Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
What is the best single player/solo MMORPG?
nariusseldon
Member EpicPosts: 27,775
A lot of people seem to think that modern MMORPGs are just solo/single player (with an online component) games. I agree. Let's talk about which one of those is the best, and provide the best single player experiences.
I think Marvel Heroes is pretty good. The story campaign provides a number of environments and enemies to hack & slash through. The game is not as polished (especially combat) as D3, but few games are ... and you can play many different heores which adds to the play value. And if you ignore Avenger Tower (the "lobby" city), it is essentially a SP ARPG.
I also like STO. The space combat is pretty fun, and the story missions integrate many star trek TNG lore, character, and canon. The ground combat is a bit bland and can be better. Again, if you play through the story mission, you can treat it as a SP RPG.
So i cannot decide which one is better. Any other ones? TSW may be?
Comments
Judging by what some people think is an MMORPG these days I'd say Splinter Cell :Blacklist....you play a role and can upgrade stuff so it's an RPG right?It has multiplayer Co-OP and deathmatch so it's massive!!!
I wouldn't mind if SC Blacklist is included. In fact, it is a very good game. I finished the solo campaign ... i like that game a lot.
I am going to chime in and write Star Wars The Old Republic is perhaps the best single player MMORPG experience on the market right now due to the way personal story missions and the game environments are handled. It really is like some one took ideas for the next KOTOR single player RPG and opened it up to co-op under the guise of being an MMO.
The Secret World is a great and under appreciated game. To my mind it has the best quests and writing in the genre as whole right now but gameplay issues hold it back and a few design / budget choices like favoring the Templars heavily by putting so many of the world fixtures in London like clothing shops etc instead of in a neutral city like Venice Italy. The illumianti don't even have cool night club for partying...
Edit: Yeah, guy above posted while I was typing.
The Secret World. Just awesome in terms of storytelling, by far the best written and best voiced MMO ever. Also, some incredible puzzles that takes a real brain to solve.
I am also really liking Firefall atm, which i play mostly solo - although there are always other people around making the atmosphere quite MMO-ey.
TOR is very much designed for single-player as well, but the writing and story quality are just atrocious. Most of it makes no sense whatsoever even from a protagonist perspective. It's just extremely dumb and aimed at 8-year-olds.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Now i move on.
I am not ruling it out .. i may go back for some hack-n-slash or play another hero, or when they add content (which they already did .. the fight against the black cat).
I agreed. I purposefully did NOT list TOR. It is a much worse SP games than these other ones i mentioned, to me at least.
If they have spent more effort in terms of writing and story scripting, instead of making the world, it would have been a much better game.
Spin the wheel of ARPG. They're all designed for solo play, really.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Which one do you think is the best as a solo game?
I understand many can be played as such, and that is why i want some opinions about which has the best single player content.
I agree. The Imperial Agent story in SWTOR was great. TSW is def the best single player MMO I've played.
This is precisely the response I give when people say "If you want to solo you should play a SPRPG." When you are done you are done... then what do you do.
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Thomas Jefferson
As much as I like Marvel, I still can't accept they've made a lame diablo clone (ok, mh:ua clone) instead of a real Marvel mmo
so from the OP's two I'd pick STO. Great Seasons, after that many good Foundry missions. Though I must say STO is cool as an mmo as well.
Later you wrote you skipped TOR on purpose - I can understand that, I'm still angry at TOR too (or at myself for buying 2 boxes...) but as solo, single player mmo TOR is the winner, hands down.
8 different storylines (at least 2 of them is great, and 2 more is ok), and it's solo. For real. If you close chat, trash everything at the vendor, don't use GTN, then you have a solo game all the way to the end. And I don't mean "you can play it solo" like in other mmo's, it is solo
you don't need any interaction or help from anyone (even heroic +4 is soloable easily)
You do what you would have done if it is a SP RPG. You finish the game and move on. Given there is a pretty big list people have already discussed, there are plenty of other solo MMORPGs one can tackle next.
Or you can play some other types of games, or even read a book. it is not like one has to play a single game forever. In fact, most people don't.
I actually like the fact that MH is a Diablo style game, then a DCUO type MMO. It is refreshing. But of course that is just my personal preferences. STO does have a lot of content ... i am no where close to finish it, and they are adding more already.
Yeah, i skipped TOR on purpose. I really don't like the SP portion of the game. The problem are two fold .. .first the combat is meh .. i don't feel like a Jedi when i am fighting 2-3 lame "labor worker". There are tons of SW games that have done jedi combat better. Secondly, while i think the writing of the story is pretty good, the presentation is not up to par. May be i expect too much from Bioware.
You don't have to convince me that TOR can be a solo game. Many of these games can .. and i have played them as such. But to be fair, since TOR is F2P now, may be i will give it a try.
I am glad you asked. I have made a topic just to answer that questions.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5903519/thread/393247#5903519
I can't think of a single MMO that has a better single-player story than most single-player games. There are many MMOs that are solo friendly, and have great story lines that are accessible solo. But in a single player game, that and the combat/action are all you have, and the good ones are really good at it.
Take into account the graphics/engine sacrifices you have to make to make a MMO online game, and I can't think of one that looks better than an equivalent-generation MMO either (although Vindictus comes the closest I think).
And then add in the subscription/cash shop/what have you, on top of the box fee. Single player games may have DLC, but the main story isn't usually locked behind DLC unless that's it's only monetization (I can think of a few iOS single player games like this, free for the first chapter, then pay as you go for the story). You pay once for the single player game, you pay continually for the MMO. Even the F2P ones - you have some very inconvenient convenience factors locked out unless you decide to pay for them.
Taking all that into account, I think if your in it for "the best" single player experience, your better served by single player games. If the purpose of this thread is just a thought experiment, though, then have at it; I'd probably say either Neverwinter or SWTOR - both had decent storylines (SWTOR has multiple ones), and I never had to group up at all through the entire storyline or to max level.
I have never thought of AoC since it is a bit old already. It is F2P right? May be i should check it out too.