Trying to find new RPG fix (have some criteria)

[Durai]

So lately I've become restless with playing some of my favorite MMO/RPGs. I just got my 8th character in Guild Wars 2 to level 80, and I've done multiple plays of Skyrim (unmodded on PS3 and modded heavily on PC).

But now I need something new, something different yet familiar. I need advice and I'm looking to the Escapist for guidance. Here are a couple guidelines I want to meet:

1. Character(s) can be customized to my personal taste. (In GW2 this was done with stats + tranmutations of armor. Skyrim's blacksmithing pretty much let me make any gear top quality as long as I used Alchemy and or enchanted restoration accessories. Oblivion's glitches let me increases stats indefinitely so I could play any class without worry.)

2. Main storyline can be ignored completely if I so choose. (GW2 never forced me to play my characters personal story, I could level pretty much anyway I wanted. Skyrim and Oblivion also had this option, but Skyrim got brownie points from me for the mod "Live Another Life." Let me choose my own starting backstory and I never had to touch the main questline.)

3. Has voice acting at least 50% of the time. Like a lot of gamers, I grew up with text based games, but years of quality (more or less) voice-acting has spoiled older titles for me. If you're going to sell your world to me, then I need to know how people in certain regions talk, and how they convey their emotions.

4. (Optional) Game is broad enough that I can set my own limitations. If I want to play a ranger who hunts vampires for a living, I can. If I want to craft armor and sell what I make for a living, I can do that too.

That should be enough for now, don't want to make my prerequisites too narrow or no one might recommend anything. Thanks in advance for those who respond!

 

[shrekfan246]

Well, that's almost refreshingly broad compared to the guidelines people generally ask for, though I fear it'll have the end result of people recommending games you've already played/won't be interested in for various reasons.

The first two that come to mind for me are Kingdoms of Amalur and Dark Souls.

KoA doesn't have much in the way of physical customization for characters, though there is an amount of it, but it has a wide variety of weapons and armor and allows you to mix and match between the classic warrior/mage/rogue archetypes to whatever degree you want. It's very much like a single-player MMO, and after the first few tutorial quests which set you on your way and give you the "main plot" (which honestly isn't that important in the grand scheme of the game anyway) it basically sets you on your way and lets you do what you please. And I'm relatively sure that most, if not all, of the NPCs you interact with are voice-acted.

Dark Souls is smaller and more focused; The hub it dumps you in after the tutorial seems pretty open-ended at first, but generally speaking only one direction won't result in the immediate death of a new player. The story is very subtle in this one, and there's very little in the way of exposition or dialogue (and as such there aren't many side-quests, and even less which are obviously telegraphed), but what NPCs there are tend to be voice-acted and the game world is beautifully and meticulously built and realized.

Other potential suggestions... Divine Divinity, the Fallout franchise (though I can't speak for the amount of voice acting in the first two titles), the Sacred franchise, and perhaps The Witcher franchise (though they're certainly more story-focused)?

Those are all pretty low-hanging fruit as far as RPGs go, I'm afraid.

Oh, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on the PS3, perhaps? It's a bit difficult and I'm not entirely sure exactly how open-ended it is especially in comparison to the original release of the game, but it might be worth looking into all the same.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I fear it'll have the end result of people recommending games you've already played/won't be interested in for various reasons.

Same as this ^, we really need to know what games you have played already, on top of GW2 and Skyrim, to be able to give you a good answer to this.

Regardless, my main suggestion would be Fallout 3. But I imagine you have either played this or at least know of it, so yeh, would really need that list of games you are aware of to make a better suggestion.

 

[AntiChri5]

If you enjoyed Oblivion and Skyrim, definitely check out the later Fallout titles (3 and New Vegas).

Hmmm, what else is there....Mount and Blade i guess?

 

[Jay Knowles]

I second Mount and Blade (also Mount and Blade: Warband). There's a ton of quality mods out there for it, including the Diplomacy mod which adds a lot more rp options to the vanilla game, and Prophesy of Pendor which is a total overhaul for more experienced players (has a new map, factions, objectives etc).

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Have you seen Arche Age? It looks pretty broad. Though I don't know if it has vampires.

 

[LetalisK]

I second Mount and Blade (also Mount and Blade: Warband). There's a ton of quality mods out there for it, including the Diplomacy mod which adds a lot more rp options to the vanilla game, and Prophesy of Pendor which is a total overhaul for more experienced players (has a new map, factions, objectives etc).

I third this, but would suggest going straight to warband and ignoring the fire and whatever expansion. Lots of good mods for it, but also be aware that, at least for the normal campaign map, you need to have a good imagination and self-motivation. It doesn't hold your hand at all. You're plopped down in a world and it's up to you to figure out all the game systems, interactions, and pretty much develop your own story and endgame objective. Some people love this, some hate it. I love it, personally.

 

[broadbandmink]

Now, I think you've already played my first recommendation but I'm gonna put it here anyway: Morrowind. Still holding up very well by today's standards. It may not meet your voice acting criteria though.

My second recommendation would be Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Character customization options are plentiful. Voice acting might be an issue since far from every character in-game has been provided with a voice actor. Lastly, I'm not sure but I think you can avoid the main storyline once you get past the first village. Although I'd recommend players to stay with it until you reach the city of Tarant.