Baldur's Gate I've never played DoS2. Should I be worried about Larian's version of BG?

[Voids]

So I've played DoS and found the writing to be laughable. The gameplay also didn't really grab me. I decided to pass on dos 2 which is supposedly the game of the century for some. Should I be worried about Larian handling bg? Why?

 

[agris]

Because DoS and DoS2.

 

[Daze]

Played like one act. Pretty meh.
Replay ToEE or KotC instead.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

good question

 

[King Crispy]

I'm worried that we're going to get a heavy dose of Larian's brand of "humor" in BG3 and that alone makes me nervous.

I actually don't have many worries about the technical side of things, because D:OS 2 is damned good-looking and quite stable, and I'm also not particularly worried about D&D implementation because they're not allowed to screw that up.

Will it be "serious" enough? Will it have that authentic FR feel to it? Only time will tell.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

why crispy, you're not in the mood for cheese?

 

[Butter]

I don't even know what the appeal of BG3 is supposed to be. Wasn't it confirmed that this isn't a continuation of the Bhaalspawn story? Does anyone desperately want to go back to the Sword Coast for more vanilla fantasy? Is this going to be a game so mediocre that the only way they could drum up interest for it was by appropriating the Baldur's Gate name?

 

[moraes]

What to expect of the writing: word count similar to BG2, probably a bit less because of full voice-acting. Baldur's Gate always had cheesy writing anyway, the first game was the superior one in the writing department because of less wordiness. You can count on Larian to use characters like Minsc to exploit wacky humor, but I don't think they plan to go full wacky, the mindflayer trailer was pretty edgy. They actually reduced the wacky factor in DOS2 and some people said the game was less fun because of it (I haven't played that game enough to confirm that opinion).

What to expect of the gameplay: this is the real mistery here. It's not a given that they'll follow their recent winning formula of turn-based combat because of the RTwP roots of the series. Even if they go turn-based, it's not a given they'll put the same emphasis on environment interaction and manipulation, because of the different ruleset. It's even possible that they'll go third-person single controlled character with AI controlled party members and an optional tactical layer ("so the old fans can play it like it's 1998 again"), so it will be more similar to Ego Draconis/Dragon Knight Saga than Original Sin.

 

[Serious_Business]

The only reason why BG 1-2's overall writing and lore "worked" was that it was made on a backdrop that wasn't made by Bioware. You got this whole Forgotten realms thing, which was diluted Tolkien I suppose - what it allowed was to present BG's story in something that was bigger than what it was. Everything Bioware made after that, except maybe the Star wars game I guess, didn't work - they didn't know how to write a setting and their narratives devolved into generic power-fantasies (BG was a power-fantasy, but at least your character wasn't entirely the center of everything - the world wasn't made for them). I suppose Larian could benefit from writing a game in an exterior setting, if we want to be optimistic. The trailer sure wasn't very "tongue in cheek" - it was actually pretty horrid and disgusting, which was cool. You never know, right. In the end though, DnD narrative does benefit from being tongue in cheek and not taking itself too seriously. You don't make a serious drama about stat sheets running around searching for the next big flaming sword, trying to kill everything in the bestiary. "Serious" storytelling just degenerates into Pillars of eternity. The key is how Larian manages the pen and paper system. If they go all out like Kingmaker did, it'll be good. If they try a "computer-friendly system", forget about it.

 

[Tigranes]

Larian can't write, so that's basically a given - but with an established setting it might be OK enough to be inoffensive typical RPG fare.

It will be a nice polished game for sure, good looking - well, if you share their particular stylistic tastes.

I think DOS' best point was gameplay, so if you didn't like that, I'm not sure you should have much hope.

 

[Grauken]

So I've played DoS and found the writing to be laughable. The gameplay also didn't really grab me. I decided to pass on dos 2 which is supposedly the game of the century for some. Should I be worried about Larian handling bg? Why?

Not really, BG1+BG2 have a finished story, BG3 is just brand extension. It's like asking as if Fallout 3 tainted Fallout 1+2

Spoiler

 

[ItsChon]

The ideal situation will be if they give us a RTwP D&D adaptation that is very close, if not identical, to how BG 1&2 played on Infinity Engine. Don't fuck with the art too much and give us something close to the originals (I'm not expecting it to be as beautiful, but no cartoon shit please), and finally, make the game a low level D&D adventure with a reestablished setting (i.e Forgotten Realms). If they do these things, there is a chance it won't be complete shit.

