What makes BG so great!.....Well, one of those many things that make it so great!
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I was encouraged to create this discussion after reading another recent one here about magical weapons.
Besides great working RPG system, atmosphere, music, sound, story, graphics(yes, you heard me, I think BG has dated, but great looking graphics, better than many RPGs which followed up till Gothic 2 I think) and everything else I didn´t mention, there is very important fact, that makes BG so great compared to all those modern RPGs which followed. And it is the fantasy settings, which unlike every single MMORPG and most of the singlepalyer RPGs either, has more realistic atmosphere. When I first played BG 1 demo, I didn´t know anything about the game or AD&D and played it as some kind of pure medieval game and later on with Gorion´s fight I noticed magic and stuff. And that is what makes atmosphere of this game so great. Realistic world, not full of super mages and thin naked pointy ear girls on every corner, weapons as large as persons who wields them, monsters jumping from everywhere and your character jumping on top of them even though wearing 80 pounds weighted armor. You meet citizens of the country, having their own stories and problems and just occasionally meet some mage or magical creature. Those few strong mages were well known to you from the lore and you created some respect to them. In this point, BG 2 went a little downfall, but still was able to sustain the atmosphere.
Towns, temples, castles, places has normal, realistic desing, with just some occasional one, which looked more high fantasy.
So it would be great, if the new adventure use the same formula. No plenty of magical new items or full of epic encounters. More important is the depht of the new characters, places and encounters which adds the realism to the land and realms. If the game has lesser magical weapons and items, you would value them more. Rather lesser items with original inventory design and story, than more items without anything special about them. NWN went downfall even more in this.
I hope you undestood what I meant.
By the way, sory if the text is badly written, but english isn´t my language.
Besides great working RPG system, atmosphere, music, sound, story, graphics(yes, you heard me, I think BG has dated, but great looking graphics, better than many RPGs which followed up till Gothic 2 I think) and everything else I didn´t mention, there is very important fact, that makes BG so great compared to all those modern RPGs which followed. And it is the fantasy settings, which unlike every single MMORPG and most of the singlepalyer RPGs either, has more realistic atmosphere. When I first played BG 1 demo, I didn´t know anything about the game or AD&D and played it as some kind of pure medieval game and later on with Gorion´s fight I noticed magic and stuff. And that is what makes atmosphere of this game so great. Realistic world, not full of super mages and thin naked pointy ear girls on every corner, weapons as large as persons who wields them, monsters jumping from everywhere and your character jumping on top of them even though wearing 80 pounds weighted armor. You meet citizens of the country, having their own stories and problems and just occasionally meet some mage or magical creature. Those few strong mages were well known to you from the lore and you created some respect to them. In this point, BG 2 went a little downfall, but still was able to sustain the atmosphere.
Towns, temples, castles, places has normal, realistic desing, with just some occasional one, which looked more high fantasy.
So it would be great, if the new adventure use the same formula. No plenty of magical new items or full of epic encounters. More important is the depht of the new characters, places and encounters which adds the realism to the land and realms. If the game has lesser magical weapons and items, you would value them more. Rather lesser items with original inventory design and story, than more items without anything special about them. NWN went downfall even more in this.
I hope you undestood what I meant.
By the way, sory if the text is badly written, but english isn´t my language.
12
Comments
Baldur's Gate is one of the games most cleverly disguising it's fantasy elements. Unlike other games, it is a medieval world in which magic exists, rather than a fantasy make believe world in which swords and castles are there for good measure.
We can see by the Friendly Arm Inn, an example of a Norman Keep of roughly 12th c. origin (see the four towers on each corner that are square? Later Norman Keeps were built with circular towers, mimicing designs of castles seen during the Crusades) and the Motte and Bailey Cloakwood Mines castle, roughly 10th - 11th century, that Baldur's Gate is set very soon after the Norman Conquest.
However, armour is not as accurate. Full plate didn't arrive until many centuries after, many of the available weapons were not in existance either. These are small things. Plus if I was going to be neurotic the shields are very wrong too.
