5 PC RPG Games That Shaped The Year 2009

Confusingly renamed from Defined to Shaped, GearGames continues its earlier editorial on RPGs that defined 2010 to go onto the RPGs that defined 2009. Those RPGs are: Dragon Age: Origins, Drakensang: The Dark Eye, Risen, Avernum 6 and Borderlands. From the Drakensang bit:

Why it is on the list: Drakensang represents a different way of going about things from the typical D&D RPG franchises. The colors are bright and cheery, though not as saturated as the King’s Bounty franchise. The style is light and there is loads of humor infused throughout. But at the same time there are loads of choices and serious issues the character confronts throughout the game.

In my review I mentioned that (my worst complaints about the game slow movement, one disproportionately difficult battle, missing stuff in the manual and help text, and a somewhat cliched story I must really like this game. And I do. It is not the sort of game that ten years from now people will be touting as ‘˜one of the best’ the way they will The Witcher, but it is a very good game that is one of the best RPG’s of the last several years. It has everything that fans of the genre seek role-playing, choices with consequences, party-based adventuring, turn-based combat, an epic story that allows you to influence the outcome in many ways, and so on. But for those who are not enamored with fantasy games, or don’t like turn-based games, and gravitate to fast-paced action games, there isn’t anything here to draw you in. This is not a .enre broadening’ game like Fallout 3 that bridges shooter and RPG elements Drakensang is pure RPG through and through.)