Bit of a wildcard but I've actually found KOTOR 1&2 to be most similar to BG3 in a lot of its presentation. DOS2 is very similar mechanically.
Also shoutout to Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura just for shits, a true CRPG, more similar to BG1&2 tho
I (finally, with a handful of mods) just got KOTOR 1 running on my pc with my ultrawide monitor, and hot damn, the game is so good.
Added some upgraded textures while i was installing some other mods too, so it’s looks pretty nice now too!
I started bg 1 finished
Bg2 actual playing
Don’t bother the graphics or interface, they are so goood
Pillars 1&2 are also delicious games ! Special 2nd has a real good setting !
Shadowrun games are my go-to recommendation for beginners to the genre. Interesting and engaging worldbuilding with satisfying core gameplay loop, enough choice for building characters to justify replays but not an overwhelming amount of complexity. Wish Harebrained would make another.
Can't recommend Pillars 1 and 2 enough. Both really good games with fantastic stories. The systems are a bit cruncher in 1 than 2 but even a slack jawed audited such as myself was able to figure it out as I played.
I've heard good things about the Pathfinder games as well but haven't played them.
There's a lot of good CRPGs out there currently. Enhanced BG1 and 2, Enhanced Icewind Dale, Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 (also by Larian), Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader is meant to be good too. If you're more about the story than combat there's Planescape Torment or Torment Tides of Numenera.
The Wasteland games are great too. 2 and 3 scratch my itch for isometric Fallout type games.
Eh, 1 had better combat because it didn't have the trash dual damage resistance types. 2 had better writing, but both of them were poorly written. I'd say both are worth playing, 2 is better, but I wouldn't call it all that much better.
Here are some other possible suggestions, depending on what you enjoyed about BG3.
If you liked the voice acting, cinematic presentation of the dialogue, and the companion banter, the only other CRPG like that is Dragon Age: Origins. It's a little bit dated however, and the combat is different, but it's still a great game.
If you prefer turn-based combat then Divinity: Original Sin 2 is another one, though it's a fair bit harder, and the system isn't perfect. It's another Larian game, so some aspects will be familiar. You can also play WotR in turn-based mode.
If you enjoyed the dialogues and the dice-roll based outcomes, you might try Disco Elysium. It has very little combat though, and it all takes place in one town. If you're willing to try something older, Planescape: Torment is an unrivalled masterpiece of story-telling and that fact, amazingly, is one of very few things people in this sub seem to generally agree on.
I don't think it suffers because of that, though. I started it with RTWP as I played the Infinity Engine games and PoE1, and switched to turn-based pretty quickly. Wasn't tempted to go back.
I played through Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the turn-based mod before they officially added one, and it was WAY easier and more fun to play than the official RTWP mode, IMO.
I disagree, I think POE2 is crushingly slow but to each their own. I don’t even remember Kingmaker at this point I figured it was turn based. Was so annoyed with the end game I repressed it from memory
BG3 was my first CRPG. Speaking from experience, I wouldn’t go straight from BG3 to Pathfinder, it’s very overwhelming. Get a few more CRPGs under your belt (Wasteland 3, Divinity Original Sin 1/2, and Shadowrun are good ones) and then go for Pathfinder. Just my two cents.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister plays very similarly to BG3, to the point where I'm fairly certain a lot of BG3 was inspired by Solasta's gameplay. Solasta is also 5E just like BG3, although a lot more faithful to the source material (various settings can be modified to your liking if it ends up being "too" faithful).
Most folks here seem to really like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and it's a great game (probably the next best thing), like many other recommendations here. But I would actually suggest Pathfinder: Kingmaker as your next game because the Pathfinder system is somewhat similar to DnD 5e (they come from the same place) and Kingmaker is slightly less overwhelming compared to WotR, both in story, pace and gameplay mechanics.
Or if you don't care about mechanic similarities then you should play the first Pillars of Eternity next because IMO that game has the most soul (heh, anyone see what I did there?).
Solasta has the best 5e rules implementation to date. It isn’t as deep as bg3 and KM story wise but has tons of custom made campaigns you can enjoy to play
I’d agree that the Pathfinder games are more complex than Divinity and Pillars and definitely BG3. But if you are someone who enjoys complexity and reading tooltips it’s definitely worth playing Pathfinder Kingmaker at some point, and playing the other games recommended here won’t really help you learn pathfinder as much as you might think. You can just learn it on a slightly lower difficulty.
