SoD is severely underrated (Finally finished it)
Linkamus
Member Posts: 221
This game deserves much better reviews than it got, in my opinion. I absolutely loved it. While BG2 will always be near perfection in my mind, and easily my favorite game of all time, SoD still was able to bring new things to the table, and most of writing / dialogue I thought was incredibly good. I had a harder time making dialogue choices in SoD than I think I have in any other RPG before. The game definitely had me believing that my choices really mattered, and I was completely immersed. I already want to go through the game again so I can experience the banter, dialogue, and quests with the NPCs I left behind.
I played through the game on insane difficulty, and I was very impressed with how difficult the last battle was on this setting. I think I ended up having three of my party members die before the battle was over... I'd like to tackle the game on LoB difficulty, but I'm thinking I will have to make a full custom party to even have a chance of being able to win.
I recorded my whole play-through and have been putting the videos on youtube, if for some weird reason anyone wants to waste time watching it :P. I mostly just put it up there for myself, though. (Haven't finished uploading all the videos yet)
I played through the game on insane difficulty, and I was very impressed with how difficult the last battle was on this setting. I think I ended up having three of my party members die before the battle was over... I'd like to tackle the game on LoB difficulty, but I'm thinking I will have to make a full custom party to even have a chance of being able to win.
I recorded my whole play-through and have been putting the videos on youtube, if for some weird reason anyone wants to waste time watching it :P. I mostly just put it up there for myself, though. (Haven't finished uploading all the videos yet)
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Comments
PC Gamer in paticular, who used to be die hard Baldur's Gate fanboys, had a review that amounted to Baldur's Gate is an old game and that makes this expansion so so.
It's a sad state of affairs, because I think it was fantastic and a great effort at creating something unique from the rest of the saga. I am also very affectionate for Black Pits 1 and 2 too but Siege is on a whole other level and easily rivals the other expansions.
I recall the golden age of story-driven RPGs, and the BG trilogy was released at the height of this era. The time of Ultima, Ultima Underworld, System Shock, etc. You know, back when serious gamers had DOS boot disks with dozens of boot configurations - all to work around the fact that their sound card, mouse, and CD ROM drivers used too much memory.
Those older games had, by even the standards of Baldur's Gate (a Windows95 game), crap graphics. They were held together by tightly woven stories that drew the player in. It's why I still remember the tale of Eyesnack and his flute, Tyball and Garamon's ghost, or SHODAN.
Unfortunately, in the drive for fantastic graphics and realistic physics, story depth was lost. At one time, a game with less than 100 hours of content was considered a complete failure. Now 100 hours is a distant memory. Additionally, with all this microtransaction crap, the idea of a story arc is financial suicide. You might spend hundreds of hours in a game, but it won't be to progress to an eventual goal - it will be to drain your wallet until you get tired of it.
So it's not JUST nostalgia, publishers really DON'T make them like they used to. SoD, to it's credit, harkens back to that older era perfectly and I consider it money well spent. It doesn't hurt that it is a stunningly beautiful update as well - I wish Beamdog could bring some of that atmospheric stuff to BG and BG2.
I started playing again at BG one year ago. It was and is still a wonderful experience, even if sometimes I feel a bit ashamed playing at it at my age. And I have to say that I really LOVED Siege of Dragonspear. A mix of old and new, nice music, very nice new NPCs, OK, I will not disclose spoilers, but very interesting scenario which links between BG1 and BG2.
So now, all my playthrough includes SoD of course.
I managed to lose the notebook that had the password. @JuliusBorisov offered to hook me up again but I'm not sure if it's doable or not--it was tied to a beamdog e-mail address I haven't had access to since I left the company, which is why I couldn't just ask for a password reset--I don't know if that matters or not. It would be nice to be able to refer to my history but it's not the end of the world if I can't.
@Andrew_the_Foley just contact @JuliusBorisov (Julius.Borisov@beamdog.com) and he can help reset both your password and email preference to get your old account back.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/77519/password-reset-info-and-recovering-your-account#latest
i remember asking for a mod to reduce the crowd size but nothing ever came of it.
