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User Ratings on Metacritic (*SPOILERS*)

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  • TenreccTenrecc Member Posts: 265

    Tenrecc said:

    And half the time they're neutral and I have no idea why.

    Then you aren't paying much attention to the game. Maybe that's your problem.
    You are very right. Though if a seasoned bg lover like me can get lost this easily, I'm afraid what it could be for newer players.
    I guess. Honestly, I think the only reason I figured it out was because of how Game of Thrones handled Jaime Lannister not being recognized on his trip with Brianne. Back in the day without photos and internet, knowing how people looked without actually having meeting them was quite difficult.

    Although I guess it would've been easier in Faerûn. Since they already have much information about your character after having encountered you at the broken bridge. In my case, it would've been look for a half-elf in shining armor with a mace and a warhammer, travelling with a dwarf with swords, a gnome with a bow, an elf with a bow and two humans, one in full plate armor and one in cloth. For example.

    But I'm ranting. I liked how it was handled in the game though.
  • GrimLefourbeGrimLefourbe Member Posts: 637
    @Illydth Just as I said for others, It's tough to see people shitting on all of your work for a very small part of it but it's not representative of the player's opinion, don't let yourself get down because of this, there's plenty more people like me who appreciated the game and are ready to follow beamdog to the next episode.
    NonnahswriterAbelEnialusMeliamne
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    edited April 2016
    @Illydth: Keep in mind that most of the vitriol is coming from people who had posted few if any times before today -- and they haven't necessarily brought out the best in the rest of us. It's been a rough day, but the voices on these forums are usually much more reasonable and positive. I still haven't played SoD (I have a support request in), but I'm loving the new patch in my current playthrough of BG2EE. You guys do great work.

    (I literally had "don't let the gibberlings get you down" written here before reloading to see that @Inconnu had ninja'd me. Is that a thing? I thought I had just come up with it.)
    cognoscentusNonnahswriterAbel
  • InconnuInconnu Member Posts: 99
    joluv said:

    @Illydth: Keep in mind that most of the vitriol is coming from people who had posted few if any times before today -- and they haven't necessarily brought out the best in the rest of us. It's been a rough day, but the voices on these forums are usually much more reasonable and positive. I still haven't played SoD (I have a support request in), but I'm loving the new patch in my current playthrough of 2.0. You guys do great work.

    (I literally had "don't let the gibberlings get you down" written here before reloading to see that @Inconnu had ninja'd me. Is that a thing? I thought I had just come up with it.)

    Not a thing as far as I know.
    Must be the Illithid elder brain. Best not to question it.
    joluvIllustair
  • IllydthIllydth Member, Developer Posts: 1,641
    @joluv is there something specific in your support request I can help you look into?
  • KrotosKrotos Member Posts: 156
    @joluv @Illydth Sorry for hijacking this a bit, but there's a support request I made on April 1st that hasn't been answered or assigned to anyone yet. Any chance you could have a look?

    @MetaCritic: I'm just hoping it will stabilise soon.
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    @Illydth: I couldn't figure out how to buy just SoD from Beamdog even though I already own BG:EE from Beamdog. BG:EE gets automatically added to my cart and then I can't remove it without removing both.
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    I wouldn't worry too much about the Metacritic User Score. If you're going to post a review, assign the score that you feel is appropriate; there's no need to overcorrect for a few hyperbolic reviews.
  • ArunsunArunsun Member Posts: 1,592
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50320/so-what-do-you-say-is-beamdog-in

    I believe that this poll says it all.
    These forums are actually where most BG lovers are, and if BG lovers say the game is nearly as good or just as good as BG, then I believe it's quite a performance.
    I, for one, have never played any game as much as I played BG and BG2. Even now, while I enjoy other games, there are none I enjoy quite as much as the BG series. Well, except SoD which is in my opinion just as good as BG is and nearly as good as BG2.
    PurudayaJuliusBorisovAbelEnialusMeliamne
  • IllydthIllydth Member, Developer Posts: 1,641
    @joluv Unforutnately that's one thing I cannot help you with as much as I'd like to. I'll see if I can get someone to look at it though.

