Give your personal review of SoD and 2.0 changes here
ajwz
Member Posts: 4,122
So far there hasn't been much evaluation of the game as a whole on these forums
What things did you like? what things did you not like?
How important are the various changes and additions to you?
I'll start with
Positives:
1. The new art looks fantastic. Areas fit in extremely well with the existing art style. The new portraits are great, and are always a welcome addition. Bonus points for the new viconia and imoen portraits that look really cool too
2. Sounds are definitely beyond my expectations. Getting most of the old voice actors back is a real coup for beam dog, and the voice acting is pretty universally awesome through out. New sounds sets in character creation are most welcome too. The quality of the audio contributes directly to the next issue:
3. The game makes SoD *feel* like an official expansion rather than some elaborate mod. Just stuff like the opening movie, and tying up certain loose ends like imoens mysterious transition to mage. This is difficult to quantify of course but I do think it was an important aspect of creating a new expansion after 20 years that beamdog managed to get right
4. Difficulty settings and scaling. I love the new system of increased difficulties adding new encounters or expanding existing ones. I also appreciate the option to turn off higher hp/damage of monsters on higher difficulties. I think it adds a ton of replayablity to the game, and I would love to see this system extended across the whole trilogy in future
5. New UI. In general this isn't a wholly positive point for me, but I kind of view it at the moment as an exciting proof of concept, rather than how I hope a finished new UI would function. I prefer the new effects to the old stonewashed bgee effect. I like the concept of the new journal although it is lacking in implementation. The new character sheets really work well, even if they feel a bit unpolished/unfinished. I would love to see more stats and stuff being tracked on them. The minimap is greatly improved also. I got used to using the new system relatively quickly, although I'm sure it will take some people a little longer
6. The new NPC's. From my perspective they are rather a mixed bunch, I'm sure everyone will have thier favourites and least favourites, but I think pretty much all of the ones I have seen are well written and interesting.
Mixed:
2. Cool new magic items, most of which are very fun to play with. Unfortunately these are with a few exceptions, basically abandoned after SoD, and you dont get to take them with you into bg2, which makes them somewhat less exciting
2. Legacy of Bhaal has not been implemented how I would like it. I wish that it would offer rewards for playing on this mode, like higher xp, better version of magic items, like HoF mode in icewind dale 2. Also, I think it should remove the level cap.
3. Shaman. I've not actually played all the way through with a shaman yet, so I'll just list this as neutral for the time being. I've heard some call it underpowered, but regardless, I dont see adding more classes and kits at character creation to be anything other than a good thing
Negatives:
1. A lack of smoothness of transition all the way along the trilogy. Just things like certain portraits or sound sets only being available in one game or expansion.
2. The level cap is jarring, I think SoD would be a good opportunity to remove it entirely. I think most people like taking one character across all 3 games (I know I do) and to reach arbitrary blockades in xp gain at certain points kind of takes some of the excitement out of finishing.
3. The writing. I found it too railroady. Also it goes against the feel of baldurs gate, in the fact that you are no longer a lone party exploring a world you know very little about and getting caught up in intrigue or politics of others. I don't think having an official base camp feels right. Also, it kind of feels like you as the player character are being reluctantly accepted into someone elses story, on the condition that you don't screw things up. I sort of got the impression the the writers wanted to show off thier new characters and creations, and that actually thinking of the player was a secondary concern. Finally, I also thought in general the new content was somewhat *overwritten*. In the sense that new names and concepts were being introduced at every major turn, making them difficult to keep track of , and most of them were unimportant anyway. You waste time talking to minor npc's expecting them to offer you a quest or some insight, and they rarely do.
I think given the current circumstances and controversies, it is worth pointing out that I don't dislike *all* of the new writing. I found some parts of it very good, and other parts passable.
5. Bugs. Still too many bugs, some affecting very important things like difficulty level.
6. Breaking the modding system. This is a big deal for me. I really hope it gets fixed over time.
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So what do you folks think? It would be interesting to get thoughts and review which were more than just a couple of lines or a number out of ten.
What things did you like? what things did you not like?
How important are the various changes and additions to you?
I'll start with
Positives:
1. The new art looks fantastic. Areas fit in extremely well with the existing art style. The new portraits are great, and are always a welcome addition. Bonus points for the new viconia and imoen portraits that look really cool too
2. Sounds are definitely beyond my expectations. Getting most of the old voice actors back is a real coup for beam dog, and the voice acting is pretty universally awesome through out. New sounds sets in character creation are most welcome too. The quality of the audio contributes directly to the next issue:
3. The game makes SoD *feel* like an official expansion rather than some elaborate mod. Just stuff like the opening movie, and tying up certain loose ends like imoens mysterious transition to mage. This is difficult to quantify of course but I do think it was an important aspect of creating a new expansion after 20 years that beamdog managed to get right
4. Difficulty settings and scaling. I love the new system of increased difficulties adding new encounters or expanding existing ones. I also appreciate the option to turn off higher hp/damage of monsters on higher difficulties. I think it adds a ton of replayablity to the game, and I would love to see this system extended across the whole trilogy in future
5. New UI. In general this isn't a wholly positive point for me, but I kind of view it at the moment as an exciting proof of concept, rather than how I hope a finished new UI would function. I prefer the new effects to the old stonewashed bgee effect. I like the concept of the new journal although it is lacking in implementation. The new character sheets really work well, even if they feel a bit unpolished/unfinished. I would love to see more stats and stuff being tracked on them. The minimap is greatly improved also. I got used to using the new system relatively quickly, although I'm sure it will take some people a little longer
6. The new NPC's. From my perspective they are rather a mixed bunch, I'm sure everyone will have thier favourites and least favourites, but I think pretty much all of the ones I have seen are well written and interesting.
Mixed:
2. Cool new magic items, most of which are very fun to play with. Unfortunately these are with a few exceptions, basically abandoned after SoD, and you dont get to take them with you into bg2, which makes them somewhat less exciting
2. Legacy of Bhaal has not been implemented how I would like it. I wish that it would offer rewards for playing on this mode, like higher xp, better version of magic items, like HoF mode in icewind dale 2. Also, I think it should remove the level cap.
3. Shaman. I've not actually played all the way through with a shaman yet, so I'll just list this as neutral for the time being. I've heard some call it underpowered, but regardless, I dont see adding more classes and kits at character creation to be anything other than a good thing
Negatives:
1. A lack of smoothness of transition all the way along the trilogy. Just things like certain portraits or sound sets only being available in one game or expansion.
2. The level cap is jarring, I think SoD would be a good opportunity to remove it entirely. I think most people like taking one character across all 3 games (I know I do) and to reach arbitrary blockades in xp gain at certain points kind of takes some of the excitement out of finishing.
3. The writing. I found it too railroady. Also it goes against the feel of baldurs gate, in the fact that you are no longer a lone party exploring a world you know very little about and getting caught up in intrigue or politics of others. I don't think having an official base camp feels right. Also, it kind of feels like you as the player character are being reluctantly accepted into someone elses story, on the condition that you don't screw things up. I sort of got the impression the the writers wanted to show off thier new characters and creations, and that actually thinking of the player was a secondary concern. Finally, I also thought in general the new content was somewhat *overwritten*. In the sense that new names and concepts were being introduced at every major turn, making them difficult to keep track of , and most of them were unimportant anyway. You waste time talking to minor npc's expecting them to offer you a quest or some insight, and they rarely do.
I think given the current circumstances and controversies, it is worth pointing out that I don't dislike *all* of the new writing. I found some parts of it very good, and other parts passable.
5. Bugs. Still too many bugs, some affecting very important things like difficulty level.
6. Breaking the modding system. This is a big deal for me. I really hope it gets fixed over time.
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So what do you folks think? It would be interesting to get thoughts and review which were more than just a couple of lines or a number out of ten.
10
Comments
Positives
Story
I was fully engaged in the story with my roleplayed character swept up in accolades of defeating his enemies in Baldurs Gate if not greatly motivated by the war. I'd prefer if there was an option of joining the opposing side in the conflict and wish the story had delved more into the loss of war with something impacting the player in a more direct way. Maybe here a npc companion if you had engaged in love/friendship could be permanently killed giving you the option of then going to the other side to bring said character back.
Graphics/UI/Combat
The graphics were a improvement and the town while not large in areas felt large in life. I felt like the creatures and locals were well done. I also give high marks to the reworked UI and wish it were brought over into BGII/TOB. The information was more accessible. The combat portion of the game was varied enough to compel me not to cheapen the experience by lowering the difficulty which I had on the setting below the bhall setting. I expectedly craved the large battles after my first experience with one and wish now there were more 'wave' type scenarios in BG series.
Negatives
There were several broken quests which I experienced one where I had to go to the boards and seek aid which a forum member was able to fix looking over my save file. The majority of my mods not working for this game and the handling of the Steam/GoG mod mess up has been annoying. Though as a side effect it forced me to play with a non modded party which was still able to complete the game giving me more enjoyment at the success and greater sense of loss when companions were 'chunked.'
Overall I feel the game is a 4.5/5 far as a expansion and enjoyed my time spent within.
Positives:
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>Ive only really played with two of the new npc's, but i like them both for all of their faults. Corwin and the Goblin take some warming up to at first but seem to open up more as the story progress's .
>The new Shaman class is neat, i would like to see how well it plays in BG2 and ToB.
>For the most part i've enjoyed seeing some of the old BG1 npc's again and getting more in depth into some of their lives.
>Some of the writing is pretty good, the whole story with the hooded man, some of the back story with bhaal and your rivalry with the Antagonist.
>Some of teh new monster spirtes and animations look really good, one in particular in the temple of Bhaal.
Negatives:
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>Xan is not available for the main quest
>I do not like Safana's "new" personality at all, seeing as i never interacted with her at all in my play through's of BG1 i'm still puzzled as to why she was in party in the epilogue. Seeing how arrogant, spiteful, ungrateful, and an all around bitch i would have sent her off to fight a party of worgs long before she even saw SoD.
>Alot like BG2, the npc's wont remember who you are unless you tell them they do. This was most disappointing when i came across the sweet heart Neera, whom i had a romance with in BGEE and she had no clue who i was, on top of that i had the new npc Corwin dropping subtle hints trynna jump my bones.
>Bugs, so many. Lot's of things just dont work the way they should. Monsters re-spawning again and again, item description wrong and other times just wacky, such as a set of armor telling me it is Imoen.
>Too much political turmoil surrounding the game, i understand someone was trying to make a joke. But at what cost? It doesnt seem to me the joke was very well thought out, just kinda flung in there haphazardly. Perhaps they didnt think the cleric would be that big of deal as it turned out to be.
The first time met her i didnt think much of it, just thought the dialogue was kind of odd, but i can see why people are so upset with it, being with all of the accusations that have been going around because of the GamerGate scandal.
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Thos are just a few of my thoughts on the game, i will probably have more later. But for now that is all.
1. New graphic and resolution is a great step, it fits high resolution screens although the game still has some graphic bugs. But I think those bugs will be fixed soon.
2. New class: 1/3 my expectation:
- Spirit shaman is quite useless, spirit range is too short, no animation for shaman dance - a lazy invention.
- Lack of kit, i need more shaman kit like Shamanic Dominator or Dragon Shaman.
Finished the game as a level 12 thief assassin. The Baldurs Gate 2 game should have a option akin to what Pillars of Eternity had of increasing act difficulty option...this is beyond just taking it up a notch to bhall setting as I mean increase the act mobs all by +2-3 levels option.
Reviewed the game on Steam just now, thumbs up. I very much want more Baldurs Gate content!
What I liked:
-More story: it's been ages since I didn't know exactly what to do and when to do it in a Baldur's Gate game (I'm one of the ones that bought Bioware's BG2 at launch).
-Kit specific items: waaaaaaaaay overdue.
-New interactions: most characters seemed on-par with their BG1 selves.
What I didn't necessarily like:
-Combat: BG always flirted with the line between "challenging" and "annoying", and sometimes SoD crossed it in the wrong way. Too many times I would get irritated and spam the battlefield with fireballs. Some battles were legitimately hard though (Bridgefort).
-The EE characters: Raasad is still awful, Neera isn't dependable as a mage, and Dorn... is Dorn. He's the one I'm dragging through this time and... he's working pretty well, actually. So, Dorn's off the list. Raasad, on the other hand... *shudders*
-The dialog box: GIVE ME BACK MY UP/DOWN ARROWS!!!! The new UI is generally fine, but I won't mod my game to get back a stupidly simple function.
I'll give an "A" to the art design of the zones. I absolutely love the way the zones look. The EE exclusive zones in BG1 and BG2 were pretty awful, so it's nice to see improved art direction and execution. In SoD, the outdoors areas and wonderful and the dungeons are absolutely phenomenal. I love the fluorescing color palettes employed in the dungeons (the temple is particularly amazing).
I'll give an "A" to the music. Just great music. The battle music isn't overbearing, which I find to be the case in most RPGs. And the exploration music is very serene. Well done on this!
I'll give an "A-" to the cutscenes. The bridge cutscene is just amazing. I appreciate the stylized approach employed. I honestly would have enjoyed more though.
I'll give a "B" to the voice acting. Why does everyone sound ~15 years older?
I'll give a "C+" to the combat. The combat is more Icewind Dale, which is fine. I suppose the large scale combat fits with the story. It can be fun releasing AoE on large mobs. It's not in the spirit of Baldur's Gate per se, but not a bad thing either.
I'll give a "C+" to the overall story arc. I felt overall it was decent. I liked the inclusion of JI. I didn't fully buy the antagonist's (tSL) motivations. I didn't mind too much the linearity. If I had a major complaint, it is that it was actually too long for an expansion (25% could have been cut out safely).
I'll give a "D+" to portraits. They are pretty bad, (except for Viconia's which needed an overhaul).
I'll give an "F" to the injection of modern leftist politics. It breaks immersion for me (I don't care if it's only a few lines out of a 100,000). I actually found the goblin's comment about racism to be the most cringe-worthy part for me.
I'll give an "F" to the new characters and their dialogue. "Let's make a recruitable heterosexual human male fighter NPC that uses long swords and has a rational outlook on life" said no one at Beamdog ever. The characters they create are way too extreme in the archetypes. The problem is that instead of weaving into the story, they distract the player from it, thereby breaking immersion. I've criticized Beamdog in the past for Baeloth, Dorn, Neera, Raasad, and, especially Hexaat for that exact reason. Here, we get more of the same. The goblin is particularly bad.
How do I put this...Fans of BG love the characters in the game. Everyone has their own favorites. Sure some of them are flawed, and some aren't PC by today's standards. So what? The real world has people like that too. That just makes the Forgotten Realms seem more real. That includes transgendered characters too. There is no reason why those shouldn't exist in the realms. Looking at how the character was written, though, it needs editing. I have met transgendered people before, and my cousin is actually a hemaphrodite. None of them walked up to me and immediately started preaching a commercial about how great their "gender" is. It is just not believable. Neither is it believable that the player only has the option to be nice to the character and polite. The player should be able to tell the character to sod off, same as all the other characters. It also pulls people out of their immersion. People play games to escape reality, not to get preached at. Editing the character and fleshing her out might be in order. By all means keep the character, but add depth to her. Right now she is just a blinking sign that says it is ok to be transgendered (it is ok).
Secondly. As I mentioned earlier, players love the characters in the series. Changing Jaheira just because she was only a "nagging wife" in BG is so off the mark, it is a joke. She nags a bit, yes, but she does it for a reason. She is doing her very best to keep her husband as safe as possible, and she worries about him. BG2 actually fleshes this bit out quite a bit, and the players get a very good understanding of her motivations. Minsc bashing Gamergate (it should be bashed, really) is against his character. He is arguably the only character that wouldn't say a thing like that. There is no menace in him at all. Safana being "just a sex object" is another weird comment from one of the writers. She uses seduction and manipulation to get what she wants. One of the oldest weapons in mankind's history, really. What the writer is telling players here is this. "You were wrong for liking this character. We are fixing it for you". Why? There was no uproar about any of the characters when the game came out. And there hasn't been any later either.
Beamdog did exactly what George Lucas did when he "fixed" the old Star Wars movies. That is what is causing hate from gamers (not counting the flat out bigots here. Just the reasonable ones). Something beloved got messed up and changed. If you want to expand a beloved game, which people love for a good reason, you add to it. You don't change the stuff that made people love it in the first place.
Side Note: If Jaheira and Safana are such terrible examples of womanhood in the game, and needed changing. Why didn't any of the males needed changing? Tiax, Quayle, Xzar, Montaron and Minsc are all lunatics. Xan and Khalid are whiners. The two dwarves are downright dumb people, and Edwin is a sociopath.
One would argue that men actually get the short end of the stick in this game, when it comes to representation. Yet not an eyebrow is raised. Kind of double-standards, if you think about it.
Writing is art. The writing in BG1 was art. You don't change art just because you don't like bits and pieces of it. Let it stand as it is. Mizhena isn't art (as she is now). She is a political add. Nothing more. Add to her. Flesh her out. Make her a joinable NPC. As she is now she borders on being downright patronizing to transgendered players.
Rant over. Please don't bite my head off. I need it for a few years longer.
Copied and pasted from a thread I started earlier.
Writing: ok to mediocre. Too much writer's agenda seeps through, and it's too hamfisted for my liking, even if I agree with the agenda.
Story: overall, ok. ToB level. Prologue is great IMO, and it's what you'd expect of CHARNAME soon after the events of BG1. From then on, it's ok, with ups and downs. Jon is done well enough.
Gameplay: too railroaded for my liking, and you should have been able to backtrack. Combat is good, as expected, and the encounters are fine. New NPCs seem fine, if writer's agenda sometimes seeps into them. Old NPCs go the same way. Too much Boo. Safana seems borderline now, rather than ruthless. The archer is too much of a "strong independent single mother" for me to take seriously. The goblin, I like; she talks of bigotry whilst being bigoted herself. I find it interesting that these characters all have actual identity politics going on with them, though. Writer's agenda again? I mean, take Kivan: there's nothing but a good revenge story for him, with no unneeded social commentary; when you're on such a serious quest, current day identity politics aren't going to jump into it, and a simple "revenge" story isn't shallow. It's strikes at the core of the feelings with have for others and what we'd do if something bad happened to them unjustly. Boone in New Vegas is the same way. Of note, New Vegas contained gay and an arguably "trans" NPC that were all done well, with little in the way of complaints from people. There's a lesson there.
VA: good
Music: good
I'd give it 5/10. With the VA, music, prologue and well done combat [that you'd expect] keeping it playable and worth a shot. Sadly, it's a RPG, where the other half of the game is writing and story, and the clumsy and simply writing with its political agenda really killed it from being a solid expansion. The story is just above middling IMO, so it doesn't really uplift the score for me (I'd give the story a similar score to ToB).
Positive:
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-The cutscenes were very well done, probably the best yet in the series. Particularly the few at the.
The in game scripted scenes were also a welcome addition, i feel they added alot to the story without completely ripping the control away from the player, by allowing yo to add your own injections to the dialogue.
-There didnt seem that there were as many puzzles as there were in the last games, but the ones that they did have were pretty fun to solve.
_The boss fights were pretty well done, i particularly liked a 1 on 1 i had during the siege of DragonSpear castle
-It seemed that there were alot more consequences to my actions unlike than there were in BG1, 2, or ToB which at times seems kinda linear.
Negatives:
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-The Ui could be bit clunky and seemed to bog my game down from time to time ( but i think i may have resolved some of that by increasing the memory in the .ini)
- Xan was not available for the main quest
- I felt there wasn't a whole lot of new equipment for characters, with the exception of the new Goblin npc. My pc used the same weapons and armor he had been using since midway through BG1.
-I did not like the new combat, it was reminiscent of Icewind Dale or Tob as you fought wave after waves of large groups of enemies, I would much rather prefer Baldurs gate to be less hack and slash.
- The reasoning for the Crusaders to follow the story antagonist seemed far fetched, i meanher plan was ridiculous, was everyone drunk?
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i think in it's current state, i'd give the game a 6.8/10.
When all the bugs are dealt with, ican see it being a 7.5
I can safely say that, with a couple of exceptions, SOD has exceeded my expectations and dispelled most of my doubts about Beamdog's handling of the franchise. This expansion is a labor of love, and it shows.
Disclaimer: I have not beaten the expansion yet, but have put roughly 6-7 (edit: now 12-14) hours in trying different paths in the prologue and exploring the first few areas. I have completed all of the quests offered after the player initially leaves the city of Baldur's Gate (Edit: now just before Bridgefort).
I also do not play multiplayer in infinity engine games (I feel playing a heavily story-driven game multiplayer kind of defeats the purpose), so I won't be commenting on that either.
GRAPHICS
The engine appears to have received some noticeable tweaks and optimizations, and I was impressed how much more smoothly the game could run with a greater number of characters on the battlefield. Some of the environmental effects, such as fog and moonlight, are beautiful, and the backgrounds are far more animated than they were previously (i.e., moving lava).
There were a couple of things that I didn't like, though they are minor. First, I disliked the "outlining" that was added around the characters. I never felt the characters were particularly difficult to see, especially after Beamdog added the "zoom in" feature, so I was confused why they felt this was necessary. However, this outlining effect can be turned off, so it wasn't too big of a deal.
Second, the maps now have a black outlining past their borders, whereas originally the end of the map was where scrolling ended. I realize that this was probably done to more clearly display the boundaries of each map, but I feel it's unnecessary and somewhat immersion breaking.
Suggestion-wise, although I have not completed the expansion yet, I was hoping for some original art in terms of new creatures and sprites. I spotted a couple monsters that were new to the BG series, but they appear to be art imported from Icewind Dale 1 and 2. They still look great though (especially the worgs).
SOUND
The music I have listened to so far is superb, and changes in tone and timing are beautifully executed. I remember when I was leaving Baldur's Gate, it seemed epic and then triumphant, but then changed its tone to sound uneasy once a nobleman approached the player to question his lineage. It's the little things
I also loved the new voice work. I'm both ecstatic and impressed that Beamdog was able to recruit so many of the original voice actors. Safana, Caelar, Minsc, and Viconia's new material is particularly good, as is the Scottish-sounding actor who plays several of the dwarf NPCs.
There were some occasions where I heard some glitchy beeping..typically when I scrolled across large portions of the map. Not quite sure what the cause was. It happened rarely though, and wasn't too noticeable.
GAMEPLAY/STORY
I have been very pleased with what I've played thus far. The initial quest to hunt down Sarevok's remaining supporters seemed believable and felt like an actual "hunt," with members of the flaming fist aiding the player. I also enjoyed the initial segment in Baldur's Gate, and being able to discuss the politics of Caelar Argent's invasion with the various Dukes. Although I'm early in the game, Caelar Argent is an intriguing figure, and I really enjoyed navigating through CHARNAME's first conversation with her.
Many new NPCS in the game are given character and dialog, including many of the older companions who rejoin or otherwise encounter the player later in the game. For the most part, I have enjoyed much of the dialog so far and feel it matches the tone of the original game, with some very minor exceptions.
I realize that some people have taken issue with some of the dialog in the game and, although I can see what they're talking about, it has been a very minor part of the expansion. I didn't even notice the one very minor character had dialog revealing that they were transgender until I read about it on the site, and while its inclusion seemed a little pointless, it was extremely minor and didn't affect the tone or overall feel of the game. Similarly, I had no problems with Corwin's daughter defending her (we probably all thought our parents were invincible when we were kids), or with Safana's new dialog (Safana still comes across as a seductive, manipulative tease to me).
Really, the only "SJW" stuff that bothered me a bit was Minsc's allusion to Gamergate (though I probably would not have noticed this had I not been alerted to it), and the large number of times a female NPC would interject to tell the CHARNAME something along the lines of "[insert other female character here] is her own person and doesn't have to be spoken for/treated that way." I would have no problem with these lines appearing occasionally throughout the game, but they appeared concentrated just in the bit of SOD that I've played so far. This did make it sound like the enforcement of a message, rather than believable dialog. However, although I found these lines "annoying," I don't see why they warrant the campaign to downvote this expansion into Oblivion. The lines are a very minor part of the game's campaign, and definitely haven't affected my overall enjoyment of it.
Anyway, I also noticed that the AI of both enemies and party members has been improved. Enemies now use spells more intelligently, and will try to target squishier party members or react to party members casting spells or heals. While it doesn't match up with SCS-levels of AI tweaking, the improvements are definitely noticeable and appreciated.
BUGS
I really don't understand the severity of the bug complaints in this release, but maybe it's just been my experience. The version I have I got from Beamdog, and though there have been bugs they've all been minor (an activator not deactivating after a particular quest is complete; one NPC acting like the player has accepted a quest when the player has not in fact talked to the NPC who gives the quest yet, etc.). However, I did begin my game by importing a final save. I understand many bugs have occurred due to mods, importing a character (rather than a save), or playing in multiplayer, so I probably avoided many of these bugs through the nature of my playthrough.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that this expansion, despite some minor faults, was a labor of love, and I've definitely enjoyed it so far (and likely will continue to enjoy it). I want to commend Beamdog for the time, effort, and creativity that went into this expansion, and hope that the uproar going on in the background won't dissuade them from exploring other entries in the series. I would recommend the expansion to any fan of CRPGS, and definitely feel it's much better than TOTSC.
SUGGESTIONS
* The initial enemies in the introduction seemed a little too easy...I expected assassins able to sneak into the Ducal Palace, as well as a follower of Sarevok who has managed to survive for so long, to put up a bit more of a fight.
* I was hoping for some more "off the beaten path" areas like the original Baldur's Gate had, though I realize this expansion is more story-driven than the original Baldur's Gate and that it was hard to balance the amount of content with the XP the player was able to get before BGII
* Please add more cleric kits!!
My Score: 8.8/10
If only i could have some more armor visual appearances, but it's impossible >.>
Buuut i like the look the game has with the outlines :33
Yeah not much of a review, but i'll have more to say when i actually have time to play it >.>
I will separate my impressions about the game in 3 groups:
The Good:
New content for the Baldur's Gate saga.
The Neutral:
Corwin daughter reply when you try to assure her that her mother is safe with you was a bit unexpected coming from a small child (I would have expected that reply coming from Corwin itself).
The cleric of Tempus comments regarding her name were a bit unusual for a medieval RPG.
The new UI.
The Bad:
A) Bugs:
1-The new default graphic renderer has higher system requirements, could not play on my Windows XP PC that handled the Baldur Gate EE before the patch (the GOG version of BG EE with the new patch has the same issue).
The Windows XP PC has a P4 Northwood 2,4GHz - 533 bus, Intel 865G (Extreme Graphics 2) 60GB HDD and 1GB RAM.
A potential solution would be to change the video renderer by activating the Alternate Renderer option from Graphics (i will need to test it on that PC when I have the time)
I also have a Windows PC with Intel E5300 2.6GZ, (Intel G43 Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD) 4GB RAM, and a Intel 520 SSD.
Unlike the Windows XP PC that crushed during the creation of the character, this worked but the party moved very slow especially when there are a lot of people around them (the issue is worse if you zoom in).
The solution was to use the Alternate Renderer from the Graphics menu, after this the only issue was a bit of sound delay when playing the movies.
2- Changing difficulty by itself - Sometimes the game changes the difficulty levels by itself and you cannot change that back from Gameplay menu, you need to use another save.
3-Missing goblin shaman NPC from its location on the map.
4-The members of your party lose the hard fought equipped items after they leave your company (when the starting dungeon level is finished) When recruiting them they have some generic items (magical but lower quality than Varscona+2, Cloak +2 , The shield you gain from Durlag Tower, The Dual Handed +3 sword from Durlag Tower. Ogre Hands gauntlets, Flame tongue)
A potential solution is to keep the best items in your character inventory and equip them when get them back in your party.
5- Low level cap, for fighters and paladins I can get them to the same maximum level / to a higher level by importing them in Black Pits (my usual tactic before importing them in Baldurs Gate 2.
B ) No more free roaming on the map like in the initial BG EE.
Not necessary a bad thing in general (it's a matter of taste) I did not like the Stupefier nerfing as it was a key weapon in defeating the DemonKnight and it allowed me to give Minsc a decent weapon early on, a weapon that allowed him to carry a shield.
A general opinion about this expansion: I will buy it in the future when most of the bugs are solved. I would not have minded another 6 months of waiting for the beta testers to report the issues and for the developers to take care of them.
-Art ingame and out great
-Writing super
-UI structure, zoom and gameplay enhancements great
-Post-endboss plotline contrived, far too elaborated/explicit and inevitably paint-dryingly dull; 90-second post-endboss cutscene/wrapup would suffice.
-Oversaturation of 'Hooded Figure'; makes him seem increasingly pedestrian and doesnt have the same bite
-Plothole?
-Writing occasionally too modern or immersion-breaking eg sahuagin saying 'meh' or the entire zoolander character etc
-UI so black/dark that it lost familiar BG 'look and feel'
-Sprite for endboss poor
-Still no onscreen AOE spell radius indicator
-Still no option to auto-identify all items, identifying is boring
Overrall...Thanks Beamdog for a fun game and positive experience
+Interesting new areas to explore.
+New NPCs are fun to talk to and play with.
+New dialog for old NPCs is also fun and in-character (some will dispute this, but this is my review, so you get my opinion).
+New items with never-before-seen properties. My paladin randomly blessing the party by hitting things with a mace was just awesome.
+Great start and middle to the plot, with an interesting ethical dilemma at its core.
+Fun and hectic fights with improved enemy AI.
+Charisma does things.
+The key ring exists.
+OMG guys it's new BG content and it's actually fun and I can't deal with this.
The bad (SOD):
-Most side content is lost forever if you progress too fast through the plot, which encourages metagaming more than usual.
-Ending didn't do the interesting dilemma justice.
-Not enough buildup to the true final boss reveal, or enough impact once it's revealed.
-No option to even try to explain your discoveries regarding the plot to Caelar.
-Events of SOD are ignored by BG2, even when they really shouldn't be.
-Romances don't feel quite right in a game of this length.
The good (2.0):
+Ability to equip two-handed weapons with shields/off-hands.
+Toggle to show walkable area on the map, very useful if you're not sure where you missed a side path.
+Overall I like the sprite outlines, and if you don't, they can be turned off.
The bad (2.0):
-Bugs and multiplayer difficulties.
-Journal doesn't seem to show things in a remotely useful order.
Overall, 9/10. Very good, not perfect. Still more fun than many games with fewer flaws, which is weird, but it's also true of Baldur's Gate more generally. Worth every penny I spent, and every hour I waited for the download.
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
in a tl:dr mode, i liked everything and the comments about gamergate don't apply to me as i don't know / don't care about it and i don't care about the transgender
Just turn off your brain and don't think too hard whenever you're reading, or else you'll get irritated at how underwhelming and audible-sigh-of-disappointment/disgust-inducing it is. But that's to be expected by now from Beamdog originals. Why would Siege of Dragonspear be any different?
The ending was utterly atrocious and completely contrived.
And don't even attempt multiplayer. I was playing through BG1 with a friend and after we got back from the werewolf isle, every quest, area, and world map location were reset as if we were starting the whole game over. Not to mention the various multiplayer permission glitches, connection issues (v1.3 worked mostly fine!), and the crashes. It's like multiplayer received absolutely no QA testing at all.
5/10
You know illusions and mind control are a thing in D&D right? Hell in BG2 Firekraag disguises a bunch of paladins to look like monsters. Having Irenicus make Skie look like a slayer is easy.
You know vast array of Divination spells like Detect Lie, Know Alignment, Speak With Dead, Commune, True Seeing, Foresight, Contact Other Plane, et cetera are a thing in D&D right? You know that if a Paladin committed coldblooded murder he would mostly likely lose his Paladinhood is a thing in D&D right?
Yeah, and all of those can be countered too. Not that your post has to do with point, which is that there's no reason to think any sort Bhaalspawn/soul power was used over conventional magic.
Which I did in addition to other things, but my character was still treated as a presumed murderer. Unfortunately whatever maladroit writer who decided on this railroaded excuse for an ending did not have the foresight to make available a dialog choice describing how my character never touched the creature and avoided it until it apparently fainted and passed out. You nor anyone else is ever going to be able contort logic enough to shine this turd enough to convince me that this complete absence of player agency is an acceptable ending...
Do you really think the common citizen of Baldur's Gate cares about you being a paladin? HELL NO! You've been confirmed as a Bhaalspawn and accused of murder. That's proof enough for the average citizen. The Forgotten Realms isn't like most modern nations, where you're "innocent until proven guilty". Public fear is more than enough to sink your chances at being proven innocent in court.
I must have missed the, "I'm not doing anything for you bunch of ingrates," dialog choice at the beginning. Care to tell me where it was exactly???...
"You nor anyone else is ever going to be able contort logic enough to shine this turd enough to convince me that this complete absence of player agency is an acceptable ending..."
Hell, the Sword Coast is downright nice in terms of justice compared to several other regions. In Thay, they enslave/kill Tieflings just being born Tieflings. Drow are typically hunted down and killed, with Drizzt Do'Urden being one of the ONLY exceptions to that rule; simply on the assumption that all Drow are evil. The Forgotten Realms is a setting where there are many, many instances of injustice.
But, because you disliked this particular injust instance, you're pitching a fit. lolwut