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Question - Best Story driven /questing mmo or rpg out there now.
JuggyJugs
Member Posts: 64
I ask this because I want to play something thats as engaging and engrossing as D&D used to be.
If I knew people who were still interested in playing D&D I'd be doing that but I don't.
Suggestions anyone?
Comments
guildwars has a few very nice story lines.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
Either for MMOs -> LOTRO hands down as most storyline/quest driven
Or PCRPG -> The Witcher
as most mature and best storyline. If you are fan of D&D (i am) i would also check Mask of Betrayer (expansion for NWN2)
Guild Wars, FFXI, and LOTRO are the ones I can think of right now.
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Have played: RuneScape, EQ2 (free trial), Last Chaos, Silk Road, Dungeon Runners.
Currently playing: RuneScape, Dungeon Runners.
The notion that graphics, or anything else for that matter, are anywhere near as important as gameplay/fun is so utterly ridiculous that anyone who shares such a view should be placed in an asylum.
I agree with Guild Wars and LOTRO.... havent played FFXI so I wouldn't know
I agree with the people above me.
Guild Wars would be a good choice.
I do want to get GWEN though...ahhh i need a job!
LoTRO is great, but not perfect.
I've learned a lot about Tolkein Lore by playing LoTRO. For instance, after reading LOTR twice and watching the movies half a dozen times, I never appreciated how important eradicating Middle Earth's boar population was to defeating the forces of darkness.
Now I know.
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im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good
Pretty much agree
LotR and GW. Both are very good.
FFXI does have some very, very good story driven questing in it BUT you need to endure hundreds of hours of brain numbing grind to get to any of it.
Asheron's Call has a TON of great story driven questing to do in it.
Tabula Rasa has some decent story quest but overall the game is super narrow in scope and gets old / repetitive really fast. Show me "kill 200 thrak" or whatever. Its all about the grind.
Other then that, most MMO's are just different takes on grinding and "kill 10 rats" for a prize. Even LotR is pretty heavy on the kill task.
DDO is almost entirely quest driven. You only gain experience for completing quests/instances not for grinding mobs. (Although with the newer expolrer areas some grinding is possible, bleah) There are a few overarching storylines for those that actually bother to pay attention to them.
maplestory.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
The best story driven MMO or RPG out there right now?
This isnt even a debate...
Mass Effect.
Simply the best RPG I have ever played, knocking BG2 off the top spot for me. The plotting, pacing, scripting, and voice acting are all spot on. It's worth buying a 360 to play if you love these games imo.
For most recent Single-player PC RPG - I suggest 'The Witcher'
If you never play it, you're missing out.
For MMOs, I'd agree with others that have said LOTRO and Guild Wars. I'd add WoW too.
I would say that WoW is certainly the best MMORPG out there atm. Good content, intuitve GUI, nice visuals and excellent game design.
...but, no "story-driven questing"!
...but, no "story-driven questing"!
Hnunk? What are you talking about? There's plenty of 'story-driven questing'. For example, I love Westfall and playing through the Defias quests that begin with the 'Intercept Defias messenger' all the way through to confrontation in the Stockade. Wow is absolutely full of such well-written and well-designed story arcs.
Planescape. Easily.
(Maybe Fallout if you don't mind a post-armageddon one.)
There is nothing can touch the storyline of FFXI but really i don't expect you to join that game so late in it's stage.I feel it would be just too frustrating for you.Most quest driven game is a toss up between FFXI and eQ2/vanguard.All three games can keep you going non stop on quests for either important items/weapons/armour or xp.FFXI's quests can take longer ,they don't have the quantity of EQ2 or vanguard.I didn't play vanguard long enough but IMO EQ2 has by far the most quests.The way they do it ,is that every single cluster of mob in the game [well75% for sure]have tiers.This means that each cluster will have a bottom tier that you can easily solo,then if you kill that tier often enough there is a chance for a new tier to spawn,getting harder and harder until a boss/giant spawns.
