Never ever played any of the baldur's gate games, where should i start?

kaabrejner

I see there's baldur's gate, baldur's gate enhanced edition, baldur's gate 2 and some expansions.

should i just start with baldur's gate enhanced edition and then go to baldur's gate 2 enhanced edition? or?

Also, how is the co-op capability of the different games?
I have 2 or 3 friends i would like to play with.

Pibaro

We have:

The original saga;
1) BG
2) BG Tales of the sword coast (TOTSC)
3) BG2 Shadows of Amn (SOA)
4) BG2 Throne of Bhaal (TOB)

The enhanced edition saga:
1) BG:EE (includes BG + BG TOTSC + The Black Pits, a brand new fighting arena)
2) BG2:EE (includes BG2 SOA + BG2 TOB + The Black Pits 2, a brand new fighting arena)

Other than that we have plenty of Mods.
Most (but not all of them) can be played both with the original saga and the Enhanced Edition.
The EE will have "soon" an improved multiplayer

FinneousPJ

Yeah you want to start with BGEE then BG2EE. The expansions are integrated.

meagloth

I would you(and your friends) play through the whole game alone first, and then do a co-op, so you can all get the full experience. Singleplayer's also less buggy, and I'd be better if you started with the 1.3 patch out(both games) and you could do solo until then.

kaabrejner

meagloth said:

I would you(and your friends) play through the whole game alone first, and then do a co-op, so you can all get the full experience. Singleplayer's also less buggy, and I'd be better if you started with the 1.3 patch out(both games) and you could do solo until then.

What do you mean with the 1.3 patch out, is it not out yet, so you recommend that we wait untill this patch is out? or what do you mean :P?

If that is what you mean, then do you have any idea when this patch is going to land?
So that i will have an idea of when to start

meagloth

Scroll up. Look right above your discussion title. Click on the link.

jjstraka34

Even though BG2 was made a few years later, it was designed to be a direct continuation of your experience in BG (so much so that you can import your character into the sequel, and most would recommend it). You CAN play BG2 without having played the original, but I can't suggest doing so. The mechanics and combat of BG2 assume you have played the original game, and the spell progression and combat complexity basically picks up right where you left off in the first game. At best, your characters in the orignal BG will get to level 10, most can only get to 8 or 9. BG2 ups that to 20, and the expansion to that game brings it to 30 or 40 in some cases.

Basically (and especially with how the enhanced editions have been implemented) Baldur's Gate is just one long game that you happen to run through two different programs. You could consider the original a tutorial for BG2, the combat, fights, and story are much simpler, because it is just the opening chapter in what is basically a epic 3-part saga. Realistically, you are looking at 250-300 hrs worth of content on your first run, and you'll still have plenty left over to see when you try again.

Lemernis

I can't vouch for how well multiplayer works for the Enhanced Editions, but I think it may be the only way for a group to play now (maybe others can comment about that).

For a multiplayer run I would recommend that you all play BGEE first then BG2EE. Be advised however that we're talking about a huge number of hours spent playing the game, even just to complete BGEE. It's hard to maintain a commitment to keep a game going that long with RL so often intruding on gaming plans, and to some extent a bit fatigue eventually setting in re: the demands of regularly scheduled gaming sessions for the group.

When I used to play the entire trilogy just as a single player it would typically take me 3-4 months--and that was playing quite a lot on a regular schedule (not daily but still getting a good number of around 1-3 hour play sessions in each week.)

I honestly doubt that many groups of players are ever able to complete the entire saga as a multiplayer enterprise.

But that said, for both individual and multiplayer, I would strongly recommend starting with BGEE first. Just play BGEE and BG2EE vanilla (i.e., unmodded) to start. When you do want to try some mods, there's a respectable number of cornerstone mods that are now compatible with the Enhanced Editions (standouts include the brilliant Sword Coast Stratagems and highly entertaining BG1 NPC Project). There's just a lot less hassle to running the EEs than learning how to install mods in the original saga. But after you've played the EEs then you might consider doing an install of the original saga and trying original saga mods, since there's a ton of them.

the_spyder

So, maybe a little bit about your expectations would be in order? Are you looking for a Multi-player experience and have heard good things about Baldur's gate? Or did you hear about the game(s) and THEN hear that there is Multi-player. it actually makes a difference.

As has been stated above, best to start out with the EE versions. You "Can" start out with the base games, but there are some additions in the way of content in the EE versions including new areas and new NPCs. Plus a bunch of bugs have been fixed (although new ones have spawned) in the EE versions.

Also, would strongly recommend that you do a solo run with NPCs before firing up multi-player. Aside from the NPC banter (which is greater in BG2 than in BG1) there are side quests for NPCs that will enhance your play through. Also, the story will make more sense in certain instances if you have companions. And it will make it easier to figure out where to go next.

Good luck and welcome to the world of Baldur's Gate.

nosecret

I have to echo - start with BG:EE and BG2:EE single and THEN go multiplayer. Depending upon your history with gaming, the Infinity engine mechanics feel markedly different from modern gaming with WASD navigation, etc.

I'm a genuine fanatic over BG2 SOA, but playing the original BG was just so painful due to resolution issues and just general signs of age. The EE remake of BG made me actually reverse my opinion of the original (much the same as the TuTu mod really helped do the same thing by putting the BG resources on the BG2 engine). So I'd have to recommend not starting with the original BG.

Once you and your friends get the hang of the game, multiplayer is just a matter of getting used to a few additional differences - i.e.: no pausing, party-splitting, lots of planning and coordinating the more complex fights, etc.

BG2SOA will be the more exciting of the three sagas - but BGI is an important (though not necessary) setup into the timeline and narrative. I had not played the first when I discovered SOA, and it was still insanely immersive - it's even more so if you play the background vs. just learning about it during the second game. I wasn't a fan of ToB (too linear, too shallow in comparison to the others), but once you've played the first 7 notes of a scale, you can't leave it hanging like that

CrevsDaak

I tested MP with 6 people... It does not work so bad and we're all scattered around the globe, playing with 4 (assuming it is you and 3 friends) should work at least for an hour or so (MP was _never_ stable in this games).