I Hate Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance

I can’t stand Action RPG’s that are based on Pen and Paper RPG’s. If it’s D&D, or in the D&D world, I want turn based. Or if it’s not turn-based, I at least want a really close approximation of turn-based. Troika’s Temple of Elemental Evil? Awesomeness. If Knights of the Old Republic didn’t have the best Star Wars story since Empire Strikes Back, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Bioware had a kind of passing salute to the Star Wars RPG, but was ultimately changed around quite a bit to make it more action-oreiented. It worked, and I would still give the game 5 out of 5 stars, but for me, it would be even more fun if they had stayed true to the original RPG rules and had it be turn-based with the d20 bonus feats, class features, etc. After all, if Troika can do it, why not Bioware?

There may be an intersection between gamers like me who hate these Action RPG’s and gamers who enjoy “Strategy RPG’s” like FF:Tactics, Disgaea, etc. What I love about Fallout, Wasteland, FF6 and other RPG’s that use turn-based combat is that they come so close to recreating the feel of pen and paper RPG’s and paper-based war games. Turn-based strategy is king. It was even hard for me to like the original Baldur’s Gate when it came out because for me, it blurred the line between turn-based and real-time combat. Much like KoTOR has done. I should note that some action RPG’s are quite fun. I enjoyed Diablo and Diablo II to a certain extent. Dungeon Siege was fun for a few minutes. I’m a few hours into Jade Empire and absolutely loving it, but turn-based will always be my first love.

And I don’t think it’s a problem of repetitiveness. Example: random battles in FF6. Repetitive as repetitive can be, but I’m about halfway through it again, and still loving the game as much as I did 10 years ago.