There’s just something so nice about prerendered games, they look so crisp and just pop on the screen 
This is lineage 1 a korean mmorpg I’ve been playing on a private server. I’m planning on downloading diablo, diablo 2, and fallout to keep scratching this itch.
Age of Wonders III.
There have been some newer CRPGs that do this. Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera were part of a revival of the genre that used pre-rendered backgrounds to great effect. There is also a mod for Pillars of Eternity 1 that enhances the pre-rendered backgrounds too as the originals are starting to show their age a bit because of the compression they used.
Disco Elysium also takes a lot of inspiration from the genre, including the gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds.
I can’t recommend all 4 games highly enough. Disco Elysium may be the clear winner, but Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera are very good games too. Pillars in particular has some very wonderful characters in both games that have since gone on to live rent free in my head alongside greats like Garrus and Kreia. Which if you’re familiar with Obsidian and Chris Avellone’s work he wrote two characters in Pillars 1 specifically, Durance and Grieving Mother that are absolutely amazing and deeply compelling characters.
Bit of a rant, but I love these games and would highly recommend them to anyone who likes narrative heavy RPGs. Although Pillars 1 & 2 have some really crunchy combat they also have story modes that make it easy if you’re more into the narrative than combat.
Not In Town.
Moo MooMoo
I played a lot of Diablo and Diablo II last year to where I got bored with them. These games have all aged like wine to me.
Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, and then Planescape Torment, will absolutely scratch your itch.
Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2,
Downloading BG 1 off internet archive rn
The Enhanced Editions are worth it if you’re playing on modern hardware. I’d add in Icewind Dale, too, if you want a more linear CRPG expierence.
Icewind Dale 1 & 2 are both excellent and worth playing if you like BG and Planescape. There is an Enhanced Edition for Icewind 1, but the source for 2 was lost so Beamdog didn’t do an official EE for it. However some modders did make an unofficial Icewind Dale 2 EE mod which is very good and fixes a bunch of stuff, highly recommended if you want to play it too.
However some modders did make an unofficial Icewind Dale 2 EE mod which is very good and fixes a bunch of stuff, highly recommended if you want to play it too.
I’ve only played a little of ID2 when I was younger - definitely going to look into this. Thanks!
I grabbed it off goggames, it’s the gog version.
If it has Beamdog in the opening, it’s the EE. That includes having the first game on the BG2 engine, some extra class options, support for modern resolutions, and a few new characters/quests that feel a bit PS360 era Bioware (but work fine enough, I don’t personally have complaints about them).
You might also have the Beamdog produced expansion, Siege of Dragonspear, that takes place between the two games.
Be sure to use pauses as needed in combat - it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure that out for these Infinity Engine games lol
play it with the bg2 engine, it really is much better that way. there used to be a mod for this.
They’re all so good. A++
Diablo and star craft I dunno what the effect is specifically but the units looks like toys and that is rad. Baldur’s gate had a bit of thsinas well. Is it just set direction? In a design sense what factors combine to give it that look? I don’t think I have ever come close to figuring it out.
Often times developers would model units & characters physically in clay, rotate them to capture pics from each angle for isometric projection, digitize them & make sprites out of them. They look like toys because they’re basically actual toys! I think Diablo & Starcraft used digital 3d models turned into 2d sprites though, rather than actual models.
The fuck you say? There is a timeline where we could have had actual little diablo 2 sculpture models as treats? And we missed out? I am crestfallen. I would have lost my shit for a little toy quillbeasr back in the day
BG3’s environments are so densely detailed and include so much verticality that it feels diorama-like. The camera controls add to this feeling, as you can zoom way out and rotate around from every angle and see “cut-outs” of the verticality from the side with x-ray
I think it’s just the style of the mid to late 90’s cg that gives it that kind of sheen to it, like you said toys.
there’s a reason one of the first major CGI films was Toy Story. Early CGI looked like plastic
There’s a big Starcraft: Brood War tournament going right now, that game fits in this visual niche. One of the reasons I never got into SC2 frankly is because it looks too pixar-y but BW remastered is absolutely beautiful.
I never forgave Blizzard for several heinous things, but among them was changing the aesthetic of every game they make to the super cartoony WoW style. Starcraft got such an art downgrade…
Starcraft got a pretty major writing quality downgrade too.
