All of us have a dream game. Or two. Or dozens. Whether it’s a remake of a classic, a different take on a franchise or setting you love, or something completely original, we all have an idea of ideal video games. In this opinion piece, we will list and discuss sixteen dream game concepts that we have; games that will probably never be announced or attempted.
You should know that the GND-Tech gaming staff is comprised of RPG-loving PC gamers. To get a better understanding of us, see our breakdown of our game review system as well as our ideas of the ultimate, most ambitious game design in this article.
All of our entries include highly detailed but perfectly feasible game ideas. There is nothing particularly outrageous here, but of course every single one of our games listed here demands a large and very talented team as well as a large budget, but not a budget that’s totally unheard of for video games, and not an unreasonable amount of ambition and effort. Continue on to the next page to start the countdown.
Prerequisites
We’re really going to indulge in our fantasies here. We have some prerequisites that apply to every single one of our game ideas, which we’ll go into before actually starting our countdown. High budget is an obvious one. We also envision all of these games, except perhaps the two RTS games, being developed on Unreal Engine 4 (Vulkan, so these games couldn’t be made until 2017) using GPU accelerated NVIDIA PhysX as an option for NVIDIA users. The games would be designed to use GPU PhysX to its full potential because it is quite literally decades ahead of other modern video game physics engines. Non-NVIDIA users would have to use CPU PhysX which would provide only standard, unimpressive but fundamentally sound physics effects. Also, every one of these games would use OpenAL as the sound API with native Rapture3D support, because this would provide the most advanced, realistic, and accurate audio including a 3D sound space and HRTF, and EFX.
Optimization would set new industry standards for PC games. We’d improve multithread/multicore support to the point where 8 core CPUs show legitimate improvements (Vulkan will help with this). Everything would be optimized for powerful Intel based PCs and parallel architecture. We do realize these games would have to be on consoles too; they’d simply be ported to console and graphics quality and NPC count reduced as necessary, and GPU PhysX obviously wouldn’t be on consoles.
These games would have all of the options and customization needed to satisfy the most seasoned PC gamers, such as toggle or hold walk/crouch/aim, HUD adjustment and scaling (including the ability to adjust and disable individual HUD elements), FOV adjustment, frame rate limiter (up to 240 FPS), full key binding with macro support like ArmA games, crosshair options (including the ability to disable), manual saving plus quicksaving, OpenAL as the audio API with hardware acceleration, you name it.
Moreover, all of these games would have SDKs and unrestricted mod support. Mods would be easy to make and there’d be essentially no limit to what you could make.
Some of you may know that aliasing is one of our pet peeves here at GND. These games would have all of the following anti-aliasing options, and an abundance of other graphics options including view distance sliders as well:
- Post-Process/Shader AA (for integrated graphics or very low end, old PCs): SMAA Low, SMAA Medium, SMAA High, SMAA Ultra
- Temporal AA: Off, On
- Full Screen Sparse Grid Supersampling: 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 8x
Last but not least, our prerequisites include greatly improved AI. You see, AI really hasn’t improved much at all in the last 15 years. That is completely unacceptable. Our AI would be far more human and realistic.
World War II Shooter
The first game on our list is the simplest in concept. It is a very authentic single player World War II shooter; the most realistic combat combined with character focus like Band of Brothers.
Our game idea is inspired heavily by Call of Duty (the classic ones), ArmA, and Red Orchestra 2. The Call of Duty inspiration comes in the form of multiple protagonists; American (European front), American (Pacific front), British (Africa), and Russian. All of the largest, most well known battles would be included. The player would fight in France, Italy, Germany, Holland, North Africa, Russia, you name it.
We also mentioned it would be character driven like Band of Brothers. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One actually attempted this, even using most of the cast from Band of Brothers. We undoubtedly want something similar, but much higher quality. Our game idea is also a lot less linear than Call of Duty – overall progression is still linear, but the missions are much larger and have more freedom. One innovative aspect is the ranking system we’ve thought of; depending on how well the player performs in missions, he/she will be offered promotions. Ranking is treated realistically and a squad command system, similar to ArmA’s, would come in place if appropriate for the player’s ranking. So the player would command a squad as an NCO, a platoon as a Lieutenant, and the highest rank would be Captain in which the player can command an entire company (although you could command a company at 1st Lieutenant as well). Promotions can be denied for players who prefer to take orders the entire time.
Since it’s character driven, that means if you die then you just reload your save, like Call of Duty 1 and 2, opposed to simply playing as another soldier like in Rainbow Six 3.
Combat mechanics would be very much like Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm and ArmA 3. We’d have ArmA 3’s stance system, the aiming deadzone from both games, realistic recoil and aim sway and reloading, realistic fatigue (affected by accumulated wounds/damage), and simulator-like realism like both games, but with smoothness/fluidity far above that of ArmA (even above RO2/Rising Storm). The same amount of realism and attention to detail would go into our vehicle gameplay; ground, naval, and aerial, again like ArmA but even better (but the majority of the game would be infantry). Interior vehicle animations and detail would be similar to Red Orchestra 2, seen here:
The first playthrough would be in chronological order, but after completion the player would be allowed to choose the fronts they’d want to play as, in any order he/she desires. For example, if after beating the game you wanted to replay the African front first, you’d be allowed to do that.
Despite our single player focus, we acknowledge that multiplayer is a necessity especially for sales. Our multiplayer implementation would be essentially identical to that of Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2, just with the greater varity due to having locations such as France, Italy, and Africa, and a greater amount of vehicle gameplay including aerial and naval depending on the map.
The chances of this game being made? Probably 0%.
Rainbow Six
Our next dream game idea also happens to be a shooter: a new Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six: Siege, a fast paced PvP shooter, does not cut it. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield is a PC exclusive masterpiece and one of the best shooters ever made. Our idea is like a modern, improved version of that, taking inspiration from SWAT 4 as well.
To briefly summarize what made Rainbow Six 3 so extraordinary, like its predecessors it was a tactical shooter that had no competition. Unlike the newer Rainbow Six games, such as the greatly dumbed down and consolized Rainbow Six: Vegas games, you don’t control just one central character in Rainbow Six 3. You can control any soldier, reminiscent of a strategy game like XCOM. You assign a pool of soldiers, each with unique stats, to three different teams (four in the first two Rainbow Six games) and can toggle between any team member at any time if playing in single player mode. But let’s take a step back for a moment and look more closely at some of the inner workings of Rainbow Six 3.
The screenshots above showcase the pre-mission briefing and planning system. The briefing is detailed and even reports on population panic levels essentially, which increase or decrease based on how successful you are throughout the game.
The pre-mission planning system of the classic Rainbow Six games is legendary. You have blueprints of the area and you are able to create, save, and load a plan. Plans include setting a route which AI will follow, and providing points where they perform some kind of action which you define. For example, if along the route is a door, you can make it so the squad stops at the door, throws a flashbang grenade past it, and then clears out the area behind the door.
We would have to expand on this pre-mission planning system, making it possible to give individual soldiers specific orders. Also since the game would have far more tactical equipment like everything in SWAT 4 (Optiwand, Door Wedge, lockpicking tools, C2 breaching charge, all the different kinds of grenades), drones, and much more. All of these would have to be featured in pre-mission planning, e.g. setting up a plan that involves using those things at specific points.
