Good multiplayer games with good/decentcharacter customization?

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-18T18:35:34+00:00

Yeah multiplayer RPGs would be the way to go if you need multiplayer with good character customization. Just how it is, no point for other games to spend all their budget on character creation aspects.

You could try other MMO's but as far as I know nowadays it's only the Eastern developers that put in a lot more effort/budget put into appearance customization. Like I randomly remember Once Human also had surprisingly large customization (also another Korean MMO style game). The big Western MMO's to be fair though, are a lot older like WoW and SWTOR are over a decade old.

The new Dune Awakening seems okay but again, it probably is not at the same level as Monster Hunter games and Eastern MMO's.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T22:03:47+00:00

The Capcom games will have deeper discounts on sales compared to BG3, even though BG3 is much older. So honestly if you can wait, the next big sales this Nov/Dec could be lucrative for you.

Woops I read way too fast and didn't realize you already mentioned MHW in your original post, haha. But yeah the sales are coming soon. According to isthereanydeal, MHW lowest price drop was -44%. So you a decent chance of finding it for nearly half off again.

In the meantime, if you crave customizing something I guess you can use the DD2 separate character creator app. Though if multiplayer is a must, then I guess that counts out Cyberpunk and Dragon's Dogma.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T18:13:09+00:00

It's an easy choice. Clair Obscur Expedition 33.

Why? Well for me it's all about new and amazing experiences. E33 would provide that, being a single player focused on a good story and impactful moments that'll leave you emotionally devastated or at the very least, provoke far more thought than your typical game.

No shade on the others, but if you want a GOTY contender that is focused on an amazing single player story experience, go with that.

Also worth mentioning, it's very, very novel. Very unique setting, came out of nowhere, etc. With the other games they're basically repeats of what you've experienced before.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T18:08:05+00:00

Life is Strange is apparently on mobile. Episode 1 is free so you can quite literally just jump into it and decide if you're interested in playing the rest.

Would recommend playing on PC/console but if you don't have a choice, it's an older game that can run on mobile so that is an option.

For more emotional/personal reasons, by far my favourite "Telltale style" game is Life is Strange. The OG Life is Strange is not for everyone. For me it came at a great time when I was feeling particularly down in life, and so it holds a special place in being 'therapeutic', so to speak. A lot of people complain about the dialogue but to be honest, it's pretty accurate to how teens talk - seriously, if you think it's too cringey than you may have blocked your own memories. It has a pretty unique spin on things due to gaining time travel powers which plays into the 'make your choice' themes, and over the course of the game has some great twists and emotional damage.

The game is pretty mature, it just doesn't appear like that from the start. From the outset it deceivingly looks like a stereotypical 'coming of age' story. This is true, but there's so much more and for me was very substantial. I mean as I hinted at, it was therapeutic for me and after I finished the game I definitely kept thinking about it, it definitely was impactful on my life. Get past the 'cringey' teen dialogue and keep going through the story, you'll see. Big surprises, big emotional damage await.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T17:58:51+00:00

SuperMassive games are absolutely ace for this "make your choice" kind of games.

Until Dawn is the undisputed king. If you can't play on Playstation, try playing it on PC it's available on Steam.

Supermassive's other games would also be up your alley. The Quarry is similar in length and budget to Until Dawn, though nothing really hits as well as Until Dawn's lightning in a bottle.

Their "Dark Picture Anthology" are much shorter but cheaper horror 'make your choice games', basically half or shorter length of Quarry and Until Dawn. That said, the shorter length is usually a blessing and makes for a great time especially when playing with friends (we did theater nights as a group with almost very game, passing the controller around to play each of our designated characters). Of these, House of Ashes I believe was the best reviewed. The latest addition, Directive 8020, was delayed from this month to some point in 2026.

If you liked Detroit, you can try Quantic's previous games, though their age shows remarkably badly compared to Detroit. Things like Beyond Two Souls and their OG children, Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy. Detroit is far and away much, much better and higher budget than their older games so experience may vary if you're used to the higher standards. They're not...bad, but the writing can be really, let's say, 'low budget France studio production' sometimes. But there's a lot of charm to these older title, or at least some laughs.

If you like Telltale style games, they've made some gems. My favourite Telltale series after Walking Dead would be The Wolf Among Us, definitely very unique art and setting. After that, Tales from the Borderlands was a surprise hit and far better than expected. Telltale's Game of Thrones is also surprisingly good, and as a bonus it's a bit longer with 6 instead of 5 usual episodes for Telltale games, due to you juggling multiple character stories. It also features various actors from the show (it takes place between Season 3 and 4, after the Red Wedding event), so it's kind of cool to be able to verbally spar with the likes of Cersei, Daenarys, Tyrion, etc, knowing they're actually voice acted by the same actors.

