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Despite isometric RPGs not being as popular as they used to be, there are still some interesting titles released today that capture their essence.
What makes an isometric RPG worth playing today? Glad you’ve asked! Let's get into it!
Isometric RPGs were a product of its time. The 2.5D visual effect it created helped to create more immersive and comprehensible levels, while keeping the hardware requirements manageable for an average player. It made the world look closer to a 3D than the full top down games or side scrollers. But that’s not the main reason for its popularity. Its strength came from skilled developers and RPG enthusiasts that created amazing stories, interesting worlds to explore and fun gameplay mechanics that could be enjoyed from an isometric perspective.
The isometric RPGs are fondly remembered to this day by those who played them in their youth. It’s not just nostalgia though, these games had a lot of care and effort put into them. The stories and world building were great, the gameplay and character customization was immersive and fun, there were different ways of playing each character, allowing replayability once the player completed the game.
Those aren’t the only things that made isometric RPGs popular though. The atmosphere, exploring each new world for the first time and of course being able to do that in pseudo-3D was quite a huge thing back then.
There are still games that try to recapture the vibe today, so it’s not just a thing of the past yet!
RPGs require a good story and interesting world. It helps the players to get immersed into each new (mostly) alien world and form a personal connection with it and its inhabitants. While players are aware(hopefully!) that this is a game, it has to be believable that someone would be able to inhabit it, be part of it and have a reason to save it (or conquer it!).
Without forming an attachment to the story, it’s easy for the players to get bored with the setting and skim through any important events and character interactions. Virtually discarding the role-playing aspect of the game.
Story and worldbuilding make or break an RPG.
There are two main systems when it comes to isometric RPGs, turn-based and real-time with pause (RTWP). While the turn-based system allows the player to meticulously plan each move, it can be quite tedious and time consuming. RTWP makes it more “action” oriented but can feel chaotic whenever controlling multiple characters, sometimes requiring a pause every second to keep up with the fight.
Which one is better is up to debate but if done right, they can be very fun and challenging for the player to master (and break!).
It’s important that players control the characters they want to play. Even if it’s a preexisting one, they need to feel that they are in control of their growth.
Whether it’s their class, level, or a certain degree of appearance modification, the players have to feel their input is reflected in their protagonist or companions.
Creating sensible and balanced choices in terms of skills/abilities, class etc. strengthens the connection formed between the player and the world he’s exploring, since it’s him and his choices that allow him to succeed (or fail).
RPGs tend to be more disadvantaged when it comes to playing them again. The main story is resolved, the plot twists and reveals are no longer surprising and content is already explored on previous playthroughs.
To mitigate that, there are different and meaningful choices introduced in the stories, allowing to branch off to a different outcome, content or even ending. This is especially true for heavy story focused games, where knowing the overall plot, helps discover previously unknown parts of the story and characters.
The best ones usually have players revisit the games after a few years and still find something new they’ve missed out on before, rekindling the excitement once more.
There’s plenty of great titles out there and this list is by no means complete.
The ones mentioned here are some of the best and definitely deserve attention.
Continuation of the previous Baldur’s Gate story set in the high fantasy world of Faerun. You control the “Baalspawn”, a progeny of the dead God of Murder, who was captured by a mysterious elven mage Irenicus to be experimented on.
Due to third party intervention and help from your childhood friend Imoen, you manage to escape your confines, only to have Imoen captured together with Irenicus and put away in a remote location.
From now on you’re free to explore the city of Athkatla and find a way to rescue your companion.
The game follows the same party mechanics as the previous one, expanding more on interactions between team members, even allowing romancing some of them if requirements are meant.
There are few returning characters to help out with your quest to hunt down Irenicus and stop his vengeful plans, while performing either good or evil deeds along the way.
Fantastic writing, great music with some occasional voice acting to add to the atmosphere, plus a challenging active-pause combat.
A hearty recommendation for all fans of the western RPG genre.
The story takes place in the world of Rivellon, a mediaeval fantasy world with “regular” magic and a special type of magic employed by “Sourcerers”. “Source“ allows it to perform amazing feats or empower other abilities but also perceive souls of the deceased (and potentially absorb them). You control “Godwoken”, characters that are chosen by gods as their champions and avatars. Through the story, your Godwoken learns to wield the Source and is tasked by their individual God to seek ascension into divinity.
But powerful and alien beings called “Voidwoken” invade reality, seemingly attracted by the Source and its wielders.