In Rainbow Six 3, you can even watch your plan play out, and have the AI perform the mission on their own based on your plan. This is more like a strategy game than a shooter. We would definitely keep this and improve upon it, allowing the player to view the mission progress through cameras placed on the AI characters, and perhaps an overhead aerial view through a vehicle mounted camera of sorts depending on the mission.
But most people wish to take part in the action themselves. Obviously this is an option too. Regardless of whether or not you choose to simply watch the mission unfold or play it yourself, you need to select your roster, pictured below.
You get three teams (four in the first two Rainbow Six games) and you can use them however you wish. You get to assign soldiers to each team. Each soldier is unique with their own stats and specialties, very similar to XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Some soldiers may be wounded, and deceased ones are grayed out. We’d keep this system and expand upon it, again taking a lot from XCOM. First of all, everything would be far more visual. You’d be able to view every soldier and customize their layout completely, just like XCOM but with a greater amount of armor customization, like Rainbow Six: Vegas in which you can customize every individual armor piece, but we’d improve the customization even more than that. In addition, we’d prefer it if some soldiers would be too wounded to participate in missions, just like XCOM.
In our dream game, we would allow up to four teams on larger scale missions, but less on smaller missions (as little as one team). Freedom of choice would be a big factor, since some people might prefer to tackle large missions with only one team for the challenge and/or simpler gameplay. The squad command system (which only applies to your one team) would be just like SWAT 4, with different commands being available depending on what you are looking/pointing at. Context sensitive. It should also be possible to play as a lower ranked soldier with no commanding abilities, so AI should be good enough to properly give out tactical commands on their own for players who prefer to play as followers rather than commanders.
There would be far more weapons and weapon customization, being reminiscent of [b]GUNSLINGER mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat and Customizable Weaponry 2.0 for Garry’s Mod (these two mods have far better weapon customization than any game). In multiplayer, items (weapons, armor, tactical gear) would unlock as you level up. Such an idea might work well for single player too.
Speaking of multiplayer, it would be virtually identical to single player, and AI should be allowed or disallowed in server options. Other necessities include a full fledged SDK, and also a quick mission creator like in SWAT 4 but better.
The one issue with the first three Rainbow Six games is the control scheme. It makes them seem as if they are too complex for the shooter genre, but I don’t think they are. They’d be more accessible with a different control scheme, which is where SWAT 4 and perhaps Arma 3 inspiration comes in.
Nothing like this game will ever happen. The complexity is too much for shooter fans and Ubisoft has been done trying for years. So, like most other games on this list, this one will remain a dream.
Dark Messiah 2
We want the perfect action game, and a sequel to one of the best action games of all time, Dark Messiah: Of Might and Magic, is as good a place to start as any. It is a skill-based fantasy action game with melee combat, archery, magic and spells, and an RPG-like leveling system. It has some of the best, most innovative mechanics of all time, that surpass most action games to this day.
But compared to the likes of Shadow Warrior, some of its flaws and shortcomings are evident. Hitboxes aren’t perfect, distance and range are way off (goblins have the same range as humans), and it isn’t as responsive as Shadow Warrior or Dishonored (which are perfectly responsive). So we would like these things to be addressed; perfectly accurate hitboxes like Shadow Warrior and Dark Souls 3, the fluidity and responsiveness with no unnecessary delays of these games, and a more riveting campaign like Dishonored which is from the same studio. But the core gameplay design should not be changed. Below is a video of Dark Messiah in action:
SCP Horror Game
Here is an interesting concept we present to you; a new SCP horror game. For those who haven’t heard of SCP, here is the website, here is a link to SCP-087b, a free horror game based on that lore, and here is a link to SCP Containment Breach which is another free game. Please take a moment to try these two free games and read some SCP articles/lore before moving on, if you aren’t already familiar with SCP.
Our idea for an SCP game also takes inspiration from SCP Breach for Garry’s Mod. The player would not only play as D Class personnel in our dream game, but other roles would be available to them. In single player, you should be able to choose between D Class personnel, MTF guard, MTF squad commander, and Chaos Insurgents whose primary goal is to steal SCPs. In co-op, you should also be allowed to play as the SCPs themselves, like in SCP Breach.
But our idea is more than just a containment breach. Things can randomly go wrong during guard duty, and a containment breach CAN occur… or it might not. If not, then you may randomly get a field mission to contain an SCP. Such a field mission would be like a tactical shooter and hardcore survival game with unique mechanics involving the nature of that SCP. Your job would be to contain the SCP, whether it’s an escaped one or a new one. New SCPs would be rare and more of a challenge since nobody knows the nature of it, although we should point out that we don’t need new SCPs written for the game; by new SCPs we simply mean new within the game, one that isn’t contained during the game, but it would be one of the SCPs listed on the website so seasoned SCP fans would know its nature.
As for the story? That comes from the SCP itself. Every SCP is a story. Again, read the articles. We would not include poorly written ones, only good or better. Multiple stories in one game, each with unique thematic elements, as well as strong doses of survival horror (on a level above any other game, SCP Containment Breach provides a good glimpse) and action. What a game.
Imagine capturing an escaped SCP 173 for example; we already have these mechanics in Containment Breach. It can’t move while in a direct line of sight, but as soon as direct line of sight is broken from everyone, it moves almost instantaneously and kills almost instantaneously. Our game would have more SCPs than Containment Breach has, all of the highly rated ones would be present.
If playing as a class D personnel member, just like SCP Containment Breach but again scaled up and higher quality, you would be forced to work with SCPs. Again, the order is random. The game would be procedurally generated. Something may or may not go wrong, although the game code would guarantee something goes wrong eventually regardless of who you play as. The story of the SCP would still be present, but told differently, more directly from the class D personnel member’s point of view, as these inmates are only giving the bare minimum of details in order to work with the SCP in question.
Regardless of your player character, it would have many different endings, depending on how the player plays. Note that in our game idea, containment breaches would be procedurally generated and randomized like in SCP Containment Breach, and containment breaches would share most of the same possibilities regardless of whether you’re playing as class D personnel or a guard/agent. So everything we’re about to say about containment breaches applies to both “campaigns.”
During a containment breach, if the player is able to make contact with (other) guards and help them assemble and contain SCPs, then it can end fairly peacefully. It would depend on your ability to fight off and contain the SCPs. Or the player can simply escape from the facility, but conditions outside of the facility would depend on how quickly you escape; if you escape quickly then the situation outside should be under control (to varying degrees but nothing too crazy would have transpired in the outside world), although if playing as a guard then you will be severely reprimanded to say the least (probably reassigned to class D personnel). Everything would be dynamic; the AI battles outside, the chance of success or failure.
If you take too long to escape however, or if your re-containment attempts fail, then you may find yourself at a K class end of the world scenario. In these types of scenarios, the game becomes a post-apocalyptic experience. Your goal would be to find and activate SCP 2000. This would be an utterly epic quest; very lengthy, incredibly challenging, but absolutely epic. It must turn into an open world survival experience at this point, with SCPs rampant. Think SCP Containment Breach (again, play it or watch YouTube playthroughs if it doesn’t run) but in a large scale open world environment. We can only barely imagine what it would be like to enter SCP 2000 and activate it, but it would be an utterly awe inspiring moment.
