2024 games: Upcoming releases
Best PC games: All-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best MMOs: Massive worlds
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
PC is the true home of RPGs. Whether you want to lose yourself in stats and levels, jump right into an action-packed quest, or see loot fountain out of slain enemies, all the best examples of the genre can be found right here on gaming's best platform. The only problem, then, is narrowing it down. With so many games available, many of them asking for a hundred hours or more of your time, how do you know which to grant your attention?
Well, that's where we come in. This ever-evolving list marks the best entries in the key RPG genres, including both enduring classics and new favourites. Bringing to bear our longstanding expertise and experience, we bring you the absolute must-plays and most vital recommendations. Whatever you're into, there's a game here for you.
Good luck on your quest, adventurer!
The best open world RPGs
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Released: 2015 | Developer: CD Projekt Red | GOG, Steam
Many of the best RPGs focus on tales of lone, wandering adventurers, but few if any pull it off with such artistry as The Witcher 3. That artistry is most apparent in the setting itself, which is so packed with breathtaking sunsets and wind-tossed groves of trees that, years later, I still find myself opting to go to destinations on foot rather than taking the fast travel points.
But the true strength of The Witcher 3 is that it populates these memorable landscapes with NPCs doling out humble but memorable quests (by the dozen) that help create one of the most human RPG experiences on the market. In decaying wayside towns, the witcher Geralt might find impoverished elves struggling in the face of local racism; elsewhere, he might help a self-styled baron reunite with his long-estranged daughter. These quests deftly navigate moral issues without being heavy-handed or offering obvious solutions.
Read more: The Witcher 4 'is nearing a major milestone' and will soon enter full production
Elden Ring
Released: 2022 | Developer: FromSoft | Steam
With the Souls series, FromSoft has perfected the art of creating irresistibly hostile worlds. Elden Ring is the studios' largest yet, a massive map packed full of danger and mystery. An epic journey full of potential, where exploration is rewarded by stunning boss encounters. But in addition to being so much larger than its predecessors, it's also arguably the most accessible FromSoft game to date, its open-world structure giving you more control over the challenge and pace.
Worry not, though. Like Dark Souls before it, Elden Ring is a game about overcoming bosses through trial, error and eventual mastery. And, despite leaning into more traditional fantasy, it's as weird and distinct as the studio has ever been—shining a light on the horrors of its world, rather than hiding them away in a poisonous swamp. As an RPG, too, it's some of FromSoft's best work, with extensive build-crafting options that let you tailor your character and combat style in many different ways.
The adventure has even grown since launch with the addition of Shadow of the Erdtree, a frankly enormous expansion that earned a rare 95% review score from our associate editor Tyler Colp.
Read more: The best builds in Elden Ring
Cyberpunk 2077
Released: 2020 | Developer: CD Projekt RED | Steam, GOG
Three years after a disastrous release, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally an RPG worth recommending. Originally panned for both its egregious bugs and shallow systems, it seemed to be a costly miss from the studio responsible for The Witcher 3. But CD Projekt RED kept at it and released the major 2.0 update that completely overhauled the game. More than just a plethora of bug fixes, 2.0 goes in and completely overhauls major parts of the game. There's vehicle combat, a major police rework, and a full redesign of the skill tree to make customisation options more interesting.
A major expansion adds to the adventure. "CD Projekt can hang with the big dogs when it comes to cinematic storytelling," wrote Ted in his review of the Phantom Liberty DLC campaign, "with a quality of writing and world building that I prefer to the likes of Sony's vaunted first party lineup." In all it's a stark turnaround for what was once seen as one of the major disappointments of the decade. We can finally say it: Cyberpunk 2077 is a great RPG that's well worth your time.
Read more: Netflix announces a new Cyberpunk animated series during Geeked Week
The best top-down RPGs
Baldur's Gate 3
Released: 2023 | Developer: Larian Studios | Steam
No one game has united the PC Gamer team like Baldur's Gate 3—it came out over a year ago now and we still regularly talk about its endless web of choices, encounters, and secrets. If you want to know why it captured our attention so deeply, Fraser's 97% review sums it up nicely:
"It's my dream game: the best parts of Ultima, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Divinity: Original Sin. But it also does so much more than tap into the RPG Greatest Hits, finding a way to unite disparate philosophies like cinematic storytelling, unhinged sandbox mayhem and tabletop-style roleplaying. Yes, it says, you can have your cake and eat it too."
