Baldurs Gate2

[JANNA]

k i hated baldurs gate after i had played thru the first time. i thought it was stupid that to win the game all u had to do was give everyone a bow and beef up one guy to play tank.

my question is, is bg2 more of the same?? does the game stupidly end when the main guy die even tho u have someone else in the party that can res?? i thought it was really dumb that i had to keep my main guy in the very corner of the screen out of harms way while i had to play with everyone else to have a chance of winning a normal fight.

what are the root differences between bg and bg2 im bored to death with D2 and cant always play UO thanks to a crappy dialup

[Canis Lupus]

Well, I found Baldur's Gate II (and its expansion) to be a much more superior game than the original one. Less "fetch-it" quests (and most of them are sidequests, anyway), and more story. I don't think Archers are gonna be as effective as they were in BG1 mainly because of the vast array of new enemies who can literally wipe out your whole party in a matter of seconds.

And of course, I like the fact that you now face the classic AD&D enemies: dragons, beholders, elementals, drow, liches, mindflayers and even demons and pit fiends! Lots of enemies to go around, and the areas are just sprawling - not in the same way as BG1, where there are big open areas where you need to walk a whole two minutes just to get to the other side of the map.

There is a whole lot of planning involved in casting spells and melee combat this time around, and I think they have put a premium on close-up melee rather than ranged attacks in BG2.

And the spells! Geeez, some of these spells are just frickin wicked. TimeStop is pretty annoying when it's being used by the enemy, followed by Symbol: Stun or Symbol: Fear ... There is also the Spell Sequencers (bunch up three magic missiles in one casting)... and Spell Triggers (bunch up three fireballs)...

It's easily THE best RPG I have ever played in my life. I am now playing Throne of Bhaal (expansion), and I am faced with a whole slew of enemies I have never faced before in AD&D ... and of course, there's that Demogorgon I couldn't seem to kill (I've left Watcher's Keep for now and will try to level up my characters some more before I take on the Prince of Demons)...

All in all, it's awesome, and anyone who likes playing hard RPG should try it out. There's a whole lot more dialogue on this one than BG1, however, so if you are just in it for combat, you may get a little impatient at times ;)

Then again, I am probably biased, coz I'm really stoked on this game, hehehe ... try it out, JANNA ... it's much better than Diablo II, that's for sure ;)

[Outlaw]

Originally posted by Canis Lupus
it's much better than Diablo II, that's for sure ;) that depends on what you mean

the single player part is definetly better then d2, it has a real story in it, unlike d2 where you just complete the 6 quests and move on.

I also played bg2 in multiplayer and that sucked, everytime someone talks to an npc and they know what he/she says, they'll skip the text (most of the time) making it hard to follow the story. its also hard to plan attacks without pausing the game for a few minutes everytime. I liked d2 better in multiplayer.

but no other RPG comes close to bg2 in singleplayer...

[Null Actor]

I absolutely hated BG1 janna... it's one of the crappiest games ever. The only reason it was popular is cause it was the ONLY rpg out at the time.

BG2 on the other hand... this is the funnest game I've played in years and years. The dialog is top notch, and the game is super entertaining. If you play an evil party... god damn it's a funny game!

Not to mention there are so many ways of playing it.

Of course, you still die if your main character dies (lame ass decision, I know, and I ***** out the designers every chance I can over this one), but since you play as a higher level party in BG2, it happens a lot less. BG2 isn't just a matter of dying and reloading like the first one was. Especially with clerics that can res right off the bat.

It's definitely a kick ass game if you like a pure RPG. And it's nice to play as an evil party for once, without being penalized around every single corner (there are no instant spawn super guards like in the first one).

All in all, a very fun game. A lot of places are selling it discounted so that people buy both it, and the expansion, so you should be able to get a deal.

One caveat though... the game is HUGE. To do all the side quests, and complete the game, can take up to 250 hours. But like I said before... it's very entertaining. And all those quests are optional. Of course, you usually get good rewards for doing them.

I'd say buy it. And play as an evil half orc barbarian, and make sure do get edwin and korgan in your party. You'll laugh non stop.

[JANNA]

nova would it be possible to ask the developers for a patch to turn that main character death off that is really really dumb and is about the only thing holding me back since it isnt in the true vein of D&D . i cant stress how much i hate that aspect. i would be so there since that was the one thing from BG1 that really really cooked my goat and why it is no longer even in my possession. i just got so frustrated having developed a character and couldnt really use it in the main parts of the game because it was reload and restart from a save if it died. if there was a hack out that turned that lameness off i would buy BG2 today heh. the idea of having a party of characters is that they will help each other out when the others need it. maybe there is a 12 yr old hacker around that can turn that off for me heh *sigh* why is it people make a good game and toss in stupid stuff just to irritate people?????