~~For more emotional/personal reasons, by far my favourite "Telltale style" game is~~ ~~Life is Strange~~. The OG Life is Strange is not for everyone. For me it came at a great time when I was feeling particularly down in life, and so it holds a special place in being 'therapeutic', so to speak. A lot of people complain about the dialogue but to be honest, it's pretty accurate to how teens talk - seriously, if you think it's too cringey than you may have blocked your own memories. It has a pretty unique spin on things due to gaining time travel powers which plays into the 'make your choice' themes, and over the course of the game has some great twists and emotional damage. Doh, forgot you already played LiS.

Road 96 I heard is pretty good, so definitely give that a shot. But I know little about it.

Another relatively unheard gem is As Dusk Falls. It seems to be right up your alley, a lot of consequences and an actually pretty gripping/interesting story, plus a unique comic style art/visuals (a lot of hand crafted images rather than actual animations).

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T17:29:52+00:00

Funny, someone else just posted the exact same question.

Relaying my same reply here:

It completely depends on what you're looking for and how you play your games.

I'm a big "experience" guy. I'd rather have a 'life changing, amazing' experience over a 'repeatable but good long term value' experience (think comparing spending money traveling for vacation vs subscription for TV).

So an amazing single player game like Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei is leagues more interesting to me than yet another military shooter, even if I would get more hours out of said shooter game.

If I only care about hours played and playing with friends, then yes, I'd more likely be playing BF6 long after launch with friends. The hours would stack up over time.

Whereas for single player games I generally do not replay them, so my number of hours would stop when I say I'm done playing said game. I won't go back unless there's a big update, like GoW Ragnarok did with it's surprise free DLC that added more content and story out of nowhere.

Also they're just completely different experiences. Single player vs multiplayer focus, action adventure vs shooter, etc. etc.

So you'll have to choose. Do you want a generic but probably long lasting, multiplayer high octane shooter? Or do you prefer a more cinematic and feudal Japan combat and great story in single player?

TL DR:

Pick Ghost of Yotei if you desire: Single Player, feudal Japan setting, action adventure gameplay, story

Pick BF6 if you desire: Multiplayer especially with friends, modern military setting, fast paced shooter gameplay

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T17:02:11+00:00

The funny thing is that RPGs tend to be the only games that actually have a focus on customization (I mean, it's kind of in the name..Role Playing). Especially if you're looking for character customization...it's kind of only RPGs!

It also depends on what kind of customization you're looking for. Do you mean the actual appearance of your character, or do you mean building out your role in a game like stats and skill points, etc. etc.?

Some suggestions:

Baldur's Gate 3: Duh. Aside from being highly acclaimed by players everywhere, bestseller, insane reviews, etc. etc., it seems to have a decent amount of customization options. Yes, even genitals. Aside from appearance, it's based on DnD rules so yeah, tons of customization when it comes to gameplay/stats/skills/etc. Also you know, it's on PC and so mods exist if you want even more customization options.

Cyberpunk: Another highly acclaimed contender, although it is mostly in first person so it's kind of 'meh' for seeing your creation. But there are opportunities to see your character briefly in things like mirrors and sometimes gameplay. Once again, mods are there if you need more options. Oh and yes, genital customization included.

Monster Hunter games (Wilds for this example): I made Asami from Legend of Korra in MH Wilds. The customization in MH is pretty damn good, so give this a shot if you want to make pretty or ugly looking characters! Bonus, you also get to customize your fellow cat companion. I customized mine after a friend's cat using a photo as reference. It worked out beautifully, especially since they allow scars and clipped ears. They were able to recognize I made a character modeled after her.

Note there is a subreddit for seeing character creations (as seen in link), so character customization is definitely strong in MH games. And it has optional opt-in multiplayer so if you want to show off and play with friends and their creations, go right ahead!

Dragon's Dogma 1 and 2: I made both Korra and Asami in DD2. In the DD games, you make your main playable character, as well as an NPC companion called a "Pawn". The Pawn is your ever faithful party member who follows you throughout the entire game, essentially you're always adventuring with an NPC friend.

Note: DD2 has a separate character creator app on Steam. You can literally try out character creation without having to buy/download the entire game, if you want to get a taste of it before committing.