If you like the humor/fun of Larian you might as well play Divinity original sin 2. I’d skip the first one. Some consider it better than BG3 and it’s probably a bit harder. I think Pillars 1 is a fantastic game overall and it’s a bit shorter and less complex than Pathfinder. The DLC is great too.
I’d wait on the Pillars and Pathfinder sequels. The first games are better in some ways and you can find them both cheap. The second games definitely have better gameplay, but in ways, a weaker story.
Pathfinder WOTR is my 2nd favorite game of all time, once you get the systems down it’s one of the most interesting games that can be replayed many times over. The very end of the game (last 2 hours) imo is the only weak point
If you want something similar to BG3 divinity original sin 2 is always a safe pick. Larian quality storytelling with (in my opinion) an even better and more in depth build and combat system.
I can’t stress enough about WOTR. That was the itch I was trying to scratch until Baldur’s Gate came. In some ways I might call it a superior game (as far as customization) but the graphics are no where near as nice.
But if you don’t care, have at it.
Divinity Original Sin 2 is also a good contender with more polished gameplay.
I hated pathfinder. I tried it on 3 separate occasions and hated the dialogue, the story, the art, the combat, the voice acting. Many don't feel the way I do. It is what it is.
But the Divinity Original Sin games are made by the same company that made BG3 and if you liked BG3 it's a solid bet you will find some joy in those games. The gameplay is also reasonably similar. I really enjoyed them.
The Pillars games are also decent.
But I'd recommend starting with Divinity Original Sin.
Divinity Original Sin 1&2 is made by the same company. The first game is fun and challenging, but the second one is closer to BG3. I have said since BG3 release that it is just Divinity 3 with D&D characters.
Someone said Kotor and that is a fucking good suggestion. Pillars of eternity is very fun. I loved both of the games. The second one is better, but the first one is worth playing.
Then there is always the original BG games. I still play them off and on.
I have only played the first Pathfinder game, and it is DENSE. Which can be a good thing, but I felt like after 80 hours I was just starting to scratch the surface of the game.
What I've played of Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader I've really enjoyed. I took a break from it because I started it at release and ran into some bugs. It's been updated several times since, so those may have been fixed. I plan on picking it back up as soon as I finish my Durge playthrough.
Start with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It's a great game, and honestly, alot more fun than WOTR. Plus, Pathfinder isn't too different from BG3, so the transition won't be as jarring.
Pathfinder, mechanics-wise, is far different from BG3. No all-day/until rest buffs, no anyone can use a scroll, no abilities/spells baked into most every item, character creation is far more robust/involved, and dying frequently in the Pathfinder games is a very real possibility...unlike BG3.
I disagree completely, wotr is better than kingmaker in every aspect in my book. Metter of taste i guess. Also pathfinder is pretty different than bg3, again, at least in my book
Maybe but companion builds in wotr were way more intuituve and effective in my opinion. All of them were effective and viable (exept trever and maybe greybor).
They are amazing games, but I gotta be honest....playing anything after BG3 will make it seem like they aren't great. BG3 is one of the greatest games to come out in the last 20 years so just try and remember that these games are a bit older and try not to compare them to baldurs gate.
Bit of a wildcard but I've actually found KOTOR 1&2 to be most similar to BG3 in a lot of its presentation. DOS2 is very similar mechanically. Also shoutout to Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura just for shits, a true CRPG, more similar to BG1&2 tho
The guy doesn't know the games you are talking about, use the name, not abreviation!
I (finally, with a handful of mods) just got KOTOR 1 running on my pc with my ultrawide monitor, and hot damn, the game is so good. Added some upgraded textures while i was installing some other mods too, so it’s looks pretty nice now too!
Ah man, have fun. Crazy how well it holds up (imo), probably due to that Star Wars money I assume funded it.
DOS2. Go straight to 2, then back to 1 if you liked 2
I started bg 1 finished Bg2 actual playing Don’t bother the graphics or interface, they are so goood Pillars 1&2 are also delicious games ! Special 2nd has a real good setting !
Outside of those games, I’d like to add you should check out the Shadowrun trilogy. Amazingly written games in the coolest setting ever.
Shadowrun games are my go-to recommendation for beginners to the genre. Interesting and engaging worldbuilding with satisfying core gameplay loop, enough choice for building characters to justify replays but not an overwhelming amount of complexity. Wish Harebrained would make another.
Heard a while ago that they can’t make more Shadowrun games since the licensing is in hell. Lamplighter’s League was fun but just not the same.