It was never great. Like most Blizzard IPs it was just ripped off Warhammer with stock generic plots
Eh, I liked the writing and aesthetic of “deep south confederate peckerwoods fighting a regional xenocidal conflict in a space backwater”. Throw in some surprisingly prescient war on terror themes for a game from 1998 and it’s pretty damn distinct from 40k.
edit: also never been a fan of the “blizzard just ripped off 40k” complaints - I’ve been a fan of both for years and if Blizz ripped off 40k, they ripped off the same things GW stole from Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc.
And you can’t be criticizing Blizzard for stock generic plots as a contrast to fuckin 40k, king of generic grimdark scifi plots.
Honestly, SC terrans don’t vibe the same as WH40K humans at all. The closest is probably the UED vs the IoM, but a big part of the IoM is worship of the Emperor, which doesn’t have a SC equivalent.
Never said Warhammer had good plots either. There’s no Space Marines in giant suits and Protoss (Eldar) in Aliens or Starship Troopers. It maps on pretty 1:1, and is further corroborated with Warcraft ripping off Warhammer 1:1 as well
Honestly Blizzard has never been particularly creative and has always been extremely derivative. They were good at making polished AAA games, but they were’t good at world building or writing
Space Marines in giant suits came from Starship Troopers lol. The novel was about mech suit marines fighting a war against space bugs and blue aliens with energy weapons, and the marines were led by religious officers.
Protoss aren’t elitist space elves (which cmon, warhammer 100% “ripped off” from Tolkien) and they have like three religious schisms happening at the same time, along with a false homeland right of return & persecuted minority group thing goin on.
Zerg were Tyranids before Tyranids were Tyranids - if anything GW “stole” the Zerg aesthetic for later editions of tyranids! Plus, the idea of a bioweapon species attaining sentience and wanting more from life is waaaaay more interesting than “bug who wanna eat errything”
And ultimately, who cares who “steals” what between giant corporations. Unless it’s individual artists or small entities getting fucked over, IP protection is a fuck. It’s a matter of personal taste, but I think OG Starcraft had some pretty cool ideas!
I’m pretty sure they are a justified rip off. Iirc Blizzard was tasked with making proper WH and WH40K PC games when Games Workshop pulled the rug, and rather than waste assets they pivoted and molded the work into their own IPs. There’s definitely Warhammer blood in both.
Kinda like how Nintendo screwing over Sony (Phillips CDi history) jump started one of their biggest rivals.
This is aside from the agreed point that generally IP protection is a fuck.
I wasn’t familiar with the books, sorry. I was just referring to the movie where I don’t remember any mechanized space suits but guess that’s just a budget issue
You forgot the writers very specific mind controll fetish as well.
Diablo 3’s art direction was horrendous. Went from dark, gritty and offputting aesthetic to pixar.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Cool ty
I remember liking Age of Wonders, but my memory is hazy
Age of Wonders 4 is still going strong and one of the best 4x games out there IMO. Blows Civ out of the water
Maybe a hot take but I enjoyed almost every 4x game I’ve played more than the civ games
this thread has all the jams in it. random mention: Ultima Online specifically UO Outlands private free server. it’s unreal how gorgeous the game is still to this day. styled graphics/prerendered age so so so so well.
i just finished a playthrough of bg2 maybe three months ago? game is so good.
more modern game, but pillars of eternity 1&2 are stupid good too. the atmosphere/setting of poe1 is unparalleled and the voice acting of both is the best in the business.
If you like Ultima you may also like Tibia, the other MMO from that time period that still is kicking.
Look at this sick art direction, used to love this game as a kid
pillars of eternity 1&2
This was on my list to play thanks.
An early one to check out is Landstalker for the Sega Genesis. Hand drawn isometric adventure game, kinda Zelda like. One of my all time faves.
For a good and quick Diablo-like, check out Nox.
NOX!!!
god damn i loved that game growing up.
ty!
Wow odd to see lineage1 here, i spend my entire childhood on that game
You’d like this private server I found. It aims to recreate the game as it was around like 2002-2003 in north america with qol improvements like custom npcs.
absolutely, id love to hear all about it! ive played some private servers before, but some were pay to win, and others just had extremely toxic player bases :( hope this one is better?
Halls of Torment is a modern indie game that follows in the footsteps of the games you are talking about.
Getting a vampire survivors meets diablo vibe from it, right up my alley, thanks!
It is basically a Vampire Survivors style game with the looks of an offbrand diablo 1/2
