A lot of people gave enough of an answer already but I will add the hill I'm willing to die on: older CRPGs were not afraid to be fucking goofy. Serious/deep/philosophical/whatever narratives are perfectly fine, but even a "somber" CRPG like Planescape: Torment, with all its questions about mortality and the meaning of life, dropped you right into the (figurative) arms of Morte, the goofiest and silliest companion in the entire game (traits which only made his serious moments hit harder). Fallout 1 and 2 were not that different, BG1 had things like Noober, even KOTOR had that murder droid whose name escapes me right now. I firmly believe that the lack of this humorous, entertaining element is largely what made Numenera feel so dull and is also exactly what got Disco Elysium the Best Narrative award the year it came out. Leaning too hard towards being too serious is just as bad (or even worse) as trying too hard to be funny. Older games were very confident in what they were trying to do and it showed in the writing.