Highlights

• Dungeons & Dragons games come in various styles and sizes, from action-focused RPGs to story-driven, turn-based games.
• Solasta: Crown of the Magister is a game that incorporates most of the typical D&D features, allowing players to build their own characters and embark on a quest in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world.
• Baldur's Gate 3 is a modernized and highly complex CRPG that offers deep storytelling, flexible gameplay mechanics, and challenging turn-based combat, making it a great choice for newcomers to D&D video games.

The Dungeons & Dragons franchise includes novels, board games, movies, and video games. Role-playing in the Dungeons & Dragons realm has become widely popular in video games. Although plenty of games take inspiration or ideas from Dungeons & Dragons, the IP also has many official projects that utilize its settings or rulesets.

Dungeons & Dragons games come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, ranging from real-time action RPGs that prioritize combat over everything else to slow-paced turn-based games driven by their quests and stories. What are the best D&D games of all time?

Updated on December 31, 2023, by Mark Sammut: The specifications have been added for all the included DnD games.

9 Solasta: Crown Of The Magister

Metascore: 77

A game based on a variant of the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, Solasta: Crown of the Magister includes most of the typical D&D features. Players can build their own characters from scratch or use a premade one, and the overall quest includes searching the ruins of an ancient Elven Empire to re-assemble a powerful and valuable artifact.

The location of this story in the context of the D&D lore is never specified, as it's not strictly a game of D&D rules, but all the player is told initially is that the setting is a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. It's not the most complex story, but the combat and graphics are accessible to anyone, even gamers unfamiliar with D&D.

8 Dungeons & Dragons Online

Metascore: 74

This massively multiplayer online role-playing game is, as its name suggests, based on the Dungeons & Dragons board game. Despite being well over a decade old, there are still people who frequent Dungeons & Dragons Online. Players can choose from a huge variety of races, including Human, Elf, Dwarf, Warforged, and Half-Orc.

At its core, D&D Online is a fairly typical free-to-play MMORPG, but it does have quite a few positives that work in its favor. For one, the combat system is quite good, even if it is fairly slow. More importantly, the game's build options are deep and complex, arguably ranking among the best in the genre.

7 Neverwinter Nights 2

Metascore: 82

Neverwinter Nights 2 was created by Obsidian Entertainment, much like a number of BioWare's sequel games. Set in the Dungeons & Dragons realm, it makes use of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition rules. A game in which players can pour over 60 hours, Neverwinter Nights 2 is an all-time great RPG that can stand alongside the original Baldur's Gate releases, and its expansions are also worth checking out.

Like so many of Obsidian's projects, NN2's strengths are its writing, world-building, and character customization. The story is especially strong. The combat system has its positives too, although its implementation might not hit the mark with everyone.

6 Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara

Metascore: 83

Yeah, that's right, there is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game named after Dungeons & Dragons. Developed by Capcom and released in 1996, Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara offers a different experience than other entries in the genre since it does take a few pages from role-playing games, which makes sense considering its IP.

Players can upgrade their gear and equip new spells, which was certainly novel for the era. Its single-player mode is unique, offering multiple endings based on the path players take. Shadow Over Mystara is worth playing for fans of the genre and Dungeons & Dragons devotees.

5 Icewind Dale (Enhanced Edition)

Metascore: 80 (Enhanced Edition) / 87 (Icewind Dale)

Overshadowed to an extent by the Baldur's Gate brand, Icewind Dale is another D&D classic that deserves to be highlighted, and the extended edition is a great package. This enhanced version includes the original and its expansions, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster.

Icewind Dale's big selling point was a prioritization of combat, at least more so than the franchise's typical early 2000s RPGs. The story takes a backseat for most of the campaign, allowing players to focus on hack and slashing their way through seamlessly endless enemies. Ultimately, this results in an experience that is a lot of fun to play but also more forgettable than any of the mainline Baldur's Gate entries.

4 Baldur's Gate (Enhanced Edition)

Metascore: 78 (Enhanced Edition) / 91 (Original Version)

One of the earliest D&D games to hit the market, Baldur's Gate was remade and returned to the video game world in 2011 (and multiple times after that). The first in what would become one of the most beloved franchises in the world of gaming, the original Baldur's Gate was released in 1998 and started a whole new age for computer-based RPGs.

Character customization is central to the game, with the player building a character from level one, choosing their skills and stats the same way they would with a traditional tabletop game. The legacy continues with the 3D incarnation, Baldur's Gate 3, but the original entry is still a perfectly enjoyable game all these years later.

3 Planescape: Torment

Metascore: 91

An RPG masterpiece, Planescape: Torment is a wildly different experience from Baldur's Gate, despite them sharing some similarities. For one, the game takes place in Planescape rather than the Forgotten Realms, a setting that has largely been ignored by D&D projects. More importantly, Planescape: Torment weaves a fantastic and complex story that features some of the best dialogue in '90s gaming. In many ways, it is almost like a precursor to the equally great Disco Elysium.

Now, Planescape: Torment shows its age in quite a few ways, with its combat being especially off-putting nowadays; however, players can largely ignore this element during most of the campaign, so it does not drag the experience down too badly. Otherwise, this is a classic RPG.

2 Baldur's Gate 2 (Enhanced Edition)

Metascore: 78 (Enhanced Edition) / 95 (Original Version)

Baldur's Gate has been the crown jewel of D&D games since first appearing in the 1990s. The success of BioWare's original game and its sequel guaranteed a bright future for D&D projects, and they are the main reason the third installment was so hotly anticipated for decades. The updated and enhanced version of the classic game includes Shadows of Amn, Throne of Bhaal, and The Black Pits 2. New content includes extra options for companions and locations. It has all the same technical advantages as the enhanced Icewind Dale as well as the same versatility when it comes to groups or single players.

Most D&D fans who are also gamers will likely testify that this is comfortably among the best Dungeons & Dragons video games of all time, or at least the most influential. Baldur's Gate 2 delivers a grand sense of adventure, while also telling a surprisingly emotional and personal tale about its central heroes. The game showcases all of BioWare's greatest strengths, along with very few of the developer's later weaknesses. As good as the first Baldur's Gate is, the sequel is bigger and better in nearly every way.

1 Baldur's Gate 3

Any young player looking to take their first steps into the world of D&D video games should start with Baldur's Gate 3. It is the IP's most complete package on the market, one that delivers complex storytelling, an expansive and flexible world, and challenging turn-based combat. Larian is probably the best CRPG studio of the last two decades, and Baldur's Gate 3 builds beautifully on some of the ideas introduced in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Even though it shares a name with BioWare's classics, the third entry is far removed from those old-school masterpieces and is not necessarily a great pick for long-time fans yearning for a modernized version of Baldur's Gate 2. However, BG3 arguably set a new benchmark for RPGs through its flexible storytelling, complex combat systems, and immaculate world-building. Customization and player choice are central tenets of the campaign, creating an experience that feels unique to the individual. The game can be overwhelming for people who have never played CRPGs, but Larian does a decent job of easing newcomers into this style of project while never really oversimplifying anything.

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