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Overall score - 71/100. SoD Official Reviews list (spoilers)

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  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,550
    edited April 2016
    @Buttercheese
    That's my girl!!!
    I smelt a rat, that's why I asked you a feedback about that review.
    Thank you very much :)

    What I would really like to see is a review by Heiko Klinge, back in the good old days of GameStar, he was the biggest Baldur's Gate fan on the team (he literally lost his job back when BG2 came out, because he skipped work to play it more :'D ).

    Okay, this woman deserves a cameo in the next BG project! We should open a feature request.
    Heiko Klinge, you are my hero!
    MoradinButtercheese
  • PurudayaPurudaya Member Posts: 816
    edited April 2016
    To be honest, I'm more than a little frustrated that there are so few reviews this far out from release...I feel like they could have done a lot to add some perspective to the "controversy." Why weren't more pre-release copies sent out for review? Was it lack of interest on the part of review sites or a lack of preparedness on the part of Beamdog? I know there was a lot of last minute bug squashing going on and so the game might not have been in the best shape at the time, but still.

    I'm about as big a Beamdog supporter as you can find, but this baffles me.
    MoradinValamirCleaverillathidKrotos
  • justfeelinathomejustfeelinathome Member Posts: 353
    edited April 2016
    I definitely think that it has also to do with the immediate transition from beta to release. Many game sites simply will not review a game that is still in beta (there are reasons to sustain that position, actually).

    Other than that, yeah, it's disappointing. And gamestar lost me as a reader as well as soon as they started giving high scores almost exclusively to games with tripple A budgets.
    Moradin
  • NiggeyNiggey Member Posts: 12
    Yeah I canceled my gamestar subscription some years ago, but mainly because I could get all the information they provided for free in the internet and most of the time there wasnt anything new in the magazine.

    Today I spend most of my time on IGN. Im pretty curious what they will give SoD. But it looks like either most of the sites are not interested in SoD or they did get their copy really late and are still playing the game.
    Buttercheese
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    edited April 2016
    Aedan said:

    @Buttercheese
    That's my girl!!!
    Thank you very much :)

    Haha, you are most welcome *High fives*
    Aedan said:

    Okay, this woman deserves a cameo in the next BG project!

    I wouldn't be opossed to that >.>
    AedanIllustair
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    Aedan said:


    Okay, this woman deserves a cameo in the next BG project! We should open a feature request.

    Read this as a feature request to have Buttercheese in the next projet.
    Buttercheesekaguanalolien
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Stumbled across some more reviews in the Underweb.

    Positive:

    ThreeNovices.wordpress.com 87/100

    gamepressure.com 7.3/10

    zam.com no score


    Mixed:

    gameskinny.com 5/10
    JuliusBorisovKrotos
  • AmmarAmmar Member Posts: 1,295
    Niggey said:

    The german site gamestar just rated Siege of Dragonspear 58/100. Its negative.
    Apparently they didnt liked the story writing, the change of some npc personalities (Safana, Jaheira and Khalid for example) and had problems with lots of bugs.

    http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-siege-of-dragonspear/test/baldurs_gate_siege_of_dragonspear,51968,3270606.html

    I am currently playing BG1 and am really curious how I will like the game. I hope the change of npc personalities is not as drastical as the review site proclaims

    The author talks about the flaws he sees in the story in more detail on the official Gamestar forums here:

    http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboard/showthread.php?t=451565

    (sorry, in german)

    Here, he makes several claims, e.g. the dream sequences and the slayer transformation taking place in ToB instead of SoA. This matters, because he says that SoD already has things that should take place *much* later.

    I also wrote an reply (again in german).

    So I am not happy with the review, not because it is negative (see the things about the Bugs). But the critique of the story has many false assumptions about D&D and the original Saga.
    illathidJuliusBorisovKrotosmf2112
  • PurudayaPurudaya Member Posts: 816

    Stumbled across some more reviews in the Underweb.

    Positive:

    ThreeNovices.wordpress.com 87/100

    gamepressure.com 7.3/10

    zam.com no score


    Mixed:

    gameskinny.com 5/10

    Just as a sidenote, it appears that gamepressure calculates its review scores from player votes. Not sure if that's important.
    JuliusBorisov
  • IllustairIllustair Member Posts: 877
    Btw shouldn't there be an update to turn off the sprite outlines as a default? Some ppl complain about it even when it is only optional. :|
  • PurudayaPurudaya Member Posts: 816
    I personally can't play without it now, but different strokes for different folks. People should be glad that it's toggleable - I can't think of many developers that make patch updates virtually modular so that everyone can experience the game how they want.
    ButtercheeseAedanIllustairPhilhelm
  • IllustairIllustair Member Posts: 877
    edited April 2016
    Yes, I'm sure it eventually grows on some people, or maybe even from the get-go, which only adds to my frustration that people would use it in criticizing the game, 1/3 of their basis being that, when it's "Uh hello?...if you don't like it you can turn it off. That simple!" There's nothing more frustrating than reading things like "How did they manage to make the sprites look WORSE than they did 17 years ago?" D'oh!

    Edit: Is it just me or the sprites look sharper than before?

    Edit: "Other changes aren't going to go over as well for the purists who still replay the original regularly, however. The health bars above everyone really ruins the Baldur's Gate feel (although they can thankfully be toggled off).