Or perhaps your escape leads you through SCP-093 or one of the other SCPs that lead to some alternate reality? It should be a possibility. Perhaps the player prefers to remain in one of these alternate realities, and their game ends there. Either way, this would undoubtedly be the most intense game ever, right alongside our dream S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game.
Also note that if you were to die at any time during the game, that would be treated as an ending, even though you’d be able to reload a save point just like SCP Containment Breach.
To fully understand our frame of reference you should play SCP Containment Breach and read about popular SCPs, including SCP 2000 which we mentioned being the key in one of our scenarios. This would be a horror game like no other. The chances of something similar being made? Not quite zero, but close to it.
Total War: Rome III
Here comes our least radical game idea. We’ll call the game Total War: Rome III.
Every PC gamer should know of the Total War franchise. It’s an RTS series and each game is absolutely massive in scale, some of the largest scale games ever. Unlike most other RTS games, Total War is distinct for allowing the player to zoom in on the battlefield and watch individual soldiers fight in great detail (especially with the Blood and Gore DLC). The graphics quality when zoomed in, level detail, and animation detail (again especially with the aformentioned DLC) is unlike most other RTS games and very impressive.
Every new iteration of the franchise makes some improvements, although the improvement is not always total (pun intended). Many still believe that Medieval II: Total War is the pinnacle of the franchise, pointing out that newer iterations, despite their improvements, have removed features and new drawbacks.
The latest game in the series, Total War: Attila, most definitely adds new features and is an improvement upon its predecessor, Total War: Rome II, in just about every way. Our idea for a Total War: Rome III game adds Attila’s new features, namely the family tree system, as well as the improved visual quality (further improved) and level detail, and greatly improved optimization (no more lag on the map screen). We also wish mod support was expanded, like Medieval II. The ability to choose start dates should be provided, from the early days of the Roman empire (SPQR) to the later days.
Simple ideas without any actual new ones, is what we propose for this game. The best of all the Total War games in the much beloved Rome setting, one of the most favored due to the exciting events that transpired during it as well as the large cultural diversity. All of the best Total War features in the Rome setting. So, how about it Creative Assembly?
Fantasy-Themed Total War Game
Building off our previous entry, a fantasy themed Total War game is next on our list. Yes, we’re aware of Total War: Warhammer and eagerly await it. But we were thinking more along the lines of Total War: Tamriel (staff member Enad’s preference) or Total War: Toril (staff member Jester’s preference).
Let’s start with the former. We already told you what Total War is in the previous entry. Tamriel is the name of the continent on which The Elder Scrolls games take place. A Total War game set here would be magnificent; it would play out like our ideal Total War game but have magic, and lore-friendly races and wars and rulers and the like. It should be set during the First Era, when the provinces were smaller and closer to their infancy. Factions such as the Imperial Legion, House Redoran, and Hist Clan would be prominent. Sure, you’d have far less factions than other Total War games, but we love Tamriel and the battles would be unbelievably epic.
Toril, the main planet in Dungeons & Dragons, has the benefit of being significantly larger than the world defined in The Elder Scrolls lore (which, we might add, is larger than just Tamriel but other places aren’t nearly as detailed), and Toril has far more diversity in factions, races, terrains, everything. Which of course means far more factions as well. Total War: Toril would include Faerun, the central super-continent, as well as Kara-Tur, Maztica, and maybe Zakhara. Ideally there would be more than one Total War: Toril game, for different eras.
Deus Ex Remake
A proper remake of Deus Ex has to be on our list. This remake demands many changes though, such as heavily redesigned, opened up levels to live up to or surpass the example set by Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This is because, contrary to what many people claim, the predecessor has more linear mission design; the actual important areas are more linear, only offering 1 or 2 paths more like Metal Gear Solid and less like Human Revolution. That has to go.
In addition to the redesigned levels, added detail, and use of modern technology, the entire game would have to be revoiced. The cheap, corny voice acting is just not acceptable. Again, it must live up to the example set by Human Revolution and other modern games in this regard.
A controversial change we’d make is the addition of a new musical score. You see, we aren’t a big fan of the 80s Robocop-styled theme that the original Deus Ex carries. We prefer the more serious, modern style of Human Revolution. But the score should be designed to be more synthesized and less of a hybrid like Human Revolution’s, because Deus Ex is set farther in the future and augmentation is far more normal.
We would also have the advanced conversation system and cinematic presentation of it, as seen in Human Revolution, to make it a more riveting experience. Gameplay mechanics would of course be overhauled to our industry-leading fantasy standard; very fluid movement, a takedown system like Human Revolution, much better shooting mechanics like Mankind Divided seems to be aiming for, the Crysis-like weapon customization seen in Mankind divided but expanded on further so that every gun part can be changed on many guns (stocks, barrels, foregrips, laser sighting, optics, magazine size, etc). AI would of course be greatly improved as well.
This is a dream game of ours because Deus Ex was an incredibly ambitious game, and combined with the many improvements seen in Human Revolution and other games, it would make for one of the greatest games ever. It’s hard to believe how massive the plot is; conspiracy theories, Illuminati, rogue AIs, a plague, hidden truths about the protagonist, a huge timeline and tons of detail. Plus, there’s actually a good story behind it all. It’s huge in scale and includes massive hubs (which we’d fill with far more detail as seen in Human Revolution) in places like New York City and Hong Kong.
Deus Ex is a true classic, and true classics deserve a proper remake so that they can be rediscovered and loved by all. Unfortunately, very few classics get such a remake. This will be one of many that will never get a proper remake, so like others on our list, this will be a dream for the rest of our lives and never a reality.
Open World Zombie RPG
Zombie games are all the rave these days, but we believe there has yet to be a zombie-themed action game that does it right. State of Decay is our favorite, but what we’re after is a zombie game that combines the best of it along with the best of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, in an open world RPG format. Or, simply put, an open world character-driven zombie RPG.
Mechanically, it would be much like State of Decay, but far more realistic. No more hack-and-slash type feel, it would feel more like Day Z but far more fluid. It would have character creation (gender unlocked), and NPCs you find would have unique skills like in State of Decay, but also a unique personality and dialogue like a story-driven RPG. The player could try and recruit these people to form a group, or look to join an existing one, or walk alone. The game would offer complete freedom.
The closest thing we have to such a game is Fallout: New Vegas but our concept uses a different setting of course; modern day post-apocalyptic zombie infested world, just like The Walking Dead. But it would be a much more hardcore survival game, like Day Z, and more character driven like Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Quite easy to imagine, it’s a wonder nobody has attempted this yet.
Combat would take after the realism in our aforementioned shooters, although melee combat would be present and very realistic. Practically anything you find could be used as a weapon, like in the Fallout games. The same weapon customization from our Rainbow Six idea should be featured in this game too, as well as very expansive outfit customization.
Trying to establish a home or safe point would be a part of the game, just like in State of Decay. So again we’re just combining great ideas from various games into one. Someone really needs to attempt this. I expect someone will, but it won’t be nearly as good as our concept.
Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound
This is a game that was actually announced and in development, but it never happened unfortunately. Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound was being developed by Black Isle Studios—one of the best developers ever. In my personal opinion, in the late 90s they were the single most talented developing team of all time.
