Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

Before we begin, we should note that any list, like any top ten feature, is subjective.

We haven't played every RPG ever to have been launched. However, we think we've played significantly more than most.

So did your favourite make the (level 15, magically enhanced) cut? Read on to find out.

Or, if RPGs aren't entirely your thing, and you're more interested in the classics of the ZX Spectrum, you might prefer to check this out.

Amiga games more your bag? We've got you covered.

10. Darkest Dungeon

In Darkest Dungeon you recruit companions, and fight your way through numerous dungeons earning xp and loot. Sound familiar? What's different here though is that your party doesn't just suffer physical trauma from their battles, but emotional and mental trauma too.

Over time your characters will suffer increasing levels of stress, resulting in mental breaks and enduring negative characteristics as a result. Some of these can be cured back in the central town where the characters live, but eventually you'll have multiple negative traits across your favourite characters, and you'll only have the time and resources to cure some of them.

Released on Steam in January 2016, it received much critical praise, with a sore of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic. By December 2017 it had sold over two million copies worldwide, across all platforms.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

9. Undertale

Undertale, from US-based indie developer Toby Fox, has to be seen to be believed. Built with Gamemaker Studio, it looks like a game from the ‘80s (though it was released in 2015), and plays like a fever dream.

In the game the player assumes the role of a small child who managed to fall into the Underground, a place inhabited by monsters who have been exiled there since losing a battle with humanity. Progressing through the realm, the player fights, puzzles and talks their way through to the goal of emerging back out above ground.

Brilliantly, you can opt not to fight, and instead converse your way to victory, making friends with putative enemies along the way. The game lets you decide how you want to play,and the player is rewarded with different outcomes, plots and endings based on the choices they make.

And these consequences even roll through to subsequent playthroughs, with the game remembering what the player chose previously. How's that for replayability?

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

8. Smoke and Sacrifice

Another indie game, this time from UK-based nano-studio Solar Sail Games. In Smoke and Sacrifice you control Sachi, a mother forced to give up her infant son to power the Sun Tree, which keeps the titular and lethal smoke at bay, protecting her village.

However, all is not as it seems, and Sachi soon has reason to doubt the priests who demand the sacrifice. She's soon venturing forth in an underground world filled with mystery and danger, looking to recover her son, who she learns may still live.

It really is incredible that such a huge and varied game was created by such a small outfit. There's a huge number of quests, a large, open world to explore, and an enormous and satisfying range of weapons and armour to discover and craft.

Defeat the ice-ball chucking raven, the game's second mini boss, and you can craft the raven helm, for my money some of the best headgear in gaming. If that's isn't reason enough to pick up a copy of the game, I don't know what is.

Still need more incentive? Okay, how about the beautiful, hand drawn graphics? The rich ecosystem, where the game's inhabitants fight, eat and even breed by themselves? Or the possibility to turn that ecosystem to your advantage, trapping and taming certain species to fight for you?

All in all, a huge, epic, thriling joyride of a game. Read our full review here.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

7. South Park: The Stick of Truth

What's this, a television tie-in that's actually good? Wonders will never cease. If you're a fan of the TV series this will push those buttons. If you also like RPGs, you're in for a real treat.

In the game you play as the 'New Kid', who has moved to South Park and quickly becomes involved in a war together with humans, wizards, and elves, who are all battling for control of the Stick of Truth.

Humans, wizards and elves too mainstream for you? Don't worry, things quickly escalate and before long you're also battling aliens, Nazi zombies, and gnomes, with the fate of the entire town hanging in the balance.

Given that South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone were involved throughout production and wrote the script, the excellent writing is no surprise. What is more of a shock is the general quality of the underpinning RPG, with different types of attack, an xp and levelling system, equipment and unlockable companions.

Well received by fans and critics alike, the game had sold over five million copies as of February 2016.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

6. Dungeon Master

It's literally amazing how interesting slowly moving around a mostly featureless dungeon can be. Dungeon Master shouldn't be anywhere near as fun as it is, but somehow the mix of exploration, combat, magic, loot and survival becomes way more than the sum of its parts.

You start off in a ‘hall of mirrors', with heroes of varying abilities trapped behind each one. Choose your four favourite (and if you pick something other than Wuuf, Zed, Hisssa and Gothmog then there's just no helping you), or fewer if you fancy more of a challenge, and take your team off into the unknown.

With a myriad of different armour, weapon types, monsters and traps, there's more than enough variety to sustain interest over the full game, and even for multiple playthroughs.

It was released on the Atari ST in 1987, and went to the Amiga a year later, complete with ‘3D sound effects'. Which sounds like a marketing ploy, but you genuinely could tell where monsters were by the sounds they made.

And I still carry a rock with me everywhere I go, just in case there's a suspicious pressure plate near a portcullis.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

5. Witcher 3

Released in 2015 by Polish developers CD Projekt, Witcher 3 is based on ‘The Witcher' series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. The player assumes the role of Geralt of Rivia, a gruff, scarred monster hunter on the hunt for his adopted daughter.

