Of those listed, Dragonfall. It's an exceptional game, has a tone of freedom in how you approach encounters (one of the longest missions in the game can be done without ever entering combat, if you're clever and well prepared), has excellent writing, fantastic characters and isn't insanely long.
I would say Shadowrun has the best price/effort ratio.
It has a good story - not the best/worst - decent gameplay - again not the best/worst - and probably most important for you, it is the shortest of them all.
You could play a few runs Shadowrun for one Baldurs Gate!
Addendum: However, if you do ever decide to give D:OS1 a go, make sure to pick the "pet pal" talent during character creation to take full advantage of the game's humour and optional ways of dealing with certain quests and characters.
Need to solve a murder mystery? Talk to the dead guy's dog! Etc.
Of all the listed games the only one I've played was D:OS 1.
It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking either.
I suspect that if you don't enjoy it's sense of humour it'll feel like a very run-of-the-mill game. But I'm not exactly well-versed in traditional isometric RPG's.
I agree with what folk here said. Much as i love the BG series, it is hard to get used to it nowadays. Like i said, it might feel clunky and confusing if you're not used to it... which i guess is the reason they decided to change it in the upcoming BG3.
As much as it utterly pains me to say this (BGII is my favorite game of all time). You're probably best off choosing Pillars of Eternity from that list of games. Mind you BG1is solid, but suffered from being one of the very first games if it's kind, EVER. BGII was a Massive improvement as a result.
I played all games you have on your list and even though I love Baldur's Gate I think you won't enjoy it the way you should because new games have spoiled us all. If you want quality RPG experience and not spend tones of time on one game then I'd strongly recommend Tyranny
If it's waifus you're after, Baldur's Gate 2 has 3 of them (4 in the enhanced edition), and they're all neat on their own way; there's a tsundere, a cute and innocent girl, a tough and mature one, and a light-hearted and carefree mage. All good stuff. Many good characters in general.
i played Divinity Original Sin and i wasn't a big fan of it (which is probably an unpopular opinion). You spend the first few hours walking around the same town completing minor quests before you are strong enough to fight enemies, and then the combat is really boring. Auto-uninstall for me.
I have played, enjoyed, and beaten all those games. From them Dragonfall is the clear pick. All of them have their strong points, but Dragonfall has fantastic story, pacing, characters, and solid mechanics. Time-wise you could play 3-4 of the others in the time of a Kingmaker playthrough
To amend my previous comment before Tyranny fans 'well actually' me...
Its 'short' and 'fairly linear' for each path, but the 4 paths are very unique and effectively make it very replayable to see how radically altered each story line is. But for a single run, its (for an RPG) quick.
If your picking between the games you mentioned, I might recommend Tyranny just cus 1. It's good. 2. As long as you don't try to hard to just play the 'good' campaign you'll find the experiences enjoyable and 3. Its not that long and fairly linear for a big RPG.
I definitely vote Dragonfall. And not just because I know you will end up with at least two new waifus which you will be compelled to make comics about.
@Roberto Hosslehind
We can only hope. Never been a fan of drama caused by misunderstanding that could've been resolved easily if those involved had just had a normal conversation.
Don't fret about spending much time on those games. They do demand a lot of time, yeah, usually 100+ hours, but it's worth it. The story is very engaging. You can play only a bit per day, if you're worried it might prevent you from playing or doing other stuff
If you want to take a look at the origins of western eRPGs, the Baldur's Gate series is amazing, but it's gameplay might feel a bit clunky for today's standards. Still, it's one of my favorites to this day.
Heard good things about Pathfinder. They're all good options, though.
Now I can say I read nerfnow for plot ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Jo, go and play Kingmaker - it's amazing! And the ending you're talking about isn't really "best", so you don't have to sweat over getting it! It's just there, for those sick deviants who want to get it on with a tree-woman.
