Alright, so the Author, Benjamin Danneberg (no idea who that is, he must have joined the magazine after I cancled my subscription) complains about a lot of things:
- Bugs - Bad graphics (but then goes on to tell about how you can simply change them back to how they are suppossed to look in the options), especially upset about the black boarder around the maps. - The more than lackluster localization (that's typically GameStar, they have always cared about that subject a lot [flashbacks to back when Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released ...]) - That some of the chracter writing isn't on point, especially upset about Safana (in his words: "she's become a compliment fishing bimbo") and also about Jaheira (too one dimensional/ passive) and Khalid (too much leadership material) - Biggest of all: Spoilers towards BG2 and ToB - "Confusing and soap opera like writing at times, esepcially in the end"
What he does like are specific quests. He has mixed feelings about the voice acting (likes Minsc & Dynaheir, thinks Corwin is too flat).
------------------------
That about covers it, I think.
In all honesty, as someone who has read the GameStar since childhood, I can tell you that the magazine has lost it's drive. Almost all of the old writers have left by now (they outright fired some of their best in the past -.-). The new guys are nothing to write home about, their reviews are at best boring, generic and miss context and proper insight.
What I would really like to see is a review by Heiko Klinge, back in the good old days of GameStar, he was the biggest Baldur's Gate fan on the team (he literally lost his job back when BG2 came out, because he skipped work to play it more :'D ). He is one of the few old people who is still on the team, so it's really disapointing that he isn't the one who did the review.
But that's just my humble and very biased opinion >.>
PS: This is definetly a negative review, not a mixed one. The author is not at all happy with SoD. The games with mixed reviews usually get a rating from somewhere between 70% to 80%
What I would really like to see is a review by Heiko Klinge, back in the good old days of GameStar, he was the biggest Baldur's Gate fan on the team (he literally lost his job back when BG2 came out, because he skipped work to play it more :'D ).
Okay, this woman deserves a cameo in the next BG project! We should open a feature request. Heiko Klinge, you are my hero!
To be honest, I'm more than a little frustrated that there are so few reviews this far out from release...I feel like they could have done a lot to add some perspective to the "controversy." Why weren't more pre-release copies sent out for review? Was it lack of interest on the part of review sites or a lack of preparedness on the part of Beamdog? I know there was a lot of last minute bug squashing going on and so the game might not have been in the best shape at the time, but still.
I'm about as big a Beamdog supporter as you can find, but this baffles me.
I definitely think that it has also to do with the immediate transition from beta to release. Many game sites simply will not review a game that is still in beta (there are reasons to sustain that position, actually).
Other than that, yeah, it's disappointing. And gamestar lost me as a reader as well as soon as they started giving high scores almost exclusively to games with tripple A budgets.
Yeah I canceled my gamestar subscription some years ago, but mainly because I could get all the information they provided for free in the internet and most of the time there wasnt anything new in the magazine.
Today I spend most of my time on IGN. Im pretty curious what they will give SoD. But it looks like either most of the sites are not interested in SoD or they did get their copy really late and are still playing the game.
It amuses me when people complain about Safana's personality being changed. In BG1 she only had the thinnest veneer of an actual personality. Any development at all would result in a personality change as most players would have projected their own concept on to her as she was such a blank slate.
The german site gamestar just rated Siege of Dragonspear 58/100. Its negative. Apparently they didnt liked the story writing, the change of some npc personalities (Safana, Jaheira and Khalid for example) and had problems with lots of bugs.
I am currently playing BG1 and am really curious how I will like the game. I hope the change of npc personalities is not as drastical as the review site proclaims
The author talks about the flaws he sees in the story in more detail on the official Gamestar forums here:
Here, he makes several claims, e.g. the dream sequences and the slayer transformation taking place in ToB instead of SoA. This matters, because he says that SoD already has things that should take place *much* later.
I also wrote an reply (again in german).
So I am not happy with the review, not because it is negative (see the things about the Bugs). But the critique of the story has many false assumptions about D&D and the original Saga.
I personally can't play without it now, but different strokes for different folks. People should be glad that it's toggleable - I can't think of many developers that make patch updates virtually modular so that everyone can experience the game how they want.
Yes, I'm sure it eventually grows on some people, or maybe even from the get-go, which only adds to my frustration that people would use it in criticizing the game, 1/3 of their basis being that, when it's "Uh hello?...if you don't like it you can turn it off. That simple!" There's nothing more frustrating than reading things like "How did they manage to make the sprites look WORSE than they did 17 years ago?" D'oh!
Edit: Is it just me or the sprites look sharper than before?
Edit: "Other changes aren't going to go over as well for the purists who still replay the original regularly, however. The health bars above everyone really ruins the Baldur's Gate feel (although they can thankfully be toggled off).
Some obvious changes are also missing but feel like they should have been added in the updates to a new edition – like a radius to show you where an area effect spell like entangle or fireball will strike." -Gameskinny
Again if it can be turned off, why make an issue out of it? Moreover, the author would want to add radius visuals...why do I get the feeling that should it have been added, he would also complain? Ah, yes, because he's saying that health bars are not for the purists, when the same can be said to a radius visual.
