Time for -my- review on dragonspear :D
Mrpenfold666
Member Posts: 428
ok i have just beat the expansion and now im in the mood to write my review of the expansion and my thoughts on the cast and overall story.
im going to make this as spoiler free as possible but i make no promises, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
so the story. it was alot bigger than I thought, i genuinely expected this to be not as long as beamdog claimed and im glad I was wrong.
the story was a bit impersonal to me, it felt like the hero of baldurs gate had no real reason to get involved other than "they attacked me once" (im pretty sure getting attacked doesn't count as a spoiler) but then again what do you expect to brand new content to a game 18 years old, honestly i was more excited to just be playing something new, and i got gripped later on in the story but the beginning could have done some work, it felt a bit rushed but nothing major but it did leave me wanting more and a sour taste in my mouth because of the ending (which leads to the start of baldurs gate 2 so again not a spoiler) so you did good there
i cant comment on the difficulty because there was an odd glitch that meant the game somehow got locked in story mode and the difficulty slider was greyed out (hopefully it will be fixed by the time i get round to playing it again)
the cast i have no problems with Corwin was really well written, i didn't get a chance to spend much time with the goblin as i swapped her out for jaheria as i needed another frontline hitter (not knowing that characters cannot die in story mode) next time im going to use the skald and the gnome and see where that takes me.
the "controversial" character didn't bother me in the slightest and i have no idea why it has been causing such a big problem when you literally have to ask the character directly in order to learn the apparent big bad secret
*ahem* rant over there were quite a few characters i didn't expect to see like dyhneheir and minsc (so happy to have him though) and neera and dorn no rashaad but then again i could never find him. safana, edwin, a good verity to mix in with all the new people.
i think that covers everything as spoiler free as possible so time for my overall verdict and final statement:
I loved this expansion and i will be playing it everytime I beat baldur's gate, I liked the writing, it wasn't the best but I liked it most importantly I had FUN playing through this, I had a smile on my face pretty much the whole way through. apart from the story mode bug I have very few complaints and so im going to give this an 8/10 -1 point because of the bug and -1 point because like i said the writing wasn't the best but i liked it.
if this is the sort of caliber i can expect in future beam dog original content i expect im going to be a very happy customer.
if anyone would like to comment and reply to what i thought or ask more indepth questions spoiler free or not feel free
EDIT: i forgot to mention the villain: ive seen this sort of thing plenty of times so it wasn't ground breaking but it was fine, no complaints, i liked the little twist that the story throws you, i saw it coming but i liked it still
im going to make this as spoiler free as possible but i make no promises, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
so the story. it was alot bigger than I thought, i genuinely expected this to be not as long as beamdog claimed and im glad I was wrong.
the story was a bit impersonal to me, it felt like the hero of baldurs gate had no real reason to get involved other than "they attacked me once" (im pretty sure getting attacked doesn't count as a spoiler) but then again what do you expect to brand new content to a game 18 years old, honestly i was more excited to just be playing something new, and i got gripped later on in the story but the beginning could have done some work, it felt a bit rushed but nothing major but it did leave me wanting more and a sour taste in my mouth because of the ending (which leads to the start of baldurs gate 2 so again not a spoiler) so you did good there
i cant comment on the difficulty because there was an odd glitch that meant the game somehow got locked in story mode and the difficulty slider was greyed out (hopefully it will be fixed by the time i get round to playing it again)
the cast i have no problems with Corwin was really well written, i didn't get a chance to spend much time with the goblin as i swapped her out for jaheria as i needed another frontline hitter (not knowing that characters cannot die in story mode) next time im going to use the skald and the gnome and see where that takes me.
the "controversial" character didn't bother me in the slightest and i have no idea why it has been causing such a big problem when you literally have to ask the character directly in order to learn the apparent big bad secret
actually screw it, im going to rant about this for a while. the transgender character. WHY ARE PEOPLE UPSET ABOUT THIS?!?!?! in the game that came out in 1998 YES THE ORIGINAL ONE there was a freaking belt of gender swapping and in the lore of forgotten realms one of the main characters (khelben blackstaff or elminster i can't remember which) was FORCED to swap genders by a god to learn what it was like. people didn't care about those things back in 1998 and i would say having actual transexual characters is a bit of a step up from the transgender person we get. GET THE HELL OVER IT
*ahem* rant over there were quite a few characters i didn't expect to see like dyhneheir and minsc (so happy to have him though) and neera and dorn no rashaad but then again i could never find him. safana, edwin, a good verity to mix in with all the new people.
i think that covers everything as spoiler free as possible so time for my overall verdict and final statement:
I loved this expansion and i will be playing it everytime I beat baldur's gate, I liked the writing, it wasn't the best but I liked it most importantly I had FUN playing through this, I had a smile on my face pretty much the whole way through. apart from the story mode bug I have very few complaints and so im going to give this an 8/10 -1 point because of the bug and -1 point because like i said the writing wasn't the best but i liked it.
if this is the sort of caliber i can expect in future beam dog original content i expect im going to be a very happy customer.
if anyone would like to comment and reply to what i thought or ask more indepth questions spoiler free or not feel free
EDIT: i forgot to mention the villain: ive seen this sort of thing plenty of times so it wasn't ground breaking but it was fine, no complaints, i liked the little twist that the story throws you, i saw it coming but i liked it still
2
Comments
Maybe that framing of murder taking place first, and the campaign is your probation?
As good aligned CHAR I was fine with the idea that I am on the march again.
Really loving the character of the main antagonist of BG2, and his voice actor David Warner, SoD is really a satisfying bridge between BG and BG2 for me.
For David, I might have to roll a commanding male CHAR even! Prefer female hero, perso, but there has been been place for exceptions, and David would have to be one, no!?