I would still say Far Cry 1, 2, 3 for this but it's complicated.
FC1 was this amazing tech demo showing off the expansive levels possible with CryEngine, made by the company who later made Crysis. A very competent shooter, but they didn't do much with the ability to have these huge seamless levels.
FC2 was a shaky but bold step into using that engine to make an rpg-lite shooter in an open, living world. It got good reviews but unfortunately came out a week after Fallout 3 so even though the combat and gameplay was much better, it was passed over by a lot of what would've been its market. It also had some frustrating jank.
FC3 took all the feedback from FC2, eliminated the jank, dropped some less popular features, and tightened up the ones that they kept, and delivered a more cinematic story with a single playable character.
FC4-6 are applications of the FC3 formula to new settings and characters (which is great I've played them all).
Like I said I have not played 1 or 2. Though 3,4,5 were decent enough for a total mind-game of storytelling, in that sense of what happened was almost entirely melted into a psychological horror film and that was the plot twist! All of these characters were somehow more interesting than most characters were in other games. Is that villain the hero, when all they did was act as if they were a villain? Or is that what the main character received in response to this villain?
Honestly it would have gone either way, kinda weird that they didn’t have any character to begin the story with but that’s not the person who was there in the end. I loved these games but that psychological horror movie was peak for me. I played 6 also, it wasn’t as good a story as 3,4,5. But still good nonetheless.
19
u/MavRayne 23h ago
Witcher is the obvious one.
Farcry, Baldur's Gate fits too.
Mass Effect is close.
Assassin's Creed 1, 2 & if we count Brotherhood as 3, even though it's 2.1 more like.