» Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:19 am
If you enjoyed OB for the combat, try The Witcher or Mount & Blade. If you liked the RP, try Morrowind.
MW takes a lot more effort to get past the primitive graphics and outdated AI packages (I just about shuddered at the sight when I went back, after playing OB for a month - then downloaded some graphics replacers), but the underlying game is far deeper and potentially more rewarding. The combat is far simpler than OB's, merely a "way to resolve encounters". The key difference between the games is that your character's skills in MW MATTER, and you're likely to fail frequently at tasks until they improve; in OB they're secondary to player skills in many cases, and success is automatic. I find that there's no real sense of victory if there's no challenge, and felt that the challenge and the feeling of satisfaction were missing in OB. Taking your most useful skills as Minors made sense in OB, because the game got a lot harder as your level increased. MWs higher proportion of static enemies means that you've got to advance in order to be able to stand a chance against them. The down side is that it gets too easy at the higher levels.
The Witcher is a mostly linear collection of smaller "open" scenarios, where you can go anywhere within the local area (except where you can't hop a 2 foot high white picket fence), but the overall plotline is linear. The combat is mainly based on player skills, by following up with "combo moves" by clicking at the right moment, etc. There are only about 6-10 "real" advancable skills, but dozens of "perks" that the game calls "skills". For example: Alchemy is a so-called "skill". You either have it or you don't, and you have to learn it in one of the earlier missions to complete the mission and move forward in the game. At that point, there are a few "perks" you can get to expand it, but it never goes beyond Level 1. You also have a "set" of armor. It's given to you, and there's nothing better to be found until it's time for you to "advance", at which time you are "given" a better set. The game has "extremely limited" character advancement choices, because you have to take all of them to some degree, and it's only a matter of choosing which to take first, until you get enough points to increase the others. The game gives the the "illusion of choice", but not very much of the real thing.