I want to play a fantasy action RPG together with a friend.
Action RPG as in: it should not require much reading or NPC conversation; the main focus should lie on hunting/fighting and exploration.
But the game should be hard. There should often be the risk to get killed in a fight if we don’t concentrate; regularly there should be challenging fights we can’t win unless we change our strategy/tactics (or even skills).
Technical requirements
- for Windows
- needs to run on older/weak hardware (only onboard/integrated graphics), for example on netbooks of the first generation
Game mechanics
multiplayer mode: network co-op – via LAN (not Internet)
- playing together in a team (e.g., sharing quests and experience points), not just each one on his own in the same world
- real-time gameplay (no turn-based fights/movement)
camera perspective: first-person and/or (very near) third-person
- so it must not be possible to zoom out very far: the player should not be able to see much more than the avatar would see in reality; especially no camera like the one in Neverwinter Nights
- good examples: Morrowind, Gothic, Might and Magic VI, Deus Ex, System Shock 2
controls: avatar movement and (basic) fighting must be possible with keyboard, not only by clicking with the mouse
- so no FPS elements that would require manual aiming with the mouse; instead, it should offer either some kind of auto-aim or it should be possible to focus a specific enemy
"classical" RPG features:
- earn experience points for solving quests or killing monsters
- spend skill points to learn/improve abilites (the skill system should be extensive and complex)
- find/buy better equipment
- there must be an end (e.g., a main quest line that can be finished)
Ruled out candidates
- Diablo II: wrong camera perspective
- Gothic: perfect match if it had a multiplayer mode
- Neverwinter Nights: too much reading; wrong camera perspective
- Might and Magic VI: perfect match if it had a multiplayer mode
- Morrowind: perfect match if it had a stable/polished multiplayer mode (and IIRC it also requires manual aiming for shooting)
- System Shock 2: perfect match if it a) had a fantasy setting, and b) wouldn’t require manual aiming with guns