It is hard to talk about great RPGs these days without mentioning Baldur's Gate 3. The game revolutionized the way people see the genre, introducing far more cinematic elements into an otherwise much slower experience, while also giving players more choice than just about any other game in the space.
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With many impressive games under the RPG banner in 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The Outer Worlds 2, and more offer outstanding experiences.
However, despite the acclaim, some people just didn't quite click with it for one reason or another. Thankfully, for RPG fans, there are plenty of other exceptional games out there that can give them an equally, if not more enjoyable experience than Baldur's Gate 3, regardless of whether they are looking for a turn-based alternative, an open-world adventure, or a more condensed linear path to follow.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Focusing In On A Single Story
- Emotional storylines with extensive depth.
- Grounded world that remains compelling throughout.
The Witcher 3 offers a very different flavor of fantasy than BG3. Instead of focusing on party members and individual storylines, it delivers a focused and deeply personal narrative centered around Geralt’s relationships, choices, and consequences, giving a lot of the key moments a heavier emotional tone.
A lot of the action sequences are far more cinematic, letting players feel fully immersed in the world around them, no matter if they are watching a cutscene or fighting through a horde of enemies. The narrative might not branch to the extent that BG3's does, but it still manages to have enough depth to keep players invested from start to finish.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Surreal And Beautiful
- Gorgeous landscapes straight out of a painting.
- Turn-based combat that still requires significant input.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 burst onto the RPG scene in 2025 and has quickly become a fan favorite among veterans and newcomers alike. Blending classic turn-based battles with real-time parries and dodges, the game has a level of complexity that goes far beyond build creation, forcing players to learn how to avoid the colossal enemies they find across the landscape.
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From a narrative standpoint, the story is far more compelling than BG3, pulling players in from the very first scene and never lowering the intensity until the credits roll. By the end, players will find themselves begging for more, and it certainly seems like a new wave of RPGs is about to arrive thanks to the success of a small yet ambitious developer.
Elden Ring
Changing The Open-World Game
- Insanely expansive environments with no barriers to exploration.
- Seamless transitions between areas.
Elden Ring can be described in many ways, but one of the best words for it is: absurd. Those first few hours exploring Limgrave are enough to give players a taste for what's to come, yet no matter what their expectations may be, the game always finds a way of subverting them.
Compared to Larian's slower, more thought-out combat style, Elden Ring feels so much faster and more engaging, constantly testing players and their abilities with insanely hard bosses that will have them dying over and over. It might not have clear narrative threads for players to follow, but the world is still abundant with lore and stories just waiting to be discovered.
Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor
Evolving In Tandem With The World
- Enemies become more than just increasingly difficult barriers.
- Fast-paced combat with plenty of skill-expression.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor introduced something to the RPG world that no other game has: living, reactive enemies whose relationships with the player evolve throughout their entire playthrough. The Nemesis System transforms every encounter into something unpredictable, turning even a random Orc into a hateful rival who remembers triumphant victories or is seeking revenge after a crushing defeat.
The world also feels a lot more enjoyable to traverse than something like BG3, letting players move around freely across giant cities and atop huge mountains. The story itself may only change slightly according to player decisions, but the dynamic enemies make the world significantly more exciting, keeping things fresh and far more manageable than the overwhelming arcs found in other RPGs.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Political Stakes On A Grander Scale
- Geopolitical narrative involving several nations.
- Larger regions full of more impactful decisions.
Where BG3 focuses on the personalities of its characters and the intimate interactions within the party, Dragon Age: Inquisition widens its scope to the entire world. The player isn’t just one hero, but a leader tasked with making world-shaping decisions that often involve negotiating with royals and navigating complex political webs that can only end one of two ways.
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The open-world structure also makes the player's decisions feel far more impactful, as they can physically visit each city or town and watch their choices alter history itself. This grander approach to storytelling gives it an edge over BG3, promoting much more expansive narrative impacts that carry a huge amount of weight throughout the entire world.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered
True Fantasy Freedom
- Dynamic NPCs and more open-ended questlines.
- Less guided by narrative paths.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered was always considered a favorite in the Elder Scrolls franchise, and the remaster only serves to reaffirm its place in many players' minds. The game is an open-ended RPG through and through, letting players effectively ignore the main quest and follow their own path in a world that is begging to be explored.
This sandbox style of role-playing is so freeing, and there really are no barriers that stop players from venturing into certain areas or exploring faraway cities. It delivers on the promise of an expansive fantasy experience that gives players all the tools they need to carve out their own path in the game's world, dictated solely by their own decisions and the direction they want to explore in next.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Larian Isn't Just A One-trick Pony
- Complex combat mechanics.
- Enormous build depth and a more flexible party system.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 laid the groundwork for what BG3 would become, but just because it came before the GOTY winner doesn't mean it isn't equally impressive. In a lot of ways, Original Sin 2 offers a larger amount of mechanical depth, letting players interact with the environment in and outside combat in ways that even the most creative minds may never think of.
Its class flexibility also encourages a lot of experimentation, without imposing any real limits on what players can and cannot do. If combat depth is a main priority for the player, DOS2 remains the king of the RPG genre and a must-play alternative for anyone who loved BG3’s fights but is looking for something even better.
Pillars Of Eternity
Returning To A More Traditional RPG Experience
- Old-school CRPG feel.
- Real-time-with-pause combat to give fights more tactical options.
Pillars of Eternity is the perfect RPG for players who want something more text-heavy and lore-driven than BG3. Inspired by classic CRPGs like the earlier Larian games, it prioritizes worldbuilding and much deeper questlines over heavy action sequences or cinematic cutscenes.
PoE also has a much more serious tone that invites players to fully immerse themselves in the complex history and politics that govern the world. There's a lot to love, and in terms of narrative depth, it is hard to compete with in the genre, offering a dense story that spans countless questlines and characters that players will slowly encounter along their epic journey.
Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous
A Playstyle For Everyone
- Radical gameplay changes depending on the decisions you make.
- Build variety extending far beyond traditional DnD.
Baldur's Gate 3 may offer an impressive amount of choice, but Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous goes further, with its Mythic Path system that fundamentally reshapes the entire game. Companions can change, questlines can be altered, and even crucial gameplay systems can evolve over time depending on how players choose to engage with the world.
The sheer breadth of builds and story-altering decisions makes it arguably one of the most reactive CRPGs ever made. That breadth and the level of malleability make Wrath of the Righteous deeply replayable as well, giving players the chance to experience wildly different outcomes during each playthrough.
Tyranny
Becoming A True Villain
- Reversing the role of a typical hero narrative.
- Heavy emphasis on enforcing different ruling styles.
Tyranny flips the entire hero's adventure formula on its head by setting players as servants of an evil overlord and tasking them with enforcing the will of their master. Instead of saving the world, players decide how it will be ruled, be it through mercy, intimidation, or ruthless violence, subverting a lot of the expectations for an RPG of its kind.
By leaning so heavily into the idea of villainy, players have a lot of control over exactly how their playthrough turns out, rather than being forced down one of two binary paths of good and evil. Many people may be tired of the same old stories of good triumphing over bad, which makes Tyrann y the perfect game to try for those looking for something entirely different.
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