I finished the BG city... (spoilers)

JuliusBorisov

Earlier I shared my views on the starting dungeon of SoD. I'm a slow player, and moderating the forum takes a lot of time, so there's no quick progress on my part. Yesterday I finished all quests in the BG city and set off for the North. I want to share impressions about this part of the game.

The BG city, although very restricted in terms of area sizes, is full of minor quests. One could call them "fetch" quests but I actually found them to be quite diverse.

My most memorable moment from this part was using the Spectacles of Spectacle. I have found the feature to see creatures from other Planes and pull them into the world of Faerun to be quite interesting and new for BG. I immediately remembered how I had always wanted to see something like this in the Spellhold, with one of its inhabitants telling the main character about seeing creatures from other Planes. Now I have got exactly that.

I didn't expect that the creature from another Plane, seen shortly after getting the Spectacles of Spectacle for the first time, would be hostile, so it was quite a fight when an evil Fire Elemental (who would hit hard on Insane) appeared right in the centre of a tavern when my party only had Minsc and Dynaheir. Corwin and her badass bow helped there.

My second most memorable moment happened in The Three Old Kegs inn. I don't even mention talking to Dynaheir and Minsc there. I was impressed by a situation with conspiracy against the Council. As a result of my answers I had to kill all involved, and when I returned to Corwin and told her about it my reputation dropped. The whole fact I could report about what was done and get a deferred penalty was new to me. In the same line was a sudden teleportation of the tavern's superviser when my party killed a bodyguard of a noble woman - I had thought there would be no witnesses but the game surprised me.

@Tresset revealed to me that the bar fight on the first level of The Three Old Kegs inn was a Star Trek easter-egg, created by Phillip Daigle. I didn't know that when solved that quest but now it seems like an interesting hidden thing.

Speaking about deferred things, I must mention a dialogue option with Entar Silvershield about Skie. I hesitated on whether to tell "daddy" about his daughter's decision or not, but in the end chose to be frank with him. Maybe because his French accent bought my heart. And I was surprised that the Grand Duke gifted me a ring as a result of my sincerity.

I liked an encounter with Safana, and enjoyed the Stephanie Wolfe's voice over work there: "Come in, come in".

An encounter with Rasaad impressed me in a different way - because of the dialogue options I chose I couldn't convince him to join my party. The fact that this result wasn't evident from the dialogue options is fresh - it was different from "Yes, join me" and "No, I don't want you in my party".

I think the quest of searching the right red wine was new for this kind of a game. The Ducal Palace's basement gave me another impression - when my character activated a trap on the locked chest there the door behind him closed and required using open locks skill.

Overall, I think that the city in SoD is full of small discoveries, especially sweet for those who got used to old BG city, like statues in the Iron Throne building.

Most importantly, I perceived this part of the game differently than the opening dungeon. This variety is welcome and is fully in the spirit of BG.

Philhelm

I enjoyed the unexpected encounter with Lon. What's funny is that I didn't think anything of the names of the two characters until right after the encounter, then I was like, "Shoulda seen that one coming."

Chidojuan

I think it was really clever of Beamdog to have your banker lose all of your money. I was genuinely frustrated with him and immediately began looking for my lost coin. It was a great way to suck you right into the game. I loved it.