s massive open-world game has earned a special place in gamers’ hearts around the world.

Skyrim starts with the player being taken to their execution, which is interrupted by a dragon attack. This allows you to escape and begin your adventures in Skyrim. There is a main storyline but we all know that Skyrim is one of the most non-linear games to ever play. Whether it’s getting a job as a lumberjack, becoming a werewolf, fighting dragons, joining alliances, buying houses or kicking chickens. 

Skyrim’s combat system is immersive and fun, with the player being able to be pretty much any kind of warrior they want, with an enormous array of weaponry and magic spells. You can even fight with a spell in one hand, and steel in the other, and having a ghost wolf familiar chomping upon your enemies. 

Skyrim also features a detailed character development system and players are able to level up a large variety of skills.

Screenshot of Skyrim with Ultra Graphics settings

Skyrim Ultra Settings Gameplay

21) Fallout: New Vegas

You wish you could look this cool

Official E3 Trailer

Fallout New Vegas is the slightly less-known but no less excellent title to the fallout franchise. 

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic open-world in what would be California. The player assumes the role of a character named ‘Courier 6’. This character is as you would guess, a courier, that was supposed to take an unknown package across a desert to the New Vegas area. However, you are soon attacked and left for dead. Fortunately, you are saved by a doctor and start your journey to track down your murderer.

Fallout: New Vegas’ combat system features the cool V.A.T.S, or “Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System”. This allows the player to slow down time and target an enemy’s individual body parts before firing with accuracy. This makes for incredibly satisfying kills and is often accented with dashes of slow motion showing the damage done to the enemy.

Fallout New Vegas features a third person and also a first-person perspective. Both camera settings featuring a ‘fine aim’ or ‘aim down the sights’ action for that accurate sniping. 

Screenshot of a satisfying kill in Fallout New Vegas

One of the more unique features of Fallout New Vegas is the newly implemented weapon modification system, allowing the player to buy or scavenge goods and parts and create some pretty impressive weaponry.

22) Fallout 4

Official Fallout 4 cover

Official fallout 4 trailer

Bethesda might be dominating this list but it’s certainly for good reason. Their latest addition to the Fallout franchise took the world by storm. 

Fallout 4 takes place in the post-apocalyptic world of Boston. The game begins with you living at home with your wife/husband and your child Shaun. Suddenly there are multiple reports of nuclear detonations, and you rush your family into a vault to protect yourselves. However, you 3 are put into Cryo-sleep, when you wake up you can see your wife being killed and your baby being kidnapped. When you escape, it’s your mission to fight through the post-apocalyptic world to find your son.

Someone inside a suit of Power Armor

In Fallout 4, the year is 2287. You can make allies, enemies, collect such an incredibly large amount of items and endlessly search for fusion cores for your power armor. 

The gameplay could be described as similar to Skyrim, but in a post-apocalypse setting with lots of guns, radiation and strange creatures trying to kill you. It’s played in a first-person or 3rd-person perspective and is in a completely open world. The player’s experience is very open ended and they can do whatever they wish. 

They can even leave a conversation at any time, how rude. The game features a new layered Armor system, base/area construction and a new type of dynamic dialogue system of over 111,000 lines. Obviously, the crafting system remains intact, but here’s where the crafting gets interesting. The crafting element implements every single lootable object in the game. You can even make a gun that shoots junk and teddy bears!

Fallout 4 is actually the first game in the series that has a fully voiced protagonist. 

Fallout 4 Gameplay

23) Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age Origins cover

Dragon Age Cinematic

Set in the fantasy kingdom of Ferelden, take control of the Grey Warden character. A Grey Warden is part of an order of elite fighters. You are tasked with defeating the Archdemon in the form of a powerful dragon. The demon controls what is known as the Darkspawn which are invading the world.

Dragon Age: Origins is played in 3rd person, but it also features a top-down perspective. 

During your playthrough, you will find various companions, each with their own unique set of skills, they also play large roles in the game’s plot.

Please don’t eat me

Characters are allowed to create their own character and customize them fully. This includes race, gender, and class. There are Warriors, rogues, and mages. Then the races are Human, Dwarves, and Elves. Your choice of race and class will determine 1 of 6 game stories that the player experiences. 

You will encounter many enemies, monsters like giant spiders, dragons and even walking trees. Luckily the player can switch between characters in their party and can issue orders to them in real-time, putting some Real-time strategy elements into the game.

Dance formation, go!

Dragon Age Origins gameplay 

24) Dragon Age 2

Dragon age 2 cover art

Dragon Age 2 Trailer

Dragon Age 2 is set in the same world as the previously mentioned Dragon Age: Origins.

Dragon Age 2 has you playing the role of a character named Hawke, a human, and can choose their class, gender, appearance and can choose their given name. The combat specialities are similar to that of Dragon Age Origins; Warrior, Rogue, and a Mage.

Magic looks like fun, doesn’t it?

You start out in the city of Kirkwall as a lowly refugee who climbs the ranks and becomes a legendary champion. The Story begins with a former partner of Hawke, the ‘Champion of Kirkwall’ being brought in for interrogation. His interrogator is trying to figure out whether or not Hawke was responsible for starting a war between the mages and Templars.

Much like Dragon Age Origins, the player isn’t restricted to just playing as the main protagonist, and can switch between allies in their party. Each, of course with their own skills and assets.

Dragon Age 2 Gameplay

25) Dragon Age: Inquisition

The flashy cover of Dragon Age Inquisition

Dragon Age Inquisiton Trailer

The Dragon Age games are on this list for good reason, trust me. 

Like the other 2 games, in each one, the player takes the role of a different type of character. Dragon Age Origins gave you the Grey Warden, Dragon Age 2 gave you Hawke the Human, and Dragon Age: Inquisition gives you the role of a character called The Inquisitor. Of course, there is character customization, featuring different races and classes again.

As the inquisitor, you embark on a journey to repair the civil unrest currently present on the continent ‘Thedas’. Oh, you also have to find a way to close a gaping hole in the sky, called ‘the breach’. The Breach spews forth all manner of monstrous creatures and demons that wreak havoc upon the world. Come now, get to work.

The Inquisitor is known to some characters as ‘the chosen one’ due to the mark found on his hand, which power allows him or to close the breach. It’s your job to play the role of Inquisitor and close the Breach that is causing demons to enter our world.

Gameplay-wise, it’s quite similar to the previous Dragon Age games, if only more refined and with absolutely beautiful magical spells and gore effects. The player can go on side-quests, interact with NPCs and do the main story.

A cool feature of this game is that as the inquisitor, you can ‘judge’ people based on their actions and behaviors and decide their fate.

Ultra Graphics Gameplay

26) Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Stylish Cyborg Adam Jensen

Deus Ex Human Revolution Trailer

Square-Enix’s awesome Cyberpunk game of 2011 was something fresh and awesome in the gaming world.

The year is 2027. And you play the role of badass Adam Jensen, a cyborg on a path for revenge and answers.

The gameplay features a great character development system, with which you can upgrade tons of aspects of Jensen’s cybernetically enhanced body. He can become invisible, see through walls, extend blades from his wrists, punch through walls, jump really high, lift incredibly heavy objects and much more.

