Review GameBanshee Reviews Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

BG1's story and writing kept itself simple, and that was all for the best. Not a single critical plot dialogue would last more than 5-6 rejoinders, unless you asked Gorion and his counterpart (the dying mage at the maze, I forget his name) anything and everything - and they were clearly meant to be exposition repositories. The Nashkel Mines, Cloakwood, etc. are all more about having an excuse to go dungeon romping with a 'boss' fight at the end, and the Iron Throne building is only marginally better with the talking heads on each floor as you go up. That's why the Chapter monologues and cutscenes were actually welcome, injecting much needed visualisation that, for its rarity and brevity, would be very effective at holding the game together.

As long as you took BG1/2/TOB's story at that level of pomp and seriousness I think it worked very well; I think TOB's problems had a lot more to do with (1) a reduced scope which made the 'travel to X then Y then Z' structure badly paced, (2) again, a reduced scope and the corpulent self-aggrandisation of a setting that any sequel suffers from that necessitated all the Solar-talking and dream sequences, etc; (3) the limitations of high-level D&D, though I enjoyed it and I think it's great we have one IE title that provides it.

 

ok

 

The death cinematic is the only new one I actually like.

It's funny because I can actually compare the game to Fallout in terms of narrative delivery: barebones story with a huge world to explore, and a plot you piece together on your own through exploration. The game does make things much more obvious (walk into town and character X says HEY YOU ARE AN ADVENTURER GO DO X) but the lack of direction is still pretty refreshing. I just wish they had set it up better and given you clearer reasons for actually wanting to solve the problems along the Sword Coast. It definitely captures the feel of being a band of adventurers out in the wilderness, far from civilization, but like I said, it feels at odds with the rest of the Bhaalspawn stuff.

 

Have they announced anything about DLC content?

I'm expecting very lulzy "gay romance packs", "portrait packs", "+5 sword of ultra death" or something like that.

 

Dat intro...:baby:

 

All right, now this one is truly bad compared to the original. I rather liked the original but this doesn't even make any sense.

 

Tigranes, I am not sure why you say BG1 kept its writing simple.

In BG1, everyone talks in such an extended, lecturing manner over the most trivial of things, that it is anything but simple.

That sculptor near Nashkel could have simply said, "A man called Greywolf is coming to kill me. Could you protect me while I finish my sculpture, which I can't leave unattended?" No, instead, he rambles on and on, almost like the coffin maker in Planescape: Torment.

Even the two men giving you directions to Friendly Arm just couldn't keep himself brief at all.

 

There is a pretty fucking big difference between 'simple' and 'brief'.

 

I disagree.

 

Let's face it. The writing in BG1 was *simplistic*, bloated and pretty much bad.

 

Ah, the Bethesda School of Dialog.

 

Come to think of it, the Twisted Rune plotline (never completed) in BG2 was in the manner of this investigative style.

You start by investigating slavers, and find their connection to magicians.

You then investigate the murders and skinning in the Bridge District. There, again, you find some assistance being given by magicians of the Rune.

You find a note to be given to a man in Umar Hills. Probe him enough and he says the Rune will take care of you.

And eventually, you stumble across the portal to the Rune headquarters in Athkatla.

Of course, that's not how it actually happens, but it seems like it also builds on trying to probe deeper into problems plagueing a particular area.

 

^I think that quest is completed either in SimDing0's Quest Pack or in Unfinished Business.

 

That's fan fiction then, the Twisted Rune was never intended to be more than what it was.
http://social.bioware.com/profile.forum/forum/1/topic/13/index/7637945/4

 

Honestly, people who need everything wrapped up in a bow at the end are idiots. The world/setting/story is far more interesting when questions remain unanswered. I'll go further and say that one thing that really intrigued me was whether (or how much) anyone on the Council (of Six? Eight? w/e) was directly involved with the slavers. Having those loose ends gives me the feeling that there's more without spelling it out for me one letter at a time.

I love simding0 but that's one thing I wish he'd never touched.

 

Is simding0 still active? I remember him being a funny guy.

 

Nah. The airtight 'tone'-security at Spellhold et. al. drove him out. He was active on Pocketplane for a while, but as far as I know, he's gone now.

 

You know that when something is getting Enhanced Edition it will be a grand rape.

Also remember - Beamdog is planning DLCs. More shit quality content to ruin the game for money - how can anyone refuse?

And then they will get to Baldur's Gate 2...

How long before Fallout gets enhanced?

 

Here's why there is so much butt hurt:

The new intro is worse than the old one. It doesn't matter if it's 99% as good. It would still be 1% worse.

So, if you accept the new one is worse (it doesn't matter how little the difference is), then you realize they are charging money for something that is worse and calling it an "enhanced edition". The cynicism is off the scales even for the modern game industry. They literally could have taken the old animation fucking resized it using windows movie maker and had a better product. This is ridiculous.

 

They might introduce dialogue banter and romances with Ian.

Love will be expressed through weapons on Burst mode.

 

I don't think they will stop there. They will not further rest till the combat is realtime with pause vats. It will still be inferior to F3 but at least it will make it playable and shows how fallout was really meant to be played. Finally you can feel the tension real time shooting provides and run away from Ians uzi bursts. It's gonna be awesome!

 

This gonna be good.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/04...-feature-350000-words-more-than-the-original/

 

Man, quantity of words really improved the quality of dragon age.