What are the chances they will execute all these elements in an acceptable way? Pretty low....

 

[Incendax]

BG1 and 2 were never very serious, with BG2 having multiple outright joke characters and shit like random people throwing scimitars at you. If the humor present in DOS2 is what we can expect from BG3 then it will be right around par for BG2. That said, DOS2 was... moderately good at hiding some of the humor. You had to choose Petpal or make joke choices to get joke responses most of the time. The game could be mostly serious if you played it that way. Mostly. There were still snarking skulls on spikes and the like.

My REAL concern is that Larian is not given enough development time, and the ending gets botched like DOS2's Chapter 3 and 4.

 

[ItsChon]

BG2 is a decidedly inferior game to BG1. I couldn't even finish BG2, and I've beat the first like four different times.

 

[Riddler]

The ideal situation will be if they give us a RTwP D&D adaptation that is very close, if not identical, to how BG 1&2 played on Infinity Engine. Don't fuck with the art too much and give us something close to the originals (I'm not expecting it to be as beautiful, but no cartoon shit please), and finally, make the game a low level D&D adventure with a reestablished setting (i.e Forgotten Realms). If they do these things, there is a chance it won't be complete shit.

What are the chances they will execute all these elements in an acceptable way? Pretty low....

Low? They are zero.

 

[mondblut]

You should be wary of any version of BG made after 2003 regardless of who is doing it.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

BG1 and 2 were never very serious, with BG2 having multiple outright joke characters and shit like random people throwing scimitars at you. If the humor present in DOS2 is what we can expect from BG3 then it will be right around par for BG2. That said, DOS2 was... moderately good at hiding some of the humor. You had to choose Petpal or make joke choices to get joke responses most of the time. The game could be mostly serious if you played it that way. Mostly. There were still snarking skulls on spikes and the like.

My REAL concern is that Larian is not given enough development time, and the ending gets botched like DOS2's Chapter 3 and 4.

not enough development time? They have been deciding on what type of combat system to use and working on an alpha story trailer for almost 4 years now (remember they were working on the game for perhaps 2.5 years prior to the announcement they released 1 to 2 years ago now or whenever the fuck that initial public announcement occurred), and have like 650 people working on the game spread across 4 continents, an aircraft carrier group and a nuclear submarine...all that and it won't be out for another 3 years or something. If the game fails it won't be due to lack of resources or development time.

 

[Reinhardt]

Now if you romance Viconia instead of fade to black you will get... You know what you will get...

 

[Elex]

I'm worried that we're going to get a heavy dose of Larian's brand of "humor" in BG3 and that alone makes me nervous.

I actually don't have many worries about the technical side of things, because D:OS 2 is damned good-looking and quite stable, and I'm also not particularly worried about D&D implementation because they're not allowed to screw that up.

Will it be "serious" enough? Will it have that authentic FR feel to it? Only time will tell.

Imagine if in BG3 one of the first companion NPC you meet is a dumb guy with a strange pet and scream some joke about his pet multiple time in a fight.

 

[Background Character]

Yes

 

[Daedalos]

In short, yes.

 

[pomenitul]

Yes, absolutely.

Ja, oui, да, si, 是, نعم, etiam, ναι.

YES!

 

[samuraigaiden]

Hardcore BG 1 & 2 fans will hate BG 3 with all their heart and never forgive Larian. D:OS 1 & 2 fans will think BG 3 is OK.

 

[JarlFrank]

BG2 is a decidedly inferior game to BG1. I couldn't even finish BG2, and I've beat the first like four different times.

BG2 is ten million times better than the bland and boring BG1 though.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Always the "Larian can't write" crowd, maybe my standards for game writing are too low or something but I don't give much of a fuck anymore about 'serious business' stories, probably because I can count the games who have genuinely good (as opposed to 'good for what it is') writing almost literally on one hand. And then add to that the fact that 99% of RPGs still go for the serious business kind of writing. And I am not even complaining here, 'good for what it is' is perfectly alright for me when playing a game, if I want to great story, I'll grab a book.

I find Larians whimsical approach much more refreshing and it actually creates a couple of memorable moments by virtue of its style alone, whereas I forget 99% of your average juvenile dramatic RPG writing right away. All that being said, its not even the case that Larians writing is whimsical alone, as for example the companion story of Jahan in DivOS was pretty serious (and quite interesting).