A bit late to the thread, but I wanted to add the Gothic games to the mix. They don’t hold your hand and are relatively grounded in reality (within their fantasy world). Controls are a bit janky and the English voices as well. If you can, you should play in the original German or Polish. The Witcher series was heavily influenced by Gothic, especially Gothic 2.
If they are too old for you, the Remake is slated for early 2026. A demo is available on Steam and GOG and should give you a pretty good overview of the atmosphere and the way the games work.
Just stay away from Gothic 4: Arcania. Totally different studio with none of the charme.
Is it possible that WOTC just utterly suck? Like even playing D&D for real at a table I always thought the wizard’s stuff was kinda boring. Every time our DM did something himself it was awesome.
Not an RPG, but in the Thief series the hardest difficulty usually means that you aren’t allowed to kill anyone. Many people even try to play the games as a ghost. Meaning the only sign of their presence after leaving is the stuff they stole. Every door has to be closed and locked again. Keys stolen from guards have to be returned (in lieu of a game mechanic for this you have to lay it on the ground behind them).
People do challenge runs of the Gothic games as pacifists. So it isn’t part of the games but doable with some shenanigans.