This tier system adds up to harder and harder xp as well as better drops the harder the tier and also they have a chance to drop a quest stater item in each cluster.You can pretty much gather a quest starter from 75% of the clustered mobs in game.When i quit playing EQ2, i had over 1500 quests done and i wasn't even 3/4 the way through and i'm sure i missed several.That game has also since added a few new expansions so the questing will take you forever .EQ2 also has LORE books wich give you insight and knowledge into each mobs race culture.The books alos allow you to communicate with the other races so you can get even more quests.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I've recently been playing LOTRO and have never had to stop to grind once. The quest are mostley go here do this which are a variation of find an item, kill something and go speak to this person. it has some chain quests which are based along side the story of the films.
I read one persons reply to a person asking about power-leveling which I agreed with. Lotro is not about lvling and the end game it's about the journey.
You seem to have lost intrest in D&D as you have no one to party with in lotro I often just party with the people I run past and a lot end up on my friends list.
This isn't life in the fast lane, it's life in the oncoming traffic.
--Terry Pratchett
Saying WOW doesn't have story driven quests is about as ignorant as it gets. I played LOTRO and it was set up exactly the same, besides the opening tutorial instance. Being interested in the story or not has no bearing. The fact is every single zone and dungeon in WOW has a story to it with quest lines that explain it all and books scattered through out the world to learn more. If you chose to ignore the story, who's fault is that?
WoW is taboo around here. It's the MMORPG equivalent of cooties.
"Don't go near WoW, you'll get cooties!"
"Yeah WoW is one dumb MMO lol! Not for smart people like me rofl"
"LOL... PVP... in WOW??? ROFL.... ROFL ROFL LOLOLOLOLOL"
"WoW is cheap junk food"
They of course forget that WoW pretty much defined the story-driven MMO that we know today, and many try to imitate, yet fail.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
FFXI has a great storyline but isn't really quest driven. EQ2 is mainly quest driven but the story isn't very important. Wow is also mainly quest driven but the story is pretty much secondary. I agree with those that have said LOTRO. It has the best combo of story and quests that progress the story that I have seen. However I have to admit, FFXI is the only game I ever played where I actually felt pulled in by the story. I really felt like I was part of fighting the beastmen invasion and did the rank quests just to watch the story unfold. Only reason I quit was I got a new job that didn't allow me to put the type of time needed to lvl in a game qhich required groups and had long travel times.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
WoW is certainly up there with the top RPG MMO games. Which is sad, since WoW quests aren't interesting or engaging in the least. AoC plans to be the first game to have serious RPG in an MMO setting. It'll have branching dialogue, "destiny quests" that you follow from lv1 all the way to the max level, and tons of other things you would normally only find in an offline game. Definitely join the newsletter and check it out when it launches in 3 months, or even sign up for beta and try to get in to see if you'd like it.
As for an offline RPG...damn, there are so many. Mass Effect is possibly the best EVER if you have an Xbox 360. There's just too many to list on the PC... The Witcher is the best recent one easily, although it's certainly a mature game. Bioshock also came out for PC and 360 recently. It's kind of an RPG with FPS game play. If you want an engaging experience definitely check that out.
You can hit up PC.IGN.com and hit Reviews, then check out the RPG listings and sort by score for the best games. If you're fine with old graphics you'll be in for a treat.
For a good story arc if thats what you are looking for by linking quests together to crate a story that you can follow i would say Lotro, eq2, these 2 games for me had story lines connected with quests to create a nice story arc. If earht and beyond was still aorund that game as well had a nice story you could unfold with quests too, i sure do miss earth and beyond, i loved the boegeril soler sail story arc and the v'rix stories.
playing eq2 and two worlds
You know, oddly enough, the best story I've ever done in an MMO was in Vanguard: SoH for the Dark Elf Diplomacy quest line. It involved manipulating tons of different people to get what you wanted, and then when someone became more trouble than they were worth, you'd convince them to meet you some place secluded and two assassins would pop out of no where and kill them for you.
It all culminated in a final show down in the throne room where 3 or 4 different parties would meet, all thinking different things and some believing to have the upper hand when they really didn't. Sadly the ending scene was bugged, but it would've been hella cool. There were quite a few quests like that in Vanguard. They really did have some talented writers. Diplomacy was also a very cool way to tell a story.
best story driven mmo if i have to pick one it would be wow, but i think all mmos could use more story driven quests. somthing different then the kill 10 rats, boars quests.
best single rpg, mass effect hands down the best single player rpg ever made in my opinion. bioware definitely raised the bar with this one. unfortantly its only available for xbox 360 right now, but the pc version is coming out later this year.