Best Realistic RPGs For Immersive Gameplay

RPGs typically transport players to worlds filled with fantasy, featuring magic and battles against epic creatures. However, some games in the genre adopt a more realistic approach, offering mechanics and stories that seek greater immersion. These experiences prioritize authentic details to captivate those who prefer adventures closer to reality without losing the narrative essence.

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RPGs that focus on realism stand out for their detailed mechanics and stories grounded in historical or plausible settings. This approach attracts players seeking an engaging experience where gameplay mechanics convey a sense of authenticity with the environment, offering a journey that blends RPG elements with true simulation.

8 Alpha Protocol

A Game That Tells A Story About Spies

Alpha Protocol is a realism-focused RPG that transports players into the world of modern espionage. The game combines complex choices and deep consequences, allowing the protagonist's actions to directly influence the story. With an emphasis on character customization and development, Alpha Protocol excels in providing an engaging experience set in plausible scenarios.

Additionally, the title stands out for its realism in interactions and narrative approach, bringing players closer to the espionage universe. Without resorting to fantastical elements, the game features a dialogue system that prioritizes the nuances of interpersonal relationships, creating an immersive and tension-filled adventure. It is considered a hidden gem among games developed by Obsidian Entertainment.

7 Expeditions: Viking

Players Can Experience Viking Expeditions In This Realistic RPG

• Developer: Logic Artists
• Platforms: PC
• Release: April 27, 2017
• Genre: RPG

By placing players in the role of a Nordic clan leader, Expeditions: Vikings takes characters on a journey to fight for survival in a historically grounded world, without relying on significant fantasy elements to tell its story. Thus, the game is an RPG that offers a strong focus on realism, depicting the situation in England during the invasions around 790 AD.

Through this focus on authenticity, the game attempts to reflect the brutal and realistic setting of that period in human history, creating an immersive experience for players who enjoy a realistic and profound RPG. The choices made and the brutal combat are trademarks of Expeditions: Vikings, with the franchise as a whole known for addressing historical fiction in its games.

6 Assassin’s Creed Origins

Title Offers A Realistic Experience In Ancient Egypt

Although it includes less realistic elements, such as the protagonists' leaps of faith and science fiction traits in the present, Assassin’s Creed has always prioritized realism. Even with moments of fantasy, the games offer credible and well-crafted experiences, securing their place among the best realistic RPGs by combining historical authenticity with immersive gameplay.

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In Assassin’s Creed: Origins, the first to fully adopt RPG elements, the story is set in Ancient Egypt and presents a more realistic approach than Odyssey, which is marked by Greek mythology. While it has more fantastical moments, they generally stand out in the DLCs, whereas the main campaign maintains a narrative grounded and consistent with the franchise's historical proposal up to that point.

5 The Age Of Decadence

A Hardcore RPG Aimed At Players Seeking Realism

The setting of The Age of Decadence blends fantasy elements with realism, as the game takes place in a magic-destroyed environment where Roman aesthetics now predominate. Thus, embarking on this adventure, players can expect a realistic RPG with a strong emphasis on choices made throughout the story and different ways to approach the same objective.

Even characters with combat-focused builds may struggle in battles against enemies, as some hits are enough to take down the character. Therefore, the use of dialogues to advance the story is more than encouraged, making the RPG an immersive experience since situations are better resolved without relying on force. Additionally, it is a title that is quite punitive of the mistakes made.

4 Disco Elysium

A Game That Engages With Realism Despite Being Set In A Fictional Setting

Disco Elysium

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RPG

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9 /10

Released

October 15, 2019

Developer(s)

ZA/UM

Publisher(s)

ZA/UM

Platform(s)

PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Stadia

Genre(s)

RPG

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

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Although Disco Elysium is set in a fictional environment, its focus on realism is evident in the situations players face while investigating a murder. The game is an example of an RPG with a realistic narrative, where deep dialogues and moral choices create an immersive plot, even when fantastical elements emerge from the protagonist's mind.

The title also stands out for its mechanics centered on conversations and investigations. Each decision reflects real-life difficulties and dilemmas, making the experience unique for those seeking an RPG with one of the best stories ever produced. Thus, even in a fantastic world, Disco Elysium enchants with a narrative full of authenticity.

3 Yakuza: Like A Dragon

JRPG That Allows Players To Explore Tokyo-Inspired Settings

Despite the turn-based combat in Yakuza: Like A Dragon being quite peculiar and traditional for the genre, offering special abilities, many of these events exist only because the story's protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, imagines himself in an RPG. Therefore, the spells and others used by characters during the various battles in the game occur solely in his mind.

Moreover, Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a JRPG with a strong focus on realism, allowing players to explore the Kamurocho district, a fictional version of Kabukichō in Tokyo, enjoying various minigames along the way. Additionally, the story, although exaggerated in some points, effectively addresses themes about the Yakuza's dominance in Japan and the power struggles among these clans.

2 Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord

Players Can Explore A Medieval Setting And Build Their Own Kingdom

For players who would like to experience large-scale medieval confrontations, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlords is one of the action RPGs that offers a closer experience to that. Although the game is set in a fictional setting, heavily inspired by medieval kingdoms and cultures, the experience of immersing oneself in its wars is incredible.

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Players also have considerable freedom to follow their own journey in this universe, being able to explore an economy based on supply and demand laws or even build armies with different forms to dominate the world through war. The chaos of battles, with troops clashing, is one of the game's strengths, especially since this experience can be optimized with the use of mods.

1 Kingdom Come: Deliverance

The Game Is Considered One Of The Most Realistic RPGs Ever Produced

Known for being unforgiving to players, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of the most realistic RPGs ever developed because it takes seriously the intention to simulate what it was like to survive in the Middle Ages. Thus, in addition to following the story that takes place in the Kingdom of Bohemia in the 15th century, players must also worry about various other factors during the adventure.

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, for example, players need to even manage the wear of their shoes, as well as other mechanics like combat inspired by real medieval techniques or the fact that Henry needs to learn to read to interact with books. Moreover, if opting for Hardcore mode, there is a chance players might not even start the adventure due to the high mortality rate of the Middle Ages.

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