A discussion of that list might be interesting, since it will always be very subjective. In particular, I tried really hard to like Planescape: Torment since I like story-driven games, but I was only able to tolerate it for maybe 8 hours before I put it down and never picked it up again.
Arcanum is also interesting to be at #5, and I agree with the text of the reviews; it does such a good job of almost succeeding at so many of its ambitions that its easy to forgive how bad the rest of the game is. Kind of a "shot for the stars and landed on the moon" sort of game.
I was also mildly surprised to see Betrayal at Krondor at #16 with no mention of how the last third of the game is mediocre. I think the first 2/3 of the game would put it closer to #10.
Also somewhat surprised that the core Ultima (as opposed to Underworld) games were as low as they are and that IV ranked so far above V (even one of the reviewers for Ultima V said it was a far better game than IV).
It is further buoyed by an excellent magic system filled with strategic spells to manipulate the battlefield. It all comes together to make one of the best combat systems ever in an RPG.
I'm sorry, has this person even played BaK? It's a tour-de-force as an RPG, but the combat is by far one of the weakest aspects of the game. There's nearly zero advantage to using long-range weapons (e.g. crossbows). If they'd made it so hitting with a bolt have a percentile chance to cause an enemy to limp (temporarily slowed) then that would at least be something. There's almost never a reason to use a crossbow versus a standard attack particularly since this game doesn't have any concept of "attack of opportunity".
Spells like Despair Thy Eyes, Grief of 1000 Nights, Skin of the Dragon are totally broken. Spells that shouldn't affect elementals / undead / etc. work regardless, etc.
The game goes to the trouble of overlaying a grid for precise movement but positioning (with the exception of sticking Owen in a corner to avoid having him be surrounded) is almost irrelevant. There's no flanking, physically longer weapons like polearms, backstabbing, etc etc.
A discussion of that list might be interesting, since it will always be very subjective. In particular, I tried really hard to like Planescape: Torment since I like story-driven games, but I was only able to tolerate it for maybe 8 hours before I put it down and never picked it up again.
Arcanum is also interesting to be at #5, and I agree with the text of the reviews; it does such a good job of almost succeeding at so many of its ambitions that its easy to forgive how bad the rest of the game is. Kind of a "shot for the stars and landed on the moon" sort of game.
I was also mildly surprised to see Betrayal at Krondor at #16 with no mention of how the last third of the game is mediocre. I think the first 2/3 of the game would put it closer to #10.
Also somewhat surprised that the core Ultima (as opposed to Underworld) games were as low as they are and that IV ranked so far above V (even one of the reviewers for Ultima V said it was a far better game than IV).