To begin the Renaissance we must finally look at what is perhaps our oldest friend in the business, and the only company to receive a mention in every single part of this series so far, Origin Systems. Many longtime fans would agree that they had their last gas in 1997 before completely falling victim to EA’s business practices. Ultima Online would release just one week before Fallout to critical and commercial success, instantly becoming the largest MMORPG to date, before being dethroned by Everquest and Lineage near the turn of the century. The last two single player experiences in the Ultima franchise, 1994’s Ultima VIII and 1999’s Ultima IX were viewed as rushed, low quality, and highly messy, so Richard Garriott left the company he founded to pursue new interests for the new millenium.

Interplay would release Fallout and bring back the glory days of single player RPG experiences, using the ideas that the company itself pioneered in the mid 80’s with Wasteland. Along with Ultima Online and Diablo, Fallout would popularize the top down detailed 2D isometric perspective that would be the staple for years to come, and set a new benchmark for expectations of a single player world. Open world exploration was back with a vengeance, not in its purest form like the old Ultima games or the newer Elder Scrolls series, but with a map where the player can choose where to go and explore the wasteland to find where locations are. The turn based combat system would also come back with a fury. Originally Fallout was designed and based on Steve Jackson’s GURPS tabletop rules system, but due to licensing disputes as the game was about to release, the team at Interplay created the now iconic SPECIAL system of character building that defines the Fallout series. The team that created Fallout would soon change their name to Black Isle Studios, and they would bear the torch that Origin once held firmly when it comes to innovation in storytelling.

Fallout 2 was released the following year, the first game to bear the Black Isle logo as developer. Fallout 2 would continue the unique feel of its predecessor, the writing based around Cold War hysteria, Mad Max, and propaganda, making heavy use of dark comedy to build up the setting and characters. But while the first game could be seen as a hopeful revival of pre-war culture with a large helping of grittiness, Fallout 2 would be built to be more like a true wild west post nuclear adventure where nothing is safe. The series takes a much darker tone than the first game, and fans loved it, claiming Fallout 2 as one of, if not the greatest, RPG experience to date nearly as soon as it released, an honor it holds to this day.

While Black Isle did incredible work on the first two Fallout games they would produce what is in my, and many other gamers’, opinion their Magnum Opus in 1999. Interplay had gotten hold of the D&D license and were already making heavy use of it, but Black Isle took a lesser known campaign setting, Planescape, and built an instant classic around it. Planescape: Torment is the definition of a cult classic, the game was critically lauded on release, but with little to no marketing from Interplay, which was now showing sizable cracks in its armor as a company, lead the game to rest in the minds of a small amount of gamers until modern digital re-releases came about and word of mouth spread like wildfire.

Black Isle’s goal with Torment was specifically to break every conceivable trope and cliche that the RPG genre had found itself wrapped around since its inception, and with the meteoric rise of Japanese console RPGs that were dominant at this time, the team had plenty to work with outside of its own largely Western PC based community.

Torment puts the player in charge of a nameless character, there are reasons behind the lack of a name, it is learned fairly quickly that The Nameless One is immortal. He can ‘die’ but all that does is lead to him going unconscious for awhile before waking up later, albeit with his memories erased. So he does not remember his name, how long he’s been alive, or what he’s done and who he’s met through his many years. Because of his long life he is gnarled, heavily scarred, and ugly, which is in stark contrast to console RPGs at the time usually starring a young, charismatic, bright eyed young pretty boy. The Nameless One is supported by an equally unique cast of characters including a floating skull, celibate succubus, a man who is cursed to constantly be on fire, a malfunctioning android, and a possessed suit of justice dealing armor among others.

For the first time since Ultima IV the entire focus on a game was given to self discovery. Torment is built around the phisosophy surrounding immortality (more as a curse than the typical belief of it being a blessing). Because of The Nameless One’s loss of memories it instantly gives the player an incredible amount of questions to ask. Who is TNO really? What has he done? How long has he lived? What impact has he had on the city of Sigil and the planes which surround it? What relationship does he have with his current team? How did he become immortal in the first place? Most of these questions and others are given some form of elaboration, but the expert writing of the game does not explicitly answer all of them. Sadly, the gameplay was not as polished as the story and could have been the major reason for its status as a cult classic.

While Black Isle was Interplay’s internal studio they found a new talent of external developers that would help to firmly plant Interplay as the new leader of PC RPGs. Bioware. I’m sure we all know the name and have played at least one of their games. The second game Bioware ever made was set in the Forgotten Realms D&D setting, and centered around the city of Baldur’s Gate, pretty easy to figure out just by looking at the title, Baldur’s Gate. It was released in 1998 and instantly received critical and commercial success. While Black Isle was initially focused on the world surrounding the player, Bioware was focused on the party members surrounding the player. This writing choice would even influence Black Isle with its own games, most notably Fallout 2 and Torment.

While the main story of Baldur’s Gate was nothing new and largely cliched and predictable to long time players it came out at a time where RPGs in general were attracting newer, younger gamers in the direct wake of Final Fantasy VII’s immense success. So for many, Fallout and Baldur’s Gate became the de facto benchmark for PC RPGs, which is a well deserved title to be honest given the differences between the two developers.