I would, however, polish a few voiced characters (specially the scottish dwarves, the female ogre and the old lady soldier) because their voice acting seems a bit lazy and cartoonish.
Also, I dislike the military camps because there seems to lack a bit of tension, everything that happens in these sunny military camps is boring.
That said, I would buy a new Infinity Engine game made by beamdog should they pursue their own D&D pc game.
It makes me a bit sad that it will probably be the last such game, though modders are still busy at work adding quests and characters, but at least it will go out on a high note.
Flash forward to the EEs - and my switching from being a casual NWN player back to BG - and it felt like a new world had reopened to me. I again felt that initial flush of excitement to replay BGEE, but also as I played the game I began noticing nuances and story elements I had never noticed before. I began to appreciate the artistry of the game and the design, as well as the ability to role-play. It tasted like a wine that had aged and developed a more complex character than I had ever realized earlier.
Looking back now and comparing the games over time, I see SOD like this also. I continue to enjoy it and find new things. But I think time will have to move on a bit before we start to see the deserved appreciation for this addition to the BG saga. I would like to thank the creators for their efforts. For sure, there are issues and things that need polishing, but personally I see SOD as a fine addition to the BG series.
Well done!
I just love having another reason to try out all the mods out there now which flesh out the role playing side of the game. Holic75s 3ed mod is decent, if only I could use it for an EET install
Yes, SOD got a lot of unnecessary criticism - people were trying to compare it directly to BG2 which is frankly unfair: different eras and probably different budgets.
I really enjoyed it - it does what I wanted it to which was provide a reasonable bridge between the two original parts, while throwing in some interesting new features. The voice acting was really good and we got some fine plotlines and fun characters, not to mention some nice scenery. On this basis, would love to see another IE game made from scratch (hint, hint).
I wasn't impressed with TOTSC at all. TOB was enjoyable, but SOD is just as good.
Blasphemy.
But why?
Edit: I did not play BG until 2023 so I am atleast not blinded by nostalgia. The early story in BG1 is so mediocre. It feels like a child wrote it. It does however get better later in the game imo. The story feels much richer in SoD.
I really like how the story unravels in bg1, how everything is connected and how masterful Sarevok's plan is. The only mistake he made was not sending stronger bounty hunters earlier
The assortment of “leaders” the protagonist must work with are also mind numbing stupid (gee, Caelar needs the Bhaalspawn’s blood to open a portal to the Abyss. So let’s send the Bhallspawn on a secret mission into her stronghold… Nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan!)
Don’t get me wrong, on balance I enjoy SoD. But largely on its technical merits. From beautiful hi-def graphics to epic large scale battles. It adds some scope to adventure that to me, makes it an essential part of every run through of saga now. I never skip it. But again, I enjoy it in spite of the story, not because of it.
Nostalgia aside, BG1 story is far from being mediocre; it's so rich, it mixes a personal and political plot that affects your PC, the whole Baldur's Gate region, and can lead it to a war.
The exploration in open areas is nice. You are free to explore every inch of the region if you want to, even if it's not necessary and can be dangerous. TotsC adds some little extra adventures that don't disrupt the main story.
SoD is a linear story that makes me yawn tbh. It's fine, but nothing unique. It's like an IWD1 2.0, but worse. With the same final boss too 🥱. It feels weird that after killing such a powefull foe like B., you can be so easily kidnapped by Irenicus and you start fighting packs of goblins in his dungeon 🤔.
The new NPC's are cringe.
And yes, SoD lacks the charm of the original BG. And I really prefer the original, pre-EE game; the EE content is also strange (Neera, Rasaad etc.), they feel out of place in the game.
Technical improvements have a pass, although I personally don't care; but the content added to the original saga is quite mediocre and polluting.
The only thing that interests me a little is the LOB mode, but it is quite poorly implemented 🙃 so...
This is big.
SoD is a mere filler or "interlude" that leads to nothing in particular, a pretentious little adventure that can be played, but is not very memorable, and has little to do with the main saga.
This is meh.