While we live in an age of constant sequels and reboots of old games, sometimes we must look back and appreciate our gaming roots. The classic roleplaying games that sparked our love for fantastical worlds with rich lore and amazing stories to tell.
Recently I’ve been replaying Fallout 1 and 2 and falling in love with them all over again. The first two Fallouts are a perfect example of classic western roleplaying games. Sadly, this type of western RPG is rarely seen in today’s mainstream games. Instead we are given action RPGs like Destiny 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Origins.
And while I have nothing against action RPGs, there is something to be said for the classics. Rolling into town, finding all the available side quests that each have several ways of approaching them depending on your playstyle and skill set.
The original Deus Ex is a good example of how open ended classic western RPGs could be. It gave you such a wide array to deal with each and every problem that it threw at you. Like if you needed to get into a locked room, you could go about getting in several ways. You could pick the lock, blow the door off its hinges, find a way into the air vents, or fifteen other things I’m not clever enough to think of.
Nowadays, you just talk to distraught citizen # 171 and they tell you to go hit people with your stick and they’ll reward you for your courage and heroism by giving you a better stick so that you can finally deal with the harder enemies distraught citizen # 159 asked you to hit.
While games such as Mad Max and Far Cry 4 are still within the categorization of a roleplaying game, they feel like a bastardization of the genre, like they threw RPG elements into the game just to give the player a vague sense of progression that really means nothing.
Though there are games like Witcher 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 that are very good examples of classic roleplaying games, there are still few examples of mainstream RPGs that perfectly fit within the genre.
The late 1990s and early 2000s were an excellent time for people wanting a good western roleplaying game. That era was home to games such as the previously mentioned Fallout 2, but also games like Diablo and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
And while I’m not saying what is needed is a saturation of the market with everyone and their mother making classic RPGs, but something that’s more in the public’s eye would be a nice change from the multiplayer shooters that are dominating the market.
These classic roleplaying games like Fallout and Baldur’s Gate are games. Games that make childhoods wonderful and have set people on the path to enjoying a life of gaming full of amazing stories and fantastical worlds that we couldn't even imagine in our dreams. Something we all enjoy and treasure. That’s the beauty of classic roleplaying games.
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