Role-playing games make up a broad and varied genre, heavily saturated across a variety of sub-genres. From old-schoolCRPGs such asBaldur’s Gateto turn-based RPGs such asOctopath Traveler, all the way to the first-person open-worlds ofSkyrimandFallout, there’s something for everyone.
RPGs often cover a grand scale, butindie role-playing gamestend to have a smaller scope, usually having to make sacrifices elsewhere to make room for ambition.Caves Of Qud, for example, is a tremendously expansive experience despite being an indie game but features minimal art direction. Indie games tend to thrive off of limitations, however, and this has led to a great number of ambitious RPGs across creatively-realized sci-fi worlds.
While its lower indie budget may be apparent,Star Traders: Frontiersis a wholly ambitious sci-fi RPG that’s sure to please fans of sandbox gameplay.Star Traders: Frontiersputs players in the role of a captain, leading andmanaging their crewon an abundance of adventures across the galaxy. This leads to a variety of role-playing opportunities, as players are able to heavily customize their crew, specializing them for specific roles.
Players can expect to spend plenty of timeroaming the galaxy, trading goods (or contraband), hunting bounties, and defending themselves from savage pirates.Star Traders: Frontiersalso features quests to complete, unique mini-games, and a dual combat system for space and ground combat. All this to say thatStar Tradersis a varied experience packed with content and role-playing opportunities, offering a low-budget sandbox that punches above its weight.
Developed byindie darlings Klei Entertainment(the team behind greats such asDon’t StarveandOxygen Not Included),Griftlandsis an ambitious spin on the rogue-like deck-builder that blends in several elements of the RPG genre. As with all of Klei’s games,Griftlandsfeatures a tremendous art style, depicting a strange and alien world populated by quirky characters with memorable designs.
Griftlandsexcels, however, with its unique gameplay loop, which combines RPG-style character dialogue and important choices with a mixture of turn-based deck-builder combat and an inventive negotiation system. This negotiation system allows players to solve conflicts in a passive manner, adding to the game’s role-play mechanics and deepening the experience as a whole, as it requires players to build and master two unique decks.
3Space Wreck
A Remarkably Old-School RPG Designed To Be Replayed
This criminally underrated sci-fi RPG features a charming old-school art style and gameplay to match, offering playersaFallout-inspired experiencethat’s designed to be played multiple times.Space Wreckis a bite-sized RPG, short and sweet, and this goes hand-in-hand with gameplay that revolves heavily around the stats of a player’s character.
In fact, many of the player’s options inSpace Wreckare limited by their stats, making character creation important and encouraging players to experiment with multiple characters in order to see all there is to see.Space Wreck’s old-school isometric style and retro-RPG gameplay hearken to the originalFalloutin more ways than one, but it stands out as its own beast with its accessible nature and short run-time.
Taking heavy inspiration from tabletop RPGs, primarily in the name of player agency and immersive role-playing,Citizen Sleeperis a quiet sci-fi RPG with a cyberpunk overtone. The game takes place on a desperate, ruined space station populated by a diverse ensemble of memorable characters.
Citizen Sleeperis a text-heavy experience that won’t appeal to the less patient, but those who take the time to enjoy its writing and immerse themselves in its world will find a remarkably atmospheric game underneath. There are mechanics, too, choices to be made, driven by dice mechanics and ticking clocks in true TTRPG fashion.
Set tofinally leave Early Accesslater this year, there’s never been a better time to jump intoCaves Of Qud. This expansive RPG takes place in an imaginative open world that blends science fiction with fantasy in inventive ways, offering a strange and beguiling land that’s full of surprises and fun to explore.Caves Of Qudmay be minimal in its art direction, but the creativity on display is sure to fire up the imagination.
Caves Of Qud’s aforementioned minimalist visuals are in keeping with its traditional rogue-like gameplay, but players shouldn’t let either of these things scare them off; the unforgiving nature of its gameplay can be side-stepped via the game’s role-play mode, which allows players to enjoy the game as if it were a regular RPG. Furthermore, the minimalist visuals allow players to enjoy the game like they would a book, with the vaguely drawn sprites providing evocative prompts for the player’s imagination.
