Baldur's Gate #BaldurGate: Siege of Dragonspear

[Immortal]

Friday I was sorta interested in the game...

Saturday.. Thought I should buy it to support the developers.. Maybe we can get more games.

Sunday.. Refund is pending.

No, I haven't yet, but it's weird to me that folks who I know are Infinity Engine fanatics, who are really mad about PoE because it wasn't similar enough to IE etc, are like "is this worth playing"? I mean, if not this then what?

When they say.. "is it worth buying" They mean.. is the EE worth it over the original and is SoD filled with bullshit or actually fun.

Just because someone likes BG1 / BG2 doesn't mean they will like this. Stop being willfully dense.

 

[Trodat]

If you like Infinity Engine games, I find it hard for anyone like that to hate SoD. But don't expect anything revolutionary or ground breaking. And well, the prize tag is not that bad IMO.

 

[Doktor Best]

lol, let's try to be constructive ITT.

Ask yourself this - what would make a genuine Infinity Engine game not worth playing in your opinion? Then ask the people who have played the game whether it has those things.

Bland, copy-pasted fights; uninspired locales; level-scaling (lol); pathetic difficulty; filled with fluff that wastes time; cringe-worthy writing alla D:OS; etc. etc.

Levelscaling?!? Now you got me scared. Is this confirmed? How far does it reach?

So, in the end, is this worth playing or not?

I repeatedly come back to this thread to find an answer to your question, but all i get from it is the incontestable assurance of the codex' unwavering obsession with trannies.

There's a review somewhere buried in the thread. 3/5

I've seen it but i hoped for more impressions, and the actual text of the review is filled with spoilers so i dont know what to make of his score.

 

[Hegel]

No, I haven't yet, but it's weird to me that folks who I know are Infinity Engine fanatics, who are really mad about PoE because it wasn't similar enough to IE etc, are like "is this worth playing"? I mean, if not this then what?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that for you it is worth playing. Unless the game is literally composed of endless corridors of trash mobs ala Curst in PS:T, and I don't think it is, I'm pretty sure you'd find it at least okay. The only question is how much you're willing to pay for it. Which I guess is what that question is really meant to convey, so I'm probably overreacting here.

Money is meaningless and I've already bought it. The point is temporal discounting; though if I ever get to replay BG I'd rather play a modded version, I'm happy if this expansion is good. After all, we might have a decent shot at BGIII.
Thanks for the response!

 

[Lacrymas]

Levelscaling?!? Now you got me scared. Is this confirmed? How far does it reach?

No, I was just answering his question. What would make me not want to play it. I don't think it has level-scaling but you never know.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I'm a couple of hours into it. I was never a big fan of the Baldur's Gate games to begin with. I haven't finished Baldur's Gate II, although I did play through Baldur's Gate about five years ago and disliked a lot of it.

So far this feels different, though. Probably more like BG2 than BG in terms of detail, quests, things to 'do'. The music is good too, I wouldn't expect anything less from Sam Hulick. Right now I'm getting the feeling that this is like one of the NWN premium modules (Darkness over Daggerford, Pirates of the Sword Coast, Wyvern Crown etc), in that it doesn't do anything 'new', but it is just more of the same and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The writing actually seems quite good so far. Available responses range between goody-two-shoes, evil psychopath and comedian, and from what I've seen so far, the NPCs have some funny responses if you take the comedian route.

Put next to something like Pillars of Eternity, and everything about it does look old and gnarly. The character models are awful, and that can't be blamed squarely on the engine - character models in Torment were actually not bad. The backgrounds only look good if you look at them completely zoomed out on a 1920x1080 display. Again, can't blame it squarely on the engine, I have to think Beamdog could have done more.

I'll comment some more when I've played more and have more knowledge of what the quests are like. I hate Infinity Engine combat so I've turned down the difficulty. I want to spend as little time as possible in that system, I'm more interested in story, writing, reactivity and atmosphere. I am hoping it has those in spades, otherwise this will be a wasted purchase.