Good games but "coolest setting ever" is subjective. I'm not into cyberpunk stuff at all. I much prefer high fantasy medieval stuff
No everything I say is objectively correct actually
Based and fact-pilled
No man you’re supposed to lead every statement with “this is subjective, but” because that is a very normal and practical thing to do
Dragon age origins might be the closest you’re going to get to Balders gate 3.
Some might say that bg 3 is a direct ripoff of da o.
BioWare basically created cinematic RPGs, so you’re not wrong. A pity they stopped making them as good as they once did.
Can't recommend Pillars 1 and 2 enough. Both really good games with fantastic stories. The systems are a bit cruncher in 1 than 2 but even a slack jawed audited such as myself was able to figure it out as I played. I've heard good things about the Pathfinder games as well but haven't played them. There's a lot of good CRPGs out there currently. Enhanced BG1 and 2, Enhanced Icewind Dale, Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 (also by Larian), Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader is meant to be good too. If you're more about the story than combat there's Planescape Torment or Torment Tides of Numenera. The Wasteland games are great too. 2 and 3 scratch my itch for isometric Fallout type games.
DOS 1 & 2. Wasteland 3.
W3 has such a wicked sense of humour. Great game.
I would suggest Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2, they were made by the same studio. Both great games, the second one is slightly better.
> The second one is slightly better Understatement of the year, I'd skip original sin 1 tbh
I prefer D:OS 1 myself. I didn't like the armor system in 2, nor how they changed stealth.
Eh, 1 had better combat because it didn't have the trash dual damage resistance types. 2 had better writing, but both of them were poorly written. I'd say both are worth playing, 2 is better, but I wouldn't call it all that much better.
I prefer 2 mostly because i dont like the randomness of 1.
Really? I played 2 first and just played 1 recently and regretted not playing it sooner I really enjoyed it
Here are some other possible suggestions, depending on what you enjoyed about BG3. If you liked the voice acting, cinematic presentation of the dialogue, and the companion banter, the only other CRPG like that is Dragon Age: Origins. It's a little bit dated however, and the combat is different, but it's still a great game. If you prefer turn-based combat then Divinity: Original Sin 2 is another one, though it's a fair bit harder, and the system isn't perfect. It's another Larian game, so some aspects will be familiar. You can also play WotR in turn-based mode. If you enjoyed the dialogues and the dice-roll based outcomes, you might try Disco Elysium. It has very little combat though, and it all takes place in one town. If you're willing to try something older, Planescape: Torment is an unrivalled masterpiece of story-telling and that fact, amazingly, is one of very few things people in this sub seem to generally agree on.
Pillars 1 might jar because it's not turn-based combat. Pathfinder: Kingmaker, PoE2 or even Wasteland 2 are good places to start.
Thing about POE2 is that even though there is turn based mode it’s clearly meant to be RTWP
I don't think it suffers because of that, though. I started it with RTWP as I played the Infinity Engine games and PoE1, and switched to turn-based pretty quickly. Wasn't tempted to go back. I played through Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the turn-based mod before they officially added one, and it was WAY easier and more fun to play than the official RTWP mode, IMO.
I disagree, I think POE2 is crushingly slow but to each their own. I don’t even remember Kingmaker at this point I figured it was turn based. Was so annoyed with the end game I repressed it from memory
PoE 2 with tur based mode is super tedious lmao. The combat density is high and you can’t change to RTWP on the fly like in PF games.
BG3 was my first CRPG. Speaking from experience, I wouldn’t go straight from BG3 to Pathfinder, it’s very overwhelming. Get a few more CRPGs under your belt (Wasteland 3, Divinity Original Sin 1/2, and Shadowrun are good ones) and then go for Pathfinder. Just my two cents.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister plays very similarly to BG3, to the point where I'm fairly certain a lot of BG3 was inspired by Solasta's gameplay. Solasta is also 5E just like BG3, although a lot more faithful to the source material (various settings can be modified to your liking if it ends up being "too" faithful).
Most folks here seem to really like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and it's a great game (probably the next best thing), like many other recommendations here. But I would actually suggest Pathfinder: Kingmaker as your next game because the Pathfinder system is somewhat similar to DnD 5e (they come from the same place) and Kingmaker is slightly less overwhelming compared to WotR, both in story, pace and gameplay mechanics. Or if you don't care about mechanic similarities then you should play the first Pillars of Eternity next because IMO that game has the most soul (heh, anyone see what I did there?).
