Is there a single "isometric" game with good exploration?

[rusty_shackleford]

(For debating what "isometric" means, see here)
Can't really think of a single one that gets close to e.g., Gothic exploration. Even the mere suggestion of requiring camera rotation seems to cause severe buttpain in some people who want to play a game of "clear the fog of war"

[1998]

ATOM

[Lich]

Nox‎ ‎

[SpellSword]

Perhaps the open world RPG Fates of Ort?



Super Mario RPG had a lot of hidden little things to find, but I seem remember it being rather linear so it may not be the kind of exploration you are talking about.

[asf]

ultima 8

[Dorateen]

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

[Tweed]

Geneforge

[J1M]

(For debating what "isometric" means, see here)
Can't really think of a single one that gets close to e.g., Gothic exploration. Even the mere suggestion of requiring camera rotation seems to cause severe buttpain in some people who want to play a game of "clear the fog of war"

Exile 3.

[rusty_shackleford]

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

I enjoy the adventure game aspect of this, but it's not the same kind of exploration as gothic
Perhaps isometric games should lean hard into adventure aspects, especially with using abilities/spells as verbs(e.g., later Ultimas, Larian games, even Fallout to some extent)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Zwei 1 has a world map where you open up a large number of isometric view dungeons and locations to go to, and it does not have a straight forward story guiding you. So you have to try to guess which place you need to go next and what you need to do there, or follow a walkthrough. Zwei 2 has a story that holds your hand and does not have an excess of locations, and you don't need to revisit prior dungeons.

[rusty_shackleford]

Perhaps the open world RPG Fates of Ort?

This looks fun.

[rusty_shackleford]

ATOM

Falls under my same reply as above re: Dark Sun.
ATOM has the same adventure game elements as Fallout, which explicitly chose to use an Adventure Game inspired "Action Cursor"(verbs), as detailed in both manuals.

Selection_024.webp

I'm not sure if any of the Fallout devs have ever discussed this specific design choice. Tim Cain might have in one of his videos? @Roguey?

I know one of the later Ultimas decided to use verbs because of mmm… Times of Lore? @Tweed, is that right? So it's possible they decided to inherit the same verb interface from the later Ultimas.

Fallout games were sort of a last hurrah for these adventure-RPG hybrids
Even the kickstarter nostalgiabait games used dumbed down interactions with the world where a big shiny button pops up, or those visual novel-like scenes instead of directly interacting with the world.

[rusty_shackleford]

Geneforge

(For debating what "isometric" means, see here)
Can't really think of a single one that gets close to e.g., Gothic exploration. Even the mere suggestion of requiring camera rotation seems to cause severe buttpain in some people who want to play a game of "clear the fog of war"

Exile 3.

I've always had such trouble getting into Vogel's games.

[Klyric]

It was quite interesting to explore the world in DIvinity Original Sin 2
I think the problem with exploration in most isometric games is that the world there is not interactive or there are visible skill checks in all interesting places. It's hard to experience something from finding a secret when there's a big sign showing that`s a secret.

[rusty_shackleford]

It's hard to experience something from finding a secret when there's a big sign showing that`s a secret.

Fallout 2, enhanced edition:

vault-tek-vision.jpg

[Klyric]

It's hard to experience something from finding a secret when there's a big sign showing that`s a secret.

Fallout 2, enhanced edition:

I was referring mainly to Pathfinder games. If they had removed the icons that show "skill check here" for something that was in Fallout. For example, instead of the "athletics check here" icon, you could manually activate the athletics skill in a certain place, it would be more interesting. But still, even in Fallout, the world remains relatively less interactive than in DOS2

[DemoGraph]

I liked Kenshi if only for landscapes.

[rusty_shackleford]

I forgot about Seven when making this thread.

I guess it's sorta like an isometric/birds-eye-view doosex/thief, the opening area/tutorial is really subpar and turned me away twice. I've never seen anyone discussing it, released with a big "meh" and then quickly forgotten. It's not an RPG despite advertising itself as such. If you like stealth games, give it a try. Has very good controls, probably some of the best for birds-eye-view style games.

Recent reviews mention issues launching it(has mostly negative), but I didn't have any issues.