@Aedan her's a brief summary of a gry-online.pl review (written by Krzysztof "Draug" Mysiak)
After a dozen or so years of interlude we receive another significant chapter of Child of Bhaal’s story. Significant, because as it seems Siege of Dragonspear is by all accounts a worthy successor of Baldur’s Gate trademark.
Pros:
• successful recapture of the atmosphere of the Sword Coast and a memorable reunion with old friends; • compelling and elegantly conducted story, closely tied together with Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2; • absorbing gameplay, with balanced proportions between combat, dialogues, exploration etc.; • atmospheric and catchy music composed by Sam Hullick; • ridiculously low system requirements; • it’s still good old Baldur’s Gate…
Cons:
• …but the question arises, if it’s not too old already (pretty clumsy gameplay mechanics, aged graphics); • linear main storyline (lack of significant choice possibilities); • lots of technical glitches on release date (multiplayer not working properly, bugs, etc.) • lack of Polish version
You have my sword, Beamdog!
I have to admit, I was pretty indifferent, if not skeptical, at first, to the notion of filling the gap between first and second Baldur’s Gate installment, especially with Beamdog as a developer. I wasn’t even convinced by last year’s recommendation from legendary Chris Avellone. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out myself how great game Siege of Dragonspear actually is. It’s best quality is that… it’s a genuine Baldur’s Gate. Advertising the game as a bridge between first and second installment is not only a cheap marketing trick – one can feel Baldur’s Gate soul in new Beamdog’s game. The atmosphere of the Sword Coast, old school technical aspects and possibility of gathering loads of old friends can bring tears to eyes of more sentimental players.
Just as a sidenote, it appears that gamepressure calculates its review scores from player votes. Not sure if that's important.
If you click on the actual score on the gamepressure one, the editors score is actually 8/10.
as for the gameskinny one he makes a lot of fuss out of nothing with the graphics, imo. For one he over exaggerates finding a good zoom level, which takes what... 20 seconds? Though the black borders around the maps I don't like. Other stuff he moans about can be turned off, like others have said.
Having said that I was a little disappointed that the Enhanced versions couldn't quite capture the look of the original and how it played when it was released. The original BG1 sprites are especially missed, and the fact that beamdog didn't have the original source art hurt the overall outcome of the game. Unfortunately the games were designed to work on 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions, so I imagine trying to get it to look good on todays systems is harder than it sounds... I suppose between the originals with mods and the EEs, I prefer the look of the EEs if only because we can zoom in a little so everything doesn't look so far away.
The german site gamestar just rated Siege of Dragonspear 58/100. Its negative. Apparently they didnt liked the story writing, the change of some npc personalities (Safana, Jaheira and Khalid for example) and had problems with lots of bugs.
I am currently playing BG1 and am really curious how I will like the game. I hope the change of npc personalities is not as drastical as the review site proclaims
The author talks about the flaws he sees in the story in more detail on the official Gamestar forums here:
Here, he makes several claims, e.g. the dream sequences and the slayer transformation taking place in ToB instead of SoA. This matters, because he says that SoD already has things that should take place *much* later.
I also wrote an reply (again in german).
So I am not happy with the review, not because it is negative (see the things about the Bugs). But the critique of the story has many false assumptions about D&D and the original Saga.
I personaly felt that the Gamestar-Review was Spot on. Also i could find myself only agreeing with Benjamins explanations in the Forum. But i am Biased here perhaps, since i was at the same conlcusions before reading them^^
PS: This is definetly a negative review, not a mixed one. The author is not at all happy with SoD. The games with mixed reviews usually get a rating from somewhere between 70% to 80%
What should be mentioned is that Mr. Danneberg subtracted 10 points from his score because of the bugs. So once those are fixed the game will get a 68 instead of a 58
It amuses me when people complain about Safana's personality being changed. In BG1 she only had the thinnest veneer of an actual personality. Any development at all would result in a personality change as most players would have projected their own concept on to her as she was such a blank slate.
You get a bit of info in her bio. But she was pretty blank, same as everyone else.
I have to wander if some of the review sites might be waiting to see if Beamdog patches the game before they review it. You know, to give them a chance to fix some stuff up so it doesn't hurt the review. It seems like not many reviews for this game are out there. It's possible since it's an expansion to an old game that it is flying under the radar but BG is a pretty big name and it seems like it's being payed attention to by a large number of gamers for a variety of reasons.
Comments
- Bugs
- Bad graphics (but then goes on to tell about how you can simply change them back to how they are suppossed to look in the options), especially upset about the black boarder around the maps.
- The more than lackluster localization (that's typically GameStar, they have always cared about that subject a lot [flashbacks to back when Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released ...])
- That some of the chracter writing isn't on point, especially upset about Safana (in his words: "she's become a compliment fishing bimbo") and also about Jaheira (too one dimensional/ passive) and Khalid (too much leadership material)
- Biggest of all: Spoilers towards BG2 and ToB
- "Confusing and soap opera like writing at times, esepcially in the end"
What he does like are specific quests. He has mixed feelings about the voice acting (likes Minsc & Dynaheir, thinks Corwin is too flat).
