The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Assuming that most of the titles end up making it onto store shelves on or around their slated release date, 2011's lineup of role-playing games easily makes it one of the best years for RPG enthusiasts in recent history. We've just been treated to Drakensang: The River of Time and Two Worlds II here in the US, and they'll be proceeded by Dragon Age II, Dungeon Siege III, Torchlight II, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and... The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Over the years, CD Projekt RED has proven to us that they are one of the most passionate game developers out there, and it's clear to use that they're putting far more blood, sweat, and tears into the sequel to our 2007 RPG of the Year than many other companies would be willing to. Rather than ushering out a quick sequel with a few more bells and whistles, they've built an entirely new engine, tripled the size of the game world, fine-tuned the quest system, and expanded the game's non-linearity, all while implementing more politically-charged factions and more hard-hitting choices (some of which carry over from your TW1 save game). Jam-packed or not, this is the year of The Witcher 2.




Din’s Curse (Winner)

In 2007, Soldak Entertainment released its first action RPG, with the generic-sounding title “Depths of Peril.” At first glance, it appeared to be little more than a poor-man’s Diablo clone, but it layered so many gameplay innovations on top of its action-RPG foundation that many RPG veterans and newcomers alike felt overwhelmed by the combination of diplomacy, covenant-building, recruiting, and real-time evolving quests with competing NPCs demanded by the game. In late 2008, Soldak followed up Kivi’s Underworld, an almost casual hack-and-slash adventure. While far more approachable and offering enjoyable new ideas for the genre, it failed to truly excite many critics.

This year’s release, Din’s Curse, was clearly an attempt to combine and accentuate the best features of both titles. It could perhaps be described as a “real-time roguelike with highly dynamic worlds,” but that fails to capture the real scope of the game, or the unique experience it offers players. Din’s Curse treats the player to dungeons filled with warring factions of monsters. Villains emerge dynamically, rising through the ranks in power (effectively “leveling up”) and eventually waging war upon the civilization above. The constant evolution of events makes the dungeons themselves feel like living, breathing opponents that match the player’s actions with their own progressive machinations. The pace can get frantic, as quests will rarely wait long for the player to resolve them, but will instead often grow to become more dangerous threats to both the player and the cities above.

Add to that a host of game modes, difficulty settings, numerous plot / event seeds, and many standard classes with the ability to mix & match skill trees for completely custom classes. The icing on the cake is multiplayer cooperative play. Din’s Curse demonstrates that it possible for an ambitious indie title to go toe-to-toe against mainstream competition and not only hold its own, but come out ahead in many ways. It’s a proud example of the potential of indie role-playing games, and a very worthy winner of our 2010 Independent RPG of the Year award.



Avernum 6 (Runner-up)

2010 brought us a number of excellent indie titles, including Recettear, an innovative mix of a store simulation with an action JRPG, the second chapter of the Eschalon saga, and many others. But the runner-up for this year’s indie RPG of the year is the culmination of the longest-lived indie RPG series of them all.

The Avernum series is known not only for its “old school” turn-based tactical combat, but also for well-written stories integrated into the gamplay. Released for the PC last March, Avernum 6 does not disappoint on either count. The mechanics have evolved incrementally over the series, to the point where Avernum 6 serves up almost anything a fan of old-school, turn-based RPGs could ask for. The world is enormous, the library of equipment and unique enemies impressive, and combat remains full of options and twists to keep battles from descending into formulaic hack-and-slash. Opening on the apocalyptic background of a failing human empire, the story and characterization in Avernum 6 is among the best you’ll find in indie RPGs - or mainstream RPGs, for that matter.

Avernum 6 caps a series that in some ways began with the first Exile game over fifteen years ago. Designer and Spiderweb Software studio head Jeff Vogel is one of the most experienced RPG designers still in the business - indie or mainstream - and his skill shows in this final chapter. It is a fitting conclusion to an epic, successful series.