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Pathfinder WotR or Tyranny are always good picks.
I you haven't played it yet then Pillars of Eternity 2 is also very good; even if it doesn't have Durance.
If you are looking for something more off the path then Colony Ship or Last Train Home are pretty good if not as polished as the others.
I'll second Tyranny and Pillars 2.
Tyranny's ending is... well... they tacked on some text - but it's a great game otherwise.
PoE2 is more enjoyable than the first one, IMO, just for the lighter tone. They do a better job of explaining the world, too, because you aren't bludgeoned with lore-dumps like in 1.
When you said poe2 I thought you meant path of exile 2 and thought that I had missed the release somehow
I also really liked pillars 2, and am sad they're not making a third one.
Pathfinder WoTR is an overall improvement, but Pathfinder Kingmaker also has its charms.
It feels like playing a DnD campaign with the developers acting as the DM.
It does require some metagaming if one wants to experience everything, it does have an ending act that drags on for too long, it can feel oppressive with the disaster timers ticking away while one is still trying to figure out a rhythm and it can end up with things spiraling into danger if one doesn't "rush" and plan around each main act quest.
It is one of those rough games that does have a certain appeal to those that do not mind working through the frustrations for a more grounded adventure - relative to the setting.
Tyranny, from a world building experience was great, felt like it was short an act though as I got to the final act and thought - "wait, what is that it?"
Also it is refreshing to have a game where morality is fluid and open to interpretation and up to the player to rationalise their actions, where the decisions lean more towards following an ideology more than morality
For a Warhammer cRPG, Rogue Trader is something to consider as well as it captures the feel of its setting pretty well
I'd second Pillars of Eternity II except that it's not actually on sale. It also doesn't have gamepad controls, which is disappointing, so Steam Deck controls can be kind of slow.
Bonus for compatibility with the Deck.
I really enjoyed playing through Fallout 2 on my deck.
I just played through it this year for the first time. It was overall very good, but the beginning and end of it are pretty rough. The beginning is tedious unless you're playing a strength build, and the end is some real point and click adventure game moon logic to find out how to get to the final area and, in some ways, through it, that I would have never figured out without a walkthrough.
The maze puzzle with the electrified floor is some absolute bullshit. I wonder if there's a mod to remove that nonsense?
As for the beginning, I used a mod to skip the Temple of Trials because you're absolutely right, it's such a tedious slog. Yay, executive meddling!
What part of that was executive meddling?
The Temple of Trials is intended to be a tutorial - something the executives insisted they include. The first game's tutorial is in the manual.
I agree that the game should have a tutorial. The problem with the temple trial is that it only caters to one play style, so it's not a good tutorial. I'd call the first game's tutorial the cave with a handful of rats.
While I agree the tutorial is rough for something meant to teach, it can be done with different playstyles.
Although having some form of melee combat does make the experience a lot less frustrating and can save a lot on time spent trying to hit the enemies, but I think enemies have like 5 ap or so which one can avoid most of them on an agility build by outspeeding them.
A determined person could probably get through it without fighting as a challenge I guess as an agility and stealth focus.
There is a lock pick and explosive tutorial that are mandatory but aren't too difficult and then there is a trap room which can be a problem if one is low on perception.
The final challenge can have the guy be talked down with enough speech
For ease of getting through it, strength or agility with a melee skill will make it a lot easier though.
This is the kind of stuff you might know if you already know what's ahead of you, like if you played it before, but as a first-time player of the game, not knowing what's coming, I found it to be a poor experience when you only have a melee weapon but specced for guns.
I am kind of the subborn idiot that initially struggled with the tutorial, but struggled enough to learn what it was it was trying to teach.
I remember and know it from failing, leaning and trying different things seeing what works.
The three starting default characters all have something they are good at and looking at those - all three are meant to get through the tutorial, although Norg is the most straight forward approach.
As I said before, it is not the best and they could have done a better job, yes.
It can leave one feeling annoyed that their gun character struggles - sure
Can it suck knowing you have to put some token effort into a melee skill if you do not want to sneak around or evade the enemies - indeed
But my point is that, regardless of its poorer presentation, especially when put up against Fallout 1's tutorial, there is more than one way to do it other than pure brute force.
Wildermyth is somewhere between a tactical combat game and a role-playing game, and quite good.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister has caught my attention, but I haven't played it yet.
Dragon Age: Origins is good, and although not on sale, is old enough that full price is not bad. (I don't know if the EULA is tolerable, though; I don't think it was there when I played it.)
Solasta's campaign feels a little half baked in some ways, especially if you're coming from Baldur's Gate, but where it really shines is in building your own campaigns to run your friends through. It's a perfectly reasonable platform to host online D&D 5e in, especially with mods to expand the content. And there are plenty of user-created workshop campaigns to download, but in general, I wouldn't recommend it as a single player experience if that's what you're looking for. I absolutely do recommend it for group play.