Remember "the faery tales adventures", and its top-down open world of exploration ? It was a favorite of mine, on the Amiga, something I always missed, and couldn't find in diablo-likes or ad&d crpgs.
Well, I am now playing Divine Divinity, and that is that. Feels like a modern Faery Tale remake, or Faery Tale itself. I get the same feel from it, long afterwards. A big world, free to explore in any direction, filled with monsters but not in an artificial crawl-through-hordes way, and a population that feels more real than mere quest givers planted there.
I agree about the Gothic games, they are roughly as good as the Elder Scroll. I agree with Fallouts, Arcanum, etc. I also agree with Arx Fatalis, which is strangely open-world despite of being made of underground corridors. I don't agree with Sacred. Sacred is a multi-directionnal Space Invaders, a Diablo with no sense of actually exploring a world (it's more about cleaning up a world, or regions, the same way you clean up screens after screens of enemies in other shooters. If you want a top-down exploration rpg, go Divinity. I can't believe I've overlooked that game so much and for so long.
It deserves to be suggested more often.