Do you get bored at some point of the BG games?

DJKajuru

I was wondering if some of the chapters made you feel kinda bored or simply anxious to move on. I usually feel like that on chapter five, when we get to Baldur's Gate . I don't know why, but exploring the city isn't as exciting as hunting bandits around the coast...

FrozenCells

In general I get bored after rereolling several times for various reasons and get too focused on the class instead of the enjoying game. That's when I usually take quite a long break. Actually it usually happens around chapter 5 for me too, not because I find it boring but for me it's kind of the halfway point in the game, the start of the second half with all of the TotSC content, BG city quests, some wilderness areas. If I'm not fully happy then I'm not really prepared to commit to the rest of the game at that point. If I do, then it goes to the end.

BG2 I get bored of quite easily nowadays, I certainly won't be playing any of it till BG2:EE.

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Eudaemonium

Ah, the infamous ToB Burnout.

The issue, i think, is that BG2 is generally a lot more linear than BG1, which means it's easy to get all 'oh, gods, now I have to do X, X, Y, Z, A, B, Q...' Obviously there's tons of sidequesting in SoA, but it always felt more organic to me in BG1 since you didn't start off in the huge city, and once you cross the point of no return it's a largely one-way train until you get back to Amn.

DJKajuru

I get bored if my protagonist becomes too powerful - such as having a 16th level sorcerer in chapter 2.

Eudaemonium

When I booted up BG2 for the first time in almost a decade, I made a dual-classed Kensai/Thief (coz I heard they were pretty powerful) and ended up making them some ridiculous level 15 in Chapter 2. I died to some spiders in a tomb, on the easiest difficulty setting, because I had no idea how to play the game anymore.

DJKajuru

Eudaemonium said:

When I booted up BG2 for the first time in almost a decade, I made a dual-classed Kensai/Thief (coz I heard they were pretty powerful) and ended up making them some ridiculous level 15 in Chapter 2. I died to some spiders in a tomb, on the easiest difficulty setting, because I had no idea how to play the game anymore.

I have played kensai/mages and archer/mages , but they got so powerful that it bored me as well =D

atcDave

I often get bored in Baldur's Gate; funny how many games I'll sometimes have saved right after Cloakwood, just waiting for my return...
But I do still finish a lot of them. I guess it's not boredom as much as wanting a bigger stretch of time with fewer distractions before I tackle the city, while other parts of the game are easier to just squeeze in when I have a few minutes.

BG2 is much worse for me in that regard. I often get bored after the Underdark. It's too bad, I do like the more sophisticated game design of BG2 (especially NPC interaction), but I find the higher level characters a little boring.

Oxford_Guy

Doing the early part of BG1 (say up to the start of Cloakwood) is a bit boring for me, since I've often restarted before then...

deltago

I get bored in Chateaux Irenicuis. It is very grueling for me to trudge through that dungeon first. That it takes me a couple of days since I'll only play for 15-20 minutes at a time when I am in there.

DJKajuru

deltago said:

I get bored in Chateaux Irenicuis. It is very grueling for me to trudge through that dungeon first. That it takes me a couple of days since I'll only play for 15-20 minutes at a time when I am in there.

Really? For me it's the opposite. I really like chateau Irenicus!

Wanderon

It's not so much getting bored with the gameplay as it is thinking about some new character or party theme concept and having to go try it out.

Edwin

I have still not played all the mods available. Running a different combination of mods and classes can make it seem like a new game. The crazy number of permutations you can get by playing different class mods/different party members/npc add ons/items/moster mods has kept me coming back for over a decade :-)

reedmilfam

Once I reach Baldur's Gate, I lose interest. The city part of the game isn't that fun for me, to be honest.

DJKajuru

reedmilfam said:

Once I reach Baldur's Gate, I lose interest. The city part of the game isn't that fun for me, to be honest.

There's a great potential for roleplaying inside the city, I wish the modders would give more personality to it and turn it into a Sygil. ;D

Freche

reedmilfam said:

Once I reach Baldur's Gate, I lose interest. The city part of the game isn't that fun for me, to be honest.

Same here, most of the time I just quit when I reach BG, if I don't do that it's usually run across the city picking up valuable items then rush to the end.

SirK8

Yeah, reaching the city is a game changer for me too, usually I just focus on the main plot from that point.

hummer010

Wanderon said:

It's not so much getting bored with the gameplay as it is thinking about some new character or party theme concept and having to go try it out.

This. For me this usually happens at about chapter 5. If I manage to push through chapter 5, then I will usually quit during chapter 7. I usually do the TOTSC stuff after chapter 6, but before the return to the city.

I find the finale too linear. I generally consider the fight at the Ducal Palace the finish for me. I rarely, rarely get to the undercity. I know whats going to happen there.