There are so many stand out elements to Witcher 3 that it's hard to know where to start. The graphics are stunning, with sunsets that make you wish real life was this good. Trees and foliage dance in the breeze and the world is alive with talkative NPCs going about their business.

It sounds almost as good as it looks, with utterly immersive environmental audio, terrifyingly organic combat sounds, and incredible, dynamic music.

Then there's Gwent, the game within a game that's now also a game in its own right. The main problem with Gwent is that it's so good it stops you actually playing Witcher 3 proper, instead using Geralt to ride between towns so you can further your card collection.

That's all very well, but it does make a small nonsense of the plot. ‘Oh no, my daughter's been kidnapped basically by demons. Still, who fancies a round of cards?'

By the end of 2017 the Witcher series had sold over 33 million units, with the third instalment responsible for the majority.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

4. Skyrim

Skyrim, the game so good that developer Bethesda released it a thousand times.

Not only is it available on every platform imaginable, including all the consoles, the Nintendo Switch and the Bosch kettle, there's also now a special edition with updated graphics, and a VR version for the 17 people out there with an Oculus Rift or similar.

With any other game, this level of milking would be unsavoury, but Skyrim is sufficiently brilliant that the many releases can be justified. And Bethesda wouldn't bother if the audience demand wasn't there. Skyrim hasn't sold over 24 million copies worldwide for nothing.

Its genius is in its flexibility. Go anywhere. Be anything. Lurk in a hole dressed as a goblin.

I mean you can. You'll be missing out on 99 per cent of one of the greatest games ever released, but the game's loose enough that it'll let you.

Bethesda has recently announced its follow-up, currently known only as Elder Scrolls VI.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

3. Baldur's Gate 2

Released in 2000, this absolute classic from Bioware continued the story so excellently set up in the original, and expanded it into something truly breath-taking.

With players able either to create a new character or import their protagonist from Baldur's Gate, this sequel quickly turns a story about self-discovery and friendship into an epic narrative that takes the player into the very depths of hell. Crucially, despite its big themes and convoluted quests, it never loses sight of the smaller things, principally the developing relationships between the party, even romances.

It's also an early example of an open world game, with the player able to choose where to go and in which order to complete quests almost from the off. You're also able to get your hands on some end-game equipment very early on too, if your party is sufficiently adept at stealing, or you know some juicy tricks.

Are these exploits? I prefer to think of them as features. If you're canny enough, the game will let you exercise these dark arts, rather than place arbitrary barriers in your way.

And you can recruit a warrior with a head wound and a possibly talking hamster. If you're not sold at this point I can't help you.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

2. World of Warcraft

In the event of nuclear holocaust three things will survive. Cockroaches, Japanese Knotweed and World of Warcraft. It's the game that just won't die, having seen off a hatful of rivals including Rift, Warhammer Online and Star Wars KnightS of the Old Republic.

Some of its rivals are still going, and new ones come and go. What separates WoW however is its outrageous popularity. In its heyday it boasted over 12 million subscribers, and whilst its numbers are lower today (Blizzard stopped reporting subscriber figures in October 2015 at which point it had 5.5 million), they bounce back significantly at the launch of every new expansion.

And with Battle For Azeroth launching in mid-August, the scene is set once again for millions of people around the world to blame all the healers every time things go wrong.

What's impressive about the game, besides its longevity and endurance, is the way Blizzard has managed to update it over the years. For a game first released in 2004, it's actually quite stunning. Yes it's very different now, but essentially it's built on the foundations laid by the first release - this isn't a sequel, it's the same game but different.

Leeroy Jenkins was faked though.

Top 10 best RPGs of all time

Computing lists the best role-playing games of all time. Did your favourite make the cut?

1. Dark Souls

Dark Souls is an incredibly rare game, because it just has that indefinable something. Which of course makes it extremely hard to review.

What is definable is the incredibly immersive and consistent world, filled with mystery, danger and sorrow. And did we mention the level design? The way disparate parts of the world link together in a consistent and believable way is simply a lesson to all developers everywhere.

Then there's the flexibility, with the freedom to go anywhere, develop your character the way you want, and use whatever combination of weapons and armour you like best, even if that means you look like a budget court jester and can barely lift your Zweihander.

And what of the combat itself? It's famously tough, but to leave the conversation there is to do it a massive disservice. It's also fair. You almost always know why you failed in Dark Souls. As those hateful words 'You Died' appear on screen, in between the rage-fuelled screaming, you know you were a fraction late to roll, or that you pressed an attack when you should have blocked.

If only the sequels retained that sense of justice.

So with sufficient practise and suffering, even the feted Smough and Orstein fall to the player's swings, thrusts and spell blasts. And when they do, the feeling of satisfaction can't be bested anywhere in gaming.

And that completes our roundup of the top ten RPGs of all time. Did we criminally overlook your favourite? Let us know in the comments below!