5 Video Games Perfect For Critical Role Fans

Have you longed for your own Critical Role games, but lack access to Dungeons and Dragons? Then perhaps these 5 video games are the perfect solutions. For a role-playing experience filled with as much adventure as the hit web series, consider these video games as substitutes.

5 Video Games Perfect For Critical Role Fans

Critical Role games are not yet an established product from the popular brand, despite many successful ventures into other media. Aside from its popular weekly web show, the hit series has also branched out into comics, books and guides. Their most ambitious step towards something new was recently observed by their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. With the support of 88,887 backers, an incredible $11,385,449 was donated to the making of an animated series. With so much evident love backing the series, perhaps a video game property is not far off in the future. The world of Exandria may yet be realised in video game form. Until then however, this article seeks to provide 5 video game alternatives for a Critical Role experience.

As for Dungeons and Dragons, the ever-popular tabletop game offers unique role-playing experiences that are enticing to many players. However, the game is often a struggle to enjoy solo, requiring multiple players for the full experience. Serving the role of dungeon master and player at the same time is like playing yourself at chess. The thrill of outwitting the dungeon master simply isn’t possible during a solo game. As such, the AI of video games might offer a competent substitute for a DM if you want a solo adventure. So, what games best capture the same essence of roleplaying as Critical Role?

Divinity: Original Sin II

The highly regarded role-playing game from Larian Studios wears its influences on its sleeve. Whilst the game does not use the trademarked D&D properties, it replicates the atmosphere rather well. The various classes should not be unfamiliar to anyone with D&D experience. Where it most strongly competes as a potential Critical Role game is in its open nature. The possibilities for overcoming the obstacles in the game are numerous, often rewarding creativity. The amount of role-playing that Larian Studios accounted for in the design of the game is breathtakingly brilliant. Whilst the game has a very set story you must follow, you can be certain that you will make it your own.

As for the gameplay, it serves as a turn-based strategy encounter game, much like D&D without the die rolls. You control an entire party, ranging from 1-4 characters, strategically governing each of their moves in and out of battle. Almost every object in the environment is interactable, allowing for their movement, destruction or use at any time. This can allow for unique solutions to encounters, with some players creating barricades or traps out of their surroundings. Additionally, clever spell usage or crafting can allow players to circumnavigate the traps waiting for them in the world. The world is filled with NPCs to interact with, resulting in various quest outcomes dependent on your choices.

Additionally, the game best captures the D&D experience through its Game Master mode. Players construct their own encounters using the tools in this mode, allowing for a dungeon master adjacent experience. Furthermore, the game has an online function to allow parties to be constructed entirely of players. Players are not shackled together, allowing them to interact with varying parts of the world simultaneously.

Skyrim

Step into the shoes of the Dovahkiin

Step into the shoes of the Dovahkiin

Turn-based gameplay is not to everyone’s preference, and that is where an action-RPG could rise instead. Few games maintain their relevance as long as Skyrim’s, still popular now almost nine years after its 2011 launch. The game offers a vast fantasy open-world to be explored, providing hours of adventuring in a style that suits you. The game does not pigeon-hole players with classes, as role-playing is very much what will define your character’s growth. How you choose to experience the game, whether it be your weapon, spells or other skills, will influence your levels. It allows for player progression that truly reflects the adventures behind them, following the mantra that practice makes perfect. There is a freedom to your own personal adventure that perfectly encapsulates the open possibilities of Critical Role games.

Outside of the skills, players have a variety of choices to make. During character creation, the player selects their gender and race, the latter of which will impact their interactions with NPCs. Beyond that, you will become what you make of yourself. The various factions you choose to join, the allies you make, they will define your playthrough. Whilst the main story offers little flexibility in decision making, the side-content offers an abundance. Do you want to be a warrior? Then the hall of the Companions awaits. Are you a stealthy rogue? The Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood can offer you work. If you wish to perfect your spellcasting, join the College of Winterhold. Furthermore, the two sides of the civil war are awaiting a champion. The land of Skyrim also offers many secret opportunities, from vampirism to lycanthropy and various other unique existences.

Baldur’s Gate

Any Critical Role games released in the future would naturally require a lot of familiar D&D assets. Critical Role takes place in the land of Exandria, a fictional land invented by the dungeon master Matthew Mercer. Even so, much of the concepts from the campaign are lifted directly from the resources from Wizards of the Coast. The company behind the distribution of D&D are most well known for their own land of the Forgotten Realms. It is within this setting that the Baldur’s Gate game series occurs. Whilst is not set directly in the Critical Role universe, the game is filled with familiarity for series fans. You can expect all the same classes, races, enemies and dimensions that populate the Critical Role series. As such, this franchise is the closest players can currently get to the world of Critical Role.

The game itself is a tactical role-playing game, much in the same vein as Divinity: Original Sin II. Furthermore, the next entry in the series, Baldur’s Gate 3, is being developed by Larian Studios. You can anticipate a similar tactical experience from the next entry, with the addition of more D&D lore-friendly assets. The main difference players will notice in the gameplay is the reliance on dice. Much like the table-top experience, the game includes a D20 dice roll when executing an action to determine success. This will make for a more unique experience than players are likely used to in other RPGs. For further gameplay clues, read the D&D 5e ruleset. However, the franchise has a significantly richer history than that, dating back to its first entry in 1998. If the wait for the next instalment is too great, then a catalogue of prior entries awaits.

