Tag: Party-based

Dverghold – Demo Impressions

Christmas must have come early this year, because here is yet another turn-based blobber on a grid. And just like the demo of Underkeep, the Dverghold demo is excellent too—landing right between feeling genuinely old-school and modern in the form of UI and snappiness. There doesn’t seem to be a way to create custom party members, which is a bit of a bummer. However, I understand the design decision, as it seems death is permanent. Meaning that the run will continue, even in defeat, as long as you have recruits for your dungeon diving gang back at base.

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Underkeep – Demo Impressions

A new turn-based blobber in 2026? Please wake me, because I must be dreaming. As it seems, I’m not, and Underkeep is real. Now, this demo was a pure treat, as it’s a blobber without the dancing hell gameplay of Legend of Grimrock, being turn-based with combat more akin to the Wizardry series (but on a grid).

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The Temple of Elemental Evil (Rediscovered)

I have been playing the semi-forgotten party based D&D RPG Temple of Elemental Evil from 2003 with the mods Temple+ (engine fixes) and Circle of Eight (more engine fixes, + extra game content). The reason I mention the mods so early in the article, is that when I played Temple of Elemental Evil the first time, none of these mods existed. And Temple of Elemental Evil was not a stable game, at all, at release. However, it showed serious potential, which these excellent modders saw and started to work on. These mods are now, as I can see it: essential. Temple+ for the numerous fixes, and Circle of Eight for the additional quests, that makes the first part of the game much more enjoyable.

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Lands Of Lore: The Throne of Chaos – Old Hag Terror

It was finally time to play and finish one of the classic RPG blobbers: namely Lands Of Lore – The Throne of Chaos by the legendary Westwood Studios. Now, while it’s certainly an RPG by design, I can’t help feeling that it plays more like an advanced adventure title, than a “true” RPG. This might sound heretical to some, and I don’t blame the people throwing that word my way. However, I felt it lacked story decisions when it comes to the plot, stats to gawk at, and character building when it comes to the combat.

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My Top 10 RPGs with Custom Parties on PC

Hello and welcome to my personal list of favorite party-based RPGs. This list consists of games I have played and enjoyed. If games that fit the criteria are missing, it’s because I haven’t played them yet, or I disliked them. It’s that simple!

Here are the rules: The game must have custom party creation, meaning the player has to create every member of the dungeon crawling team. Furthermore, the player must retain full control over the members, in both progression and tactics during combat. That’s essentially it, so let’s get this list rolling!

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