Adam Jensen was a security manager at Sarif industries. While walking through the Sarif Industries building, escorting his girlfriend, they were attacked by cyborgs. Jensen’s girlfriend is presumed dead, while he himself has to undergo extreme medical and cybernetic surgery in order to save his life. Jenson afterward embarks on a mission to find out who did this, and he wasn’t intending on holding back.

The missions are fun to play as there are a variety of ways one can approach their objective. The game gives you an objective, and it is up to you to achieve it in any manner you wish. They can go in guns blazing, or adopt a stealthier approach, for example hack a panel to make the alarm go off and use the confusion to slip past, and many more options.

Deus Ex mankind Divided is a great expansion of the ideas set by Human Revolution, allowing for great exploration of the new setting.

Jensen takes cover from being attacked by a battle robot

Deus Ex Gameplay

27) Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Still has the stylish shades

Mankind Divided Trailer

Just look at the stunning new Deus Ex game. A sequel of the first game and it's coming back with a boom. I've watched the trailers multiple times. They are stunningly well crafted. The new trailers and gameplay reveals have shown tons of new abilities, gameplay mechanics, improved graphics, characters and much more.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided is a direct sequel to the Human Revolution and set in the year 2029, which is two years after the events of Human Revolution, along with the "Incidents". This was an occurrence in which cybernetically augmented humans became uncontrollable and brutally violent; thus killing friends and loved ones. 

Unbeknownst to the public, the affected augmented had received implanted technology designed to control them by the elusive Illuminati. The Illuminati successfully manage to hide the truth behind rumors and disinformation. 

However, the augmented humans are now being outcast and mistreated and are moving into a new age of 'Mechanical Apartheid.' In Mankind Divided, you take control of Adam Jensen and confront the Illuminati to try and stop their chaotic games.

Jensen, an angel of death

E3 Playthrough

28) Grim Dawn

If the cover image has decapitation on it, you know it'll be good
 

Grim Dawn Trailer

Grim Dawn is claimed to be one of the best ARPGs (Action Role Playing Game) ever made. While it’s still a young game, having been out only in February 2016, it’s still made its mark proudly in RPG history. 

Grim Dawn takes place a world called Cairn, a place where an empire was run to ruin and the human race is now on the brink of extinction. There are two otherworldy superpowers fighting over Cairn. The Aetherials and the Chthonians.

One of them wants to use human bodies as a resource, and the other wants to destroy humanity before that can even happen.

Zombies?? Noooo

Grim Dawn's gameplay focuses much on fast-paced combat, and other traditional RPG elements, such as character development, looting, crafting, collecting money, armor and weapons. The game features a good physics engine and glorious moments of enemy dismemberment. Grim Dawn also has a Factions System.

Grim Dawn gameplay

29) Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord

 
The Lords of Banners will reign

Bannerlord Trailer

Mount and Blade II is a glory-stained medieval action RPG. 

Bannerlord is a prequel to Mount and Blade: Warband. It takes place during the Calradian Empires decline, and the beginning of the kingdoms that appear in Bannerlords’ predecessors. Its items, armor, weaponry, architecture and fighting styles will be similar to that of historical times between 600 and 1100 A.D.

Mount & Blade II Bannerlord will feature glorious brutal combat, exploration and sieges.

The sieges are a key element to Mount and Blade II's gameplay, players can participate in the siege of a castle or encampment with legions of soldiers and siege weapons like ballista and slingshots.

Bannerlord also comes complete with a faction system, holding at least 6 major factions, each with their own identity, motives, and goals. As well as minor factions, like mercenaries.

A fierce battle is ensuing

Mount and Blade Gameplay

30) Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s official cover

Kingdom Come: Deliverance Trailer

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an upcoming medieval action RPG. Don’t worry, it’s certainly not the same as the aforementioned Bannerlord. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be a single-player experience with branching quest lines and a highly interactive world encouraging emergent gameplay (This means there isn’t really a direct way to continue the game, the player has to discover the next step themselves.)  There is some emphasis on crafting and levelling up your various skills. You can essentially attempt to create the ultimate medieval human being, and look damn good while doing it. 

This game is intended to actually be historically accurate and features real-life full-scale castles and locations for the player to explore and look at. As a special feature, it will have period music that was recorded by Czech music masters that were actually taken directly from old medieval song books.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is clearly intended to be an immersive experience, making the player in absolute control. A product of this is the fact that it’s a completely classless Role-playing system, allowing players to develop their character in their own way. Their abilities and traits emerge and grow depending on the type of things the player does.

Kingdom Come Gameplay

31) Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

Dark Arisen Cover art

Dark Arisen Trailer

A dragon advances upon the hero of the story, but then tells them that they are the chosen one… then proceeds to rip your heart from your body. This results in you being revived as an ‘arisen’ and you are now destined to kill the dragon that stole your heart.  

Dragon’s Dogma is another ARPG. One of the good open world ones. This high fantasy piece of beautiful art is filled with traditional RPG elements, along with a good old fashioned hack and slash feel to   the play-style. 

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen is an expansion pack of Dragon’s Dogma (Original). The expansion pack features new locations, new items, more character customization options and adds a solid 15 to 20 hours of extra gameplay. This gameplay includes all sorts of quests, stuff to find and exploration value. Dark Arisen also obviously features the full length of the original game, with the new components added on.

Magic always seems a tad unfair

The player is allowed to choose between classes and gender when creating their character. Classes include: Fighter, Strider, Mage, Warrior, Mystic, Knight, Ranger, Assassin, Sorcerer, and Magic Archer. As you can see, Dragon’s Dogma features a whole lot of different ways to play the game just from the long list of playable classes. 

An Interesting feature of this game is the ‘pawn’ system. Throughout the game’s duration, the player is accompanied by companions called ‘pawns’. The 3 party members are controlled by AI, but the player can also issue orders to them in real-time. You can tell them to go to locations, come to you, and to give you battle assistance. Similar to Dragon Age, actually.

Dark Arisen Gameplay

32) Path of Exile

The Path of Exile Logo

Path of Exile Trailer

Path of Exile is a dark fantasy top-down view combat RPG. Watching or playing the game should give you a kind of ‘Diablo’ feeling. 

The player controls a single character that they can develop and level up. They can explore large outdoor areas, as well as dungeons and caves. The game starts with the player wake up on the shores of ‘Wraeclast’. Home to a once prosperous empire, now turned cursed land, when crawling with criminals and other obscenities.

The player is here because they have been exiled. The player must now face mountains of challenges, go against the dangerous wilderness and fight monsters and enemies.

Arrows, Swords, Magic, gore, perfect

The player can choose from a variety to classes to suit their playstyle. These include: Duelist, Marauder, Ranger, Shadow, Templar, and Witch. The game supports multiplayer and has a really high replay and exploration value due to its randomly generated areas. The monsters are procedurally generated and will give constantly give players new exciting battles.

The combat system is fast paced, beautiful and incredibly satisfying. There is heavy use of magic and flashy abilities tied with the quick use of your melee weapons.

Path of Exile Gameplay

33) Diablo 3 

One of the Diablo III covers

I mentioned Diablo a couple times in Path of Exile because of the similarities in gameplay. Well, here’s Diablo for you to see for yourself. Although, I’ll admit that it’s near impossible for one to decide which is better. Just play them both. 

