Skip to content

How long would a "complete" playthrough take?

PathlessBulletPathlessBullet Member Posts: 1
in Archive (General Discussion)
I've heard it takes around 150ish hours to do all the side quest along with the MQ? Is this a bit exaggerated?

Comments

  • faceless1963faceless1963 Member Posts: 143
    no it isn't. if u play bgee with all sidequest, read every single sentence in the multiple-choice-menus, read every book u find, talk to everyone etc etc etc it took min 100 hours. additional: the last of the game depends also by the class u play and which partymembers u choose. if u play for example a pure mage the fights r more competetiv and last longer pp as if u play a f/m/t/ - the so called bulldoser in the game.

    so - 100 to 150 hours are real :) for only 20 us-dollar - ca. 15 euro :)
  • PathlessBulletPathlessBullet Member Posts: 1
    Sweet! Do you think I should get BG:EE for $20 or both BG1&2 off GoG for the same price?
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    That estimate sounds a bit high. I've watched a full playthrough (with way more quests than I knew existed, though I it's possible some were missed) and it was probably closer to 50-75 hours.
  • doomdoomdoomdoomdoomdoom Member Posts: 89
    edited December 2012
    Yea, that's a bit too exagerated even for someone who takes his sweet time. But that's advertising for you.

    Like those 3 new Enhanced Edition NPCs are advertised as "adding 4 hours of content" each. When the only way that could happen is if you leave the dialog window up in one of their quest chats and go take a nap.

    I agree with @rdarken, about half of that seems a bit more realistic estimation.

    And most of that time is taken up by your party walking across the maps everywhere.

    But still, you can't blame Baldur's Gate games for lack of content.
  • neur0neur0 Member Posts: 83
    It will take about that when you play the first time, probably longer if you read all the books in the game, write character histories etc.
    Y u no RP?
  • MadhaxMadhax Member Posts: 1,416
    Regardless of exactly how many hours of play BGEE offers, it's "enough" in my book. As someone who makes game-purchasing decisions largely based on how long I can play them, I would say that BG1 (enhanced or not) is long enough to pay a full $60 for, and is an absolute steal at 10-20 dollars. And that's not even considering replayability, which the BG series has plenty of.

    BG:EE is significantly better than BG1 unmodded, and would be the clear choice if not for mods. With all of the mods to enhance BG1 that have been released over the years, it comes closer to matching BGEE in quality. BGEE, however, includes the Black Pits, better multiplayer support, and several unique NPCs that will never be available for the original BG1. And after all the patches that have come out since BGEE launched, I'd say it's the better choice.
  • PinkRosePinkRose Member Posts: 102
    PathlessBullet said:

    Sweet! Do you think I should get BG:EE for $20 or both BG1&2 off GoG for the same price?

    Get the BGEE release.
    Less headaches and much more support.
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    My let's play in which I did about 99% of the quests in BG1 + ToTSC and read the majority of dialogues out loud was completed in less than 45 hours. That said, I had perfect foreknowledge of everything; someone not following any guides might wander about the world for a lot longer than that.
  • ajwzajwz Member Posts: 4,122
    Speed runners can do the whole thing in 6ish hours. But yeah for your first play through 100+ is not an exaggeration.
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,448
    I never kept track of hours; but my first play through took 5-6 weeks. My fastest play through was about one week. But I'm usually pretty thorough about going everywhere.
    BGII is longer.
  • The_CheesemanThe_Cheeseman Member Posts: 175
    Baldur's Gate is widely considered one of the best role-playing games ever made, and has been cited as the game that revived the dying CRPG genre. I think you can purchase it with confidence. Many of us have been playing these games for well over a decade, and 100 hours wouldn't even come close to my total playtime.
  • aXidalaXidal Member Posts: 61
    @ajwz Well six hours is far more than a speedrunner would need. ;)
  • IllustairIllustair Member Posts: 878
    edited December 2012
    @aXidal
    Woaah, less than 15min?? Am I reading those numbers right? That's "insane" even though it's in normal. O_O
  • KirkorKirkor Member Posts: 700
    It also depends if you know whole game very well, or you play it for the first time. For new player it may take much longer, than for experienced one.
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    edited December 2012
    @fredamora
    I don't know if I've seen one under 15 minutes, but there's one on the Speed Demo for 21 minutes. The ToSC is about 15 minutes.
    http://speeddemosarchive.com/BaldursGate.html
    http://speeddemosarchive.com/BaldursGateTotSC.html
  • IllustairIllustair Member Posts: 878
    @rdarken the 14min speedrun seems legit also. The 21 and 18 are done by the same person, chances are 18min is also legit. Reminds me of someone here, I forgot who, who said he used to know all items or gold down to the last digit in every character (even commoners) in BG. It's a different story I know..but equally amazing.
  • MadhaxMadhax Member Posts: 1,416
    I saw a pretty ridiculous BG2 speed run once. It involved, among other tricks, granting Yoshimo permanent Polymorph Self and glitching him through walls in Iron Golem form to backstab for ludicrous damage.
  • MoomintrollMoomintroll Member Posts: 1,498
    There is a disappointing step in that under 15 minute run :(
    "Go to Candlekeep and pull of a glitch that allows me to skip all chapters "
  • WanderonWanderon Member Posts: 1,418
    Yeah it seems most of the "speed" runs exploit glitches to skip most of the game - back in the day we had a few folks doing a more "sedate" speed run - I'm sure those exploit folks would call it a speed walk LOL - you had to recruit a party of 6 by the time you left Nashkel mines (so you could have 5 going in and take Xan out) and if anyone died you had to rez or replace them ASAP - no hacked characters - no blatant exploits - and no reloads except for game crashes or bugs.

    Best I ever did was getting to final battle in 35 game days - but died there...

    As for the OP I definately had a game or two in normal (completionist) play that went 150 hours - maybe more clearing every map and doing almost every doable quest (BG/TOSC). Typical game for me is going to over 100 hours.
  • bigdogchrisbigdogchris Member Posts: 1,336
    I'm still on my first play through of BG:EE, which I started on the 29th. I've cleared everything so far up to Candlekeep 2.0 but have not entered. I'm halfway through Durlag's but it's such a big dungeon it takes a while.

    If you don't rush things this game is around 60-80 hours long.
  • KortokKortok Member Posts: 165
    Zeckul said:

    My let's play in which I did about 99% of the quests in BG1 + ToTSC and read the majority of dialogues out loud was completed in less than 45 hours. That said, I had perfect foreknowledge of everything; someone not following any guides might wander about the world for a lot longer than that.

    HDGamingReplays right? You guys should check out his channel. Really good stuff.
  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    Agreed; HDGamingReplays is awesome. (When he's not playing evil ;) )
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    rdarken said:

    Agreed; HDGamingReplays is awesome. (When he's not playing evil ;) )

    When was the last time I didn't play evil?

  • rdarkenrdarken Member Posts: 660
    Isn't your NWN walkthrough not evil?
  • ZeckulZeckul Member Posts: 1,036
    rdarken said:

    Isn't your NWN walkthrough not evil?

    Yeah, and the IWD2 as well, but these are pretty old. Since NWN2:MotB all my playthroughs have been with evil protagonists.

Sign In or Register to comment.

2025 Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog. © 2025 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, Baldur's Gate, Wizards of the Coast and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries, and are used with permission. Hasbro and its logo are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. and are used with permission. © 1998 BioWare Corp. All Rights Reserved. BioWare, the BioWare Infinity Engine and the BioWare logo are trademarks of Bioware Corp. Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. Atari and the Atari logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.