    @Krotos What is your support request? What issues were you running into?
    joluv
  • mikklemikkle Member Posts: 39
    I haven't played the game yet, if the new content is like the Enhanced Edition NPCs then I believe its bad, if it's better then these negative reviews are unfair. And bugs happen often during the game releases I guess,
  • PurudayaPurudaya Member Posts: 816
    Arunsun said:

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50320/so-what-do-you-say-is-beamdog-in

    I believe that this poll says it all.
    These forums are actually where most BG lovers are, and if BG lovers say the game is nearly as good or just as good as BG, then I believe it's quite a performance.
    I, for one, have never played any game as much as I played BG and BG2. Even now, while I enjoy other games, there are none I enjoy quite as much as the BG series. Well, except SoD which is in my opinion just as good as BG is and nearly as good as BG2.

    I said I wouldn't reply to anything else in this thread, but I'll make an exception to second this. Release bugs aside, Siege of Dragonspear really is an achievement that everyone at Beamdog should be tremendously proud of. I expected the game to offer a fun diversion, but I didn't expect it to seemlessly bring me back to the franchise as if I were playing it for the first time. More please! :smile:
    NonnahswriterJuliusBorisov
  • SirBatinceSirBatince Member Posts: 882
    Illydth said:

    Have we got proof it's actually about the priest thing?

    To be blunt honest, I haven't found the gameplay very very interesting. It's me vs an entire encampment of enemies over and over. And half the time they're neutral and I have no idea why.

    I'll address this specifically since I'm taking an absolute "no comment" position on anything related to the hubub happening around here this afternoon.

    I would like to know how you've missed a large portion of the game story. I'm going to spoiler the next part of my commentary only because it's my policy not to give anything away on the game.


    * There is no "encampment" in chapter 7.
    * The only "encampment" in chapter 8 is pre-coast way crossing, and I don't suspect you're talking about this.
    * This leads us to Chapter 9, the first place where you really get involved with/engaged with the Crusade. I assume you're talking about being able to walk through the crusade encampment unmolested here? There are a couple comments I'll address below.
    * Then there's Chapter 10 where your quest takes you both to the Castle of Dragonspear and to the entrance to the Underground Cavern. Both of these I'll address below also.
    * From chapter 11 on, there's no encounters with the crusade that's "friendly".

    Generally
    You're in medieval times, it's not as if you've been photographed and put up on the internet for the world to see. The VAST MAJORITY of the crusade and the entire sword coast wouldn't recognize you from Adam unless you introduce yourself.

    And...in many cases you have the opportunity to do exactly that. In some of those cases, the NPC's refuse to believe you (such as out front of the Crusade Encampment). I mean, after all, who the hell is suicidal enough to walk up to the enemy encampment and simply ANNOUNCE they're the dreaded person that everyone is looking for?

    In other cases, announcing yourself does, indeed, provoke the reaction you can expect from you doing so...You're who? GET HIM!...in many cases starting mass combat.

    Chapter 9
    So lets talk chapter 9 specifically. You can meet crusaders trapped in cells in the Temple of Cyric. Were you in that scenario, would you really care who it was saving you?

    You can also meet crusaders out front of the encampment. Maybe this is the most egregious place, but by this point your reputation isn't such that you're one to walk up to someone and say "hey, i know you have an ARMY full of armed people, behind those walls, but i'm the dude you've all been fighting this entire war to get ahold of...just, wanted to let you know!"

    Once you get past those guards at the gate, you have Caelar's Seal...an item that ONLY people who follow Caelar carry. Ok, maybe it's naive of the crusade to think that anyone with a seal is one of them (addressed in chapter 10) but please remember how this crusade is coming together: Caelar is marching through towns and farms and cities, burning them to the ground, killing and looting as most mob armies do, and conscripting people or persuading them to join her cause. People are flocking to her banner left, right and sideways. As a member of that camp even says: They're getting recruits faster than they can know who they're getting.

    Sure you're wandering around the encampment without being questioned...so is everyone else. It's not as if you're an armed guy in an unarmed encampment, this is an ARMY you're one of THOUSANDS.

    AND to top that off there IS even an encounter you can trigger within the encampment in chapter 9 that DOES give you away, you ARE recognized and it DOES start the battle...I am trying to figure out where we missed the boat here

    Chapter 10
    That brings us to chapter 10. UGR is the same story as the fort in chapter 9...Caelar's army is just too large and too spread out to know every single individual. It'd be MORE non-sensical if everyone DID know who you were and WAS able to spot you from a mile away. Even the Daggerford and Waterdeep contingent of your OWN ARMY end up addressing you with things like "Oh, so you're the hero of Baldur's Gate huh?"