Diablo III is an Action RPG set in a dark fantasy world. Much like other RPGs, there is a class system and a character development system. The classes that Diablo 3 offers are: Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor and Wizard.

I'd love to jump into that skirmish

The story launches you into a world of turmoil and darkness. The player is tasked with the ultimate mission of defeating the powerful Lord of Terror, Diablo. Of course before you reach him there will be a multitude of bosses to fight before, some of these include: Humans, astral guardians, skeleton lords, shadow weavers and man more.

A kind of trademark feature of Diablo games is that the attributes on equipment are actually randomized. Along with base stats (attack speed, damage, etc.) 

34) Borderlands 2

The cool Borderlands 2 Cover

Borderlands 2 gameplay

Borderlands 2 is a first-person-shooter  RPG set in an open world environment.  

Set as a sequel to the events of Borderlands 1, the player is on the planet Pandora. The player is then allowed to take control of 4 characters in the game: Axton, Maya, Salvador, and Zer0. Each with their own skills, traits and abilities. 

The story introduces the player to the characters they will be able to take control of. Shortly after the beginning of the game, the villain is revealed. His name is Handsome Jack, the president of the Hyperion Corporation. Jack wants to take control of Pandora and rule it in absolution. It’s your job to play as the 4 new vault hunters to stop him.

Bathe your enemies in glorious firepower

The gameplay is quite similar to that of Borderlands 1. Allowing you to follow the main story but also explore areas, fight enemies, and go mad with the collection of randomly generated loot. The aforementioned characters not only have their traits and abilities, but they are also each featuring a combat class type. Axton is a commando, can summon a powerful turret to mow down his enemies. Maya the ‘siren’ can trap enemies in a ball of energy for a couple seconds.

Salvador is called a Gunzerker and can dual wield weapons.  Then you get the crafty Zer0, an Assassin. He can become invisible and spawn a hologram decoy to distract his enemies.

All in all it’s a fun play experience, and I might add that the cell-shaded graphics give the game an element of character.

35) Victor Vran

Victor Vran will mess you up

Victor Vran Story Trailer

If you ever feel like a spot of Demon Hunting, Victor Vran is the game for you.

Victor Vran is a Gothic-fantasy ARPG. The world is dark and eerie, and filled with places to explore, things to collect and enemies to fight. The player assumes the role of the Demon Hunter known as Victor Vran. This character is somewhat of a classless character, allowing the player to develop and mould them to suit their playstyle. Whether you like to mash enemy heads with your hands and swords, or like to decimate them from a distance or do both, it’s your choice.

Victor Vran obviously features the traditional elements of an RPG; you can craft items and level up your characters. The world is made up of a few large areas that you can teleport to and you can explore them. 

A feature that might not seem that unique, actually is. In Victor Vran, which is a Diablo style ARPG, you can jump. Very uncommon in the genre, but it’s one of the main features present in the game. The jump and roll features assist with your combat and traversing large gaps and help you explore areas. It’s also a key element to the puzzle-solving elements found in the game as well.

Now, let’s get into the fun part.

Wahey, look at him go

The combat system is wildly entertaining and over the top. Victor can run, dash and roll around the battlefield, slicing and shooting away at his enemies. The game features a great combo system where you can rack up lots of moves and execute explosive and devastating finishers.

Victor Vran Gameplay

36) Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide

The unusual type of Warhammer cover featured in Vermintide

Vermintide Cinematic Trailer

Vermintide takes the world of Warhammer on a dark, brutal ride, filled with blood, gore, brutality and fear. 

The world of Vermintide is a Dark Fantasy first-person experience set in a medieval/steampunk themed environment. The game is multiplayer only, which obviously makes it great to play with friends. 

The player is allowed to play as five different heroes, each their own class. This encourages teamwork and each player can play a critical role when being swarmed by enemies. The characters are a Witch Hunter, Empire Soldier, Dwarf Ranger, Waywatcher, and Bright Wizard. Some are proficient in melee combat, some are ranged and some can even cast devastating magical spells.

You’ll find during gameplay it might remind you of Left 4 Dead slightly. You are in an apocalyptic environment and are swarmed with enemies. All while trying to stay alive, to protect your allies, and to get to the objective.

The enemies in question are mutated humanoid rat creatures, the Skaven.  Each hell bent on gnawing at your bones and organs. You obviously don’t want this to happen.

Beautifully brutal combat

The combat is one of the best melee/ranged first-person games out there. It’s immersive and purely brutal. Each character and each weapon is tailored perfectly for its job. The witch Hunter for example wields rapid fire pistols and a rapier, making them a quick slice-and-dice character, quickly dishing out damage with deadly precision.

Then you’d have something like the bright wizard, who’s able to completely immolate hordes of enemies with fire magic. 

They’d better move, seriously

Vermintide Gameplay

37) Torchlight II

Get ready to be immersed in this colorful world

Torchlight II Trailer

A beautiful direct sequel to the first Torchlight game, Torchlight II takes successful elements from the first game then refines and expands on them. For example, Torchlight II also features procedurally generated dungeons that the player can run through and explore. However, Torchlight II has a longer storyline, town hubs to explore and overland areas for the player to explore thoroughly. Torchlight II has also implemented 4 new class types. 

A new feature to the game series is that this game has a day-night cycle, and new weather effects unlike the first game.  

Just look at those colours

Players can customize their race, gender, faces, hair styles, hair colors and of course class. These classes consist of:

• Engineer – A heavy melee fighter that can use steampunk technology in battle
• Outlander- A ranged weapon and low magic user
• Berzerker- A brutal fighter with quick, powerful attacks and can use animal themed special abilities
• Embermage- A Highly specialized wizard that can cast elemental spells and inflict massive AOE damage

Well, we must be on our way

Oh, I should probably mention that you can have pets. Adorable dogs and such. They even have basic customisation options.

Torchlight II gameplay

38) LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII

Don't blink

Lightning Returns Trailer Cinematic

The Final Fantasy games are absolute legends in the world of beautifully crafted RPG games, so it’s no surprise that at least 1 game had to make it to this list. 

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is the perfect conclusion to the Final Fantasy XIII series, with an intuitive turn-based combat system that kind of mixes in some real time elements in with the turn-based structure. 

The story takes place 500 years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII – 2. Lightning awakens from a cryogenic sleep just 2 weeks before the worlds end, she is then chosen by the god Bhunivelze to protect the people from the dying planet. 

The gameplay as mentioned before remains true to traditional Final Fantasy Elements, featuring areas to explore and people to interact with, Still keeping in touch with core turn-based combat while trying to add in new features. One of these is the evasion system, wherein Lightning can evade attacks directly instead of taking them head on. 

Lightning nimbly dancing around the battlefield.

Due to unstable energies and the worlds end drawing closer day-by-day, enemies and monsters grow in strength and power day-by-day so make sure to keep Lightning’s skills at their strongest.

Lightning Returns Gameplay

39) Titan Quest

Embody the death of the titans

Titan Quest Trailer

Jump in to the world of Titan Quest, hacking and slashing your way to victory. 

This is a Diablo-style hack and slash Action RPG set in Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Asia.

The story goes as follows: Zeus the almighty god of Lightning had imprisoned the other evil Gods, like Medusa, Hades, Typhon and more. Then they abruptly escape and go on a rampage, leaving you, the player, to clean up the mess and take them down. 