To make things even sweeter, Baldur’s Gate III was being developed on a 3D engine. So they were actually adjusting to the time period, since they knew that 2.5D was old news, being an old, cheap 3D imitation.
You can read about the script and planned plot on it’s wikipedia page. It certainly sounds like it was on the right track.
Our dream game idea? Bring this back on a modern 3D engine like Unreal Engine 4 (see our Prerequisites page), with modernized but not dumbed down mechanics. The camera should allow for third person, isometric, and anything in between, like Neverwinter Nights but more fluid. The three different camera modes from Neverwinter Nights should be adopted—Character mode, Exploration mode, and Strategy mode, each being fully customizable with any viewpoint and key bindings you want, plus the ability to switch between them in real-time by pressing a key.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is our main gameplay mechanical inspiration for our Baldur’s Gate III dream game, but it needs to be much more fluid like a modern game. Dragon Age: Origins is the best example of an RPG like this with fluid mechanics, although animations would be greatly improved to fit with high budget 2015 standards of course. Note that we would definitely avoid using the hybrid turn-based mechanic from Neverwinter Nights 2. Our dream concept of Baldur’s Gate III would be purely pause-and-play.
This means that the old cluttered HUD and UI from Baldur’s Gate would be phased out entirely. Our HUD would be fully customizable like that of Neverwinter Nights 2. Party member portraits would be listed vertically on the upper left or upper right hand side, your choice. A compass/small map would be provided, which could be dragged to anywhere you want on the screen although by default it would be opposite the character portraits. The bottom of the screen would be occupied by one collapsible horizontal hotbar, which could span the entire width of the screen. The player would be allowed to put any spell, feat, ability, or usable item in a hotbar slot.
The quickcast menu from Neverwinter Nights 2 would be provided as well, for faster spell use in a more neat menu. Party AI customization would have the best elements from Dragon Age: Origins and Neverwinter Nights 2. Combat pace should also be sped up to be more realistic.
While The Black Hound was going to be a D&D 3 game, we’d instead adopt D&D 3.5’s ruleset and modify it a bit. The leveling system, skill system, and attribute system would all be essentially the same as in Neverwinter Nights 2. All of the same skills and feats and classes would be present, but we’d add even more skills, namely Sense Motive, Balance, Climb, Jump, Swim, Disguise, Handle Animal, and Speak Language. Yeah… that’s a total of 37 skills, and each could be used often. We’d also add the Artificer class as well as several prestige classes not present in Neverwinter Nights 2: Archmage, Shifter, Purple Dragon Knight, Horizon Walker, Mystic Theurge, and Thaumaturgist. So that’s a total of 16 base classes and 30 prestige classes. All of the races from Neverwinter Nights 2 and perhaps even more would be present, but obviously more isn’t necessary. We just don’t want to take any steps back. How is that for variety?
We would also change how Wizards learn spells, making it more like older D&D versions in which they learn spells by reading them in books and scrolls, as seen in games like Planescape: Torment (it’s also very similar to the implementation in The Elder Scrolls).
We’d also move away from D&D 3’s AC system, instead going for a more realistic solution. Our idea may actually be closer to older D&D versions and their THAC0 and AC system, though still different. Armor would make you easier to hit (so lower AC going by D&D 3’s AC values) due to the weight and bulk, although lighter armor less so. D&D 3 is the opposite which makes no sense. To compensate for this, every armor would provide Damage Resistance, a function already part of D&D.
So as far as gameplay goes, it would be the best fantasy RPG in existence. It would have all of the weapon categories from both Neverwinter Nights games but with much more weapons (and unique ones would have unique models), it would have every single spell listed in D&D 3 and 3.5 rule books, it would have a massive amount of armor, and better armor customization. Since we keep referring to Neverwinter Nights 2, watch a gameplay video or two so that you can see our picture more clearly.
Better yet, play Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansions to get a better idea, and because they’re some of the best RPGs (and thus games) ever made. Mask of the Betrayer has to be tied with Fallout 2 for games that provide the most role-playing, although you’d have to include The Elder Scrolls too with its free-roam role play.
But we digress. Our idea of Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound would have character development inspired by Planescape: Torment and the Dragon Age games; the reactivity of both, the quantity of dialogue and cinematic presentation of Dragon Age (but improved cinematics, much more animated and more modern animations), dialogue quality closer to Planescape. Due to the increased scale, it would have at least 100 hours of content per playthrough, and being an excellent RPG each playthrough could be vastly different both in terms of plot and gameplay. We don’t have to explain any more really, especially to those who have played RPGs like this in the past. Our idea is just a perfected version of a classic formula.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III
It is a tragedy that this game never happened and won’t ever happen. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III (or KOTOR 3 for short) is our next dream game.
Beware of SPOILERS on this page. Don’t read on if you’ve never beaten KOTOR and KOTOR 2.
Compared to Baldur’s Gate III: The Black Hound, it’s even more of a tragedy that this game never happened. Why? Because Baldur’s Gate III was going to be totally separate from the first two. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords however ended with a cliffhanger—there was clearly more to the story. KOTOR 3 was obviously planned from the start.
LucasArts, the publisher for the first two, doesn’t exist anymore. Electronic Arts (EA) currently has the legal right to make Star Wars games, but Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMORPG of theirs, does cover some of the events that would have transpired in a theoretical KOTOR 3. We have no doubt that EA is content with that.
Our KOTOR 3 dream game concept is a continuation of the story from the first two. In fact, the story is already written. You can read about all of it on the Star Wars wikia website, looking at the profile page for Revan and Meetra Surik. KOTOR 3 simply has to be made around that story, about what happens to those characters after the events of KOTOR 2. This includes venturing deeper into space and a huge conflict with the true Sith.
KOTOR 3 would demand something just like Dragon Age: Keep; a web based platform for configuring choices, effectively porting our past choices from the first two games into KOTOR 3. The game itself would require an internet connection to download the data, just like how Dragon Age: Inquisition retrieves data from Dragon Age Keep. Also like Inquisition, in KOTOR 3 we’d need to be able to recreate both Revan and Surik’s characters using an advanced character creator, similar to how Inquisition lets you recreate Hawke. This is so we can have better continuity with the previous games.
The player should play as both Revan and Surik, altering between them at different points in the game. It should be the same type of game as the first two, but with the addition of a tactical camera option similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition (but greatly improved), party AI customization taken from both Dragon Age: Origins and Neverwinter Nights 2, more powers and weapons and armor, and a more realistic combat pace. Hubs should be far bigger, far more detailed, and far more content rich. The overall scale of the game should be larger and more open ended.
More role-playing is always welcome. The plot should allow for an even more significant choice-consequence design than its predecessors. Our dream game also includes greatly improved character development and writing quality. KOTOR 2 has a very good story, although the fact that it was rushed harmed its storytelling (and many other things). KOTOR 3 should be an improvement in every way, a truly amazing sequel.
Again there are no groundbreaking ideas here. We are just perfecting already existing concepts. BioWare really needs to make this game, even though it would have a number of shortcomings and odd, controversial design choices since that’s how they make games now. They don’t have the writing talent we prefer either, but it’s better than nothing.
