The RPGs of 2005, Part 3
Brian 'Dhruin' Turner, 2005-01-06

2004 was widely considered to be one of the best for PC gaming in years, with a number of highly anticipated titles generally hitting the mark. From Rome: Total War to Sims 2, City of Heroes to Half Life 2, 2004 put PC gaming back in the gaming headlines for all the right reasons. Unless, that is, you were a fan of single player cRPGs. Oh, there were a couple of better-than-average action-RPGs and Troika's Vampire: Bloodlines generally hit the right notes - but that was about it.

So, what are the prospects for 2005? Will cRPG fans be forced to replay old classics yet again - or will there finally be something to cheer about? We take a 3-part a quick look at all the anticipated cRPG releases for 2005 (hit the respective links to our database for a comprehensive list of news and links for each game).

A quick disclaimer: while these articles aim to be reasonably complete, there's going to be some projects we've missed and international releases will vary. All the release dates were taken from the respective official sites or developer interviews but release dates are always fluid: some developments will run late, some won't find a publisher and some may never be released.

Here's Part 1 and Part 2 in case you missed them.

Indies

There's simply too many indie developments out there to produce a comprehensive list, so we'll just take a quick look at a small handful we've been following. They may lack multi-million dollar production budgets but many would argue this affords them the opportunity to focus on the underlying gameplay.

ClownKeep's The Chronicles of Ny is an interesting project. A 3D party-based RPG, the emphasis is on roleplaying and story in a traditional fantasy world rife with regional politics. ClownKeep intends to release Chronicles as an ongoing series of self-contained but linked 10-15 hour episodes, with each regular release adding new areas and features. At this point not a lot of information has been released about the specific game mechanics but Chronicles is party-based (although followers won't be under direct player control), skill-based and will have realtime-with-pause combat. Party dynamics play an important role with followers having individual personalities but characters with high Leadership skills will have more influence on party-members

Jeff Vogel's Spiderweb has built a large following and an enviable reputation as a respected RPG developer over many years and even more games. Many RPG players will have Geneforge 3 marked as one of the key releases of the year - and with good reason. The Geneforge setting is an original fantasy world with a twist and Jeff Vogel always supplies a good story - so this won't be an exception. The new Geneforge 3 web page doesn't have a lot of details but promises "dozens" of endings along with the multiple factions and different solutions expected from Spiderweb. The screenshots of this latest addition show a reworked main screen with less area taken up by the interface and a new inventory system.

Some of you are laughing that Grimoire is listed here for release this year but it really might happen this time - honest! Many words have been written about Grimoire and it's larger-than-life creator Cleve Blakemore, so let's simply say the game is heavily influenced by the Wizardry series - and point you to the hands-on preview written by Corwin last year.

Minions of Mirth first came to light as an open-source development based on a heavily modified Quake 2 engine. The 2D art on display at their site was amazing and a flythrough movie showing off the gameworld was equally impressive. In the meantime, Prairie Games has moved to the Quake 3 engine and implemented 3Rd Edition rules (something many think is nigh impossible given the strict governing rules on open-source compliance), so this is really shaping up to be a fascinating title. Among the interesting features and ideas is support for huge battles involving hundreds of units and multiplayer facilities dubbed "massively single player".

Addons/Expansions

Sacred Underworld brings a 40% larger gameworld, two additional character types, 30 new monsters and a host of additional equipment.

Recently released in Germany, Shadow of the Phoenix "brings Spellforce to its dramatic conclusion", offering 24 new player units and buildings, 40 new skills and spells and a new level cap of 50. Shadow is due to hit the UK on February 18th (dates for other areas haven't been released).

Looking Further Ahead

It's probably fair to expect Gothic 3 and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion to end up in 2006 - Piranha Bytes has yet to publicly release in-game shots for Gothic 3 and Bethesda are renowned (deservedly or not) for slow development times, even assuming Oblivion was intended to ship in 2005 in the first place. With those two aside, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords will likely reign supreme as the year's biggest release.

Of the entire group covered in these articles, only a little over half have a fantasy setting and hopefully this is a sign that more diverse gameworlds have come of age. Fallout-fans seem to be in demand, with three post-apocalyptic games on offer - although it remains to be seen if their execution can impress. There's also more turn-based games on offer than previous recent years but it's telling that this is limited to smaller projects. Action-RPGs are still a substantial component but they show signs of having ambition beyond merely imitating Diablo - the question remains whether the changes go deeper than simply a 3D makeover.  While all this diversity is welcome, there's a shortage of "traditional" non-action RPGs that would satisfy the heart of the RPG gaming community.

Looking beyond all the games we've covered, there are a couple of RPGs officially announced and several more in development that haven't been officially unveiled. Irrational's BioShock (a spiritual successor to System Shock), BioWare's second original property Dragon Age and Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2 are sure to be worth watching. Arkane is working on a project using the Source engine and Divine Divinity 2 should be deep in development.  Fallout 3 and Baldurs Gate 3 are somewhere in the pipeline, even if full production hasn't commenced.

The baby-Blizzards - Flagship Studios and Castaway Entertainment, will be revealing their next-generation Diablo-killers, although expect them to be concentrating on multiplayer blockbusters rather than a rich singleplayer RPG experience.  Iron Lore (founded by Brian Sullivan of Age of Empires fame) is working on an action-RPG and they will be looking for that magic "blockbuster" formula. The importance of Jade Empire (Xbox) as BioWare's first original setting can't be underestimated and expect this to come to the PC at some point.

Looking further ahead (and with increasing speculation), BioWare has at least one more project using Unreal technology to be revealed and Troika should have two teams that are presumably working on something - possibly some version of the post-apoc project that has seen a couple of screens released. Obsidian has all but wrapped up KotOR 2 and inXile will soon be done with The Bard's Tale - will they break out the Wasteland rights they acquired some time ago and what will they do with it?

It may not be the Golden Age of cRPGs but there's still some interesting times ahead.