Decline The best of the Infinity Engine games

[fantadomat]

Most of us who detest Bioware and the Infinity Engine similarly despise all derivative games that shared in and expanded the decline wrought by Bioware, including Pillars of Eternity which was the brainchild of the Apostle of Decline, who claims that Wizardry and similar games are not RPGs.

Soo old people that can't adapt to change and glorify TB because they can't play anything else?!

 

[Thac0]

Baldurs Gate 1 > Planescape Torment > Baldurs Gate 2 > Icewind Dale
I don't really think that any of Beamdogs' small modifications change enough about the games to change the quality in a significant way, so I won't rank those. Maybe add Siege of Dragonspear at the bottom if I am feeling funny. Lilura is no longer here to get mad at that statement.

Baldurs Gate is my favourite because it is a good allrounder. You have some story with the Bhaalspawn, some build and itemisation porn, some dungeon delving, some combat, some puzzles, some dialogues of which some are even well written. Baldurs Gate 1 > Baldurs Gate 2 because I prefer low level dnd to high level.

Planescape Torment is overall the most meaningfull game, and my vote could have gone to it aswell. It is the single CRPG with the best characters. It is runners up for overall the best story. It has the best setting and the best main character. It has however shit combat and itemisation, making it an all or nothing type deal. Then again, it is shit combat in rtwp, so who cares.

Not much to say about BG2. Some of the large side locations are really nice adventures. Some dungeons like the Mage Sphere are really good aswell. But as an allrounder it is inferior to BG1 because DnD breaks down above level 12 or so even in 2e.

Icewind Dale is the combat specialist. Combat in RTWP is not good. Specialising in something that is shit because off the engine is a tough sell. The game still has a lot of strengths, like wonderfull itemisation, cool dungeons, a nice aesthetic, full party building, well balanced spellcasters, tons of class options and so on, but at the end of the day it is a combat focusses real time with pause game. And that is fucked by design.