Cloakwood Cutscene
Basillicum
Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 400
As we all know many of the cutscenes in vanilla were removed from BG:EE because they simply did not meet the desired level of quality. In most cases I'm fine with that; the video for Gnoll Stronghold, for instance, was never very interesting.
The Cloakwood cutscene however, always felt like an important part of the road to the Cloakwood Mines. It's easy to forget what a dangerous and massive forest Cloakwood actually is, but with the vanilla cutscene travelling through Cloakwood had a feeling of having gone too far astray, which I think is the way it's supposed to be. For new players, at least.
Yes, I know that the cutscene only shows up close to the end of the hazardous trip through Cloakwood, but that's the whole point. It's always the last impression that sticks, and it's by the end of the woods the player should start feeling homesick.
Without the cutscene Cloakwood just feels like a sequence of areas that lay far apart from each other and contain many annoyingly poisonous creatures.
On a less important note, the cutscene was also a nice way of warning the player that this is it - now you're going to meet wyverns! Carrying the cow demonstred the wyvern's badassery.
The Cloakwood cutscene however, always felt like an important part of the road to the Cloakwood Mines. It's easy to forget what a dangerous and massive forest Cloakwood actually is, but with the vanilla cutscene travelling through Cloakwood had a feeling of having gone too far astray, which I think is the way it's supposed to be. For new players, at least.
Yes, I know that the cutscene only shows up close to the end of the hazardous trip through Cloakwood, but that's the whole point. It's always the last impression that sticks, and it's by the end of the woods the player should start feeling homesick.
Without the cutscene Cloakwood just feels like a sequence of areas that lay far apart from each other and contain many annoyingly poisonous creatures.
On a less important note, the cutscene was also a nice way of warning the player that this is it - now you're going to meet wyverns! Carrying the cow demonstred the wyvern's badassery.
Post edited by Basillicum on
11
Comments
I got the impression that the Gnoll Stronghold cutscene is equally important, if not more so. And that's because it actually gives you a clue where to possibly find Dynaheir.
The intro cinematic is probably best example of this, fortunately it's now been improved from what is was originally. I still can't understand though how they thought it was a good idea to originally remove the Nietzsche quote. It perfectly fits the story of the Bhaalspawn, and it also foreshadows things you are completely unaware when first launching the game. I never thought the line about there being others was that important though because it pretty much just repeats what Sarevok just says before it, and at that point it's already pretty clear that guy is terrified. If it was up to me I'd just remove the line again since having it sped up so much just sounds stupid.
My probably biggest disappointment with the actually existing cutscenes is the Nashkel one. First of all here's the orignal one:
And here's the BGEE one:
Also while looking for those on Youtube I actually noticed someone had done their version of it in BGEE style, showing it would have been completely possible to keep the mood the same even with budget restrictions the BGEE obviously had.
The BGEE cinematic simply just completely misses the mark. The original cinematic portrayed a quiant small town, but then the music changes and the camera spans to reveal that just behind the fence danger lurks. It really made you feel like that had arrived in a place on the "frontier" where danger wasn't far. You have to also remember that you most likely saw this cinematic after the FAI and Beregost ones, that had been very welcoming and safe. Nashkel was the first place where the shit got real!
As you say OP Cloakwood cinematic really displayed the vastness, and danger of the forest you were about to brave. I really doubt someone who hasn't seen the original cinematics sees Cloakwood the same way just from playing through it in isometric view.
It's very possible I might get the mod that returns the original cutscenes.
In some ways it seems like BG:EE was made only for the players that have played the original since its release, and not for potential new players. When essential first impression material like the Cloakwood and Nashkel cutscenes are removed, the game simply won't live up the experiences I had when I played it the first time.
I really wish OG would do something about this. Probably the easiest, and cheapest, solution would be to make the original movies the default ones, and make the BGEE movies an option in the Graphics menu. They already said BG2EE will use the original movies, why not BGEE too?
For me at least this is the only part where BGEE has actually managed to make the game worse instead of enhancing it.
PS : i've not seen the ending cinematci (Sarevok's death) in its redone version, so i'm not sure about this one, but the original was really great.
thank me later:)
Similarly, when Ender is pushed into the big tent in the Bandit Camp, it's a clue where to look for him.
@SaithMasu How does it work? It's an exe file, and I'm wary of clicking it, for fear of messing up the game. Is it patch 1.2 compatible? Can I control which cutscenes are replaced? Is it easily de-installable if I want to go back to pure EE? (I'll remember to thank you later, after I've tried it ;p )