Summary
The sheer variety ofRPGson the market means that, when players are looking for a brand-new game to sink their teeth into, they are literally spoiled for choice. For many avid gamers, franchises orindividual releases with historical contentare the most enticing, as not only are they ensconced in the culture and way of life of the time, but they expand their knowledge base too.
Role-playing games set in the Dark Ages, otherwise referred to as The Middle Ages or the Medieval Era, are rich in culture, drama and, most of all, engaging and enticing narratives. The following are some fantastic RPGs firmly set within the Dark Ages, ranked according to character depth, action, and open-world accessibility.
TheDarkest Dungeonseriesdeals with the underbelly of different periods through time, but the Dark Ages setting ofDarkest Dungeon 2is by far the most impactful. A roguelike journey for the dammed, there is danger around quite literally every corner of the core adventure of this game.
The randomized nature of the game adds a whole new level of tension, with every character having at least one connection to the underworld, and all of them fighting for survival. Frankly, this game is a grim take on what life was truly like for the rogues, criminals, and poor people living on the dirty streets at the time. It is also an intensely challenging and incredibly demoralizing roguelike, but the rewards are worth the struggle.Darkest Dungeon 2is not, therefore, at all for the faint-of-heart.
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC
Genre
Strategy, RPG
Set simultaneously in the Middle East and Europe in the middle of the thirteenth century,The Valiantcharts the incredible journey of the protagonist, Theoderich von Akenburg.
Utilizing squad-based real-time strategy gaming,The Valiantallows the player to fully control how, when, and even why Akenburg leads his squads into missions. There is a huge array of armor and weapons to play around with in this game, all geared towards the greater good of vindication and victory.The Valiantcan be enjoyed as a single-player game, or in both competitive andcooperative multiplayer modes.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2is a story-driven thriller of an RPG and, what’s more, the huge open world and exploration potential are truly staggering. Set in the middle of the 15th Century, the game is set in the Kingdom of Bohemia. In real life, this area is now the country known as the Czech Republic.
The sequel to the epicKingdom Come: Deliverance,Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2is more than double the size of its predecessor in terms of both open-world span and the number of characters with fleshed-out backstories. During the Dark Ages, towards the end of the period, Kutna Hora used to be the second-largest city in Bohemia. Henry, the protagonist, is a blacksmith’s son who is pressured into leading a dangerous and potentially fatal resistance against the usurper king, King Sigismund. Henry also has some personal unresolved issues with Sigismund, making this as much Henry’s story as it is Bohemia’s.
The Dark Ages were so-called due to the notable, and almost immediate, decline of anything considered developmental in terms of humanity’s progression; namely science and culture.Pentimentexplores the everyday lives of people who were living in these times and charts the struggles they had as their country simultaneously faced a political and religious shift.
Pentiment’s protagonist is Andreas Maler, a truly talented artist who is living in Bavaria (Federal Republic of Germany) and struggling to be who he truly is. The true beauty of this game lies in how much of an impact every single decision the player makes has on the community as a whole, as Maler becomes more and more embroiled in a Medieval mess.
The period of history in Europe known as the Dark Ages was rich in conflict, and one of the best action RPGs to demonstrate this isMount & Blade 2: Bannerlord.The much-anticipated sequel to the original game allows players to customize their character in painstaking detail, before heading out to win on the Calradian battlefields.
Based in a Medieval fictional world, the protagonist is the commander and chief fighter of their own clan and is plunged into a fight for their own, and their clan’s, lives. The graphics and visuals, especially during huge battle scenes, are seriously impressive, and for players who want to feel like they are actually living and surviving in the Dark Ages, this game is for them.
As players will deduce from the title,Fear & Hungeris aroguelike dungeon crawlerlike no other. Set in the Dark Ages, this game mixes authentic elements of the time with more modern concepts, with both components coming together to create something truly unique and truly creepy.
Players can choose between four characters as their protagonist, and they will encounter everything from eerie puzzles to unsettling monsters, and also a host of invisible and unnerving emotional demons. The atmosphere of this game has not been successfully recreated and, for fans of history and dungeon crawlers,Fear & Hungeris definitely for them.
In a game acting as almost a predecessor toGame of Thrones, the powerfulCrusader Kings 3offers a choice from a range of noble, yet troubled, houses and asks players to lead them to greatness.Crusader Kings 3is set in either 1066 (the year of the Battle of Hastings), or else 867, and boasts a sprawling map of Europe in the Dark Ages. This game also explores the impact of the time period on Northern Africa too.
The history andlore behindCrusader Kings 3truly has to be seen to be believed, and clearly the game developers spent years engaging in meticulous research. Even though the role of the lead character can depend on who players choose to embody, as the real William the Conqueror invaded in 1066, most fans assume that it is him.