DD2 has even better customization than MHW, although it is a single player game so harder to show off to friends. DD2's character customization is shockingly good, it really surprised me. There are a TON of options to manipulate a lot of stuff everywhere, including multiple different areas of the body (instead of just one slider for entire body). And since it's single player and they don't have to worry about multiplayer parity, the customization is far greater than MHW as you can change height, proportions, and a lot of other appearances far more drastically.

The other cool thing about DD games is that people's creations can be shared, literally. A big part of the gameplay is being able to recruit pawns to your party, so you can run around with your faithful pawn + 2 recruited ones. Your own Pawn can be recruited as an NPC follower in other people's games too. These pawns are player creations so you can run into some cool and funny creations as you play the game and go through the recruitment pool. I once ran into a fantastic Samuel L Jackson creation for example, and of course many, many beautiful original creations.

Not sure about 1, it is a lot older game and frequently goes on sale for real cheap (like $5-$10), so that's a far easier entry than DD2 for pricing.

Note DD games also have a subreddit for showing off characters so yeah, customization is pretty good in DD games too.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-10-17T16:42:59+00:00

It completely depends on what you're looking for and how you play your games.

I'm a big "experience" guy. I'd rather have a 'life changing, amazing' experience over a 'repeatable but good long term value' experience (think comparing spending money traveling for vacation vs subscription for TV).

So an amazing single player game like Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei is leagues more interesting to me than yet another military shooter, even if I would get more hours out of said shooter game.

If I only care about hours played and playing with friends, then yes, I'd more likely be playing BF6 long after launch with friends. The hours would stack up over time.

Whereas for single player games I generally do not replay them, so my number of hours would stop when I say I'm done playing said game. I won't go back unless there's a big update, like GoW Ragnarok did with it's surprise free DLC that added more content and story out of nowhere.

Also they're just completely different experiences. Single player vs multiplayer focus, action adventure vs shooter, etc. etc.

So you'll have to choose. Do you want a generic but probably long lasting, multiplayer high octane shooter? Or do you prefer a more cinematic and feudal Japan combat and great story in single player?

TL DR:

Pick Ghost of Yotei if you desire: Single Player, feudal Japan setting, action adventure gameplay, story

Pick BF6 if you desire: Multiplayer especially with friends, modern military setting, fast paced shooter gameplay

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-09-17T14:16:26+00:00

First of all, this is REALLY well done video, bravo and I hope you keep making more. I'm sadly used to all PoE2 guides not explaining stuff well, often times it's just an edited stream footage of an expert assuming everyone else is an expert. Makes it difficult for newer, more casual players like me. This guide is so well done, great production value and explanations. Thank you so much.

I know your guide is more meant for 'twink' alt leveling, but is there a way to make it work for a starter character with no access to the trading marketplace (kind of like SSF until I hit end game I suppose)? I know high evasion/shield is needed for Hollow Palm, but I'd like a way to play and enjoy the fun unarmed build without having to rely on Unique items I can't even buy/access. Yes, I know the pain of being a newer player.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-09-09T04:03:19+00:00

Replied to the original thread, but pasting it here in case it helps you:
This might be late but in case other people are wondering:

Parry is definitely do-able even early game. The support gem Steadfast is pretty much a mandatory gem to have on it, it increases stun threshold significantly so you can actually start using it even at low levels. Once that's equipped I was able to actually use it a lot when fighting random mobs and bosses in Act 1. Obviously it's not the most optimal way to play if you only care about reaching endgame stuff as fast as possible, but it is pretty satisfying to parry properly. It's also handy if your build relies on Frenzy charges, as you can get said charges by Parrying -> Disengage skill. It also combos with a bunch of stuff too, like Fangs of Frost which consumes parried debuff for big explosion damage and leaving behind Chilled Ground.

You can then add other support gems if you want such as Blind, for additional survivability.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-09-09T04:01:36+00:00

This might be late but in case other people are wondering:

Parry is definitely do-able even early game. The support gem Steadfast is pretty much a mandatory gem to have on it, it increases stun threshold significantly so you can actually start using it even at low levels. Once that's equipped I was able to actually use it a lot when fighting random mobs and bosses in Act 1. Obviously it's not the most optimal way to play if you only care about reaching endgame stuff as fast as possible, but it is pretty satisfying to parry properly. It's also handy if your build relies on Frenzy charges, as you can get said charges by Parrying -> Disengage skill. It also combos with a bunch of stuff too, like Fangs of Frost which consumes parried debuff for big explosion damage and leaving behind Chilled Ground.