Burn baby, burn

Players take control of their character and can choose their character’s gender, name and the color of their tunics. The gameplay is a click and point system with the actual combat abilities mapped to the keyboard buttons. The player can gain abilities, loot items and level up their hero until they’re a walking powerhouse of destruction. 

The map is dark in places that are still unexplored in a kind of ‘fog of war’ effect, similar to Warcraft 3. There are numerous creatures for the player to fight, some of these include: Hydra like creatures called Lernean Hydra’s, Bats, Cyclops, Mummies, Zombies, Wraiths and more.

Titan Quest Gameplay

40) The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

Van Helsing, the Legendary Vampire Hunter

Van Helsing Launch Trailer

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is set in the story of Brad Stoker’s Dracula and a similar world to that book in a dark and twisted 19th century Europe. 

You take control of the legendary vampire hunter, Van Helsing  in the gothic-noir Kingdom of Borgovia. The maps and world are littered with scientific mishaps in the form of deadly monsters that Van Helsing can face and destroy. The overall feeling of the scenery is dark and tainted. 

Zip, zapp!

The combat system is colorful and brutal. Van Helsing can take on hordes of enemies at once and finish them with glorious ease. The combat is fast and precise, making for a great play experience.

The graphics are smooth and beautiful and even though its dark and gloomy, you will still find yourself taking time to admire the scenery. The special effects during combat sequences and fierce battles looks stunningly beautiful and you might find yourself wanting to find a fight just so you can look at how satisfyingly great it looks. 

Van Helsing Gameplay

41) Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition 

Great official artwork

Official Release Trailer: 

Have you ever wanted to be the Grim Reaper, Death Himself? Do you like hack and slash RPGs that allow you to do awesome things right from the first minute of your playtime? If so, Darksiders II is the game for you.

Darksiders 2 is an incredibly fun, incredibly fast, incredibly brutal RPG experience. In this game, the player takes control of Death. That’s right, Death.  One of the legendary Horsemen of the Apocalypse. 

The story is set in the Darksiders world. Death’s brother, War is convicted of crimes that Death is sure he’s innocent. Death sets out to prove his brother isn’t guilty. Diving into a world of turmoil.

The gameplay boasts large maps in a semi open-world environment, filled with puzzles to solve, enemies to destroy and items to collect. You can explore these large regions on foot or with the trusty accompaniment of your death horse, Despair.

Despair can be summoned instantly at any given time when you’re out doors and can be banished just as quickly. The combat is one of the main focuses of this game. It’s incredibly fast and very fun. Death is a very quick and powerful warrior, dishing out loads of damage and racking up ridiculously high combos in seconds. There are also a ton of weapons to choose from, each with their own attributes. 

Death about to face off against an enemy

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is an upgraded version of the original Darksiders II game. It’s an upgrade to accommodate for the move to the new generation of graphics cards and consoles. It features an entirely rewritten graphics renderer and enhanced lighting. Along with higher resolutions and HD texture packs. Along with every single piece of DLC that is available, including armor and weapons.

Here’s some combat gameplay: 

42) Hand of Fate

"Is this your card?"

Official Hand of Fate launch Trailer: 

Hand of Fate is a rather interesting RPG. It operates in a way that’s quite different to most RPGs.

It plays like dungeons and dragons, where a card tells you what happens next. For example: ‘a tree falls into your pathway, you are ambushed and have to fight your way out’ but then the game launches you into a proper battle in those situations. 

The player assumes the role of a hero with no name. This character meets a mysterious card dealer in a cabin in the woods. The dealer takes the role as the game’s narrator. 

Back, foul creature!

In the beginning, the player is gifted a deck of cards, containing items, weapons, hero class and encounter cards. The aim of the game is to progress and to earn more cards by playing the game. You can customize your deck and in turn customize your experience. Then you’ll soon discover that the dealer has his own deck of cards which he can use to make the game more interesting, like throwing out more challenging encounters at you, etc.

Hand of Fate is a pleasant mix of board game and cards, with some classic 3D RPG gameplay integrated in.

Hand of Fate PC Gameplay

43) Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition 

Fear the wrath of Talion 

Game of the Year trailer

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, also known as ‘The Lord of The Rings game we always wanted.’ Shadow of Mordor was hyped up, and it surpassed the hype! No disappointment or shortcomings whatsoever. 

Shadow of Mordor takes place in between the story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It’s a wildly entertaining  fully open-world action RPG. The Game of The Year Edition comes packed with tons of cool stuff. This includes an array of skins like: The Dark Ranger, The Lord of the Hunt, The Bright Lord and more. There are new runes added, tons of missions, challenge modes, and 2 whole new story packs. Not to mention the Oh so glorious camera mode, complete with 360 viewing angles, depth of field options and even filters.

The gameplay of Shadow of Mordor is brilliant. You take control of the ranger Talion, who is bonded with a wraith, thus granting him supernatural powers. Using his ranger skills and wraith powers you can run at superhuman speeds, teleport large distances, fire wraith arrows, blast enemies with wraith energy, use stealth to expertly kill or brutalize your enemies. Talion can be upgraded hugely and has a ton of abilities he can learn.

A key part to Shadow of Mordor Combat is the amount of brutal finishers

A key feature to this game, is that every single orc NPC has their own identity, rank and relationships. They will each remember encounters with you and can rank-up in their system as the game progresses
I highly recommend this game if you’re looking for stunning visuals and smooth, fast 3rd person adventure.

Shadow of Mordor Gameplay

44) Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect2  Digital Deluxe edition Image

Mass Effect 2 Launch Trailer

The Mass Effect series is revered with massive respect in the action RPG world. 

Mass Effect 2 is a direct sequel to the first Action Sci-Fi Mass Effect game and expands on the original gameplay elements. It’s set in the Milky way galaxy somewhere during the 22nd century. Humanity is under attack by an insect-like race of aliens known as ‘The Collectors’.  It’s your job as the player to take the role of Commander Shephard, a high-class elite human soldier and build a diverse team of warriors to combat the enemy in your mission. 

Shephard, perhaps go around

The gameplay focuses much on a good 3rd person shooter experience, with the player upgrading their weapons and abilities. The weapons range from plasma pistols to miniguns. There is a large variety of space-age weaponry to play with. The story in Mass Effect 2 is gripping and intense, however the developers put in tons of effort into the side missions as well, making them equally as fascinating and intense as the main story. 

A great feature of this game is that if you played Mass Effect 1 and have the save game, it can carry your character over,  along with the choices you made previously. Making an impact on your Mass Effect 2 experience.

The Digital Deluxe Edition of Mass Effect 2 features New Collector Armor and Weapons, the entire game soundtrack, a Mass Effect 2 documentary, a Dark Horse Comic, and a Digital Art book.

I guess you could say that the special abilities are a blast

Mass Effect 2 Gameplay

45) Survivalist

 The many survivors

Survivalist Official Trailer

Survivalist is an open-world survival action RPG set in a zombie-style apocalyptic world. 

You are tasked with surviving the apocalypse by fighting off hordes of zombies. However you can also explore the open world and create allies and enemies.

There are various towns and bases that you can explore and visit. Inside are NPCs that you can interact with. Some will be willing to help you whilst others are wanting to straight up kill you. You can control and grow your own town to help survive the apocalypse. Beware of raiders trying to capture or destroy your town. You will have to defend it.