A game doesn't need to be historically accurate, just convincing and beautiful. This game wins.
on the other hand, BG2 is a game for a high level partys, so the weapons must be strong accordingly.
What made BG1 so great?
First you start the game in the wilds outside candlekeep and ask yourself WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, you start your *journey* to the friendly arm inn through the roads, and than you start to explore the entire world map. In Bg1 it really felt like a journey because you actually walked to the towns, passed through roads... visited exotic places, met strange people and then killed them . In comparison, BG2 was much more linear in that aspect.. because if you wanted to go to Evermeet, you had to get a quest, and than click on the map to get there, much less freedom of movment.
I liked that when you had in your arsenal medieval weapons such as flails, hammers, swords and some magic to aid your cause but not too powerful magic. I loved to save money to buy new armor, split mail or half plate mail...
I liked to search for a taverns and stores once you enter a new Town such as beregost and in the city of baldurs gate you had alot of Taverns, and each feels like a real medieval tavern..
, I liked to enter EACH of the houses ( and rob it ).
The general atmosphere was of medieval days - and of adventure, while you revealed the story piece after piece.. dont forget that until the end you dont discover that you are a son of a god.. until than you are just a commoner like everybody else.
In BG2 it was basicly: someone kidnapped you, you got freed, Imoen was kidnapped, find the kidnapper,kill the kidnapper( oh and get your soul back ). you dont discover anything special...
but thats just me, other loved bg2 more because of the high level spells and abilitys, NPC interactions, etc..
Then comes the rich culture from reading books to speaking to people and doing side quests, just gave the game a good depth and an enjoyous one at that including the problems of peoples lives like the one involving Valygar Corthala and the Planar Sphere in BG2 and Xzar from BG1 and his dealings with the Harpers in BG2 etc.
Really do hope this type of design continues since story is one of the main elements of an RPG alongside the good mix of equipment and fighting etc :O)
I don't agree that monsters should level up with your characters. It didn't work so well with Oblivion, at least in my experience. There is something wrong about having the same bandit/creature you fought at the beginning of the game being able to kill you (after all those level-ups) at the end of the game. It steals the feeling of accomplishment (or satisfaction) that should come after putting precious hours into a game. That beginner bandit/monster should stay weak. If it attacks, well that's what makes being on a high level fun.. you can wipe him out quickly and still have time for the monsters that will provide your character with a real challenge.
No disrespect on Oblivion or Skyrim, they are great games, but I think Morrowind is still a better game due to this aspect.
+ Each area was clearly designed by hand. Compared to modern games that randomly generate landscapes or re-use them, this added an element of love that we enjoyed.
+ The little things! Your party says funny things when you click on them. Organizing and re-organizing gear and learning spells. Pausing and un-pausing during battle.
+ Every once in a while, you’d come across a random and fun atmospheric element that had nothing to do with the game, like the Nashkel Carnival’s mage who summoned an exploding ogre. If you asked him to summon the ogre enough times, the ogre would lose his mind and start attacking everyone, forcing you to slay it. These sorts of tidbits go a long way to adding atmosphere, and we rarely see them in modern RPGs.
I love Baldur's Gate!!!
The game literally smashed me, the hard way. I wasn't good the first try, so I retried, and keep in mind, I was 8 back then. I informed myself a bit, made some research, talked to other players from my city. Eventually I started understanding. I made a Cleric/Ranger, same name, better attributes next. Things were smooth. I hit Nashkel mines with my party pretty much set : Minsc, Dynaheir, Garrick, Imoen and Branwen. And I feel like even today that is a decently balanced party.
I made my steps into the mines. Rushed them, as most my characters were still level 1. Third floor, the bridge with the two arrow traps. Garrick dies. You go south, reach the small cave with two spiders, Imoen dies. Go forward, Kobold Commando, the horror. Branwen dies. Everything is fine, we still have a chance. I rush towards floor 4. Traps are enabled, my PC survives first and second arrow traps. Magic missiles are slowly approaching and just as I hit the transition and the game quicksaves, a magic missile hits my PC and kills it. Anger from my side! But despite what happened... I was able to carry on. Minsc and Dynaheir lived. My PC was dead, but I could play on. I had to make a run for it, rushed to the temple of the Morning Lord. Didn't have money to resurrect. So I had to use the gem-potion exploit to get some money.