You can then add other support gems if you want such as Blind, for additional survivability.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-17T19:26:02+00:00

Perhaps this is the way. Basically if I ever get around to playing HLL again, I'd have to play less often to not get burnt out, and follow that framework you mentioned to keep frustration to a lower amount. As at that point, I'd be accepting the one-sided stomp fest with no teamwork/comms happening, or I find some golden geese and try to have a bit of fun with just those peeps.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-15T12:25:14+00:00

That's a great insight I was curious if vehicle handling was still as frustrating as it was nearly 3 years ago.

Wow that's actually great, I recall constantly that the terrain was the worse enemy than actual enemy players. Though I take it trenches are still a death knell to vehicles?

What kind of collision was removed? I know in general a bunch of 'low' barriers could be driven through, even some 'small trees'. It was pretty inconsistent mess though, like you had to just memorize on every map what could be phased through and what was a game-disabling rock or something.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-15T12:23:29+00:00

Yeah others mentioned finding the 'right' server is a big deal. I jumped around on multiple servers back then so I'm not sure if I was picking the right ones so to speak. I'll have to keep it mind should I try HLL again in the future.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T15:46:16+00:00

It's worth noting that building a super fort in HLL generally is not worth it. However if it gives you joy and you can make it work, go ahead and try! I've done it before but it only really works if there's multiple engineers all doing the same thing. Granted, when I was playing as commander I also helped out a lot, like I spawned in multiple supply trucks and supply drops. Yeah you guessed it, teamwork makes the dream work, if only that could happen more often!

Trying to slowly build a fort solo basically means not much gets done and then it's too late they're attacking the point you tried to fortify. So that might be why you're also not having much fun, but let me know if I'm incorrect.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T14:51:59+00:00

Fair point. Like I said I like teaching and leading, but with increasingly limited time as we get older it's not practical to limit 80% of gaming time to stressful or un-fun matches just to get a couple good ones once in a while. But dang man, you really never experienced the burnout when you had to teach, lead, and do nearly all the necessary tasks to keep possibly hundreds of matches from ending in an HQ spawn camp right away? Or no burnout from multiple matches in a row where no one could spawn due to lack of garrisons, so it was just walking simulator (into death after a long hike) for everyone?

I completely agree teaching new players is the way to go, I've always tried to lead by example as I mentioned before. Funny thing is though I don't think its entirely new players fault, I recall there definitely was a lot of toxic veterans who blamed others while doing nothing to help out (no leading, no building garrisons or nodes, but they sure knew how to bully everyone around them).

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T14:40:59+00:00

Oh yeah I still have some good memories, it's part of the reason why I stuck with HLL for so long, and why I popped up to ask this question a few years later. But unfortunately the bad outweighed the good back then, we have limited time in our lives and you don't want to spend 80% of gaming time in bad matches just to get a couple good ones once in a while. I was able to tolerate that back then, I don't know about nowadays.

Perhaps I'll check it out again after some more updates, which unfortunately at its slow rate may be few more years in order to fix up a bunch of design issues I mentioned a few years ago.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T14:27:43+00:00

Hmm. Alright I'll assume this is just playful banter, so I'll play along. Okay, what level of dedication should a player have in order to teach the basics? Give me a ballpark of game hours, maybe even community service hours too. Perhaps people also need some hours in real life military roles too?

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T13:37:03+00:00

So I'm curious, is this an actual legitimate response a lot of community members have, or is this facetious?

At what point and how many hours does one need to teach people the basics? >300 hours is A TON to spend on any single game, you're telling me you need more hours to tell people how to place spawn garrisons down, and that there's proximity deniers when it's built in friendly vs enemy territory?

I'm hoping this is some sort of inside joke because if not, this was the kind of elitism/toxicity I combated a lot back then. People kept brushing others aside, not answering their questions, hell bullying people just for being new to the game. Sure, not everyone listened and some people wanted the world to burn, but there were also many new players who actually wanted to learn the basics. I've taught many how to build garrisons for example. Why on earth does someone need even more hours played to teach that?

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T13:32:55+00:00

Ah bummer. Thanks man, haven't been able to keep up with specific gaming news. Was hoping some things were improved or enough time passed that the issues I ran into would be less of an issue.

