15 Best RPGs Of The Decade
Saving the world, one grand adventure at a time.
Role-playing games, or RPG's in this instance, have been both one of the consistent yet constantly changing genres of the last few decades. From roots in point and click adventures dominating the PC market and early turn-based, 2D adventures on consoles, they've developed into the multi-faceted titles we see today.
In the last ten years we've had continued franchises expanded on and bettered, whilst some return to a style that reminds us of the older days, to new entries coming in and subverting everyone's expectations completely.
There's been epic adventures in the world of sci-fi, with space adventures, futuristic wasteland exploration and even near-future "what if's" to be explored. We've also had the good ol' fashioned fantasy lands to take advantage of too, with demons, dragons and allsorts being thrown into the mix. Heck, we've even had a couple from a particularly offensive TV show in there for good measure, too.
But what makes an RPG great?
Is it just the setting, or is the characters we inhabit and interact with in these worlds? Is it the depth and breadth of being able to mold characters into any playstyle you choose, or the worlds themselves that we get to explore?
For many, it's all of the above and then some, as the near-limitless freedom to explore and engage in these worlds presented to us. So settle back, as we look at fifteen of the best RPG's in the last decade.
15. South Park: The Stick Of Truth
It would be remiss not to consider The Stick of Truth a surprising hit of 2014, but that's what it was. Considering how unequivocally bad almost every South Park game had been, expectations weren't high for this one.
Unlike previous titles, this one had the full support of series creators Trey Stone and Matt Parker, offering a brilliantly typical South Park script to go with it. Fully offensive, continually obscene, it is South Park at its best, and then some. But it was the gameplay that made it different than just watching any random episode of the show.
For all the grossness and [subjective] bad taste, there's a well crafted turn-based RPG in there too. Your character is a template for all of the South Park residents to bounce off of, with an impressive range of customisation and a high standard of combat and exploration in good measure.
It was the RPG that nobody expected to do well, by its own merit or in the same genre as the esteemed Final Fantasy's, but it certainly did.