Dragon Age

Thedas always needs new champions

Thedas always needs new champions

When considering Critical Role games, fans of the series adore its fantastic story arcs. A clear goal to drive the adventure forward is often what keeps viewers the most enthralled. Standouts within the series include the Briarwood arc and the Chroma Conclave, both offering menacing threats looming over the cast. Having a concise and well-told story to motivate a player’s continual progression through a fantasy world can be crucial. Thankfully, the Dragon Age series offers an abundance of epic stories in the land of Thedas. From the Blight in Dragon Age: Origins, to the rifts of Dragon Age: Inquisition, players can leave their marks. This is made all the more satisfying by the games including save-transfer features to keep their stories continuing across releases. Such continuity is made even more exciting with the recent announcement of a new series instalment anticipated for next-gen consoles.

Whilst the game certainly requires a level of strategy, it replaces turn-based gameplay for real-time combat. Players swap between party members; however, they will primarily focus on playing as their avatar. Through their custom character, players can experience either warrior, rogue or mage gameplay. However, the standout experience the game offers is the chance to bond with your party. Through a variety of party interactions and missions, you develop relationships with each member of the group. All of this leads to a narrative-focused experience that can sometimes alter the course of subsequent games. Players create ripples across various games, and this somewhat replicates the multiple campaigns of Critical Role.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Critical Role games don't exist, but DLC certainly does

Critical Role games don’t exist, but DLC certainly does

Whilst Critical Role games are yet to be created, the brand has invaded other properties through successful tie-ins. In the case of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, players can create the characters of Vox Machina. The game will require players to create their own custom characters to become the Watcher for the game’s narrative. However, what makes it stand out from other games on this list is the special Critical Role downloadable pack. This includes character portraits and voices that match those of the beloved Vox Machina group members. What’s more, the cast of the show actually voiced all of these custom dialogue options. As such, this game is the closest gamers can currently get to an adventure alongside the show’s first protagonists.

However, while Vox Machina has wiggled their way into the game, players will not be experiencing the world of Exandria. Instead, players will journey through the land of Eora through a top-down rpg experience. The game supports both a real-time and a turn-based mode for combat, making it more accessible to players. Much like with Divinity Original Sin II, the fact that this is a sequel should not intimidate new players. The story and lore are spelled out adequately enough to make this your first adventure, However, as is the case with Dragon Age, the option to import previous saves from prior games allows you to continue your adventure. As such, the game promises a story-rich, strategic gaming experience for fans of all things fantasy.

It’s Your Turn To Roll

Is it Thursday yet? If not, then you might be having those Critical Role cravings you can’t yet satisfy. Well, with the help of this list, perhaps you have now found a few alternate solutions. So, take the initiative and create your own adventures. Many worlds and many possibilities present a call to adventure. Now all you need to do is make a choice.

3 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    Why did the Morrowind recommendation get published, but not the Neverwinter Nights recommendation I posted before that? They both had links, so that can’t be it. Is it that I’m not allowed to mention the company who sells these great old games?

    Let’s try this again:

    Buy Neverwinter Nights 2 or the Enhanced Edition of Neverwinter Nights 1 from [redacted], join one of the long-running online Persistent Worlds, and voilá: You’ve got a free-to-play, fan-controlled, and usually roleplay-focused MMORPG based on the D&D ruleset (3.5e, I think, though people often make the effort to mod in later-introduced races and classes) and, thanks to the age of the game, very experienced DMs. There are PWs that are set in the Forgotten Realms setting or completely custom settings. …Hey, if the Critter community has enough will to put in the time and effort, they could design their own PW based on the Exandria setting.

    [ Here’s a list of currently active PWs for NWN:EE : https://nwn.beamdog.net/
    Since there are no direct links, you’ll have to look up the websites of the individual PWs on Google. For example Arelith ( https://nwnarelith.com/ ) seems to be very well-developed and still quite well-populated.
    There also are a few PWs based on NWN 2 that are still active, such as A Land Far Away ( http://www.alandfaraway.info/ ) or Baldur’s Gate: The Sword Coast Chronicles ( https://www.bgtscc.net/ ). I don’t know of any central list, but if you want to find other PWs, asking in the game’s sub-reddit or in the forum section of the Neverwinter Vault (link below) will certainly result in recommendations. ]

    If you just want to play with a few friends and maybe play DM yourself, there are lots of adventure modules made by fans where you turn your own PC into a temporary server for your friends to connect to. There also are tons of modules you can play alone, just like a traditional PC RPG. Designing these fan modules is what the NWN engine was primarily intended for, and the games came with a toolset editor for this purpose. The actual games were just sort of “showcase examples” for what could be done with the toolset.

    Sure, these games are old and particularly NWN 1 had 3D graphics so rudimentary that it looks kinda ugly today – but that’s also what made it relatively easy for the modding community to add huge amounts of extra content created with free software like Blender. As far as I know, the Enhanced Edition is still in the process of being updated with better graphics from the official publisher.