Open World Star Wars Action RPG
Yes, another one of our dream games is a Star Wars RPG. This one would be a completely open ended design heavily inspired by The Elder Scrolls. It would be an action RPG instead of a tactical party-based pause-and-play RPG like the Knights of the Old Republic games. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
Think The Elder Scrolls but in the Star Wars (expanded) universe. The same fundamental mechanics, with Force powers replacing spells of course. The game would have less emphasis on story and characters and more on free roaming and exploring, although we’d want it to be solid in both areas. Less focus on a central story means more focus on side quests with their own plots and stories, again like The Elder Scrolls but better.
The player character (created with a cutting edge character creator of course) would have Force potential of course, but would not be a practicioner until joining a Jedi academy or Sith equivalent. Or you can join none and role play as a bounty hunter, a normal hard working man, anything you want really. But joining a Jedi academy or Sith school leads to its own campaign of course, each one lengthy and very diverse.
It would be an endless game, just like The Elder Scrolls is. It would have many planets, including all of the most well known ones which would be huge, detailed, lively sandbox areas with tons of content. Star Wars lovers would be in paradise; they’d probably never leave their house again. Anyone who likes Sci-Fi RPGs would be at home in this game as well.
As with KOTOR 3, EA has the power to have such a game created, although for this game they’d have to use a studio they don’t own since BioWare doesn’t make games like this. But for some reason EA commanded the Dead Space studio to make a Star Wars game, as if that would yield a greater profit (it most likely would not). They also have the new Battlefront on the way, which is so dumbed down compared to its predecessor that it’s not even funny. If EA understood the industry, they would have this game along with KOTOR 3 made.
Open World Turok RPG
I’ll tell you right now that I might be alone with this idea, but I’m confident if executed properly, it would be a popular game. A Turok RPG is the next game idea on our list.
Turok the dinosaur hunter? That old FPS series, but a role-playing game? That is correct. See that picture above? That’s a user-made map of the world that Turok games depict, The Lost Land. Every area shown in that map is defined and explored to some degree in the games, so the map is quite accurate. The premise behind The Lost Land is essentially the same as the Forgotten Realms from Dungeon & Dragons; it is a world quite similar to our own, but long forgotten. Portals lead from Earth to The Lost Land, which is how the first Turok (a Native American) initially ended up there.
In layman’s terms, my idea (yes mine, not ours, I’m alone on this remember?) for a Turok RPG is something very close to The Elder Scrolls (the best of Morrowind and Skyrim) but in Turok’s setting; the entire Lost Land in one seamless open world map. Total size would be comparable to something like The Witcher 3 I suppose, but far more detailed and alive, even more than any Elder Scrolls game. Dynamic AI behavior would be truly “next gen” and the world would be perhaps the most dazzling ever.
The Lost Land is incredibly diverse since it’s in its early stages. Most of the western side, the jungle and highlands in particular, are sparsely inhabited and very Earth-like. These are uncivilized terrains often full of conflict, and most of the people here are technologically primitive; blades, bows, or simple guns (20th century guns). The highlights of these areas would be dinosaur wildlife and the majestic, gigantic ruins—most quite like the ones in Indiana Jones movies, but more strange and magical. The jungle is, as the name implies, a jungle. The highlands are high… lands… lots of big cliffs.
The Ancient City is populated by a very weird, ancient cult that uses magic instead of technology, and very primitive weapons like blowguns and melee weapons. They are the source for the ruins in the jungle area. They’re very hostile and ritualistic. As for the terrain itself, it looks sort of like ancient Egyptian cities I guess? It has pyramids, but not much desert since it’s a more compacted city (but very large). Architecture gets rather strange and unique (then again strange, alien, otherworldly architecture is everywhere in The Lost Land) and it has even more wild ruins than the jungle.
The port town of Adia is the only relatively normal and welcoming established civilization on the western side of The Lost Land. The architecture is quite foreign though, not like anything I’ve ever seen; enormous buildings with many homes inside, leading to relatively small living spaces in the more poor sections. The rich have big stretches of property to themselves, including amazing pools and fountains. The entire city seems to be made of different kinds of stone. I’m not educated enough in architecture to relate Adia’s designs to something, it’s very unique fantasy; distinct, massive, and beautiful, but it’s also very industrial and dirty. This along with the central city (and the main city) called Araissi would be the biggest, most detailed, most artistically unique, and most dynamic video game cities ever made. This is a necessity not just to fulfill my fantasy, but the cities as they were shown in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil were huge especially for the time, and they were but a small sliver.
Things get far more diverse and weird on the eastern side. The river that essentially cuts The Lost Land in half is called the River of Souls, and for the longest time its waters were poisonous and lethal if consumed. We mentioned the city of Araissi but didn’t do it justice; sure it should be enormous and magnificently detailed and alive, but architecturally it’s awe-inspiring. It should be the most beautiful city imaginable, as if it was heaven itself. This is pretty much how it’s depicted in Turok 2.
Then there is the area known as the Dead Marshes, a perpetually dark/murky swamp area inhabited by huge ape-like creatures called the Purr-Linns. The Junkyard and Wasteland; places where random debris and junk from both our world and The Lost Land are deposited. A sort of trash can for these two worlds. There is a series of research laboratories hidden within the junkyard.
The Hollows is a sort of foggy valley with large, barren trees and mushrooms. It is populated with some villages and probably small towns. The highlight here would be the enormous cave system underneath (seriously it’s almost endless), and the subterranean, blind, and hostile race that inhabits it, creeping out from below to kidnap victims.
The volcanic region is largely uninhabited since the volcanoes always seem to be quite active. However some unknown alien race had partially colonized it prior to Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, creating massive technologically advanced skyscraping structures that would be amazing to explore in a large scale modern RPG.
The Industrial Sector is also unique; as the name states it’s industrial, but the entire area is essentially one enormous factory—a factory larger than most cities. Like most other regions in The Lost Land it’s so unique that it’s hard to describe. It’s larger than most cities and entirely metal and mechanical, with machinery as tall as buildings.
The Hives is an area that was invaded by an alien race that resembled large, intelligent insects. They made the area, well… their hive. It’s so foreign and Sci-Fi and completely unrecognizable. The area was transformed and during Turok 2 is covered in organic fleshy material and bug-like hives.
Provided in this game would be the ability to start a new character within a save game, so that you can play from level 1 as a new character in a vastly different world; a world born of your decisions made during that save game’s previous playthrough.
A powerful story and well-written characters would be nice, but aren’t needed for my idea of a Turok RPG. I never thought about a plot, although you could actually scale up Turok 2’s plot and make it work in an open world RPG, and expand on the story to make it have depth and originality (it has potential). It simply needs to fit my image (shown in the previous games and described above) of The Lost Land, and be the same type of RPG as The Elder Scrolls while providing tons of role-playing and playstyles. You don’t even have to be Turok; I wouldn’t mind having player race choice after all, although in this case the name “Turok” should be omitted from the title and Turok 2’s plot is no longer feasible.
This game will obviously never be made.
The Elder Scrolls VI
Is it time to settle down and talk about something less crazy? I suppose so. Our next game idea (proposal?) is The Elder Scrolls VI. Okay, TES VI will obviously happen, but probably not quite the way we want it. We do want it to be the same type of game as its predecessors yes, but we want it scaled up; more than one province (and preferably the more interesting, alien ones such as Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Morrowind), and with new gameplay elements that we’ll probably never see.