The game itself offers a lot of freedom in what kind of character you want to be. Despite characters being pre-defined in terms of backstory and core values, the player can still make choices according to their own moral compass which affects how the story plays out.
The combat is turn-based and relies on players tactical prowess and ability to use his resources to the fullest (that or barrelmancy).
Each character has access to the same abilities, which can be re-specialised via special mirror, giving a huge flexibility and plenty of builds to test out.
The preexisting characters that the player doesn’t choose can become your companions if you’re willing to befriend them, giving an opportunity to explore their paths without picking them as your main character.
There’s plenty of things to do and explore, the story is well written, characters are engaging, combat is lots of fun with plenty to experiment with, plus if you’re a fan of Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll see plenty of similarities between the titles!
Even today Planescape: Torment is considered one of the best written RPG stories.
You wake up on the mortician's slab with no memories as to how you’ve ended up there. The next moment a floating skull floats to you and introduces himself as Morte, claiming that he’s your companion.
This is just an introduction into the D&D world of Sigli in the Planescape setting, basically a multiverse of different planes of existence.
The Sigil is said to be set in the centre of all other planes and being accessible only via portals (both to visit and leave it), which can entrap accidental visitors who don’t have any knowledge about travel between portals, causing it to be occasionally referred to as “The Cage”.
The game focuses a lot on interacting with the environment and conversations with various denizens around Sigil. Some of them can open forgotten memories of the “Nameless One” (the player character), giving him a new insight on who he used to be and how his past-selves affect his own choices and future.
There’s plenty of great writing, character exploration and many themes to discover together with a group of interesting characters that are somehow “drawn” to the Nameless One. How you treat them and how their story ends is up to you and your interactions with them.
Planescape: Torment is a game that would greatly benefit from a remake that keeps the story intact, while improving on the gameplay, which could use some work unfortunately.
It’s definitely worth checking out if you like games with complex topics supplemented by great writing and exploring interesting alien worlds.
Definitely a very unique game with interesting gameplay and concepts.
The game starts with your character being at the very, VERY, low point in his life. He forgot most of his past and various world concepts and locations after a massive alcohol/drug binge.
Basically he’s as new to the world, as the player, trying to figure out the most basic concepts while investigating a murder. That’s right, you are a detective, an actual law enforcer.
At the beginning of the game you choose an archetype that focuses on certain attributes while neglecting others, with each focusing on 6 attribute affiliated skills. The attributes are as follows:
The fun part is that each “skill” offers its own “input” and “thoughts” that affect the player's understanding (or misunderstanding) of the world! The more developed the skill, the more successful checks will chime in to offer “their” insight into the situation.
One such skill is half-light, one of the physique skills responsible for fight or flight responses of your body. It offers some of the most unhinged solutions to even the most mundane problems, giving access to pretty violent and potentially harmful options (being bad-mouthed isn’t a good reason to shoot someone).
The game doesn’t have the typical combat mechanics. It’s focused on dialogue, exploration, character development and decision making.
Even a failed roll on a skill check can lead to something interesting, opening new thoughts to further affect the worldview of the protagonist.
It’s recommended to play the Final Cut version as it offers a fantastically voice acted experience. It’s hard to understate how much different the whole experience becomes.
And if it wasn’t clear enough, this is definitely a game you should try out, it’s a very unique and fun RPG.
Isometric RPGs are defined by the isometric camera view but the passion and skill each title had put into it should be viewed on an individual basis.
Simply because the game is an isometric RPG doesn’t automatically make it better than CRPG(which it shares quite a few titles with) or ARPG. Their biggest strength came from the dedicated people who put a lot of work and effort into creating some of the best RPG experiences for players to enjoy.
The worlds they created, the stories they’ve written, characters brought to life and game engines that brought it all into its glorious isometric view. Their popularity isn’t nostalgia based, they are simply that good that the genre is still fondly remembered.
Definite recommendation for anyone who enjoys RPGs.
There isn’t one. But there are plenty of fantastic titles out there. Baldur’s Gate trilogy, Fallout 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, Disco Elysium, Pillars of Eternity series, Divinity: Original Sin series, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and plenty more!
Somewhat. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Disco Elysium are both successful games but the genre itself isn’t AS popular as it was during its golden age.
Absolutely! There are some more modern titles to enjoy if you’re not a fan of the older 2.5D titles but you should definitely give them a try if you haven’t.
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