My BG2 EE experience, rants ahead...
Lathrael
Member Posts: 69
I hate to say that, but i'm really disappointed about the game...
First of all, the voice acting. While playing the new content, i really had to mute the speakers, since every minor NPC made my ears bleed. I really couldn't understand how those made the final cut, it was a terrible work - terrible as bad for a fan made mod yet alone for an official product. Did someone decided to voice npc by their bf/gf/nephew instead of hiring real voice actors to cut the costs, i wonder.
Second, overlook on many bugs that were around for YEARS. Even a quick search around old forums could yield you that what should be fixed, but they are still there... Not to mention new bugs introduced. This may be a minor issue, since they still can fix those.
Third, lazy and disconnected dialogs in new content. I cannot point those since they are all scattered around. Many times, your reply makes no sense about the subject or conversations go real weird (not in a good way), or poor in quality. Even if it's your first time it's really easy to point out what is new and what is not - and again not in a good way.
Fourth, little effort on game ballance. Still loads of issues aren't adressed.
As it is now, it seems only thing that saving the grace, alongside the new beautiful scenery and some other good work of the EE graphic team, is the original BG2... I was really looking forward to for this game and excited about what Beamdog could bring to it, only to be disgruntled by the amateurish work (excluding the scenery/portraits).
Well those are my thoughts. I hope those issues will be adressed in time... Still, not holding my breath for it.
First of all, the voice acting. While playing the new content, i really had to mute the speakers, since every minor NPC made my ears bleed. I really couldn't understand how those made the final cut, it was a terrible work - terrible as bad for a fan made mod yet alone for an official product. Did someone decided to voice npc by their bf/gf/nephew instead of hiring real voice actors to cut the costs, i wonder.
Second, overlook on many bugs that were around for YEARS. Even a quick search around old forums could yield you that what should be fixed, but they are still there... Not to mention new bugs introduced. This may be a minor issue, since they still can fix those.
Third, lazy and disconnected dialogs in new content. I cannot point those since they are all scattered around. Many times, your reply makes no sense about the subject or conversations go real weird (not in a good way), or poor in quality. Even if it's your first time it's really easy to point out what is new and what is not - and again not in a good way.
Fourth, little effort on game ballance. Still loads of issues aren't adressed.
As it is now, it seems only thing that saving the grace, alongside the new beautiful scenery and some other good work of the EE graphic team, is the original BG2... I was really looking forward to for this game and excited about what Beamdog could bring to it, only to be disgruntled by the amateurish work (excluding the scenery/portraits).
Well those are my thoughts. I hope those issues will be adressed in time... Still, not holding my breath for it.
1
Comments
Your other complaints are rather vague -- I'm not sure what precisely you mean about the dialogues being 'disconnected' or what you find problematic with respect to 'game balance'.
Personally, I very much like the new NPCs. I've only played through the Rasaad and Neera quests, and those only for SoA, but I thought that they added a lot of value to the game. I'm looking forward to a future game to explore the quests of Dorn and Hexxat.
In short, I disagree with your overall assessment.
The first conversation I had started with Rasaad telling Anomen his story of how he came to be here. Anomen in turn complimented Rasaad and said it was a fine tale that matched his own and they would both heroes that people will talk about far and wide. Rasaad said he didn't want fame and Anomen said, and I quote "You're joking right? Tell me you're joking" and so on and it really didn't feel at all in line with the way Anomen speaks in the normal game.
At times the new dialog just seems a bit more "modern" then the rest of the original game.
Many have been upset about the new NPCs sticking out from the originals (due to more content, such as sidequests in TOB) but they had to justify the pricetag of the remake somehow. If there were less addons people would be saying "the new NPCs don't have enough stuff, totally not worth it". You can't please everyone, and overall I say they did a decent job updating the game, and added some cool parts as well.
Edit :If it what they do had been a standalone game, all those could be fine. But when you put them into Baldur's Gate title, standards rightfully rise - and you have to meet those expectations, or don't tinker with it at all.
Overall, though, I'm quite enjoying the new dialogues.
If I remember correctly, in the original BG2, Mazzy wistfully expressed a hope for a new '3rd edition' in which she could be a paladin. The new dialogues don't seem any more 'disconnected' from the game than that.
Hexxat, for instance, is well done. Neera's naivety is also quite nicely conveyed. The only thing missing from Hexxat's voice is her unhappiness about what she is.
Romance aside, I've actually very much enjoyed the dialogue options in EE content so far. In Dorn's quest in particular, my exceedingly intelligent, wise, and charismatic Cleric/Mage protagonist is able to use quick thinking to concoct complicated excuses for my party's actions and get out of potentially dangerous situations, when most games would simply force me into a battle. I really enjoy having that option.
Some of the acting is absolutely top-rate though (Irenicus!), and it manages to carry the rest of the game. Characters with good voice acting (Dorn, Mazzy, Kogan, Jaheira, others) are not only a welcome relief, they also counteract all of the bad.
I also found Daxus hilarious.
As for the 'quality of writing', I think it's equivalent to the original series. Some serious tones, and a lot of lightheartedness. It's not all 'in character', and there's always been a fair amount of breaking the fourth wall in the series. I had a blast with it.
And the romances...well, they are what they are. No video game romance is ever going to be in any way realistic, unless somebody writes one where you get dumped for another NPC, or the love interest starts spending all your gold, or they randomly leave the group and rejoin 3 days later talking about some 'gurls nite out lol' (and then you get stricken by a foul disease...). Hmm. Maybe I'm just bitter.
Compared to today's fully scripted, fully voiced NPC interactions, the BG series certainly feels quaint, and rightly so. And yet, my reaction at the time it was fresh and new was that I sorta-kinda knew and liked these NPCs very well indeed -- again, my mind was filling in the blanks, and that state persisted. Nowadays, I probably play BG simply because of nostalgia -- going off on an adventure again with Minsc and Aerie and Imoen and so on, which evokes happy memories. I presume that it's difficult for new folks (and I'm not implying you are, BTW) to jump into the series without saying "Hmm, OK, so what's the fuss all about?" I totally get that POV (I miss other odd old things like typewriters and rotary phones as well which obviously don't hold up well these days either), but deep familiarity & happy memories about something that was cutting-edge once is why I can still replay Atari's "Adventure" over and over again.
Edit: And thats why keeping "character" of diaolgs were too important.
Neera: "Is that your leg or are you just happy to see me?"