You don't need to have played the original Baldur's Gate games to get involved, classics though they are. This is more of a return to the setting than a direct continuation, and Baldur's Gate 3 is thoroughly modern in its presentation and systems. That isn't to say its simple though: part of the joy of the game is just how thoroughly it rewards experimentation in both combat and your approach to its quests. The other joy is the cast of characters that accompany you, and the depth and quality of their stories. It's everything we could want from an RPG.
Read more: Baldur's Gate 3 is PC Gamer's highest scoring game in 16 years. Here's why
Disco Elysium
Released: 2019 | Developer: ZA/UM | Steam, GOG
Disco Elysium returns to the absolute fundamentals of tabletop RPGs. It's all about playing a role and becoming your character, embracing whatever success or failure that entails. Your predetermined protagonist is a detective who wakes up after an amnesia-inducing bender without a badge, gun, or a name. Your goal is to attempt to solve a murder in the strange city of Revachol, while also solving the mystery of your own past and identity.
There is no combat, at least not in the way you'd expect of an old-fashioned top-down RPG. Instead, the majority of Disco Elysium takes place in conversation either with characters you need to interview about the murder, or with your own mind. Each of your skills in Disco Elysium are parts of your personality, with opinions on what to say and do during your investigation. Empathy will helpfully clue you in to the feelings of people you talk to so you can better understand them, while Logic will help you poke holes in a bad alibi or understand a clue you find. Investing in skills helps you pass dice roll skill checks all throughout the game, for everything from kicking down a door to hitting on a woman at the hotel. It's a massive RPG with clever writing where each playthrough is significantly different based on the kind of detective you choose to play.
Read more: No other game comes close to Disco Elysium
The best action-RPGs
Diablo 4
Released: 2023| Developer: Blizzard | Steam, Battle.net
At launch, Diablo 4 was far from perfect. Over the course of the first year of its life, Blizzard has had to navigate issues with progression, seasonal mechanics, microtransactions, itemisation, and more. But with each update, it's steadily improved, and with the launch of its first major expansion, Vessel of Hatred, it's now a game we feel comfortable calling truly excellent.
"Diablo 4 spent the last year reconfiguring itself into a phenomenal action RPG," says Tyler Colp in our review of the expansion. "And Vessel of Hatred demonstrates that Blizzard isn't out of ideas on how to improve it further—even on the narrative side of things. Its willingness to stretch what Diablo could be is what impresses me most and the trust it's earned along the way makes me confident about its future and thrilled to be along for the ride."
Read more: Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is live and there's no better time to jump in
Path of Exile
Released: 2013 | Developer: Grinding Gear Games | Steam
This excellent free-to-play action RPG is heaven for players that enjoy stewing over builds to construct the most effective killing machine possible. It’s not the most glamorous ARPG, but it has extraordinary depth of progression and an excellent free-to-play model that relies on cosmetics rather than game-altering upgrades. It may look muddy and indistinct, and the combat doesn’t feel as good as Diablo 4, but if you enjoy number crunching this is one of the brainiest RPGs around.
Path of Exile’s scary complexity becomes apparent the moment you look upon your character’s sprawling level-up screen. As you plough through enemies and grow in power, you travel across this huge board, tailoring your character a little with each upgrade.
Gear customization is equally detailed. Path of Exile borrows Final Fantasy VII’s concept of connected gem slots. Every piece of armor has an arrangement of slots that take magic gems. These gems confer stat bonuses and bonus adjacency effects when set in the right formations. Ideally you’ll want to build synergies between your gemmed-up gear and leveling choices to create the most powerful warrior you can. Doing so requires plenty of planning, but it’s an engrossing slow-burn challenge.
Read more: We can finally get our hands on Path of Exile 2 when it hits early access this November
The best JRPGs
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Released: 2024 | Developer: Studio Zero | Steam
In the wake of the enormous success of the Persona series, JRPG publisher Atlus has launched a whole new fantasy series—and if you can get past that forgettable name, you'll find one of the most engrossing and compelling adventures in years.
Across over 100 hours of turn-based battle and epic story, Metaphor explores themes of racism and inequality through an enchanting setting full of strange sights and even stranger party members. As in Persona, forging social bonds with your allies is key as you make your way through a series of dense dungeon crawls.
"I’ve invested over 100 hours in Metaphor, and yet I just find myself ReFantasizing about playing it a second time," says our reviewer Lewis Parker. "I can’t say that about any other game of its length—not even Persona."