If Beamdog are reading this - get the Pillars of Eternity engine from Obsidian for your next project, don't do anything more with Infinity Engine.

 

[Turjan]

I've seen it but i hoped for more impressions, and the actual text of the review is filled with spoilers so i dont know what to make of his score.

I didn't look at the spoiler part because of that either.

However, first thing to keep in mind is that most Codexers don't like BG1. Which means it's not to be expected that most people here would like a faithful expansion of BG1 (it's also obvious from many criticisms that would make sense against BG2, but not BG1). It would be nice to get an opinion from a fan of BG1 who plays the expansion.

 

[Bubbles]

No, I was just answering his question. What would make me not want to play it. I don't think it has level-scaling but you never know.

Baldur's Gate 2 already had fairly aggressive level scaling, so I don't see how it could be a dealbreaker with SoD.

 

[Roguey]

Doesn't SoD's level cap only allow one (two for some) additional levels, how can level scaling be something anyone could actually notice?

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, SoD is also linear so it doesn't need level scaling. But you can try hacking your character and seeing if encounters change.

 

[Hegel]

License Original sin 2 Engine, down with Unity.

 

[Trodat]

If Beamdog are reading this - get the Pillars of Eternity engine from Obsidian for your next project, don't do anything more with Infinity Engine.

Go play PoE then and stop stealing the fun away from the rest of us.

 

[Immortal]

It would be nice to get an opinion from a fan of BG1 who plays the expansion.

Short Answer After 2 Hours:

• The Engine Improvements are nice
• The Item progression is fucked up. They added a bunch of new items all over. Magic belt on Gorion (RNG?).. Magic rings all over the place. You are pelted with magical items before you would normally get your first plate armor.
• (FYI BD: Having a hidden ring of wizardry loses it's pixel hunting fun when you can tab highlight containers)
  
• Haven't played SOD but BG1 feels very different (Trivial Difficulty)

Shorter Answer: SJW Crap / Minsc GamerGate - Save your shekals.. it's all down hill from here.

 

[Hegel]

Seriously, why are you people getting so bothered by a single npc?

 

[Trodat]

If you mean the tranny, it doesn't fit at all. It's like paid advertisement from PepsiCo or something like that.

 

[Hegel]

Neither did the talking kobold with his friends, the demon-child and his wolf, the guy who kept bothering you in naskel or the phoenix wizard if you kept clicking on his tomb.

 

[Turjan]

It would be nice to get an opinion from a fan of BG1 who plays the expansion.

Short Answer After 2 Hours:

• The Engine Improvements are nice
• The Item progression is fucked up. They added a bunch of new items all over. Magic belt on Gorion (RNG?).. Magic rings all over the place. You are pelted with magical items before you would normally get your first plate armor.
• (FYI BD: Having a hidden ring of wizardry loses it's pixel hunting fun when you can tab highlight containers)
  
• Haven't played SOD but BG1 feels very different (Trivial Difficulty)

Shorter Answer: SJW Crap / Minsc GamerGate - Save your shekals.. it's all down hill from here.

Thanks.
I admit I can click most hidden containers in BG1 probably blindfolded. They would have to move those for me not to find them. However, I just bought BGEE (those €2.69 it costs at the moment don't exactly break the bank), so I should probably go and look for myself.

 

[Turjan]

Neither did the talking kobold with his friends, the demon-child and his wolf, the guy who kept bothering you in naskel or the phoenix wizard if you kept clicking on his tomb.

Yup. People seem to have forgotten all those wacky characters in BG1. That's even true for the NPCs. Does anyone remember that man-hating Shar-Teel?

 

[Immortal]

Neither did the talking kobold with his friends, the demon-child and his wolf, the guy who kept bothering you in naskel or the phoenix wizard if you kept clicking on his tomb.

