Coherence of new and old content *spoilers*

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Moradin

I played BG1 as soon as it was released, back in the days. I have to say, when I bought the EE I was pleased that the new joinable PCs and new locations fit very well in the original game. Thinking about it in retrospect, I'd say the only way one *could* tell the new PCs from the old ones is based on the portraits. The new artwork is kinda different from the old one, which per se is definitely not a bad thing. It just looks different, more IWD II, portrait-style as opposed to picture-style you had for the original BG1 portraits.
m2c

shawne

I'd say the most obvious sign is the fact that Rasaad, Neera, Dorn and Baeloth speak at all - if you were only traveling with one or two of the new NPCs, you might wonder why they're the only ones who make comments while the rest of the party never have any dialogue/banter of their own.

redline

@shawne covered the big one for me -- and it's not just the presence of dialog (which is obviously lacking for all BG1 NPCs) but the fact that the dialog is all fully voiced. Even in BG2, where the NPCs are a bit chattier, it was usually only the first line of a conversation that was ever voiced, with major, plot-related conversations and cutscenes being the big exception. I like the expanded voiceovers of BGEE, but they certainly stand out as having their own unique style.

Additionally, the audio quality seems off somehow -- it might just be an odd driver issue, but I always hear a very slight echo that makes the voiceovers stand out that much more. Not a huge deal, but for someone who's played through the game dozens of times, even little things tend to slap you in the face and scream HEY LOOK, NEW CONTENT!

Kaltzor

Well, the new gameplay changes, not too much, since it's mainly bugfixing and the kits and such from BG2...

But all the new NPC party members feel out of place quite badly since they had to keep the world like it was so the new NPCs can't really properly interact with it...

New new voices sort of stand out, since they have a more british accent (Atleast I think it's british...) than the old ones... The only one that really feels kind of out of place really is the new FEMALE5 voice... CHARNAMES supposed to be 20-something (for humans atleast)...

Corvino

I found the new areas to be visually different to the older ones. The originals felt a bit more hand-drawn 2D while new ones (especially Rasaad's mountains) look more like they've been rendered in 3D then been flattened.

This isn't a criticism just an observation, and I'm not sure what processes were used in creating either set of content.

Awong124

The Adoy's Enclave area map looks slightly stylistically different from the rest of the game. It looks more like IWD or IWD2.

And as mentioned before, the portraits of the new NPCs are obviously stylistically different.

agris

I agree with the above two posters, the new areas look more pre-rendered but I think it has more to due with the resolution at which they were rendered or the resolution of the textures applied to the objects. A decent amount of the new maps contain blurry terrain, and while I don't really begrudge Beamdog this, I wish they would acknowledge the lower fidelity of their maps in an effort to improve them in future works.

@Dee cuz (s)he does stuff.

Tysonm1

The game feels nice and very comfortable to move your characters around in. I'm not a complete hardcore veteran that plays the game on Insanity mode and believes to know everything, but EE does feel very comfy like a furry martress especially when I'm not seeing anymore loading screens appear in front of my face every five minutes and having to swap out between the five original Baldur's Gate disks.

If I was a new player, I'd probably think the game was somehow "a remake of something." Like people have said before the difference in the voices and the choice of new NPCs that were added, but probably one of the things that would catch my attention are the cutscenes; they don't feel like they are quite right. The beginning scene seems to give away that there should be some mysterious footage when you remove the cartoony cutscene.

Basillicum

I might be a little bit too biased, but both Neera and Baeloth feel very out of place.

Neera mostly because of the quality of her voice acting - to me she sounds like a failed comic relief-project. Simply put I don't hear a character, I hear a voice actor toying around with wacky lines. She is not even comperable to the biggest comic relief of all (Minsc), who fits in with the rest of the world in a very believable way.

I think Rasaad's voice acting is quite well done. As well is Dorn's, mostly.

Another thing that I'd like to point out is the fact that both Dorn and Baeloth seem to be a little bit too powerful. Badass evil characters are nice, but I almost found it a little insulting that additions to an old favourite game of mine surpass existing characters. Minsc is no longer the strongest, and Edwin is no longer the most intelligent.


By the way, just to make sure my opinions aren't killed off by my admitting to being biased: I never really liked Jaheira's voice acting in BG1 either. Gets alot better in BG2 though.

/critic mode off

EDIT: Sorry if I went a little bit off-topic. I've been looking for a place to express my opinions on this.

Messi

NPCs fit in well, areas look worse than than the 15 year old original BG1 areas.

XerxesV

I wasn't new to the game, but Neera stands out to me as tacked on (the portrait is classic though).

Dorn would be perfect, but if it were my first time I would expect him to be a spy of sarevok's. As it is, his story is fairly contained so by the end you could tell he was an addition.

I'm not sure about the others changes. I don't know if I would be suspicious of them at first. The developers did a good job of blending in my opinion. Neera is pretty obvious though.

Basillicum

XerxesV said:

Dorn would be perfect, but if it were my first time I would expect him to be a spy of sarevok's.

I agree. His sudden and inevitable appearance makes it feel like he is part of canon. Also, by following his storyline you could easily sympathize with his need for revenge. A "good" player you would still keep in mind that he's evil, which could make him seem like a backstab waiting to happen.

element

interesting I felt Dorn felt the most like a new addition out of the new characters simply because he's so fundamentally different from any one else you meet and his portrait looks the least like the classics

to me Dorn feels like a very modern character and I feel sticks out for it

the areas I feel are a mixed bag the snow area I felt stuck out like a sore thumb simply because it felt like another whole art style and was so alien compared to the other landscapes you encounter

Basillicum

@element

I guess it's also worth pointing out that the showdown with Simmeon sticks out quite badly as well.

When it comes to the portrait and "modern" style of Dorn I suppose I expected this kind of content when I bought BG:EE, so I didn't really recognize it. Players that are totally new to game might though.