    Dragonspear Castle is another story entirely, but I still believe we've covered our bases writing wise. Unless you feel like the entire sword coast should know you by face on sight, Dragonspear Castle also seems to work for me. By this point the Crusade is busy planning it's attack and it's not ready to just let anyone into the castle...the front gate stops you and will not let you enter unless you are ALREADY one of Caelar's chosen...again, identifying that the crusade is getting more cautious.

    That said, if you have the seal you are still able to identify yourself as one of Caelar's faithful and be let in...but again, you're in under cover...and there are more places where you can trip yourself up.


    I'm really interested in your opinion of what you missed in the story that didn't catch you as to why you're allowed to walk free in Caelar's Encampments. The story elements are there (or at least we feel they are). How should we / should we have made it clear that you're simply an unrecognized person?

    Or do you feel after spending all your time around Baldur's Gate in BG1 that your face and name should be on the eyes and lips up and down the entire sword coast? (Not intended to be sarcastic, if that's your opinion I'd like to hear that).
    By all means please don't waste your time on me. I guess I'm just a really dumb individual with a dumb opinion.

    All I'm saying is it's very unusual to be given the choice to spend the entire game around enemies that turn out to not be enemies after all. Roaming around constantly wondering wheter you should kill everyone or not was just not my cup of tea. I don't particularly believe IE games are any good at stealth. That and the few dozens errand quests involving item fetching. Bioware's adventures always made it crystal clear who's the people opposing you and what you should do about it. Most camps also had so many things happening on the screen at once I honestly stumbled around blind for a half an hour (pressing TAB would just flood my screen with giant black name boxes).

    Sorry for being stupid. :anguished:
    Insultion
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited April 2016
    If you spend anytime reading user reviews on Metacritic in general, you'll find that most of them never even learned to use capital letters or how to construct a paragraph. If you look at the reviews of THIS specific game (which barely anyone could have POSSIBLY completed by now) you'll see alot of 0/10 scores that mention social justice issues being rammed down their throat. If anyone has an agenda here, it isn't Beamdog....
    craymond727JuliusBorisovKrotospeko
  • VyrulisseVyrulisse Member Posts: 108
    edited April 2016
    I wouldn't worry overmuch about Metacritic User Scores. Most people I know and have talked to in my time see them as a joke, easily spammable by trolls and other children with a temper. They get bored quickly and move on giving the true reviews room to breath and it eventually evens out to where it should be. :)
    SirBatince
  • InsultionInsultion Member Posts: 179
    edited April 2016
    Illydth said:


    @deltago

    No, it's not my first day on the internet. I had rather hoped this small community of game lovers might be a little less 4 chan and a little more...I don't know...humane?

    Maybe I had forgotten in my time away from posting that the forums here are no different than anywhere else around the internet. That anywhere on the internet there will always be a mass of opinions and the loudest of those will always be the most controversial.

    I want to tell you a secret; 4chan isn't indicative of the majority of the internet, or the majority of the populace at large. In fact...

    4chan is comprised primarily out of folks like us. That's why /tg/ exists, aye? /vg/, as well.

    @SirBatince Nono, I want to make it very clear that, doing a good playthrough first, I was uncomfortably torn between helping the corrupt flaming Fist Mercenaries over the Crusade for a cause arguably just. Especially when you witness very little of the 'aftermath' of the crusade's swath of destruction aside from 'lol lots of sprites on screen' (which was abused, imho, in a lot of ways, and not used to its fullest potential in others.)

    On topic, I have to say the thing that held this game back so much in my mind WAS the morality issue; or rather... lack thereof. The only deception Caelar herself put forth was the idea that she was saving many, as opposed to a few. The real enemy was Hephernaan, and he was boring and without real personality, unlike Caelar who DID come off as a charismatic leader, as professed. I think there was one time total that I said to myself 'Okay, Caelar needs to be stopped' and it was a short blurb that I can't even recall specifics about.


    I digress. The point is I share the sentiment, as a long time DM and lover of these games. I understand there is a lack of freedom in its being a video game, but I would have preferred that railroad to feel... less off track, so to speak. Hopefully my meaning isn't too lost in translation, I can tend to ramble.

    As to you, @Illydth I suggest you do as both you and I have said we would, and stay out of this entirely (however hard it may be. It is for me, at least.)
    Post edited by Insultion on
  • IllydthIllydth Member, Developer Posts: 1,641
    @SirBatince

    I actually did NOT want that to come across as sarcastic in any way, I am ACTUALLY ASKING YOU for what went wrong in our story that the pieces of the puzzle as to why you were able to walk around the crusade camps without being acosted didn't come across.