Let’s take things up a notch. Let’s have the game set on all of Tamriel. It might sound crazy, but if you do the math you’ll see it’s actually smaller than ArmA 3’s Altis map. Granted it’s going to have far more detail, so perhaps every province will be available at launch but not completely accessible until expansions release. This is a realistic request.
The player’s starting point should be the homeworld of whichever race he/she chooses. That would be amazing. Otherwise it would be The Elder Scrolls as we know it, with the best of Skyrim and Morrowind combined into one game (add back spellcrafting and more spells, Midas Magic adds back most if not all of the removed ones or at least very similar alternatives), but further improved dynamic AI to make it all feel alive and unique. This would be one of the most amazing worlds ever, considering how unique each province is.
As for the unique gameplay features we seek, we thought of the ability to command a ship and form a crew; be it a pirate crew, or joining a shipping company and being an honest worker, or creating your own shipping company and greatly affecting the economy of all of Tamriel. Likewise, it should be possible to join a trading company or build such a company, and create your own caravans and such (or just join a company and command one). Lots of micromanaging involved with these ideas, and huge effects on the game world. Think Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir but greatly expanded on. Existing concepts of the series, but expanded. Likewise we want the ability to start and build up your own mercenary company. Things like this go a long way for hardcore role players like us. In addition, the types of things the player does and the choices they make should greatly affect the world, far more than the previous games.
The ability to start a new character within a save game, as mentioned in our Turok RPG entry, should definitely be in this game too, since the player’s choices should affect the world more than ever and it would be lovely to experience it from a fresh set of eyes. Let’s say you made a massive trade empire that bolstered the economy of numerous provinces; that should be reflected in a new playthrough if made under that save game. You know, this is similar to the world state system in Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: Keep.
While we’re at it, we’ll also point out that such a game should have industry leading gameplay mechanics. General movement should be far smoother, with the ability to climb objects like in Dishonored. This necessitates the reintroduction of the Athletics and Acrobatics skills from the older games. A big muscular Orc for example will be lacking in acrobatics and won’t be able to climb a whole lot or move around with great agility, but they should hit harder and move around with heavy gear more easily.
Melee mechanics should take more from the likes of Dark Messiah: Of Might and Magic. Skyrim already nailed spellcasting for action RPGs so we’ll take that.
We don’t expect Bethesda Game Studios to go this far, but who knows. Every release is full of pleasant surprises.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game
I am known for my love and involvement with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, so it should be no surprise that one such game makes it onto this list. However, since my days of modding S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I have grown a lot as a person, gamer, and would-be designer. I present to you my idea for a cutting edge S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, taking the franchise to a different level.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is known for combining shooter elements with RPG inspired elements. The idea we present is not really any different fundamentally, although more emphasis would be placed on realistic gameplay mechanics, inspired by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Misery 2 and ArmA 3 gameplay.
But story and dialogue focus would be increased exponentially, surpassing the dialogue emphasis of even Deus Ex. What you say would affect the game big and small, depending on the situation. The idea is to take advantage of the magnificent S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe as much as possible, as it has unlimited potential. More story focus, subplots and side questlines like an RPG or like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Side quests wouldn’t be meaningless fetch quests, they’d have their own story that expands on the main story thematically.
Spoilers below. We will spoil important story elements and plot points for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky.
We actually have an idea for two S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, a two part series. So unlike most of the other games on our list we have a basic plot concept. The first one is set before the events of Shadow of Chernobyl. The player would take on the role of Strelok and experience his becoming a Stalker, and the origin of his group with Fang, Ghost, and Doctor. A proper prequel, which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky was not.
This could be perhaps the most character driven game of all time, right up there with Planescape: Torment and probably surpassing it (since the focus should be on three characters, not just one). Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker film (1979) is a huge inspiration. Instead of having the Stalker, Writer, and Professor, the core three characters of our game idea are Strelok (the player), Fang (a fighter), and Ghost (a hedonist). Like the movie, our game would be deeply rooted in philosophy and ask big questions. It would be a spiritual journey, and because of our branching dialogue focus, the player has a voice. The game would provide a tremendous amount of dialogue choices that deeply impact other characters and even events at times.
Also, following S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lore and taking from the movie, the things the player does affects the world. If the player does not respect the Zone then the Zone will not respect him; emissions would become more frequent, mutants would hound his/her path more, anomalies would become a bigger obstacle. The more armed the player is, the more deadly his/her mutant encounters would be. Less armed players have less troubles; one could even play as a hermit if desired. This would all be dynamic, a testament to a true next-gen A-Life, better than Shadow of Chernobyl’s was ever going to be and even more impressive than what was planned for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
So this first of two games would involve the formation of Strelok’s group and follow their first journeys to the center of the Zone. The Zone would largely be an unexplored mystery in these games since these are veteran Stalkers. As the game goes on, Strelok will begin to question his life, his purpose, why he’s still in the Zone despite becoming rich from all the artifacts he had obtained, human nature, the truths behind the Wish Granter, faction ideals, and more. Through his questions would arise feelings of nihilism, but the player can choose to answer these questions through dialogues and even monologues.
We would also include a portion in which the player takes on the role of Fang when he is being hunted by mercenaries and unknown individuals (somewhat similar to how it is depicted in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky’s plot), and another one in which they play as Ghost during his assassination of the “Final Day” faction leader. The group was known to split up and work separately for a time so we see this as a great opportunity. Fang asks himself why he fights while Ghost thinks about why he prefers to walk alone and why he values wealth and trinkets over everything else. Each will discuss what the Zone means to them and the player has some input, especially with Strelok. Guide would be a significant character as well, representing a more faithful type, like the Stalker in Tarkovsky’s film. Doctor would only really care about Strelok, he’d be akin to an angel watching over him so to speak.
It would be a spiritual journey like no other game, and much more like Tarkovsky’s brilliant film but more interactive, taking advantage of video game design.
Since we’d be effectively rebooting the franchise, we could provide a limited amount of character creation, especially since our two part series ends with a very different remake of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. There should be no game after this, no Call of Pripyat or anything. Our remake of Shadow of Chernobyl follows the same basic plot, but takes more from the older builds like the famous Build 1935. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha is somewhat of an inspiration, but not with regards to writing where it fails.
Our Shadow of Chernobyl remake would be lengthier, probably similar in length to Lost Alpha (we suspect our prequel would end up being similar in length). All of the cut locations would be present in both games, as well as the ones from Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat, and brand new ones. The lost plot elements would be restored, such as Baldy’s group (who would be significant in our prequel as well), what transpires in Dead City, Rostok Factory, and more, but not everything (e.g. the emphasis in Dark Valley is on Borov and his group of bandits, no Monolith presence). Like Lost Alpha but far more interesting and developed. Also, it would of course be as dialogue driven as our prequel, taking after Tarkovsky’s movie.
Every quest in these games would be more fleshed out than ever before, more vivid and with more depth. We can’t stress enough how important dialogue should be. Watch Tarkovsky’s movie if you haven’t and you’ll see what we mean. Both games would definitely be character studies, similar to how the movie is. The world would be full of unique characters, similar to how even minor characters are intriguing Planescape: Torment.