------------------------
That about covers it, I think.
In all honesty, as someone who has read the GameStar since childhood, I can tell you that the magazine has lost it's drive. Almost all of the old writers have left by now (they outright fired some of their best in the past -.-). The new guys are nothing to write home about, their reviews are at best boring, generic and miss context and proper insight.
What I would really like to see is a review by Heiko Klinge, back in the good old days of GameStar, he was the biggest Baldur's Gate fan on the team (he literally lost his job back when BG2 came out, because he skipped work to play it more :'D ). He is one of the few old people who is still on the team, so it's really disapointing that he isn't the one who did the review.
But that's just my humble and very biased opinion >.>
PS: This is definetly a negative review, not a mixed one. The author is not at all happy with SoD.
The games with mixed reviews usually get a rating from somewhere between 70% to 80%
That's my girl!!!
I smelt a rat, that's why I asked you a feedback about that review.
Thank you very much
Heiko Klinge, you are my hero!
I'm about as big a Beamdog supporter as you can find, but this baffles me.
Other than that, yeah, it's disappointing. And gamestar lost me as a reader as well as soon as they started giving high scores almost exclusively to games with tripple A budgets.
Today I spend most of my time on IGN. Im pretty curious what they will give SoD. But it looks like either most of the sites are not interested in SoD or they did get their copy really late and are still playing the game.
Positive:
ThreeNovices.wordpress.com 87/100
gamepressure.com 7.3/10
zam.com no score
Mixed:
gameskinny.com 5/10
http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboard/showthread.php?t=451565
(sorry, in german)
Here, he makes several claims, e.g. the dream sequences and the slayer transformation taking place in ToB instead of SoA. This matters, because he says that SoD already has things that should take place *much* later.
I also wrote an reply (again in german).
So I am not happy with the review, not because it is negative (see the things about the Bugs). But the critique of the story has many false assumptions about D&D and the original Saga.
I agree. I did not like the outline, so I turned it off. Simple. I do not understand why some people complain.
Edit: Is it just me or the sprites look sharper than before?
Edit: "Other changes aren't going to go over as well for the purists who still replay the original regularly, however. The health bars above everyone really ruins the Baldur's Gate feel (although they can thankfully be toggled off).
Some obvious changes are also missing but feel like they should have been added in the updates to a new edition – like a radius to show you where an area effect spell like entangle or fireball will strike." -Gameskinny
Again if it can be turned off, why make an issue out of it? Moreover, the author would want to add radius visuals...why do I get the feeling that should it have been added, he would also complain? Ah, yes, because he's saying that health bars are not for the purists, when the same can be said to a radius visual.
After a dozen or so years of interlude we receive another significant chapter of Child of Bhaal’s story. Significant, because as it seems Siege of Dragonspear is by all accounts a worthy successor of Baldur’s Gate trademark.
Pros:
• successful recapture of the atmosphere of the Sword Coast and a memorable reunion with old friends;
• compelling and elegantly conducted story, closely tied together with Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2;
• absorbing gameplay, with balanced proportions between combat, dialogues, exploration etc.;
• atmospheric and catchy music composed by Sam Hullick;
• ridiculously low system requirements;
• it’s still good old Baldur’s Gate…
Cons:
• …but the question arises, if it’s not too old already (pretty clumsy gameplay mechanics, aged graphics);
• linear main storyline (lack of significant choice possibilities);
• lots of technical glitches on release date (multiplayer not working properly, bugs, etc.)
• lack of Polish version
You have my sword, Beamdog!
I have to admit, I was pretty indifferent, if not skeptical, at first, to the notion of filling the gap between first and second Baldur’s Gate installment, especially with Beamdog as a developer. I wasn’t even convinced by last year’s recommendation from legendary Chris Avellone. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out myself how great game Siege of Dragonspear actually is. It’s best quality is that… it’s a genuine Baldur’s Gate. Advertising the game as a bridge between first and second installment is not only a cheap marketing trick – one can feel Baldur’s Gate soul in new Beamdog’s game. The atmosphere of the Sword Coast, old school technical aspects and possibility of gathering loads of old friends can bring tears to eyes of more sentimental players.
And here I was about to post it...
as for the gameskinny one he makes a lot of fuss out of nothing with the graphics, imo. For one he over exaggerates finding a good zoom level, which takes what... 20 seconds? Though the black borders around the maps I don't like. Other stuff he moans about can be turned off, like others have said.
Having said that I was a little disappointed that the Enhanced versions couldn't quite capture the look of the original and how it played when it was released. The original BG1 sprites are especially missed, and the fact that beamdog didn't have the original source art hurt the overall outcome of the game. Unfortunately the games were designed to work on 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions, so I imagine trying to get it to look good on todays systems is harder than it sounds... I suppose between the originals with mods and the EEs, I prefer the look of the EEs if only because we can zoom in a little so everything doesn't look so far away.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-baldur-s-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-352947.phtml
Edit: oops didn't see the post above. I checked the front page and didn't see it because it's not updated.
Yeah, too bad they didn't give the option to use the old (and much better IMO) UI
Failboat!