How accurate/canon are the Enhanced versions of BeamDog's games to the Originals?

CoreCore

How canon (or accurate) are the Enhanced versions of BeamDog's games to the Originals?

Are they worse or better than the originals in immersion, artwork, story, quest, voice, combat, and lastly playability? (plz ignore new graphic levels & any new music). Primarily, does it "feel" like you're truly playing the same games, but that everything is better or enhanced, that there's actually much more now, and that nothing is "missing" except crashes & bugs?

Ardul

In my opinion they are much better, with plenty of quality of life improvements - instant saving and loading being just one of them. One could argue that the new NPCs do stick out, but there are mods to get rid of them, if you feel that way.

Kamigoroshi

The new NPC's certainly have a different feel to the original ones. Both in the way they are implemented and their personal quest's content. Which are far more fleshed out than any BG1/BG2 companions previously had. This doesn't come as a surpise though, given that different people were involved in their creation. So many purists opt to remove them.

That is to say Beamdog got rid of the loading screens. So you will not be able to "marvel" at their particular artworks anymore. Which hurts a bit in BG2's case with its mosaic artworks.

The video sequences are a mixed bag: while a handful were reworked from scratch (such as the intro), many others were removed outright. That is to say if you're interesting in restoring the original ones you can use the BG:EE Classic Movies mod.

gorgonzola

I play mainly bg2, and i still play both the original and the EE version.
About EE the gui is better, the load times faster. The new npcs have longer complex quests and probably not only cause now there are no more issues of disk space and program size.

Beamdog had not the permission to modify existing npcs or the plots and quests, so to play original or EE, if the new npcs are not used, is basically the same.

What Beamdog coul do is to fix bugs and exploits, and they did it.
To have 3 PI clones at the same time trough a chain contingency and many other exploits are no more possible in EE.

If SoD is factored in to import charname from it give a huge xp boost to the party, and possibly (i dont own SoD) make the beginning easier.

EE allow the use of some modern mods that are no original compatible, but some old mods had never got an update for EE.

I like to play original with not EE compatible mods that i still like to play nowadays, and for the more research freedom, as less expoits are nerfed and i have fun in fighting the battles in not conventional ways.

And i like to play EE to use new mods, for the gui and fast load times, i love the auto looting function, and as i like some EE npcs.

I rate both the same, fantastic games, as i feel that EE has added something, but somehow also took away something other.

ThacoBell

The EEs are better 99.9% of the time. Its no contest.

CoreCore

How did they do on their own expansion, how well did it fit in, did the story begin well play well end well?

DJKajuru

CoreCore wrote: »

How did they do on their own expansion, how well did it fit in, did the story begin well play well end well?

SoD is officially meant to fill the gap between BG and SoA but in my opinion ot's mostly a very different story arc for Gorion's ward. It offers a new main quest which is similar to ToB regarding linearity , a blend of old and new npcs with banters/interjections/romances and a couple of side quests and dungeons. It is different from original BG1 regarding pc-npc interaction and also different from SoA because it's clearly not written by the same team so you should expect a distinct tone .

Overall, SoD is worth it and it won't ruin your Bg2 experience later on in any aspect.

ThacoBell

SoD is great and hits on the main themes of the rest of the series extremely well. The writing's a bit different from BG1, since it was written by actual experienced writers. Gameplay wise, its kind of like a fusion of IWD and BG2.

bob_veng

the canon is preserved. beamdog couldn't alter existing dialogue, they could only add new dlc-like content (later they added a bit of new dialogue to existing characters in order to restore some cut or broken quests, mainly in bgee; in the beginning, up to a couple of years ago it was common understanding that they couldn't even do that). beamdog had to work under very restrictive terms when it comes to the existing story.

beamdogs original sod story is completely adherent to canon (blindly so you could say, going to extreme lengts in some cases, such as with imoen)

one important way how beamdog deviated from expectations is that some of their interpretations of bg1 characters whose stories are continued in SoD, are not in line with how the community, in largest part, had conceived of these characters throughout the years. when beamdog is critized for this I think it's mostly unreasonable criticism...

some of the things you mention in relation to cannon (artwork, immersion etc), don't have anything to do with canon however

Pekingduckman

I thought you mean canon in terms of Forgotten Realms lore. Apparently the BG games count as licensed products and are less canon that the novels featuring Abdel Adrian.

megamike15

all sod does is make it so bg 1 and 2 connect better. prior to it 1 and 2 have a jarring tonal shift. it also makes what was pretty much a retcon in tob flow better.

Raduziel

All EE (BG, BG2 and IWD) are way, way better than the original ones - except for some UI issues that Beamdog apparently is cherishing.

SoD is a whole different story, though. The game itself is not (too) bad, it just shouldn't be a BG game. There are a lot of problems in SoD - but so has any other game - the big one is trying to be BG when not being BG.

megamike15

some would say nwn ee does not change that much compared to the other ee. if anything it's all more tech related what it fixes as the diamond edition has issues running on certain computers.

spacejaws

Honestly, for my nostalgia factor, I kinda wish they gave you an option for original UI and original FMV's. Even if it only worked for a new game. I like the new UI but I do have nostalgia for the old ones. The FMV's I find are pretty bad replacements. As a kid I loved seeing the next FMV and they added a lot of style and character that the faux graphic novel stuff doesn't really capture.

Other than that I am so happy with the EE's. Literl dream come true.

That goes for Siege of Dragonspear as well. Not the same lofty heights as 1 or 2 but definitely a good step above Tales of the Sword Coast (only due to lack of content) and parity (or above?) with Throne of Bhaal for me. The style change, the different infinity engine gimmicks and seeing old cast revisited was such a great chapter in the saga and something that I always include in my yearly playthroughs of the series.

After Icewind Dale 2 I spent forever wanting a new IE game in forgotten realms, beamdog teased what they could do with the excellent Black Pits 1 and 2, and blow it out of the park with Siege of Dragonspear. Truly childhood dreams realised.