The Best RPGs to Play on PC Today

If you’ve just finished a role-playing experience on PC and are looking for something new to play, you might want to give this article on TechRadar a whirl, as it dives into twelve semi-recent RPGs and summarizes why they are deserving of our attention. I suspect that many of these will have already been on most of our readers’ hit lists, but perhaps there are a few that were overlooked at the time of their release:

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

It may be half a decade old, but Skyrim remains one of the most vital RPGs out there because of its incredible mod scene. If you played this game back in 2011 and put it to bed, give it another go with some of the graphics and immersion mods. It’s like playing Skyrim 1.5.

Bethesda has also released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, which includes all of the add-ons that have been released, along with some graphical overhauls. If you have a VR headset, then you can also get The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR for PC, which gives you an even more immersive experience.

If you’ve not played it all, where have you been? This open-world fantasy epic makes it possible to spend hundreds of satisfying hours without even tackling the main story. Few games craft as rich a world as this, and there’s enough content to play the game as a whole bunch of different characters without feeling like you’re being funnelled into a single “hero” mould.

We won’t spoil the main storyline, but let’s just say it features more dragons than Game of Thrones, and you even get to wield some dragon power yourself. Purists may bang on about how Morrowind is the highlight of the The Elder Scrolls series, but if we were to play one of the games on PC right now, Skyrim is the one we’d download from Steam.

…

9. Legend of Grimrock 2

If Pillars of Eternity dredges up the style of RPGs from around 2000, Legend of Grimrock 2 does the same for mid-90s dungeon crawlers. Where the first game in the series was an oppressive Eye of the Betholder-a-like, this second game is more like Lands of Lore.

If you’re 25 and under then that might not mean a lot, but it’s more colorful, far more open and — to be honest — much more interesting too.

How this differs from flat-out modern RPGs is that it’s a turn-based game where you move in squares and your attacks are timed. But it’s still a beautiful, smart and engaging game that feels more prepped for today’s gamer than most full-on franchise reboots.