[JANNA]

i cant begin to count the number of books both AD&D stories and other fanatasy stories where the main character up and croaked and was thought dead only later to be rescued by friends the hero had made during the early parts of his adventures. read anything by RA Salvatore for instance. so having it so BG2 ends when the hero gets wacked goes outside the norm for the AD&D world i cant EVER remember a game of pen and paper D&D that everyone just left when the party leader died, game over, no more, everyone go home. so if they tell u that it is there to make the game more in line with AD&D and D&D they are so full of crap one could start a manure farm with it.

[Null Actor]

Well, there are actually some reasons for why they left it like that janna. Mostly because in BG2, some deaths make the character actually NOT be in your party. Since the story revolves around the main character, none of the story would be able to progress. It's a pain in the ass, I know, but like I said, it happens a lot less in BG2.

Just don't make a wuss of a main character.

[Null Actor]

Plus with the new features of being able to make all hit point rolls be maxxed, it makes your chars a fair bit more resistant to stuff, since they have more hitpoints.

I don't consider it cheating in BG2, cause since it's a computer game, you can't weasel your way out of damage like you can in the pen and paper games.

[JANNA]

see thats the thing i dont like about scripted stories like that. it would be so cool if u didnt have to be hamstrung to someone elses storyline. WHY ISNT NWN DONE YET!!!!?!??!??!!!! ranting aside ill probably get bg2 just out of sheer boredom. i got half life blueshift but the changes for that are mainly to multi and dialup just sux for fps online. the single play for blueshift was pretty cool and the puzzles were wicked fun to solve. but stuff like that just isnt conducve to hours and hours and hours of gameplay.

but how hard would it be to make the game so it ended if ur main got digested in a dragon tum. but continue if he was merely mostly dead from a orc arrow??

[Null Actor]

well, in the case of BG2, pretty damn hard. since they didn't write new code for bg2, only added to bg1, too much would have had to have been changed.

And the bg2 programmers are lazy bastards.

[JANNA]

i hate lazy programmers even worse are people that allow stupid ideas into games...

[JANNA]

but im gonna go price BG2 at lunch today and maybe pick it up if it isnt too pricey.

thanks for all the info :)

[Null Actor]

Trust me, you should have fun either way. If the game gets annoying, then just do what I did. Cheat your characters up to a decent level right off the bat :)

I mean really, BG2 is more about the story and the exploration rather than the leveling up.

[Outlaw]

nova, do you have any idea why they made such a weird savegame system for bg2? I figured out how it works but it doesnt seem like the easiest way to do it.

and I didnt use it to finish the game, I can do that without cheating but I was bored so I thought I'd make a char editor :)

[Null Actor]

Don't have a clue. I didn't work on either of the games.

[Canis Lupus]

The story on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is so frickin amazing ... the saga is unravelling in a way that makes you think you're actually watching a movie or reading a book instead of playing a game.

I am now at nearing the end of Chapter IX - I just beat Sendai in her enclave and I'm now heading over to Amkethran to fight the last Bhaalspawn... The cutscenes and dialogue up to this point have been so amazing that I am now more eager to see the end of the game than just mere levelling-up and killing monsters...

And to think that I restarted this game last Friday, hehehe... I have taken Nova's tip on an evil party, and now my gang is made up of Crinos (main char, half-orc berserker), Sarevok, Korgan, Edwin, Viconia and a custom-made thief, Fenris. Nova is right that it's now equally gratifying to play an evil party (my party's reputation is down to 1, and everyone in my gang couldn't be happier, lol).

Maybe before I get to the final battle, I can go back to Watcher's Keep and kill the damn Demogorgon ... my characters are now pretty beefed up at approximately level 30, so I guess I can handle him ...

Kinda sucks that Edwin can't use the Timestop spell, though...

[Outlaw]

I got my own custom made "edwin" as main char who CAN cast timestop :)
but what cutscenes are you talking about? the only ones I remember are the intro/ending movies on both BG2 and BG2:ToB

well...didnt finish ToB yet but I'm asuming it has an ending movie

[Canis Lupus]

Cutscenes, meaning the scenes that provide some more of the story but is not part of the gameplay... not the same way Blizzard does its cutscenes, which they do using smacker and bink movies ... BG2 does its cutscenes mostly by in-game dialogues (like the ones with the Solar in the pocket plane, those are cutscenes).