Buuuuuuurn Zombies

The gameplay is like a twin stick shooter in a top down view with unique cartoony graphics. The combat is quite satisfying, with plenty of weapons that can one-shot kill zombie enemies. You can develop your character and collect loads of weapons, ranging from western revolvers to overpowered shotguns and semi-automatic rifles.
 
So, if you’re looking for a satisfying open world zombie shoot ‘em up, then look no further.

Survivalist Gameplay

46) The Technomancer

Behold, the mighty Technomancer

The Technomancer Trailer

The technomancer is a Sci-fi Action RPG that takes place on the wastelands of planet Mars. You take control of your customizable character, named Zachariah, one of the greatest rookie Technomancers of his time and fight your way through the glorious story.

A technomancer is a human with amazing destructive electrical, technological powers that the player can use at will. You can shoot massive bolts of lightning from your arms, set electrical traps and more. You can also electrify your melee weapons in combat to make them more powerful.  There are skill trees that control and grow your technomancer’s abilities.

Watch as the technomancer lunges at his enemies

The story takes place 200 years after humans had colonised Mars. Your character, Zach, is about to take the initiation rite that will allow him to become a true technomancer. However not all is smooth sailing and you’re on the run from the secret police.

This game is an intriguing blend of intuitive 3rd person combat and character development in a semi-open world. It’s been described as The Witcher, In Space.

Technomancer Gameplay

47) 侠客风云传(Tale of Wuxia)

Take control of your Wuxia in this colourful adventure

Official Tales of Wuxia Trailer

Tales of Wuxia is a single player RPG. It boasts an incredibly player-defined platform wherein a player can customise their own ‘Wuxia’.  A Wuxia is another name for the player’s character, which means ‘Martial Hero’. Your Wuxia features your own special powers and superhuman abilities. Instead of the player being restricted to a fixed character’s basic martial arts and properties, the player can choose personalities and talents themselves, creating a more personal character.

The Hexagon battlefield mentioned before

The combat system is turn based, but it takes places on a kind of hexagon chessboard environment. You can dash over hexagons to your enemies and execute devastating abilities.

Official Gameplay

48) The Banner Saga 2

Just look at that artwork

Banner Saga 2 trailer

The Banner Saga 2 is a tactical RPG in a beautifully painted world.

It features a gripping storyline and wonderful artwork heavily inspired by Viking legends.

The world and civilizations have descended into chaos and destruction all over the world. There are some heroes that remain. You take on the role of your custom character into this dangerous world.

You will have difficult and profound choices to make throughout the game, and during the intricately crafted dialogue sequences.

Just look at that beautiful artwork

The gameplay features a tactical turn-based combat experience. Before a battle begins, you are taken to a hero assembly screen wherein you can choose the heroes that you will use in the forthcoming battle. Other heroes have their own ranks, abilities and identities. 

The carefully designed combat system will have you ultra focused.

Official Gameplay

49) Dying Light: The Following

Ready to go ruin some zombies? 

The Following official trailer.

Dying Light: The Following is a new expansion pack to the Original Dying Light game. It features an entirely new map, 2x larger than the last 2, along with a new storyline, quest chain, upgraded graphics and of course, new weapons and items. 

The gameplay is very similar to original Dying Light, where players can use parkour to traverse the open world. However there is a brand new feature involved, and that is the new fully drivable dune buggy to play around with. The buggy is kind of like a weapon and even features it’s very own skill tree.

It can even have its own weapons like Spikes, flamethrowers, UV Lights and more. You can also upgrade the engine, armor, suspension etc. Obviously, the buggy will feature in some of the new missions. 

If you’ve ever wanted to shoot zombies at high speeds, now you can.

Isn’t it glorious?

The Following features a new game mode called “Bounty Mode”. In this mode, there are 3 mission categories: Daily, Basic, and Community.  There are new missions and objectives added every day, and doing these can give you experience. The game also features a new Nightmare difficulty mode, if the others weren’t hard enough for you. 

Dying Light The Following Gameplay

50) Shadowrun Returns

The cyberpunk image for Shadowrun

Shadowrun Trailer

Shadowrun Returns is a scientific tactical fantasy RPG. Another Kickstarter success.

In Shadowrun Returns, you play as a Shadowrunner, an elite mercenary. When Issues can’t be solved via legal means, corporations, governments and wealthy people will seek out Shadowrunners to take care of things for them. 

There is a character customization and you can choose from 5 different races in the beginning: Humans, elves, orcs, dwarves, and trolls. Each of them are different from one another, featuring different skills and abilities, unique to each race. Plus there are 6 classes, these being Street Samurai, Mage, Decker, Shaman, Rigger, or Physical Adept. The player can even play ‘classlessly’. 

Beautiful level design in the cyber cities

Shoot things, shoot things, shoot things

The gameplay features a huge amount of text and exploration. It’s a very detailed world. There is a lot of content outside of just combat, there are choices the player makes, very in depth dialogue and a vast ocean of information just all around. The player must use their own intelligence and intuition to investigate and figure some situations out. The combat however is a lot of fun. It features a good turn-based system. The characters can carry up to 3 weapons at a time and can switch between them in battle. Damage and effectiveness vary depending on the weapon, its type and the characters efficiency in wielding it.

Shadowrun Gameplay

51) Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director’s Cut

Shadowrun Dragonfall cover artwork

Dragonfall's Trailer

Shadowrun Dragonfall is another Shadowrun game. It has its own independent campaign and story, and people say that it’s generally better than the first game. 

Dragonfall features new missions, alternate endings, a new musical score, a new redesigned user interface and more.

Note the new Interface, isn’t it pretty?

The gameplay is quite similar to the first game, however the combat system got some innovations. There is an all-new armor system to add more tactical feel to the game. They refined the cover and damage mechanics somewhat to allow the player to understand the importance of their position on the battlefield. 

Shadowrun Dragonfall gameplay

52) Shadowrun: Hong Kong

Strange things are afoot in Hong Kong

Shadowrun Trailer

Shadowrun Hong Kong is an entirely new story and separate game set in the Shadowrun Universe.

The story is set in the year 2056 in yes, Hong Kong. In somewhere called the ‘Free Enterprise Zone’. This place is a location almost completely controlled by the large corporations. Now, unlike the other two games where your character was created from scratch, the player’s character in this one has ties and relationships with other characters.

You were once an orphan, roaming the streets of Seattle with your best friend Duncan, before being taken in by a man called Raymond Black. Jolly nice of him.

Would you go to a club like that?

Like the previous Shadowrun games, you are a shadowrunner and hence do investigations, assassinations and the like. The gameplay and namely the combat is very similar to the last titles in the franchise, but more refined and sleek. 
The extended edition gives you a short, extra campaign. Offering around 6 hours of pure cyberpunk roleplaying.

Shadowrun Hong Kong gameplay

53) I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Official Trailer

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a freaky point-and-click adventure RPG. The story is set in a world where a supercomputer with no love for humans decides to go a little bit mad and destroy humanity. (I bet the guy that made the computer regrets his decision). There are only 5 survivors remaining.

The supercomputer, AM has created metaphorical adventures for each of them that’ll prey on their weaknesses. The aim of the game is for the player to overcome these challenges and fears to prove that humans are better than machines.