Everything was fine in the end. Sir William hit Baldur's Gate. Swapped Branwen for Yeslick, a deceased Dynaheir for Tiax. This was my second great adventure in this marvelous game.
Now, many of you probably will be thinking "That's crazy, your PC can't die with you continuing the game!". I know, I wouldn't believe myself. But I am not lying. It happened, as bizarre as it can be. Mind you, the game i was playing was the standard 5 CD, non patched version (didn't have internet) so might as well be a bug.
Long story short... In my opinion, what makes Baldur's Gate so great is the fact that even if I failed, several times in fact.... it kept me playing. How many more games did have the very same effect for me? I have no idea. Very few. First two Gothic games hop into my mind. The recent Binding of Isaac. But that's pretty much it as far as I am concerned. It's unique in an impossible way. You suffer, but you learn from it, like in real life. And this is why I believe this game to be the best RPG of all times.
2. The Challenge - As a few people have already mentioned, Baldur's Gate isn't afraid to knock you on your ass every once in a while (or all the time even). But the challenge isn't dull, it can be frustrating enough for some that it makes you quit the game and go play something else for an hour, but you inevitably end up reloading that last save, determined to finally take down whichever enemy had gotten the best of you.
3. The System - Baldur's Gate is based on 2nd Edition AD&D, one of the best RPG systems ever created. Also, they stay (at least somewhat) true to it. This system is tried and true as a rule system, and so their adherence to it added immeasurable balance to the game.
4. The Music - Not much detail needed here; great, epic music that stounds out even today as one of the best RPG soundtracks ever created.
5. The Art - The landscapes, animations, and everything else are beautifully done and the artistic quality of the game is present even today after 15 years. Obviously there are many that prefer the BG1 animations and paperdolls to the BG2 ones (which I agree with), but nonetheless the visuals in both games were acceptable and often stunning. The only diminishing of the art is the fact that it now has to be scaled to work at higher resolutions... had the source art not been lost, we could have been looking at a full HD enhancement using the original art.
6. The Voice Acting - I mentioned earlier the impact of Jon Irenicus, and I'm sure that that impact would have been mitigated considerably if not for the excellent voice acting of David Warner. They really found a lot of great voice acting talent for these games, and I think it made a huge difference on the final product.
Ultimately, these things and others not on the list (such as the quality of the engine itself and all the hard work of the programmers, etc.) combined to make a truly amazing game. The Baldur's Gate games, the first two Fallout games, Palescape:Torment and a select few others truly define what a good RPG is supposed to be.
Couldn't agree more, this is the main reason why Baldur's Gate is a game that is still played.
These things are obviously hugely important, but it's not exactly what I was thinking of. And then I realized why everyone always made such a huge deal out of "hand drawn backgrounds." Holy crap! There is not a single dungeon, castle, or city in Baldur's Gate that looks like any other!! When you go into the Temple of Amaunator, or Nalia's Castle, or any RANDOM dungeon, the game doesn't copy/paste tilesets that were used the create the last dungeon that you were in... You are actually in that room. After playing Diablo 3 I started to get so bored.... all the tilesets in the area are exactly the same... Leoric's Mansion looks the same as the Old Tristram Cathedral... Now, I'm not one to focus on graphics, but the unique, hand drawn art for every area in the game really stands out as a contributing factor.
This, to me, is something that I absolutely love about the game, and completely and fundamentally alters the experience. This is also perhaps the saddest news from the Enhanced Edition, that the source art was lost and we won't be receiving a full HD remake. Nevertheless, and I extremely excited, and I wish to heck that the producers make enough money from BG:EE to tackle the project of BG3, in true 2D isometric glory. Anyway, just my take on the many reasons that Baldur's Gate stands apart from any other RPG on the market.