Baldur's Gate - All the fun of a Dungeons & Dragon game without the hassle of dice rolling, rule lookups and having to provide drinks and snacks for the other players. It seems to me that if a CRPG is born out of a PnP RPG, where combat is about making a decision, rolling the dice and learning the results; well that just screams Turn Based Combat. I always found it odd that Baldur's Gate, the penultimate D&D on PC experience, went with the Real Time with Pause system. They give you a cast of interesting characters with unique weapons, armor and spell combinations but then force you into an almost RTS twitch based playstyle. It's very hard to really learn each characters strengths and weaknesses in combat when I have to watch all characters simultaneously. The only way combat is even remotely bearable (and this also comes from the many BG fans I talk to) is to set the auto pause feature to pause on every available event. At which point the game feels like a half hearted turn based system that lacks any tactical planning or decision making, and I still can't effectively focus on the individual characters. Now obviously I'm in an extreme minority on this, considering the immense popularity of the whole Infinity Engine series.
Diablo - A 2.5D isometric roguelike inspired game with real graphics! Awesome! My favorite genre is getting a face lift and joining the modern (well modern at that time) world. Nope. Just another mindless hack n' slash style button masher with some random elements thrown in. And thanks to the mouse driven "click on something to kill it" control scheme I didn't even have the option to plug in a gamepad and pretend it was Golden Axe or Gauntlet. I've been told that there are several different quests which are randomly assigned each play through, but I'll never know. I forced myself to finish the game then uninstalled it and gave the disc away. And again I realize that I'm in the minority on this one.
OK, how about a game that everyone can agree on.
Omerta - Man, this game had it all. Prohibition era gangster setting, business management (legal and otherwise), turn based combat against rival gangs, RPG style advancement and perk system, all coming together to let you rise from a fresh off the boat immigrant to Capo dei Capi, the Boss of Bosses. What could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot as it turns out. While the game offered everything it promised, it was limited to small bite size pieces rather than a fulfilling experience. The game is played on a city map which is only about 20-30 square blocks and you are given a specific mission, something along the lines of opening a distillery and a number of speakeasies. You start with nothing, so after some plotting, planning, pilfering and pugnacity you have enough funds to buy some buildings and turn them into the needed establishments. You can upgrade your buildings to increase your profit margins so that you can expand your empire. It's hard at first but soon things start coming together and just when your businesses start to take off you get the mission completed message. Now it's time to move on to the next too small city map with a new arbitrary goal, say raising $5000 of clean/laundered money. For some unexplained reason your now booming criminal empire from the last level no longer provides you a steady income. So it's back to conspiring, conniving, commandeering and combat to build up a new criminal empire. And just when things get rolling and the game starts being fun your objective is complete. Once again you will be dropped into a small game map with no resource from past endeavors and a goal that you'll meet just before you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I'm sure the developers made a great game, they just don't ever let you actually play it.