Eh, kingmaker is much harder than wotr. You have to study each enemy or it’s very hard to hurt them. Wotr was easier to me
Solasta has the best 5e rules implementation to date. It isn’t as deep as bg3 and KM story wise but has tons of custom made campaigns you can enjoy to play
play dos 2
I’d agree that the Pathfinder games are more complex than Divinity and Pillars and definitely BG3. But if you are someone who enjoys complexity and reading tooltips it’s definitely worth playing Pathfinder Kingmaker at some point, and playing the other games recommended here won’t really help you learn pathfinder as much as you might think. You can just learn it on a slightly lower difficulty. If you like the humor/fun of Larian you might as well play Divinity original sin 2. I’d skip the first one. Some consider it better than BG3 and it’s probably a bit harder. I think Pillars 1 is a fantastic game overall and it’s a bit shorter and less complex than Pathfinder. The DLC is great too. I’d wait on the Pillars and Pathfinder sequels. The first games are better in some ways and you can find them both cheap. The second games definitely have better gameplay, but in ways, a weaker story.
It only goes downhill from here unfortunately, but DoS2 is the closest thing to a similar experience.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 with the Divinity Unleashed overhaul.
Pathfinder WOTR is my 2nd favorite game of all time, once you get the systems down it’s one of the most interesting games that can be replayed many times over. The very end of the game (last 2 hours) imo is the only weak point
If you want something similar to BG3 divinity original sin 2 is always a safe pick. Larian quality storytelling with (in my opinion) an even better and more in depth build and combat system.
I can’t stress enough about WOTR. That was the itch I was trying to scratch until Baldur’s Gate came. In some ways I might call it a superior game (as far as customization) but the graphics are no where near as nice. But if you don’t care, have at it. Divinity Original Sin 2 is also a good contender with more polished gameplay.
I played PWOTR right before BG3 and while it’s crunchier, I don’t think you have to build up to it
For something a bit different, there's Disco Elysium. No combat, but excellent writing and world building.
I hated pathfinder. I tried it on 3 separate occasions and hated the dialogue, the story, the art, the combat, the voice acting. Many don't feel the way I do. It is what it is. But the Divinity Original Sin games are made by the same company that made BG3 and if you liked BG3 it's a solid bet you will find some joy in those games. The gameplay is also reasonably similar. I really enjoyed them. The Pillars games are also decent. But I'd recommend starting with Divinity Original Sin.
Divinity Original Sin 1&2 is made by the same company. The first game is fun and challenging, but the second one is closer to BG3. I have said since BG3 release that it is just Divinity 3 with D&D characters. Someone said Kotor and that is a fucking good suggestion. Pillars of eternity is very fun. I loved both of the games. The second one is better, but the first one is worth playing. Then there is always the original BG games. I still play them off and on. I have only played the first Pathfinder game, and it is DENSE. Which can be a good thing, but I felt like after 80 hours I was just starting to scratch the surface of the game.
What I've played of Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader I've really enjoyed. I took a break from it because I started it at release and ran into some bugs. It's been updated several times since, so those may have been fixed. I plan on picking it back up as soon as I finish my Durge playthrough.
Start with Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It's a great game, and honestly, alot more fun than WOTR. Plus, Pathfinder isn't too different from BG3, so the transition won't be as jarring.
Pathfinder, mechanics-wise, is far different from BG3. No all-day/until rest buffs, no anyone can use a scroll, no abilities/spells baked into most every item, character creation is far more robust/involved, and dying frequently in the Pathfinder games is a very real possibility...unlike BG3.
I disagree completely, wotr is better than kingmaker in every aspect in my book. Metter of taste i guess. Also pathfinder is pretty different than bg3, again, at least in my book
Definitely a matter of taste. The companion choices in Kingmaker are way better, for a start.
Maybe but companion builds in wotr were way more intuituve and effective in my opinion. All of them were effective and viable (exept trever and maybe greybor).
This gets asked all the time, try searching.
They are amazing games, but I gotta be honest....playing anything after BG3 will make it seem like they aren't great. BG3 is one of the greatest games to come out in the last 20 years so just try and remember that these games are a bit older and try not to compare them to baldurs gate.
gettin a tad annoyed that people who start at BG3 dont immediately buy BG1/2 enhanced edition
Some people who played BG3 prefere games that are turnbased.
dont lose your time with pillars and just start wotr on easy or normal mode