TJ_Hooker

I think the worst part about reaching the city for me is that I compulsively enter/break into every building I come across. With the number of buildings in BG (the city), it can be a real chore. Obviously this my own fault, not the game's, but that doesn't make it any less tedious.

Lapa

Irenicus' dungeon is megaboring.

john_boy

I do have compulsive restart syndrome

KidCarnival

It depends. Reaching the city does make the game different and I usually do any possible side quest, including ToB, before dedicating time to the city quests. Sometimes, I have a party combination in mind and can't complete it due to restrictions (i.e. I want a NPC who is in Cloakwood or Baldur's Gate); then it's making me rush through the main plot as fast as I can and it annoys the hell outta me to wait for getting my party together. Though, that's not boring, it's just being annoyed and developing a certain anger toward filler NPCs, like having to keep Dorn around because I need the Elven Chain for myself or Eldoth. It makes me angry to see Eldoth standing there, the last missing NPC for my ideal party, but having to keep Dorn until I unlock the area to finish his quest. Knowing I will need to complete the mines, rush to Simmeon, backtrack to Cloakwood and switch out NPCs makes the mines a rather annoying part I just want to get over with.

Lemernis

I find that I need to constantly be looking for some fresh way to take on the game. Sometimes the idea that organizes the game for me is what might be called a 'RP concept' for lack of a better term. For instance a game in which I may roll dice to determine some things that I would normally do by rote. Another example would be: a party consisting mostly of specialist mages who cast only their own school's spells. At other times it's less elaborate and really just trying out a class plus a particular party of NPCs. Eg, on my current run I wanted to try out a human Berserker 3/Cleric and dual-class every NPC in the party. In my next game I may run a party that eschews arcane magic, led by a Wizard Slayer. Etc.

But anyway, I have to keep coming up with some sort of nuance or angle to keep the game fresh for me.

KidCarnival

I have plans for two very different runs, one for a lot fun/non-seriousness and one for a challenge. In the fun run, I plan on making the use of every cursed item mandatory, possibly let the dice decide which NPC gets the item. The challenge run is sorta based on the concept of Minsc being Dynaheir's bodyguard - making charname the bodyguard of a mage and it's game over if charname OR the mage dies, possibly with some more restrictions (i.e. may only use potions/Bhaalspawn abilities to heal mage, not a cleric).

Lord_Tansheron

Everyone who's bored with the game should seriously consider modding it heavily. I promise you, Ascension and SCS1/2 on Hard/Insane will make you feel like you've never played the game before!

That being said, it also reveals some of the dark sides of the game engine. Nothing quite as frustrating as reloading every second time you miss a saving throw... any CC is basically game over because they last so friggin' long That's usually the part where I get bored and frustrated.

AHF

(a) I agree with @Wanderon that I usually find at some point in the game all the banters have been exhausted, etc. and I start thinking and getting excited about that next run.

(b) I agree that modding keeps the game fresh but I will say that the SCS1/2 and Ascension strategic adjustments tend to make tactics more redundant (here is yet another mage who starts the battle with stoneskin, spell protection: abjuration, melf's, protection from magical weapons and protection from some form of elements - there aren't a wide variety of strategic responses). It still is worthwhile since I can't help myself from metagaming and this tends to level the field but it becomes a bit of a grind at times.

(c) Speaking of mods, for anyone who is bored by Chateaux Irenicus there is a mod that lets you skip it called Dungeon-Be-Gone. I don't mind the dungeon but I do get bored with the repetitive walking (go to the second area then return to visit the genie then walk back to the second area then walk all the way back to the genie then walk all the way back to the second area....zzzzzz).

DJKajuru

AHF said:

(b) I agree that modding keeps the game fresh but I will say that the SCS1/2 and Ascension strategic adjustments tend to make tactics more redundant (here is yet another mage who starts the battle with stoneskin, spell protection: abjuration, melf's, protection from magical weapons and protection from some form of elements - there aren't a wide variety of strategic responses). It still is worthwhile since I can't help myself from metagaming and this tends to level the field but it becomes a bit of a grind at times.

I don't install the "improved mages" from SCS2 for the exact same reason - originally mages might be weaker, but at least they try different tactics!

O_Bruce

To me, Baldur's Gate I has very slow star, that makes me bored. After slow start, however, game is becoming better and better.

And.... rolling scores for a new characters, of course.

ajwz

End of BG2. I never play ToB

Astafas

Chapter 5. And the whole of ToB (never finished).

Lemernis

I sometimes get the feeling around the time that I could undertake Durlag's and the other ToSC quests... do I really want to do this? Versus just finishing the game.

In a lot of my games I selectively sidequest, leaving many areas unexplored.

And I echo what @Lord_Tansheron and others are saying about mods.