Both games would have a completely seamless open world design with no loading screen. Shooting mechanics would take a more realistic route, inspired by the likes of Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2 and ArmA. These games would also have far more weapons and armor than the others, and armor/outfit customization similar to Rainbow Six: Vegas and XCOM 2, as well as more weapon customization than any game in existence (even more than Fallout 4). In addition, object interaction would be significantly greater; one could ideally pick up a wrench and use it as a weapon, like the modern Fallout games. The inventory system would be overhauled and made very similar to that of ArmA 3.
Many of the mechanics from Misery 2 would be present, including the repair system and the need to eat, sleep, and also drink water like in Lost Alpha. We’d implement a healing system similar to that of Metal Gear Solid 3 in which the player has to treat individual wounds in real time using the appropriate aid items. Radiation would be far more deadly as well, it would be a truly hardcore and realistic survival game. Emissions would change anomaly spawns like they’re supposed to and AI would react more strongly to them. A-Life would be very much unrestricted, with many realistic AI behaviors and with NPCs dynamically traversing throughout the Zone doing as they please, interacting with the environment, completing quests, and even completing side quests. Bandits would rob people, Duty members would raid mutant lairs, Freedom members would sabotage Duty, mutants would find habitable environments and hunt and care for their little ones, all of this in dynamic fashion. If a lone stalker sees you murder someone, a rookie might flee but an experienced and dangerous fellow would hold you up and demand payment for his silence. Creature spawns would be unpredictable, although the deadlier mutants are found closer to the center of the Zone. This all applies to both game ideas.
All locations from every S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, including the cut ones seen in Lost Alpha and Build 1935, would be present along with new ones. We imagine the world map would look something like this:
The design of the world itself in both games would be as detailed as games such as Fallout 3 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha. It would truly be alive. It would have a persistent multiplayer mode too, which would function the same as its single player freeplay mode: Strelok, Ghost, Fang are excluded and absent, instead players design their character, choose their faction (if any), and start as a random rookie belonging to that faction. All of the main quests not character related become every player’s goals: Investigate the labs, disable the emitters, venture to the center of the Zone to discover its secrets. NPCs would again be capable of completing some of these quests as well.
When a player dies, they start over designing a new character and starting as a rookie once again. Faction wars and alliances can happen at will, dynamically, as in the single player version due to the A-Life system (which should still be enabled in multiplayer). If a faction leader dies, the next in command (according to the dynamic ranking system from Shadow of Chernobyl) is chosen to lead. It can be a player as well, and the player would create tasks and waypoints and give orders from an HQ, but a player can always deny the position and dissolve the faction.
Like several other games on this list, these two would have it all. And, like the others, these are tangible ideas that will simply never happen because the creative talent required is MIA, and publishers are too scared to take risks. So this game will never be made and neither will S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
Fallout 2 Remake
Here we have another remake; Fallout 2. But, continuing with our theme of controversial changes in our remakes, our idea of a Fallout 2 remake would be done in the style of the modern Fallout games, namely Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and the upcoming Fallout 4. This means it would be a 3D first person and third person (over the shoulder) action RPG instead of an isometric 2.5D point-and-click RPG.
So we are modifying the foundation of this classic masterpiece, but keeping the script intact. Why the drastic change? One word: immersion. We are amazed at how immersive Fallout 3 and modded Fallout: New Vegas are. The amount of detail, danger, and unpredictability of Fallout 3’s world is a thing of legend. You can’t get this immersion in an isometric game, much less a dated 2.5D one (thank goodness Wasteland 2 is 3D at least). We want to look characters in the eye when talking them, especially in a game as dialogue driven as Fallout 2. Dialogue driven role-playing games (role-playing means you’re really meant to be in the protagonist’s shoes) from a distant, God-like perspective makes no sense to us at all. Isometric view point is for strategy games and tabletop simulators, not dialogue focused role-playing games.
We would also open the game up more to better imitate the open world style of the modern Fallout games. This means the overhead map travelling would be removed, and instead the player may explore freely like in the modern open world Fallout games. Shooting mechanics would be very realistic and VATS would of course be included, along with the awesome kill moves of the modern Fallout games.
Advanced, hardcore survival mechanics would be included, like hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas but with more deadly radiation like the classic Fallout games. One very important addition is the ridiculous amount of weapon and armor customization seen in Fallout 4 – we need that.
As expected, our remake would make all NPCs voiced, with better voice acting than before. But the protagonist would remain unvoiced because of the unparalleled amount of player-dialogue variety, based on the player’s stats. We wouldn’t change the dialogue or script, therefore it would remain one of the best RPGs ever made.
This should come with a remake of the first Fallout too, but neither will happen.
Planescape: Torment Remake
We have one more remake on our list, and that is a proper, modern remake of Planescape: Torment. Not some remastered modded one like Beamdog’s Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, although on that note I will say we need one of those at the very least since Planescape is unstable and unreliable on modern operating systems.
A proper, high budget modern remake of Planescape: Torment isn’t a very difficult task, and it would be the best game ever made without a doubt. Seriously, someone out there, anyone? InXile? Beamdog? Hasbro? Get your heads together, there is easy money to be made here. By simply remaking Planescape: Torment on a modern 3D engine with good animations, good voice acting, more fluid gameplay mechanics, but keeping the script and score 100% intact, you can single handedly change the gaming industry and look like saviors and artistic geniuses.
Why do we speak so highly of this game? Because Planescape: Torment stands for everything that’s best about video games. It is the best example of video game storytelling and writing, avoiding common tropes and cliches at every turn, having the most depth and most complex story in video game history, and having writing quality that transcends its genre and would appeal to hardcore readers. Even the side quests, every single one of them, is fleshed out enough to have depth and feel unique. But it does more than that; not only is the quality unparalleled, the amount of role-playing is bested perhaps only by Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, which is essentially a spiritual successor. So the plot, the characters, they all respond to what the player says and does, to an alarming degree. A top quality story that changes, reacting to player input? That’s right.
We have all these new RPGs coming out but the genre (and this entire industry) has already reached its apex primarily with this game, but we also have to give credit to its relative Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, and the aforementioned Fallout 2.
But like the other classics we’ve mentioned, Planescape: Torment needs a facelift. Just like Fallout 2, 2.5D is gone and mandatory isometric view is gone too, in place of 3rd person like Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. But don’t worry, isometric isn’t totally gone, it would still be an option just like it is in Dragon Age: Origins and the Neverwinter Nights games. The player gets to choose third person, isometric, and anything in between. Camera controls and options would be like Neverwinter Nights 2 but far more fluid like a more modern game. Anyone can find their ideal camera in our ideal game. We’d also include three camera modes like the Neverwinter Nights games; Character, Exploration, and Strategy, each fully customizable and one key switches between them in-game.
Most of the UI and control schemes would be overhauled too. We can’t figure out why radial menus were present in classic RPGs like this, as they only make sense for analog sticks opposed to keyboards and mice. So those are gone from our concept. our HUD has to be redesigned too; party member portraits would be vertical and either on the top right or top left. The bottom would be reserved for one collapsible quickbar like in Dragon Age: Origins, which can be extended across the entire bottom of the screen horizontally. But the quickbar would function more like that of Neverwinter Nights; you can pin spells to it, as well as activated feats and abilities, and also inventory items. It’s all about choice and flexibility. In addition, holding SHIFT and moving the scroll wheel scrolls through a total of 10 quickbars like in both Neverwinter Nights games, leading to more quickbar slots than one can ever use.
