Looking for a certain RPG style

Hey all,
I've been thinking about the Divinity series and I love the idea of the "do anything" playstyle it offers. Creating spells, stealing everything except the kitchen sink, exploring the lore, reading the books, etc. The only barrier I have with actually pulling the trigger and buying it, is the turn-based combat. For some reason I'm just not a huge fan of games with AP/MP. I don't know why, I just can't get into them no matter how hard I try.

I was wondering if there were any other games like these. Except, trading in the turn based combat with a more "hack n' slash" style. The only two games I can think of referencing are Ultima 8: Pagan, and Revenant. And yes, I do realize Ultima 8 was a pretty bad game compared to the other games in the series but, it was my first RPG that I completely got absorbed in as a kid, so lay off :P

I'm mainly looking for isometric, so Skyrim is off the table. Trust me, I've played the crap out of that game too.

Try Tyranny by Obsidian and if that floats your boat maybe pillars of eternity.

The earlier Divinity games have Diablo-style combat. I hear 2 is real good.

Pillars of Eternity 1&2, Tyranny, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2, and Pathfinder: Kingmaker; Shadowrun: Dragonfall/Hong Kong are what you're probably looking at all isometric style RPG's that came out recently.

PoE games are quite sizable, well polished by now, quite good games, even if some consider them a bit too dry to taste.

Tyranny is from the same company but much more digestible in scope, playing as the "bad guys", tho maybe a bit lacking in depth, just by virtue of being a smaller game

Torment: ToN is technically a spiritual successor to Planescape Torment; but doesn't quite get there; it's not bad, just not hotcakes either

Wasteland 2 is set in post apocalypse, ala original Fallout's, just without any of the charm or interesting writing imo (same dudes that made Torment above); if i recall correctly however it used the AP system

Kingmaker is the most recent of the big isometric RPG titles, it's massive and uses the old school style Pathfinder P&P system, derived from D&D 2.5-3 ruleset; very fiddly, very unevolved and raw; but also hugely interesting because of it; SUPER buggy atm, would not recommend unless you are 100% in love with the genre

Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong are both excellent RPGs, from the narrative perspective I would say they are the best of this list; a bit limited in the combat gameplay however due to a very simple ruleset; BUT they are turnbased seeing as that's not your thing

Safest bet I would recommend you try Tyranny as it's a smaller cheaper game, or PoE 1&2

Generally the more world depth you are going to be looking to get out of an isometric rpg simulation the less hack&slash it's gonna be however; at some point on that spectrum you just get to Diablo, where the joy is all in the slash and not in the reading of the lore or picking kittens out of the trees.

@snacko00: Oh really? For some reason I thought there were only the two games. I'll go take a look at those. Thanks for letting me know.

So you're looking for an isometric RPG with real-time combat and the kind of ridiculously interactive, detailed, expansive world that Divinity: Original Sin 2 has?

...sorry, I don't have much and I don't think you're going to find exactly what you're looking for, at least not a game as high-quality as Divinity: Original Sin 2. You really ought to give D:OS 2 a shot, you can play it with a M+K or controller, the controller controls are fine, and the combat actually is really, really good considering how freaking huge the game is.

Perhaps try The Witcher 1? You can play that from an isometric perspective and there's a lot of stuff in that world, though I can't honestly say that I played much of TW1. That might be a bit of a stretch for what you're looking for.

How do you feel about Baldur's Gate-ish combat? The whole "pause and issue commands" thing? If you're OK with that, then I guess the next closest thing would be Pillars of Eternity.

EDIT:

@tennmuerti said:

Generally the more world depth you are going to be looking to get out of an isometric rpg simulation the less hack&slash it's gonna be however;

This seems to be the general rule with RPG's. The grander it is in scope, the less likely it is to be a good action game, unless it leans really hard in the "action" side of things and doesn't really do much with story (like Dragon's Dogma). Speaking of, Dragon's Dogma isn't isometric but it might be worth giving a shot?

Also holy shit Revenant, that's an obscure blast from the past, that i had a great time with but never see anyone ever talk about.

I have the fondest memories of that little gem.

@tennmuerti: "at some point on that spectrum you just get to Diablo, where the joy is all in the slash and not in the reading of the lore or picking kittens out of the trees."

LoL, damn. My dreams of being a old timey firefighter have been dashed! In all seriousness though, I think I'll try the earlier Divinity games and then Pillars. Thank you for that list. It was more than I was expecting quite honestly.

I know right? It just had that certain charm to it. I loved it.

@m16mojo2: It totally did.

I'm a few hours into Divinity: Original Sin 2, playing with my brother, and we're both really digging the environmental effects. It's definitely one of the coolest things about the game so far.

As others have said, Pillars of Eternity is another good one (that I need to finish...). I don't think you'll find another with quite the level of detailed mechanics as D: OS2, though. I'm also working my way through Pathfinder Kingmaker. In both PoE and Kingmaker, I have the game on a lower difficulty setting so I don't have to issue commands frequently. "Turns" happen simultaneously, in six-second increments.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the way that most of these games do turns, so I'm really enjoying the actually turn-based combat in Divinity. Those other games have lots of lore and companion interactions and reading, which is what you seem to be into!

I know you said you want isometric but look into Risen. There's a lot of rough edges for sure and it's an action RPG rather than turn based, but you can do whatever the hell you want, plus it has the same sort of choice-based branching story. The setting is also similar.

The writing is obviously nowhere near as good and it doesn't have as much flexibility as Original Sin, but those games are pretty unique in that regard.

Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2?