The gameplay is rather simple but entertaining. When playing, you are greeted with a 2d screen where you can see the whole body of your character and you can click on objects and places to interact and move. 

Gameplay

54) Sid Meier’s Pirates!

Ready for a swashbuckling adventure?

Sid Meiers' Pirates Trailer

You can have the fleets, you can have the plunder, you can have the ladies. Everything you want can be yours, take it! In true pirate fashion, Sid Meier’s pirates is one of the best open world sailing games to date.

The game features a huuuge world map, filled with islands with treasure on them, towns, and cities as well. There is even a functioning economy. You take control of your customizable pirate and then join a nationality. The French, the English, the Dutch or the Spanish.

Yo ho ho and a barrel of fun!

The game is built up of several mini games as well as the large open sailing element, where the player can sail around the map, looking for things to do. The open sailing element contains exploration and intense naval battles. The mini games are swordfighting, fencing, dancing, treasure hunting, and stealth missions.

Officially Gameplay

55) No Man’s Sky

The Universe is in your hands

No Man's Sky Launch Trailer

No Man’s Sky is a literally impossibly large open-universe exploration RPG. You take control of your character and can explore the vast expanse of the universe and space. It’s played in a first person perspective and can give an amazingly immersive experience. The universe is procedurally generated and is seemingly endless. Generating entirely new planets, sounds, music and life forms.

Ah, the glorious open planet investigation. In No Man's Sky, the player has ultimate freedom and ultimate exploration. Something like this has never been done before, and this is sure to launch the world of gaming into a whole new spectrum. The universe is absolutely massive, and the player can fly to individual planets, new galaxies and solar systems. The player can spend weeks on the surface of one planet if they wish.

A player taking on a planet’s defences

The above statement is no exaggeration. The developers of No Man's Sky at Hello Games claimed that mathematically speaking, if a player were to instantaneously travel to each planet and stay on it for a mere one second, it would take around 5 billion years in real time. This is mind-blowing information. They said that in the NMS Universe, you can expect there to be 18 quintillion planets to explore (or 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 to be exact).

Lead developer Sean Murray said that he estimates that 99% of the planets will never be visited. It's so unbelievably large that he said “repetition may occur after playing the game for 4000 to 5000 years” if you were to play the game every second of every day for that amount of time. 

No Man's Sky gameplay

56) World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

"You are NOT prepared"

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Cinematic Trailer

Studies show that 110% of all gamers have at least heard of the legendary MMORPG, World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft has been one of the greatest titles in the RPG genre for about 14 years, and it’s not slowing down with its’ numerous expansion packs, each growing the maps, the in depth gameplay and the lore. It’s also a sequel following the Warlords of Draenor expansion.

The new Demon Hunter class is really cool

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is a new expansion with new areas, items, levels and its own new campaign. It highlights the attack of the burning crusade again. You take control of your custom character, and get to play a new race called Demon Hunters who have their own special abilities. There was a system in place called the transmogrification system. The Transmogrification system allows the player to change the appearance of items without affecting their stats. This allows players to make their characters look super cool with any armor and weapons they want.

The gameplay is a 3rd person action RPG set in one of the biggest open worlds we have ever seen. The player can explore everywhere, level up by doing numerous quests, collecting a huge amount of items and fight monsters. The player can form parties with other players and play along with them. Players will have to work together to conquer dungeons and high level monsters.

Official Gameplay

57) Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Fight the Chaos in Heavensward

FF Heavensward Cinematic

Final Fantasy decided to change things up a bit with this one. Final Fantasy XIV (14) is a Final Fantasy MMORPG, similar to World of Warcraft, in fact, just set in the world of Final Fantasy. 

The player can take control of their customized character and explore the lands of Final Fantasy. You are caught up in both an invasion by the dangerous Garlean Empire, and the Primals. The player can follow main quest chains to participate in the game’s main story.

Of course nobody focuses on the main quests in games like this, right? I’m looking at you, Witcher 3. Final Fantasy XIV has plenty of side-quests and exploration to keep you entertained and engaged for hours on end. 

You should want to play this game just because you get to look like THAT

The gameplay features solid mechanics and a good progression system. It has player vs player, guilds, party creation and more. A really nice feature of this game is that regardless of server or language, the game features a large library of automatically translated game terms and general phrases which allow players who speak different languages to communicate.

Final Fantasy Gameplay

59) EVE Online

Space, the final frontier.

Eve Online Cinematic Trailer

Space, the final frontier. Tis the glorious time for blowing things up.

Eve online is a space action Open-galaxy MMORPG.  It’s set 21,000 years into the future, when humanity, having exhausted the resources on Earth, have to leave it behind and colonize the rest of the Milky Way. Of course this led to more competition and conflict over the available resources, just like on Earth.

The player assumes the role of their own character. You have 4 races to choose from: Amarr, Gallente, Minmatar, or Caldari. Each of these races can actually be further divided into three bloodlines to give a predetermined appearance, which the player can obviously tweak.

Hmm, what ship do I feel like today?

The player has a variety of different types of in-game professions to pursue. These include, mining, trading, exploring, manufacturing, and even piracy. There is a heavily present combat element, featuring both PVE and PVP (Player vs Environment and Player vs Player). The player can fly their spaceship around the galaxy, dock at stations or get into all-out space wars.

EVE gameplay

60) Lost Ark

Lost Ark cover image

Lost Ark Launch Trailer

Okay, if you want incredible brutal satisfaction, you have to play this game.

Lost Ark is a high fantasy isometric hack and slash RPG, with beautiful graphics, I might add. It’s been considered the Diablo-style MMORPG that players have always wanted.

Dive into the world of Lost ARK, a fully-fledged MMORPG in a giant world. There’s plenty to do to keep oneself entertained (besides the main story of course.) You can fish, craft items, mine, play card games and even indulge in drinking.

There are a numerous amounts of hidden quests, which I found to be quite interesting. A hidden quest can be activated by emergent means, like eavesdropping on someone’s conversation. 

Now, let’s get to the combat. First, we are looking at ridiculously over the top, brutal, overpowered combat and abilities. The main player can take on hordes of enemies at once and lay them to waste in mere seconds. It also features boss battles that you have to be a lot more careful with. The combat is influenced by your character, race, powers, items and weapons. When creating your character you can choose between combat classes like: Battle Master, Devil Hunter, Arcana or Berserker.

It’s so pretty, dishing out loads of damage

Lost Ark Gameplay

61) Albion Online

Get Ready for cross-platform mayhem in Albion online

Albion Online Trailer

Grab your weapons, grab your tools. Albion online is here to get you gripped. 

Albion online is a massively multiplayer sandbox RPG. It takes you into a fantasy medieval world that’s loaded with adventure. Its open world exploration offers you loads of dangers, activities and fun. You can join forces with the thousands of other players and work together in the world of Albion. 

 
Hmm, today looks like a spot of fishing

Albion Online isn’t your average MMORPG, none of that whole class system thing. No, In Albion online there are no classes at all, your equipment, skill and play-style will determine the things that you can do. Now, an exciting feature of the game is that the players will kind of build the world around them.

There is a player-driven economy; this means that nearly every building/structure and item will be build and crafted by the players themselves. There are wars to partake in, events to attend, Guild Vs Guild conflicts to fight in and many many more.

