The genre took a big leap forward in 1991 with the release of Ultima Underworld, the first fully 3D RPG. The new 3D world and first-person perspective made it easy to lose yourself in the massive dungeon of the game.
Arx Fatalis reocgnized this well.
Too bad that Arx was buggy as hell -- to the point I couldn't finish it on my old PC. It is on my new PC, so I will hopefully try and get back into it and see how it will fend on this system.
Full of action, Ultima Underworld became the model for most RPGs to follow. One of the more significant followers of Ultima Underworld was 1994's Elder Scrolls: Arena and its various sequels. Where Ultima Underworld allowed players to adventure through a massive, multi-layered dungeon, Elder Scrolls games focused on a much more open world, a world filled with a larger and more detailed amount of content than any games around. Exploring the world and discovering the mysteries and stories behind the Elder Scrolls games were equally as important as the combat mechanics.
Gotta' love the content-galore Elders throws at you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
And w/ the SDK available to us, the game is STILL having loads of mods being made by users -- check RPGPlanet.com/Morrowind, and you'll see what I mean....
A different approach was taken in 1996 by Diablo. More action-heavy than most RPGs, it would set the pattern for an entirely different type of RPG experience.
I think Divine Divinity took lots of elements that many games just excel at w/ one piece.
Larian took from Diablo, making DD an action heavy game.
And they took from BG games, where you can just wind up w/ so many skills and stats, the game will never bore you, as you're always gaining new skills, abilities, and loot.
They even took BG's pause button -- the action gets so fast and furious in DD at times, that you really do need this button, even though you're controlling one warrior unlike BG.
And they took obviously Morrowind, where the world is so huge and there's so many quests to do, you'll be here again for a long time.
Divine does so many things right. It's obviously they have been inspired by many of the greats -- and brought their own flavor to the RPG genre. Man, I can't wait 'til DD2.