Read more: Metaphor: ReFantazio's ReViews are in, and the Persona follow-up looks like 2024's unanimous RPG hit
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Released: 2024 | Developer: Rya Ga Gotoku Studio | Steam
"Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth feels indulgent in a way few games get to be," begins our review. It's the most packed and generous that the idiosyncratic but enchanting Yakuza series has ever felt, letting you completely lose yourself in its weird and wonderful vision of modern Japan for 100 hours or more as you manage a resort, play arcade games, deliver takeaways, sing karaoke, and occasionally remember you're supposed to be battling criminal thugs.
The combat fully embraces the series' now complete transition from action-brawler to turn-based RPG. New depth is layered onto its brilliantly absurd battles, which warp backstreat beatdowns into fantastical, slapstick displays.
Read more: The best ways to make money in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Persona 5 Royal
Released: 2022 | Developer: ATLUS | Steam
By day, you're a lovable gang of misfit teens, navigating the ups and downs of a school career and a complicated social life. By night, you're the Phantom Thieves, supernatural rogues battling through magical realms inside the subconscious minds of society's most corrupt authority figures. The unique combination of slice-of-life drama and surreal adventure is a winning formula throughout the Persona series, but Persona 5 juggles the two more adeptly than ever, with its expansive take on real world Tokyo, and its more developed and interesting dungeons.
Persona 5 Royal is an expanded and refined version of the game, adding new characters, quality-of-life improvements, and a whole extra section of story after the original's ending. It makes an already enormous journey even more unmanageably huge, but once you're hooked, you'll want to gobble up every morsel it has to offer.
Read more: 9 very long games that are actually worth it
The best classic RPGs
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Released: 2012 | Developer: Bethesda Softworks | Steam, GOG
Pick a direction and run. You’re almost guaranteed to discover some small adventure, some small chunk of world that will engage you. It’s that density of things to do that makes Skyrim so constantly rewarding. A visit to the Mage’s Guild will turn into an area-spanning search for knowledge. A random chat with an NPC will lead you to a far-off dungeon, hunting for a legendary relic. You could be picking berries on the side of a mountain and discover a dragon.
And if you somehow run out of things to do, rest assured that modders have more waiting for you (check out our guide to the best Skyrim mods). That lively community has kept Skyrim in the Steam top 100 since its release, and given us endless ways to adventure through a great world. Some on the PC Gamer team keep a modded-up Skyrim install handy, just in case they feel like adventure. That’s some high praise.
Read more: Auto-installing over 600 mods makes Skyrim beautiful and confusing
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
Released: 2021 | Developer: BioWare | EA, Steam
Mass Effect 2 is the standout here, streamlining the clunky systems of its predecessor to focus on the action, and the consequences of the choices that you—as no-nonsense space captain Shepherd—make along the way. As a result it's a good third-person cover shooter, and an even better inter-office relationship simulator, tasking you with building a crew that will survive what seems destined to be a suicide mission.
Really, though, you'll want to play through the whole series, making the Legendary Edition a joy to work through. The thrill of Mass Effect is seeing the choices you made pay off tens, even hundreds of hours later. And across the three games, you'll form lasting bonds with your ragtag crew. Don't let Mass Effect 3's ending controversy put you off: the finale is a game full of endings, most of which do justice to your crew, and all of which pay off beautifully in its Citadel DLC.
Read more: Why I love Mass Effect 3's endings
Fallout: New Vegas
Released: 2010 | Developer: Obsidian Entertainment | Steam, GOG
While Fallout 3 was successful, it was a different beast entirely from Interplay’s classics. Obsidian’s take on the franchise moves the action back to the West Coast, and reintroduces elements such as reputation and faction power struggles. Obsidian expands on nearly every aspect of Bethesda’s take, making the game less about good or evil, and more about who you should trust. It also adds much of the humour that we loved from the classic games: How can you not appreciate a game that gives you a nuclear grenade launcher?
New Vegas' "Hardcore" mode makes survival in the wasteland more interesting, limiting the power of RadAway and Health Stims. It makes the game harder, but also more rewarding. If that’s not your thing, there are plenty of additional mods and tweaks available, including game director Josh Sawyer’s own balance-tweak mod. What we love the most about New Vegas is how it adds the Fallout feeling back into Bethesda's first-person RPG framework.
Read more: Fallout: New Vegas console commands
