NWN Baldur's Gate 2: Reloaded - remake in NWN2 engine from creators of Baldur's Gate: Reloaded

[Bloodeyes]

I read the FAQ on the nexus page. It didn't answer the most frequently asked question: "Why?"

 

[MuckMan]

Man... so much time and energy wasted. I still hope that one day, there may be a game with a competent and capable toolset for modding. Imagine, an MotB or BG remake in an PF:WotR/KM-like engine. Maybe KotC will be a huge hit and modders will flock to it, creating a new golden age of mostly trash to mediocre modules, with a couple of diamonds inbetween.

 

[Robber Baron]

What's more, when you think about it,ultimately, the whole point of the project is "better graphics". Which kinda proved its point with BGR since BG1 has very simple prerendered backgrounds that NWN2 engine can do justice in realtime 3d (not all the time though, the BGR Gnoll Fortress doesn't live up to its prerendered counterpart).
But I don't think it's possible to top BG2's prerendered backgrounds with NWN2 toolset. So what you "probably" get is actually a WORSE art direction quality than in original with the only strong point being that it's realtime 3d.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

March 6 2024 https://www.facebook.com/BaldursGateReloaded/:

I'm happy to announce to that Shadows of Amn: Reloaded is now entirely playable from start to finish! This is a major milestone for the project, and we're incredibly excited to polish, bugfix, and balance the game over the next several months.
For those of you wondering about BETA testing, we'll be kicking that off once we've finished the polish, bugfix, and balance pass--likely sometime during late summer (which is obviously about a year delayed from our original plan!).

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

“We are remaking BG2 with NWN 2 graphics and controls” sounds dangerously close to “We are remaking your favorite Sachertorte, but the main ingredient this time is turds”.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

The interesting thing would be to merge Baldur's Gate 1: Reloaded with Baldur's Gate 2: Reloaded so that you can continue BG2 with the exact same party you had in BG1. So that BG1 and BG2 becomes one seamless experience.

 

[Jvegi]

Redux when?

 

[notpl]

I know I'm just echoing the same thing everyone has been saying for four years, but... why? Baldur's Gate 2 except brutally ugly and with a much worse ruleset? Who would spend nearly a decade of their life on something like this?

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't brutally ugly, it looks pretty decent for a game that came out in the mid 2000s. "Why?" indeed, but rather why would they opt into a much worse engine? The only thing you gain by switching to this version of Aurora is the cinematic camera in dialog if it's programmed properly which even Obsidian had trouble doing. BG2 looks great as is, and it trounces the entire NWN series in combat systems, party AI and user interface.

 

[Nano]

Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't brutally ugly, it looks pretty decent for a game that came out in the mid 2000s.

No it wasn't. It was already hideous then even if you're not a graphics whore.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't brutally ugly, it looks pretty decent for a game that came out in the mid 2000s.

No it wasn't. It was already hideous then even if you're not a graphics whore.

I just played it, it isn't hideous.

Spoiler

 

[Nano]

I just played it, it isn't hideous.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Looks like an average mid-2000s RPG to me.

 

[Risewild]

I just played it, it isn't hideous.

Compare that with character faces from another game released in the same year:

Spoiler

 

[ropetight]

I just played it, it isn't hideous.

Compare that with character faces from another game released in the same year:

Spoiler

Those graphics are one of the symptoms of Great Decline of the 2000's.
Most of the games from that period with ambitious 3D graphics and cinematic zooms look bad; same happened with the movies from that era recorded with early HD digital cameras.
This is especially true for the cRPG's, which didn't have the budget to hire serious 3D magicians (which you had to be to make decent looking 3D graphics then).

Tech will get there 10-15 years later, but doing RPGs in the 3D engines of that time was mostly a fad, made game development harder and more expensive.
3D accelerated demise of the studios like Troika and Black Isle - they should have sticked with 2D instead of rushing to unfinished engines like Source or spending months developing their own, even more flawed engines.

For me, 3D cRPG's of the 2000's will always be the retarded poster child of Decline.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Where is Redux?

Redux when?

What is this 'Redux' you keep asking about?

e: Nevermind I just remembered.

 

[Jvegi]

I'm asking because it had a demo 10 years ago and it was suprisingly lots of fun.

I do realize it's fucking dead of course.

 

[Falksi]

Jesus, why would anyone even think of doing this?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I can't believe they stuck with it. Maybe they're banking on the word "playable". Still, this is an accomplishment of determination. BG1 was ambitious but plausible, so it wasn't entirely unexpected when they completed it. Shadows of Amn is a different matter. I'll be curious to see some videos.

 

[Fargus]

Jesus, why would anyone even think of doing this?

Because according to author BG2 in NWN2 engine is the best thing since sliced bread.

I just played it, it isn't hideous.

Compare that with character faces from another game released in the same year:

Spoiler

Unique faces vs chargen bethesda garbage. All characters in unmodded Oblivion looked like potatoes.

 

[Gargaune]

BG1 was ambitious but plausible, so it wasn't entirely unexpected when they completed it. Shadows of Amn is a different matter.

In some respects, it might work better. One of the aspects that didn't "translate" well from BG1 to NWN2 was to scope of the areas, which become a lot more constrained and no longer hit that particular sense of open-world exploration the original had. With BG2 being more location-centric in general, the gap might be narrower.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Gargaune I don’t know about that. BG1 was mostly grounded 12th century Europe. BG2 really turns up the fantasy elements and has greater color and detail. I was surprised by what I saw of Suldenessalar, but what about The Planar Sphere or Suaghin City for example? There is so much character, detail, and color that I just don’t think the modding team can do justice in the NWN2 engine. I still wish these guys had tackled the Icewind Gate Project instead. I think that would have borne better fruit.

 

[Fargus]

Infinity engine games are fine as they are.

 

[Gargaune]

Gargaune I don’t know about that. BG1 was mostly grounded 12th century Europe. BG2 really turns up the fantasy elements and has greater color and detail. I was surprised by what I saw of Suldenessalar, but what about The Planar Sphere or Suaghin City for example? There is so much character, detail, and color that I just don’t think the modding team can do justice in the NWN2 engine.

Oh, I see what you mean. It's true, BG2 has a higher visual standard to meet, it could go either way. This is one of the issues with the NWN2 port of IWD, NWN2's 3D can just about do justice to the original BG, but not to IWD.

For anyone else wondering what the hell we're on about, the team shared a couple of early dev shots of Suldanesselar on their Facebook, but all the way back in 2018:

 

[notpl]

Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't brutally ugly, it looks pretty decent for a game that came out in the mid 2000s.

No it wasn't. It was already hideous then even if you're not a graphics whore.

I just played it, it isn't hideous.

Spoiler

It looks fine from an overhead perspective, it gets worse and worse the more horizontal the camera goes, and the conversation system with fully-zoomed character faces is abysmal especially compared to NWN1's modular, elegant little text boxes. This decision, more than anything else, is what utterly killed its potential for modders, in my opinion.