Yup. People seem to have forgotten all those wacky characters in BG1. That's even true for the NPCs. Does anyone remember that man-hating Shar-Teel?

The tranny isn't whacky.. That's the thing. She acts super serious. Even the voice actor is try hard as fuck.
This is completely out of place. It's agenda pandering not funny or in jest.

The nail in the coffin for me is the Minsc Gamergate thing. Blatant SJW Memes is just bullshit. God knows what other stuff is in the game. FTFY. I'll just play the originals with Tutu.

 

[GrainWetski]

Neither did the talking kobold with his friends, the demon-child and his wolf, the guy who kept bothering you in naskel or the phoenix wizard if you kept clicking on his tomb.

Unlike the beast in question, the beasts you mention weren't put in to push some agenda.

 

[CptMace]

What is wacky about the tranny npc ? Is his/her story presented as such ? Is the whole thing done on the tone of humour ? Because that was the tone of everything you listed there.

 

[Morkar Left]

If they changed the original campaign I'm sure there will be mods which will remedy item bloat or things like that. I'm just really worried about the changes on the engines with the resolution. I don't even know what kind of fuck up they made there. Even if I change my native desktop resolution it's still blurry. That wasn't the case with either the widescreen mod that existed nor with mods on similar games e.g. F1/F2.

Does anybody know if that's changeable/reversable with mods? It's absolutely ugly.

 

[Immortal]

If they changed the original campaign I'm sure there will be mods which will remedy item bloat or things like that. I'm just really worried about the changes on the engines with the resolution. I don't even know what kind of fuck up they made there. Even if I change my native desktop resolution it's still blurry. That wasn't the case with either the widescreen mod that existed nor with mods on similar games e.g. F1/F2.

Does anybody know if that's changeable/reversable with mods? It's absolutely ugly.

I have no idea.. If you zoom in and out eventually you can get to a zoom level that isn't too bad.. but you're right,
the whole game has a washed out look like someone took a crisp image and saved it as a low quality jpeg 10 times..

(I played in window mode.. it helped a little I think or maybe my eyes just got worse to adjust..)

 

[Infinitron]

If they changed the original campaign I'm sure there will be mods which will remedy item bloat or things like that. I'm just really worried about the changes on the engines with the resolution. I don't even know what kind of fuck up they made there. Even if I change my native desktop resolution it's still blurry. That wasn't the case with either the widescreen mod that existed nor with mods on similar games e.g. F1/F2.

Does anybody know if that's changeable/reversable with mods? It's absolutely ugly.

They added zoom capability on a game whose native assets were developed for 640x480 - it can't not be blurry if you zoom in. It was kind of a big deal when the EE was originally released in 2012, people were mad that the default zoom when you travelled between areas kept resetting to a bit zoomed in and made things look blurry. I don't know if they fixed it or if people just got used to it/got tired of complaining.

 

[Ezrite]

At the moment, there's a bug in the engine (and a few sound related IDS files) which makes rare selection sounds fire when they are not supposed to.

Every NPC in SoD has 4 rare selection sounds which are only supposed to trigger if you repeatedly select that NPC over and over (i.e. keep clicking on them). Minsc's "Really, it's all about ethics..." and M'Khiin's "So, all goblins look alike..." lines are both supposed to be rare selection sounds, but due to the two bugs mentioned before, they may unintentionally trigger under different circumstances.

Why are you even here? You are just like a salesman trying to tell us how good your product is and to tell us how evil and twisted we are for not agreeing with your company. All you gonna do is come with excuses and PR talk. You people want to write Baldurs Gate III, and do a Planescape Torment EE. I honestly do not think you have the writers for it when all they seem to worry about is having a 50/50 cast of female/male, genders and being political correct. IN a game where good and evil exist. What will evil consist of? Being Dirty Harry and punishing the nasty racists with gun justice instead of lecturing them on how peaceful those pesky Talosians and Cyric followers really are?