 
Screenshot taken from Albion Online

One of the greatest and most innovative features of this game is the fact that it’s cross platform. This hasn’t successfully been done before. You can play the game on your pc and then pick it up later when you’re out in a café on your tablet or mobile phone. It’ll be on the same servers and you can literally continue from where you left off.

The Multi platform showcase

Official Gameplay

62) The Elder Scrolls Online

Wizard, Barbarian, Rogue? Go crazy into the world of The Elder Scrolls

Official Cinematic

The Elder Scrolls, a beast RPG series has now launched into the MMORPG spectrum.

Elder Scrolls online takes players into the massive continent of Tamriel, allowing the players to have a huge multiplayer open world experience.

Players can of course choose their race, class and then create your own unique character. The races include: Nords, Redguards, Bretons, Khajiit, Bretons, Imperials, Dunmer(The Dark Elves), Altmer (High elves), Bosmer(wood elves), Orisimer and Argonians. This is the biggest list of races in any Bethesda or Elder Scrolls game ever.

Here, a player is creating their Dark Elf character

The gameplay is obviously pretty non-linear (come on, this is Elder Scrolls we are talking about), you can do nearly anything you want. This is due to the expansive map, the multitude of side-quests and random events.

Here is a player vs player battle

The combat is quite similar to previous elder scrolls games and remains true to the old play-style. It’s played in a first-person perspective but can be zoomed out into a 3rd person perspective.

Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay

63) Neverwinter

Dungeons and dragons pulled out a good one

Neverwinter Trailer

Dungeons and Dragons Neverwinter is a MMORPG with gameplay somewhat similar to that of the World of Warcraft series. So if you like World of Warcraft, you’re likely to appreciate this game.

Players can choose one of eight different character classes and can choose from nine races. That’s quite a lot. We have: Humans, Half Elves, Elves, Dwarves, Drows, Tiefling, Halfling, Half Orc, and Orcs Each of these having different skills and attributes to suit the players’ style.

Look at my horse, my horse is amazing…

Neverwinter is set in a time when a large city is plunged into chaos after the disappearance of the last ‘Lord of Neverwinter’. Many people died and there is destruction all around. Select factions begin to form to fight off the hordes of the dead that have now risen. 

The player takes control of their customizable character and can explore the land and defeat the evil. Being a Dungeons and Dragons game, there are naturally many dungeons to go through, and dragons, of course. The gameplay is in a 3rd person perspective and has a wildly entertaining combat system. The player can grow stronger and stronger with every enemy they face and unlock tons of abilities.

Official Gameplay

64) Tree of Savior

Tree of Saviour has a lot of Charm

Tree of Saviour Trailer

Tree of Savior is an anime styled hack and slash MMORPG that takes place in a beautiful and artful world. This game beautiful to look at. It has really charming art and graphics and will probably have you going ‘wow’ throughout most of your play time.

Like most RPGs, it uses a class system. With the class system you can determine what abilities and talents your custom character has access to. There are 4 classes to choose from in the beginning, however, you CAN choose a variety of subclassess to advance to. The classes consist of: Swordsman, Cleric, Wizards, Archer. Each is vastly different from the rest, giving a unique feeling while playing through any of them.

There is a world to explore, items to collect and monsters to fight. You can go exploring for a little bit and find you’ve just been slaying monsters for ages. You can find towns and interact with other NPCs and there you can trade your items and whatnot. 

Zap, zap, zapitty zap.

Tree of Saviour Gameplay

65) Riders of Icarus

The awesome Riders of Icarus Cover art

Official Gameplay Trailer

You want to ride dragons, don’t you? I’m sure you do.

Riders of Icarus is another MMORPG set in a high fantasy world. It’s a world filled with beautiful views, creative locations, dragons, monsters and much, much more. 

A main feature of Riders of Icarus is the mounting system. There are hundreds of mounts. In fact, it is considered to be in your best interest to go searching for lots of mounts. A player can go hunting in the wilderness to tame a dragon or some other type of mount. Once tamed, it’s yours to use in battle and fly around with. Walking? Never heard of it.

 
Bossfights, Bossfights everywhere.

The player can explore the world, collect items, play with friends and take down tons of monsters. There is also a PvP element. So get ready to be competitive and bash some heads.
Gameplay can be viewed here: 

Riders of Icarus Gameplay

66) Life is Feudal

The darkness of life

Life is Feudal trailer

Life is Feudal is an open world sandbox RPG. It is beautifully made and set in a realistic medieval world. A time when things were dark and brutal.

Now, Life is Feudal has a special and unique feature called Terraforming. This feature allows players to control the land and build upon it. It allows them to raise, lower, flatten terrain and even to dig tunnels and underground caverns. The game features entertaining mini games,  Player vs Player and a crafting system.

En garde, foul worm. These are MY wheat fields.

Obviously in a big open world RPG there is generally lots to do. You can fight people, collect a bunch of items and loot. There is also of course a main quest chain, should you bother to concern yourself with it or not. Personally, there are other things to do, bigger fish to fry. Speaking of fishing, there is a fully functional fishing element. It’s even played in 3rd person. 

Official Gameplay

67) Kingdom Under Fire 2

Kingdom Under Fire II artwork

Cinematic Trailer

Kingdom Under Fire II is a high-fantasy MMORPG that features RTS (Real Time Strategy) elements.

The game is however both single player AND multiplayer.

Kingdom under Fire II is a direct sequel to the previous Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, after the events that took place. The game explores the wars between three large factions; the Human Alliance, Dark Legion and the Encablossians as they all struggle to control the world of the game. 

A player destroying a Batallion of enemies in one mighty strike

Okay so we know it’s a fancy combination of Action RPG with Real-Time Strategy, so this means that the player has control of their main hero/character and they in turn can command various troops. The player can retain full control of their main character and run around freely with their troops following behind, and you can still issue commands. You can also control other units, similar to a more traditional RTS, like firing cannons to break down walls and whatnot.

Official Gameplay

68) Star Citizen

Explore the galaxy as a star citizen

Official Cinematic Trailer

Star Citizen is a futuristic space-simulator in a persistent galaxy, set in 30th century Milky Way. The idea of the game is to have 2 core aspects. One of them is to have a first person spaceship experience in which you can mine, explore, trade and have space combat. The second aspect is it has a heavy first person shooter element as well. The game is massively multiplayer, so you’re sure to encounter lots of players along the way, friendly or otherwise.
It’s a giant sandbox in space for all the players, and I’m not really talking about the dusty asteroids.

There are endless possibilities and so much to explore and do. Players can go into Arena Commander, this is an in game space combat simulator which lets you test your ships combat against either players or AI opponents. Then you have Star Marine, this is the first person shooter element that I mentioned earlier. In this there are two game modes: the first is a 16 player match between marines and outlaws, set on an abandoned space station. The second mode (ooh it’s awesome) is a zero gravity arena brawl.

Opposing teams aim to capture the others gate/entrance using nonlethal pistols (awh) to shoot enemy players and using a tractor beam to help with moving around the zero gravity arena.

