Dragon Age: Origins, I think. The one thing they did right (and most games after them, like the other Dragon Age and the Mass Effect series, did not as good) was that you really could give your Character the look you wanted.

If you like Souls-likes, Nioh 2. While the customisation is kinda focused on the character's head if I'm not mistaken (been a while since I last entered the character creator, which can be re-entered whenever you're not in a mission, and I think it also allows changing your character's gender at any time), it's way more powerful than Cyberpunk 2077's creator on that front.

Monster Hunter World also had good character customisation in my experience, but has a bunch of parts behind paid DLCs. I haven't played Rise, but I heard it's also a good one.

Another Capcom game, Dragon's Dogma, also has the reputation of having one of the best character creators on the market, with some of the options even affecting gameplay (smaller characters are lighter, but more agile, and vice-versa for bigger characters). However, you won't see it until after the prologue/tutorial, which I haven't beaten yet for some reason.

While I can't speak for the Capcom titles (though MHW is rated Playable, and MHR and DD are rated Verified for the Deck), I can confirm Nioh 2 works on Linux (both desktop and Steam Deck).

EDIT: forgot to mention Soulcalibur 6, for the fighting game enthusiasts. Character creators have been in the series since at least the third game (I never played SC1 nor 2), and 6's definitely is good. Can confirm it works on Linux too.

Last edited by williamjcm on 3 August 2023 at 10:51 am UTC

Saints Row The Third also has pretty sophisticated character creation, especially for a game of that type.

APB:Reloaded
Its a really old game but i think it still has one of the best character creators. The game itself isn't that great though. Online only also. Haven't played it recently but last time i tried it worked perfect on linux after Launcher workaround.

Oblivion or Skyrim :>

Just picked up Baldur's Gate 3, it seems to scratch the itch for now.

Quoting: CimerydJust picked up Baldur's Gate 3, it seems to scratch the itch for now.

Yeah the character creator in it is great!

I don't know if the game is your sort of thing, but I picked up Biomutant in a sale yesterday, and found the character-creator really fun - the way you assign stats affects the appearance of your little mutant animal-thing (so, more intellect equals bigger head, and stuff like that). It's got a ProtonDB Platinum rating, and is rated as Steam Deck Playable (presumably due to some small fonts here and there).