    I sincerely do apologize if you read my post as a shot at you or as me telling you you're stupid, that was 100% exactly opposite the intent I was trying to provide. I'll actually offer to edit the post I put above if there are specific parts of that you feel denote me calling you or infering you are stupid.

    Not my intent, I am attempting to solicit feedback from someone who I believe can help me understand better where the confusion is coming in and not attempting to call you an idiot.

    You have my apologies sir. Any feedback you'd like to provide would actually be most appreciated.
    SirBatinceNonnahswriterKrotosEnialusMeliamne
  • PurudayaPurudaya Member Posts: 816
    edited April 2016
    Insultion said:

    Illydth said:


    @deltago

    No, it's not my first day on the internet. I had rather hoped this small community of game lovers might be a little less 4 chan and a little more...I don't know...humane?

    Maybe I had forgotten in my time away from posting that the forums here are no different than anywhere else around the internet. That anywhere on the internet there will always be a mass of opinions and the loudest of those will always be the most controversial.

    I want to tell you a secret; 4chan isn't indicative of the majority of the internet, or the majority of the populace at large. In fact...

    4chan is comprised primarily out of folks like us. That's why /tg/ exists, aye? /vg/, as well.

    @SirBatince Nono, I want to make it very clear that, doing a good playthrough first, I was uncomfortably torn between helping the corrupt flaming Fist Mercenaries over the Crusade for a cause arguably just. Especially when you witness very little of the 'aftermath' of the crusade's swath of destruction aside from 'lol lots of sprites on screen' (which was abused, imho, in a lot of ways, and not used to its fullest potential in others.)

    On topic, I have to say the thing that held this game back so much in my mind WAS the morality issue; or rather... lack thereof. The only deception Caelar herself put forth was the idea that she was saving many, as opposed to a few. The real enemy was Hephernaan, and he was boring and without real personality, unlike Caelar who DID come off as a charismatic leader, as professed. I think there was one time total that I said to myself 'Okay, Caelar needs to be stopped' and it was a short blurb that I can't even recall specifics about.

    I digress. The point is I share the sentiment, as a long time DM and lover of these games. I understand there is a lack of freedom in its being a video game, but I would have preferred that railroad to feel... less off track, so to speak. Hopefully my meaning isn't too lost in translation, I can tend to ramble.

    As to you, @Illydth I suggest you do as both you and I have said we would, and stay out of this entirely (however hard it may be. It is for me, at least.)
    re: "the real enemy" - don't forget spoiler tags :smile:
  • InsultionInsultion Member Posts: 179
    Purudaya said:


    re: "the real enemy" - don't forget spoiler tags :smile:

    Shite, meant to when I was writing it and forgot, thank you.
  • IllydthIllydth Member, Developer Posts: 1,641
    edited April 2016
    @Insultion Um...I have no idea how far anyone has gotten so I will not detail this in any way.

    There is a dialog toward the end of the game that will explain the right and wrongness of Caelar's Crusade. Apparently that dialog may be (while not miss-able) somewhat easy to misunderstand or miss critical parts of.

    If you have completed the game, please read the spoiler below. If you have not DO NOT READ THIS SPOILER, it is about as ultimate a spoiler as you can get.


    You do realize that the entirety of Caelar's crusade was to save ONLY Aun from Hell. In the final dialog between Hephernan, Bhelefet and Caelar, it is revealed that Caelar knew that Dragonspear dead were unsavable and she knew it all along. The ONLY person her entire crusade was to save was her Uncle. Thousands of lives lost, a war started and atrocities committed all over only the most selfish of reasons...her own guilt over having lost her uncle to Hell because of her own actions.

    If that did NOT come through, PLEASE let me know.


    If the spoiler information is as you understood the ending, please expand upon (in spoiler please since we are talking about the ending of the game) your statement of "I have to say the thing that held this game back so much in my mind WAS the morality issue; or rather... lack thereof."

    I'd be VERY VERY interested in hearing your take on this. Feel free to PM me if you don't feel it belongs in this thread.

    I also tagged the thread for spoilers as well, just in case. Please continue using spoiler tags to talk about the details of the game even though the thread is tagged for spoilers.
    Nonnahswriter
  • fenrirwolfsbornfenrirwolfsborn Member Posts: 13
    edited April 2016
    It is beyond absurd to let political views influence the way you score the game on Metacritic. That score should be based on the actual game mechanics, playability and story, not what you perceive to be the games "agenda." A radical Islamist for instance would be horribly offended most likely that all the women were not in burkas and had roles of power, but that doesn't mean they should give the game a 0 on Metacritic, but should rather review based on how the game played. Tis sad indeed.