Fasten your seatbelts lads, we’re glorybound

Official Gameplay

69) Lineage Eternal

That dramatic stare into the distance, must be thinking of his lineage

Official Gameplay

Okay, you’ve read this far so it’s likely you’re digging the whole MMORPG thing, right? So, Lineage Eternal is another High-fantasy MMORPG set in a beautifully built environment. The sights are purely stunning. However the reason we are here is mainly for the gameplay, primarily the combat. In short, it’s amazing.

You feel so incredibly powerful while mashing those buttons and executing enemies with stylish blows. The gameplay trailer will reveal that in full. Just look at how easily the main character cleaves through his enemies. It looks fantastic.

An angry boss tries to crush the players.

It’s played in a top down view similar to that of Diablo and plays fairly similarly. However I bring us back to the combat once more. Lineage Eternal implements a very unique combat mechanic. It uses a drag action input system, this basically means that the player quickly does mouse gestures on the screen to activate skills and abilities.

Another general element of the game is to get the player to feel ‘heroic’ and powerful. This is done by being able to lead allied troops into massive full-scale siege battles and such.

Official Gameplay Trailer

70) Blade and Soul

Rend your enemies in Blade and Soul

Official Trailer

Okay, being a ninja is fun right? Playing online is fun right? Say no more, Blade and Soul is just what you need.

Dive into the beautiful world of blade and soul and play as a ridiculously powerful ninja. The world is jam packed with things to do and places to explore. There are tons of missions to do and enemies to fight. Players create their own characters and can use them to explore the world. There are 4 races to choose from as well, you get: The Gon, the Jin, the Kun, and the Lyn. 

One of the fastest combat systems you've ever seen.

Blade & Soul is played in a 3rd person perspective and has lightning fast combat. The player vs player matches are some of the most intense and fast that I’ve ever seen. Players can upgrade their abilities and hone their skills to prepare for these intense battles. There is also a big Player vs Environment element to the game, which players with start out with.

Official Multiplayer Gameplay

71) Bless Online

“Say’ Cheese’ everyone for the official Bless photo”

Official Bless Trailer

Bless Online is a Massively Multiplayer RPG that’s set in a medieval world with heavy high-fantasy elements present. 

Bless takes place on a large continent that has been divided up into different factions and Alliances. 

The Northern parts of the continent is Hieron, this builds the alliance between races and groups like: Habichts, Sylvan Elfes, Lupas, Feyadin and Mascus. It’s known as the Holy Empire. The on the other end of the stick we have the south. Here we have the place called Union, this belongs to the Union Alliance and consists of the races: Aqua Elfes, Amstad, Pantera(not the metal band), Iblis and Siren.

The gameplay is large and engaging. There are tons of things to do and there is a large focus on players playing with each other, whether it’s working together or trying to hack each-others limbs off. There are also boss fights that require large amounts of players to take down.

For example below.

Players have to work together to take down enemies so large they don’t even fit on the screen.

Bless Gameplay

72) Gloria Victis

Once more dear friends, into the breach

Gloria Victis Trailer

Gloria Victis is an MMORPG set in a low fantasy dark medieval world. 

A main key feature of Gloria Victis is its emphasis on realism. This means that there is open PvP with territory control, non-auto targeting combat, sandbox crafting and village building. It also features a player-driven economy.

The combat as said before is non- auto targeting and realistic. You have to aim your swings carefully and really master your weapons. You can hunt down players, kill them and steal their territory as well. Build fortifications and upgrade your strongholds and prepare yourself to defend against enemy players.

Easy, easy. Nice bear

Now like I said before, it features sandbox crafting. This means that players will have to cooperate with each-other to shape the in-game economy and create items. The idea was to copy original Medieval techniques, and Gloria Victis achieves that wonderfully. 

73) Rift

Rift is a brutal adventure

RIFT Official trailer

RIFT is a free to play fantasy RPG. It is set in the vast and beautiful fantasy world Telara. 

The story goes that Telara is a focal point for the elemental Planes: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Life and Death. Now at a certain point the planes intersect one another and cause rifts.  Monsters appear from these rifts and the heroes of Telara have to fight and defeat these monsters. Along with battling amongst themselves. 

Epic boss fights

The rifts in question are areas of elemental instability that allow elemental creations to pass through. The players have to defeat these monsters, alone or together. A cool feature of this game is that you have to respond to the rifts in real time. This is because if the rifts are left unattended, monsters will eventually conquer and capture large sections of the map.

74) Wildstar

Like planets, and things?

Official Wildstar Trailer

Space, fantasy, cute creatures with big ears. Is this Ratchet and Clank? Well not quite. Wildstar is a free to play MMORPG set in a cartoon space fantasy universe. 

The game takes place on the recently discovered planet, Nexus. The planet used to be run by an advanced alien race but they’ve all mysteriously disappeared.

 
Lots of shiny things to check your teeth on

The aliens left a fruitful amount of amazing technology and secrets for the players to discover and explore. Speaking of the players, they can create their own characters and play in the vast open world. The level cap isn’t terribly high but it doesn’t make the game unfair. Gameplay is focused mainly on exploring the world, doing quests and dungeon sieges together and the occasional PvP. 

The movement mechanics are quite nice as there is quite a bit of freedom. You can double jump, sprint, glide and more. As well as in certain areas having different gravity levels, allowing players to jump higher.

Wildstar Gameplay

75) Tera

Fight the Legions of Darkness in Tera

Official Launch Trailer

Tera is a high fantasy MMORPG set in a tumultuous medieval world filled with magic. 

The game features your reliable go-to RPG elements such as questing, exploration, crafting, and Player vs Player. 

Tera has a real-time battle system (yay, speed) in a 3rd person view. The player can target enemies with their crosshairs and lay out a volley of brutal attacks to bring down even the toughest of foes. Just be careful in PvP, not always are the biggest the strongest. This is called a non-auto targeting battle system, so you can’t automatically target or tag enemies (that’s too easy, isn’t it?)

’Guys, I think he has a quest for us’

The character creation is reasonably expansive, and you can choose from one of seven races, each featuring its’ own unique skills on the battlefield. You can also choose from 11 classes afterwards. 11. Wow.  

Official Gameplay

76) Lord of The Rings: Online

Cue dramatic staring contest

Official Cinematic Trailer

Okay we have established: We love online gaming, we love high fantasy. Now it’s pretty much a given fact that Lord of the Rings is amazing. Let’s combine everything into one glory stained game: Lord of the Rings: Online.
The game has familiar elements typical to that of an MMO. The player can create their own custom character and go gallivanting into Tolkien’s world. There are tons of quests to entertain yourself with and you can interact with NPCs and other players.

The camera is a bit like fallout and skyrim. You can toggle between a first person view and a 3rd person view. Players can improve their skills by leveling up, but they have to purchase new skills from various vendors. The combat system is quite similar to that of World of Warcraft. You have a skill bar, different skills to use on your enemies and many, many weapons to use.

Official gameplay: 

At the End

I thank you for staying to read for this long, and I do hope you enjoy some of the brilliant RPGs on this large list. You’ll have lots of fun diving into these beautiful and immersive worlds, each unique and different from the last, bringing hours of fun to you.

I’d like to recommend reading up on a couple other articles that I feel may interest you:

• Batman Arkham Asylum 
• 57 Best NEW Games Coming To PC in 2016 and Beyond: 
• System Shock Remastered Release date, gameplay and latest news: