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Is IWD1/2 more "open" than BG2?

SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
NWN1 was the best RPG of my life. I liked a lot, BG2 i finished but is an average game IMHO. Too linear. And i din't liked the dungeons layouts. I was playing module "based" on nwn and liked a lot, then searched some gameplays and found the game good. My unique critique is the lack of a "quick cast menu", in nwn if i wanna cast a spell, i simple click or press a hotkey. In BG1/2, i need to click on a icon, then search my spell without any text indicating what spell i an selecting and possibility to customize the order and let the most used spells first.

Other question. There are any differences between steam and gog versions of IWD?

Comments

  • QuartzQuartz Member Posts: 3,853
    Yea, if you want something closer to exploring and "open world" your best bet in Baldur's Gate 1.

    BG1: Very open
    BGII: Fairly linear, but with decently large sidequests
    BGII:ToB: Linear as all hell
    IWD: Linear as all hell
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    My main problem with BG2 is the dungeon layout. I hate when a character than can make rain meteors and need to spend a lot of time searching a small key to open a indestructible wood door, or pushing levers in a random order until the wood door that is more resistant than a army of ancient dragons finally opens. I feel that i spend much more time searching pointless items than exploring the world, building my character, roleplaying, fighting, etc; how the dungeons are in IWD? And in IWD2? They have less of this problem?

    I an not saying that NWN have only good dungeons, for example. Creator Race Ruins is the worst dungeon of MC IMHO(the dungeons that lead to Klauth's Lair in same chapter are the best). BG2 looks like all dungeons are based on Creator Race Ruins.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    it seems that you don't like "puzzle" style dungeons, that is kind of what bg2 is built like

    in IWD, it's just a manner of going into a place, clearing out the baddies, getting the items, fighting the boss, off to the next area

    IWD 2, starts off with just go to area clear out the mobs of baddies, get the items, go to the next area, but then when chapter 5 comes, it is complete diarrhea where they overkill on the "puzzle" thing

    by the sounds of it, i think you would enjoy IWD more than you would IWD 2
  • profanitywarningprofanitywarning Member Posts: 294
    edited February 2018
    sarevok57 said:

    it seems that you don't like "puzzle" style dungeons, that is kind of what bg2 is built like

    in IWD, it's just a manner of going into a place, clearing out the baddies, getting the items, fighting the boss, off to the next area

    IWD 2, starts off with just go to area clear out the mobs of baddies, get the items, go to the next area, but then when chapter 5 comes, it is complete diarrhea where they overkill on the "puzzle" thing

    by the sounds of it, i think you would enjoy IWD more than you would IWD 2

    Well there is that one lever in a dungeon in the tomb district that proved to be hard to find for some players.

    And the stairs thing near the end.
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    edited February 2018
    sarevok57 said:

    it seems that you don't like "puzzle" style dungeons, that is kind of what bg2 is built like

    in IWD, it's just a manner of going into a place, clearing out the baddies, getting the items, fighting the boss, off to the next area

    IWD 2, starts off with just go to area clear out the mobs of baddies, get the items, go to the next area, but then when chapter 5 comes, it is complete diarrhea where they overkill on the "puzzle" thing

    by the sounds of it, i think you would enjoy IWD more than you would IWD 2

    When i played nwn1 for first time, my English was very bad (not saying that my english is good now, but at least i can read/write) and i had no internet connection(2005), so took days to pass from chap 3 only because i din't found how to make the "Ritual of Light" ( http://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights/nwnwalkthrough/fortilkardcreatorraceruins.php ), used the school internet to search, then used the ##DebugMode 1 and "teleported"(since there are no teleportation spell in nwn). After this, easily killed the Balor Lord 'guarding' the word of power and easily completed the game(chap 4 isn't that big). I really hate when i stuck in a puzzle.

    Now with internet, i never got stuck, but puzzles slow down gameplay experience a lot. Without internet, i will probably never be complete BG2. IMHO "non combat" content in a RPG should be added, but should be a Fortress management like Crossroad keep or the Trial in nwn2; The unique puzzles that i liked was in HOTU expansion. Since the puzzle of first chapter requires a lot of exploration in a vastly big map and have many solutions, depending the "levers" that you found. The beholder cave in cp2 is a good puzzle too, but the "godlike" mimic that can only be destroyed by luring he into a trap was completely c**p and was pretty annoying. My spells that killed a dracolich few moments ago can't hurt a mimic?

    Looks interesting IWD. I will watch some reviews before buy, but seeing some dungeon layouts in gamebanshee, looks good. Is IWD1 only "low level" campaign like BG1?
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    @SorcererV1ct0r you start off at level 1 in IWD and depending on how much you grind/what difficulty you play/what quests you do and so on you will probably reach around 750 000-1 000 000 XP the time you hit the end ( for me, i usually hit around 1.3 million or so per character and i do absolutely everything, and i have the "double XP from harder encounters" turned off )

    then once you finish IWD you can import your team into HoW and there is nothing puzzling about HoW ( unless you play TotLM and that is basically nothing but puzzles, so perhaps don't talk to the halfling inside the inn in lonelywood in How )

    HoW of coarse is a higher level campaign, and it's recommended that you start off at least level 9 or so for it ( hence the reason why you import your IWD team into that game )
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    edited February 2018
    sarevok57 said:

    @SorcererV1ct0r you start off at level 1 in IWD and depending on how much you grind/what difficulty you play/what quests you do and so on you will probably reach around 750 000-1 000 000 XP the time you hit the end ( for me, i usually hit around 1.3 million or so per character and i do absolutely everything, and i have the "double XP from harder encounters" turned off )

    then once you finish IWD you can import your team into HoW and there is nothing puzzling about HoW ( unless you play TotLM and that is basically nothing but puzzles, so perhaps don't talk to the halfling inside the inn in lonelywood in How )

    HoW of coarse is a higher level campaign, and it's recommended that you start off at least level 9 or so for it ( hence the reason why you import your IWD team into that game )

    IF i play solo at max difficulty, what level i will reach? Only played BG on normal. Never understood how difficulty and party size affects XP in bg/iwd
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    on higher difficulties in IWD you will face against stronger monsters in certain encounters which reward more XP, plus if you play on a higher difficulty you will gain more XP for the fact you are playing on a higher difficulty ( unless you turn that option off in the options menu )

    so lets say you are playing on insane with the "bonus XP from insane difficulty" turned off, and do a solo run in IWD i say you will hit around 5 million XP for your one character

    in IWD the level cap is level 30 so with 5 million XP you will reach these levels with these classes
    Fighters: 28
    Paladins/Rangers: 24
    Clerics/Monks: 30
    Thieves/Bards: 30
    Druid: 25
    Mages/Sorcerers: 24

    and of coarse if you do multi classing your levels will be less

    so perhaps if you are going to go solo, i would suggest some sort of multiclass ( because there is LOTS of XP in HoW )

    and remember if you dual class, you WILL NOT get your first class abilities back until your second class surpasses your first class by 1 level
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    I decided. Will purchase IWD1. In IWD2, can i use cheats to skip the majority of puzzles in chap 5?
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    SorcererV1ct0r said:

    I decided. Will purchase IWD1. In IWD2, can i use cheats to skip the majority of puzzles in chap 5?

    not really, but i'm not 100% sure if you can.....also i dont even know how to use the cheats in IWD 2 ( every time i tried to use them in the past they wouldn't work, and that's even with them enabled )

    but here is one thing to base it off of; if you don't like IWD1 you are not going to like IWD2 ( so don't get IWD 2 if you didn't like IWD 1, because IWD 2 is pretty much the same type of game )

    also worse case scenario if you get stuck and don't know how to continue on, you can use an online guide to get you through, once you hit chapter 6 it gets much better
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    Thanks for the answers. Purchased IWD1 and liked. The encounters are pretty hard at max difficulty(one DD + a meatshield), and i liked it.
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    edited February 2018
    Edited. By a frustration with a key to progress in Hall of Heroes, i have posted a flame. Sorry about that.
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    edited February 2018
    okay, there are a few things:

    first, to officially defeat the lich, you need to grab his phylactery (it's a green stone looking thing)
    this stone can be found behind one of those doors in the room where you fought the lich ( i believe it's either the 3rd or 4th door on the left )

    once you have the stone in your inventory you will have to walk the character who has the stone in their inventory into another one of those rooms ( where you fought the lich) i believe the room you have to walk into is the 2nd door on the right, if that doesnt work, keep walking into all the rooms ( pausing in that room for like 3 second or so) and if you find the correct room, the phylactery will be destroyed and the lich will be permanently killed

    once the lich has been permanently killed, go back to the area that Norlinor was in, and he will be near the bottom of the forge area, and he will thank you and if you press the "TAB" key you will see an area highlight inside the forge and that will be the key you need to open the unopenable door
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    sarevok57 said:

    okay, there are a few things:

    first, to officially defeat the lich, you need to grab his phylactery (it's a green stone looking thing)
    this stone can be found behind one of those doors in the room where you fought the lich ( i believe it's either the 3rd or 4th door on the left )

    once you have the stone in your inventory you will have to walk the character who has the stone in their inventory into another one of those rooms ( where you fought the lich) i believe the room you have to walk into is the 2nd door on the right, if that doesnt work, keep walking into all the rooms ( pausing in that room for like 3 second or so) and if you find the correct room, the phylactery will be destroyed and the lich will be permanently killed

    once the lich has been permanently killed, go back to the area that Norlinor was in, and he will be near the bottom of the forge area, and he will thank you and if you press the "TAB" key you will see an area highlight inside the forge and that will be the key you need to open the unopenable door

    I already had the phylactery, but thanks. I will never be able to "foretell" that i need a phylactery then walk into a another man tomb in order to destroy the phylactery.
  • profanitywarningprofanitywarning Member Posts: 294
    You wouldn't have to. The game tells you before you fight the lich.
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