    Some obvious changes are also missing but feel like they should have been added in the updates to a new edition – like a radius to show you where an area effect spell like entangle or fireball will strike." -Gameskinny

    Again if it can be turned off, why make an issue out of it? Moreover, the author would want to add radius visuals...why do I get the feeling that should it have been added, he would also complain? Ah, yes, because he's saying that health bars are not for the purists, when the same can be said to a radius visual.
    Post edited by Illustair on
    AedansparkleavKrotosAvenger_teambg
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,550
    Thank you very much, @Cahir!
    CahirJuliusBorisov
  • O_BruceO_Bruce Member Posts: 2,790
    @Cahir
    And here I was about to post it...
    JuliusBorisovmf2112
  • Excalibur_2102Excalibur_2102 Member Posts: 351
    Purudaya said:

    Stumbled across some more reviews in the Underweb.

    Positive:

    ThreeNovices.wordpress.com 87/100

    gamepressure.com 7.3/10

    zam.com no score


    Mixed:

    gameskinny.com 5/10

    Just as a sidenote, it appears that gamepressure calculates its review scores from player votes. Not sure if that's important.
    If you click on the actual score on the gamepressure one, the editors score is actually 8/10.

    as for the gameskinny one he makes a lot of fuss out of nothing with the graphics, imo. For one he over exaggerates finding a good zoom level, which takes what... 20 seconds? Though the black borders around the maps I don't like. Other stuff he moans about can be turned off, like others have said.

    Having said that I was a little disappointed that the Enhanced versions couldn't quite capture the look of the original and how it played when it was released. The original BG1 sprites are especially missed, and the fact that beamdog didn't have the original source art hurt the overall outcome of the game. Unfortunately the games were designed to work on 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions, so I imagine trying to get it to look good on todays systems is harder than it sounds... I suppose between the originals with mods and the EEs, I prefer the look of the EEs if only because we can zoom in a little so everything doesn't look so far away.
    JuliusBorisov
  • EnvygamesEnvygames Member Posts: 57
    Ammar said:

    Niggey said:

    The german site gamestar just rated Siege of Dragonspear 58/100. Its negative.
    Apparently they didnt liked the story writing, the change of some npc personalities (Safana, Jaheira and Khalid for example) and had problems with lots of bugs.

    http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-siege-of-dragonspear/test/baldurs_gate_siege_of_dragonspear,51968,3270606.html

    I am currently playing BG1 and am really curious how I will like the game. I hope the change of npc personalities is not as drastical as the review site proclaims

    The author talks about the flaws he sees in the story in more detail on the official Gamestar forums here:

    http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboard/showthread.php?t=451565

    (sorry, in german)

    Here, he makes several claims, e.g. the dream sequences and the slayer transformation taking place in ToB instead of SoA. This matters, because he says that SoD already has things that should take place *much* later.

    I also wrote an reply (again in german).

    So I am not happy with the review, not because it is negative (see the things about the Bugs). But the critique of the story has many false assumptions about D&D and the original Saga.
    I personaly felt that the Gamestar-Review was Spot on. Also i could find myself only agreeing with Benjamins explanations in the Forum. But i am Biased here perhaps, since i was at the same conlcusions before reading them^^
    Buttercheese
  • Mikey205Mikey205 Member Posts: 307
    New review up by Destructoid: http://www.destructoid.com/review-baldur-s-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-352947.phtml. Gives the game a 7/10, pretty balanced viewpoint. Mentions technical issues just before the score (think it may have been an 8 without them).
    JuliusBorisov
  • the_sexteinthe_sextein Member Posts: 711
    edited April 2016
    Destructoid just reviewed it and gave it a 7.

    http://www.destructoid.com/review-baldur-s-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-352947.phtml

    Edit: oops didn't see the post above. I checked the front page and didn't see it because it's not updated.
    JuliusBorisov
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714


    Edit: oops didn't see the post above. I checked the front page and didn't see it because it's not updated.

    I wasn't on the forum ;) Now the OP is updated, thanks to everyone for the links. The overall score now is 75/100 based on 12 reviews.
    the_sextein
  • DrHassDrHass Member Posts: 2
    PS: This is definetly a negative review, not a mixed one. The author is not at all happy with SoD.
    The games with mixed reviews usually get a rating from somewhere between 70% to 80%
    What should be mentioned is that Mr. Danneberg subtracted 10 points from his score because of the bugs. So once those are fixed the game will get a 68 instead of a 58
    JuliusBorisov
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    decado said:

    It amuses me when people complain about Safana's personality being changed. In BG1 she only had the thinnest veneer of an actual personality. Any development at all would result in a personality change as most players would have projected their own concept on to her as she was such a blank slate.

    You get a bit of info in her bio. But she was pretty blank, same as everyone else.
    [Deleted User]Durenas
  • Excalibur_2102Excalibur_2102 Member Posts: 351
    Surprised the destructoid review was only 7, considering it was mainly positive.. Must've been some bad technical issues he experienced!
  • the_sexteinthe_sextein Member Posts: 711
    I have to wander if some of the review sites might be waiting to see if Beamdog patches the game before they review it. You know, to give them a chance to fix some stuff up so it doesn't hurt the review. It seems like not many reviews for this game are out there. It's possible since it's an expansion to an old game that it is flying under the radar but BG is a pretty big name and it seems like it's being payed attention to by a large number of gamers for a variety of reasons.
  • AaezilAaezil Member Posts: 178
    edited April 2016
    " I can't think of many developers that make patch updates virtually modular so that everyone can experience the game how they want."

    Yeah, too bad they didn't give the option to use the old (and much better IMO) UI
    Failboat!
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