    I have played every computer role playing game from Ultima I through Witcher 3, and always had fondness of BG I and BG 2. Despite some annoying bugs, I am enjoying this one so far as well, and that is good praise with my experience in the RPG format. The top-down isometric system is a good one for a rpg and I hope there are more of these games, and certainly hope there is more Baldur's Gate, or at least D&D.

    As far as people running their mouths on the Net over every little controversy, you have to understand a lot of these people have no social life. In real life their opinions go unheard, and they go unnoticed, so they attempt to get heard and garner a little attention by stirring up trouble on the Net. Taking every little small thing and blowing out of proportion. It adds a little drama to the otherwise boring lives. It is just sad really, and they a bit pitiable, if it weren’t for the fact that sometimes running their mouths can tank game reviews like this, or do other destructive things.
    IllustairBelfaldurnikbooinyoureyes
  • IllydthIllydth Member, Developer Posts: 1,641


    By all means please don't waste your time on me. I guess I'm just a really dumb individual with a dumb opinion.

    @SirBatince As I said, it was not intended to sound that way and I'm happy to edit out or fix up any part of my message that makes it sound as such. You have my personal apology. I do not, in any way, believe you to be stupid.


    All I'm saying is it's very unusual to be given the choice to spend the entire game around enemies that turn out to not be enemies after all. Roaming around constantly wondering wheter you should kill everyone or not was just not my cup of tea. I don't particularly believe IE games are any good at stealth. That and the few dozens errand quests involving item fetching. Bioware's adventures always made it crystal clear who's the people opposing you and what you should do about it. Most camps also had so many things happening on the screen at once I honestly stumbled around blind for a half an hour (pressing TAB would just flood my screen with giant black name boxes).

    So moving through actors that were identified as your enemies but which you weren't being shown you should kill (because they were all neutral) was off-putting to your enjoyment of the game.

    Regarding Bioware's BG:EE and BG2:EE, yes, they were absolutely different stories...much less nuanced. I suspect the writers wanted to tell a deeper story with BG:SoD, it sounds like maybe you felt the story was a bit too deep and or not well enough explained?

    Regarding the camps having too much happening in them, are you specifically talking about the Crusade camp in chapter 9 and DSC in Chapter 10? Or are you talking about other locations (such as the allied seige camp in Chapter 10?) as well?

    SoD is a much more Dense game than BG1 or BG2. One of the big complaints about how BG1/2 reacted is that you went for long stretches in areas with absolutely nothing going on. In BG1 this was most egregious as you'd wander up and down an area and by the 5 minutes it took you to un-fog of war the entire map, you'd met 3 encounters and maybe a random spawn or two. SoD Took a different approach and made the areas more dense and more interactive. It's rare, in SoD, to move more than half a screen or so without some kind of interaction with something.

    Are you saying you felt we packed too much into these zones?
    Abel
  • UltraB00nUltraB00n Member Posts: 37
    Purudaya said:

    Congrats, everyone – we might not get future BG content because people are actively trying to tank this game. If you've actually PLAYED SoD, I would strongly encourage you leave a review of your own.

    I'm sorry, but Beamdog have decided, by their own volition, to enter the dangerous minefield of the toxic culture wars. If you put yourself in the line of fire, even though there is absolutely no reason to do so, then you might catch a bullet. Deal with it.

    CoffeethrallQbertValchrist
  • YamchaYamcha Member Posts: 486
    most of the zero points reviews are accounts with exactly one review...

    (some of top point reviews too - strange)
    InsultionKrotosBelfaldurnik
  • GrimLefourbeGrimLefourbe Member Posts: 637
    I did sign up to put a review because I felt like some honest reviews were needed to counterbalance the brigading ones. I don't think you should look at it like fake accounts, I never felt the need to review a game until SoD and it's probably the same for these people who were outraged by the presence of a transgender character.
    kotekoValchrist
  • RatcliffRatcliff Member Posts: 43
    @Illydth

    I love BG, my favorite game series; and I'm glad you guys remade it.

    But I wish you guys didn't pick a side in the video game culture war. :(

    I'm curious, is their any talk at all over there about changing anything or of the possibility that adding that content was a mistake?

    Thanks for reading my post, good luck with everything.
    MyrdiNNQbertValchrist
This discussion has been closed.