    Adventure modules and custom content hakpaks can be found here: https://neverwintervault.org/

    A few helpful “Hall of Fame” and themed lists to find good modules for NWN 1:
    https://neverwintervault.org/forums/neverwinter-nights-1/nwn1-modules/nwn1-module-lists

    But be warned that the vast majority of existing modules were created long before the Enhanced Edition came out, so they may need the vanilla version of the game (usually patch version 1.69 with both expansion packs) to work properly. You can probably find this very cheap on ebay, since most of the still existing NWN 1 based PWs switched over to require NWN:EE when it came out a couple of years ago.

    If a module description says that you need the Community Expansion Pack (CEP), that can be found here: https://neverwintervault.org/cep

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  2. Avatar photo

    If you like the gameplay of TES: Skyrim but wish it had a more exotic setting and more cultural / political complexity, but MMORPGs like The Elder Scrolls Online are not your thing, then TES: Morrowind is still very much worth playing. I find it much more athmospheric and immersive than the later games in the series, particularly because you actually have to listen to the info the NPCs give you and maybe even take down some notes, instead of just dumbly following a map marker on a compass. And you never know what’s around the next corner, again because there are no compass markers that urge you to check out certain spots – so there’s much more of a sense of achievement if you find something special. The game area is smaller than in the later games, but it actually feels bigger, because the landscape is far more varied in Morrowind. And the fast travel system consists of using teleportation spells tied to temples, or hiring boats and giant insect “taxis” that have a fixed route from town to town – not just a click on the map. Few enemies scale with the player character, and the loot in containers doesn’t scale at all, so you actually have the feel of a “realistic” world where exploring off the beaten path at low levels is dangerous, but if you do, you may also find a powerful magical artifact that you’ll wear till the end. And trying to steal from the rich and powerful is actually worth the effort – plus, you can take *everything* from killed enemies if they were humanoid, including their weapons and armor and pants. Also, you can learn to fly. If the music sounds familiar, that’s because Matt often used the Morrowind soundtrack for background music during the Vox Machina campaign.

    A lot of people say the game is frustratingly hard at the beginning, but I never found that to be the case, not even when I played the first time. Granted, that may be because I always create myself a custom class, boosting charisma and speed, the thieving/talking skills (so I don’t have to train them before they’re any use), mysticism (needed for teleportation spells), alchemy (easy money, which you’ll need to train the skills you didn’t boost at the start – also, your own health potions can be much more powerful than the standard version and weigh almost nothing if you used light ingredients), light armor (allows you to carry more loot; you can train up the strength to switch to daedric armor later), and archery (kills cliff-racers, lets you avoid the hectic close combat, and if you mostly try to snipe enemies from afar, it makes the high miss-the-enemy ratio at low levels feel much less unnatural than if you were missing with a sword). Also, it’s a good idea to hold off installing the expansions until you’re at least at a middling level – the new areas are meant for high-level characters anyway, and one of the expansions will result in assassins coming after you while you sleep from the moment you install it. The assassins do scale with your level, but they’re still quite strong when you’re still at a single-digit level – though they also wear the best light armor that you can get at a low level…

    The game is nearly 20 years old, but there are many mods that upgrade the antiquated graphics to something much more pleasing to the eye. [And a few early-created mods should always be installed regardless, especially those that replace the ugly original character heads ( https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind_Mod:The_Comparison_of_NPC_Head_Replacers ), those that improve the look of character bodies/armor ( https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind_Mod:Better_Bodies ), those that change the scripting of the wild animals to not be constantly aggressive. (I think it’s called “Rational Wildlife”) Also, there are several different fan community bug fix patches ( https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Recommended_Mods ). There’s even a series of mods that overhauls most of the NPC dialogue to be far less generic: http://lgnpc.org/home ]
    I personally play with a relatively vanilla game as far as graphics updates go, because my computers are ancient, but there are plenty of videos on Youtube where you can check out what a really heavily modded Morrowind can look like. (E.g. by using OpenMW, which is actually a completely new open-source game engine that uses the game data from the original CDs, but improves how the engine loads and calculates the world based on that date and it adds some new features, even a multiplayer option. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind_Mod:OpenMW )

    Even if you had already played through the original game and it’s 2 expansions when it first came out, it’s still worth dusting off those old CDs, because there are still modders creating new areas and quests for this game. There’s a really talented and persistent group of modders who are slowly but steadily adding the rest of the Morrowind province outside of the island of Vvardenfell under the project name “Tamriel Rebuilt” ( https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/ ) – which means they’re expanding the already huge area size of the original game by about factor 5. With large cities populated by hundreds of NPCs and with new Guild/House quest trees and everything. And it looks absolutely gorgeous – even in a game that still runs the original graphics, since the mod shines mainly through creative landscape design and impressive architecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCefhpwjzQU

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  3. Avatar photo

    Some of these games are great, but Divinity 2 is overrated as hell and suffers from elitism. You’re never going to get far in it without a guide, despite it bragging about creativity and free choice.

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