This and our Baldur’s Gate III idea would have essentially the same gameplay mechanics, except for all the differences that come with Planescape’s older AD&D ruleset and also the fact that Constitution affects the health regeneration of The Nameless One.
More classes would be available to the player too, instead of just Fighter, Mage, and Thief. It would remain an AD&D game of course, the only class we’d add is Bard and the player would have to learn it just like every other. So the core mechanics work the same way, they just get a much better interface. In addition to the aforementioned quick bar, Neverwinter Nights 2’s quickcast menu would be provided, for better sorting. More AD&D spells would be provided since Planescape is lacking in number compared to other D&D RPGs.
Customizable party AI is a must, and we’d combine the best aspects of this from Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. We aren’t taking anything out or dumbing anything down, we’re just making it all function better and adding new things. We’d add many new armor and weapons since Planescape has a small number of both, especially armor.
We have decided that a character creator should be included, giving the player the ability to sculpt the protagonist’s appearance. But the protagonist is still always a human male to preserve the story (we don’t need to shoehorn LBGT crap into our games just for the sake of having it). Also, it goes without saying that we’d choose to make every NPC and party member fully voiced, but we’ve also decided that the protagonist should be voiced too, with a voice just like the one in the original. Planescape is less about character customization and is more about character, more about story. They chose a preset appearance and voice the first time; we would allow some leeway for appearance but not for voice.
One other thing that really stands out about Planescape is the descriptive writing. Every character’s appearance, tendencies, actions, are written out like a quality novel. To make our remake stand out more, we would have all of this shown, animated, making for perhaps the most cinematic game ever. Our remake would have the most masterfully “shot” cutscenes, some of the best animations including facial animations ever, and note that by ‘cutscenes’ we mean more along the lines of BioWare games since they are interactive just like the original. Yes, costs go up a lot, but thankfully it’s a smaller scale game than many of the others we mentioned so it’s feasible.
More dialogue would be added and role-playing would be improved upon. Planescape is actually bested by Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, the Dragon Age games, and the Mass Effect games when it comes to companion reactivity to player actions. For example when meeting Ravel Puzzlewell in Planescape, the player can honestly say that his/her companions mean nothing and are just tools. The companions do not react to this, which is totally unacceptable.
As it stands, Planescape lacks companion dialogue compared to Dragon Age: Origins and Inquisition. There is not enough dialogue and some of the characters aren’t developed well enough, such as Ignus. This needs to be expanded on in a proper remake as well.
Moreover, a few side quests in Planescape can only be completed in one way, and that one way is of course in sync with one or two alignments (usually Lawful Good or Neutral Good or perhaps both). This limitation isn’t found in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, its spiritual successor in which every quest can go multiple ways.
There’s not much to it really. A proper modern remake of Planescape: Torment, with more fluid animations and gameplay, and improvements to role playing and more dialogue. Look primarily to Neverwinter Nights 2 for gameplay design improvements, and Dragon Age: Origins for how to make this gameplay fluid. This game would be untouchable. It will also never be made. The only thing we might get is Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition from Overhaul Games, which would still be very welcome.
Mass Effect
Last but certainly not least is our most ambitious dream game; a new Mass Effect game. Yes, we’re aware of Mass Effect: Andromeda and eagerly await it, but we have bigger aspirations in our dreams. Bigger, but not unreasonable mind you.
Like the previous Mass Effect games, our dream one is a third person action RPG. Unlike the others, you would not be locked into a human protagonist. Playable species would include:
- Human
- Asari
- Turian
- Salarian
- Krogan
- Quarian
- Drell
- Volus
You’d choose your species/race, gender, and modify your appearance in the character creator. Note that while we haven’t said it already, we imagine the character creators in every game that has one to be at least as good as that of Dragon Age: Inquisition.
As with our Elder Scrolls game idea, your chosen race determines where you start the game, but each race gets two starting options; one being the Citadel, the other being their home world. We are adopting the “origins” system of Dragon Age: Origins in our concept; the Citadel is one origin story, so this one is the same for each race. Each home world is a unique origin story. By “origin story” we mean a playable introduction with a unique sub-plot and characters.
The overall game design is scaled up from the previous Mass Effect games. The player would have far more freedom, not being locked into the commanding position of a ship right off the bat. The player can freely roam the galaxy, exploring planets at will (not every planet obviously). The explorable areas on some planets are much larger than others; some are the size of entire open world games, taking after the scale of Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Citadel for example would be the largest location, a gigantic central galactic hub, and as per usual for Mass Effect games a lot would transpire there. The home world of every race would be other remarkable and large locations. Every place would be amazingly detailed and AI would be far more dynamic.
We still want it to be story-driven and character-centric like the previous ones, but with much better writing quality. As for gameplay mechanics, they’d be a lot like Mass Effect 3, which is just an improved version of its predecessors overall. This includes a similar cover system, its weapon and armor customization (but more weapons and far more armor pieces and armor sets), squad command system, and basic shooting mechanics. Clipping issues would be remedied of course. It would have more skills and far more role-playing than the previous games, improving the experience and replayability considerably. This of course includes many race-specific abilities. The game would also have a wider range of companions than the previous ones, with companions of different races, such as a Hanar and Batarian companion.
Total party count would be increased from three to five, accommodating for the greatly increased scale. Also, the player would be given full control over each party member’s stats when leveling them up.
One significant gameplay improvement, inspired by The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, would be more tactical gameplay. When paused you’d be allowed to switch to your other party members and control them in combat, but the original command system from Mass Effect would remain too.
Because of the inclusion of different races, there would be far more powers and unique abilities, similar to what’s seen in Mass Effect 3 multiplayer but much greater. Hotbar would have ten slots (keys 1 through 0), not just for the player but all companions.
Also, because of the race/species choices, the protagonist would probably have to be unvoiced to keep the costs reasonable. NPCs would all be voiced and the game would have the cinematic style of its predecessors with top notch voice acting. It would of course retain the character development focus of its predecessors, and expand on the choice-consequence design even more by making consequences more significant than ever.
The game would be much longer due to its greater scale, easily taking well over 100 hours to complete just like Dragon Age: Inquisition. It should eventually receive expansions; new planets and related quests of the same quality of the main game. Sci-Fi lovers will be in paradise with such a game; intergalactic conflict on a larger, less linear scale than the previous Mass Effect games, with much better writing, much more role-playing, and way more variety.
This concept isn’t overly far fetched. It’s really the evolution of BioWare’s game design from Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect. BioWare went to extremes with Star Wars: The Old Republic which is one of the most ambitious MMORPGs ever made. Dragon Age: Inquisition was also nearly this ambitious. A Mass Effect game like this would be a home run, even with BioWare’s typical writing quality which is less than what we want. But these days BioWare can’t make a game without making controversial, seemingly bad decisions. Dragon Age: Inquisition doesn’t have any particularly stand-out bad decision, just a bunch of smaller shortcomings. A game like this could be an awesome comeback but we regret to say they’d be bound to mess up something. Keep in mind though, even their flawed games are the best story-driven mainstream RPGs today (since others barely have any role-playing in comparison), and the good outweighs the bad by a long shot. So we still encourage BioWare to give it a shot. Mass Effect 5 anyone?
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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