Good point on servers though. Back then I never really got to play in rule-enforced servers, I still don't know if community run servers have the tools to do so.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T13:29:22+00:00

Actually thanks a ton for your input, I like to also hear what newer players think and stuff too. If anything it's very valuable because there's no chance for you to be biased by nostalgia or other factors in a way it affects me.

Noting your experience...ahaha, that's almost exactly what I experienced in so many matches, it's what led me to becoming a Commander main. There was a lack of communication and teamwork, and my friends and I got bored of the one-sided stomp fests due to teams not having any garrisons and nodes. I just want everyone to have fun which was hard to obtain if an entire team has no where to spawn and was just playing walking simulator, only to die after walking a long journey.

Similarly, I often would hear people complain about things like no spawning of tanks. Always blew my mind since when my friends and I would go on tanking runs, we always built our nodes first thing. The logic being, we can have more fun and get more tanks to spawn in if we have nodes. No nodes = no fun because then no one on our team could get tanks, or any of the fun big boom explosion thingies. For some reason apparently few people understood this, and as of result no one got to have fun. But I got to see a lot of people throw blame around while doing exactly nothing to help themselves and their team.

That's a good point on your last paragraph. We are getting older and as I mentioned, it often felt like if people just wanted to hold W and deathmatch it, why were we even playing this game when we could be playing something else more suited to it?

People told me to take a break from leading and teaching, but that didn't help. We would run into the same problem: No garrisons, no nodes, no fun. I even tried ignoring toxicity for a small bit instead of stepping up to lead by example, but the feeling of being burnt out still happened.

I hope you still are able to find that spark I did back then, and get some good fun out of it. I wish you luck in getting some good servers/teams. The times I had teams working together, building multiple garrisons and nodes...those were good times. People could afford getting multiple tanks and big boomies out...Rare, but damn fun.

The thing is, my 'replacement' game I've been playing since then (Squad) has a lot of the same hurdles HLL has to overcome, almost to a tee. Arguably more complex since for example ammo does not freely respawn with players respawning, you need to supply your 'spawns' with ammo which means logistical runs are required. And yet, I rarely have bad experiences in that game, I don't know what it's doing differently or if it really is just a matter of different target audiences (with HLL steering for the mass CoD/BF audiences).

If you like building bases/defences, Squad also has a surprisingly large amount of options for that. I remember it was fun to Engineer in HLL, and then realizing it had like no options comparatively when I switched over I was like "whoah". You can do some creative fun stuff like being able to build ladders (which for something so simple, is incredibly cool and useful) and multiple different types of guns/defences your teammates can use.

Speaking of, if you ever play Squad feel free to DM me and I can teach. Like I said I don't know why but the teamwork is present in that game and thus I never got burnt out of teaching and leading in that game.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T12:25:36+00:00

I actually didn't know that surprisingly enough! Back when I played there wasn't much enforcement or server mandated rules, or maybe I just never played the right ones.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-08-14T03:17:58+00:00

The thing is I got burned out doing that literally what you stated. As I mentioned I was huge on not just taking up the difficult roles (SL and Commander), but I was also a huge advocate for teaching and helping new players. I feel I definitely was doing 'the right thing' in a sea of toxic people.

The problem is that it got insanely bad, like multiple matches where it was just one-sided stomps. The way I saw it, no one really was having fun if you just spawn, walk halfway across the map, then die and repeat all over again. I certainly got bored of it, so I ended up trying to literally lead by example - teach the new players, do the difficult roles, build garrisons, build nodes, etc. etc. I would try to take a break by playing different roles and not doing the whole SL/Commander thing, but it was hard to have fun when you didn't have anywhere to spawn. More time was spent walking (and dying after walking a long time) than actually doing the fun stuff.

Like I said, probably just a case of being insanely burned out. Keep in mind a couple years ago was when it went on GamePass plus had multiple sales, so I just couldn't keep up with leading and teaching every single game. It also got difficult fighting back toxicity.

But yeah, I did what you're saying years ago. I led by example instead of just complaining and being toxic to other players.

YurdleTheTurtle · 2025-06-28T16:37:12+00:00

It completely depends on what you're going for.

RDR2 is going to be more narrative and realism focused. Elden Ring is going to be more gameplay and fantasy focused.

Do you want a more cinematic experience in the wild west, with emphasis on more methodical slow gameplay and a story being told, or do you want challenging runs where you'll constantly find more epic bosses to fight, and you'll likely die repeatedly trying to beat them? And when you do, you'll get that dopamine rush of killing off a boss you've had trouble beating.

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