Baldur's Gate #BaldurGate: Siege of Dragonspear

[Tacgnol]

The companion selection in SoD is truly awful. Everyone will basically end up with the same party (because fuck beamdog companions), and if you want to replay you're best off doing it in multiplayer so you can create the full party.

I love how easily every one casts you aside or assumes your guilt at the end, too.

The writing in general in SOD is plain awful, even without any of the SJW shit that has been argued to death. The way everyone automatically assumes the guilt of the commander (who has just led them to victory and defeated a powerful demon) is a perfect example.

Extra bad writing points for this occurring in a world where illusory magic and enchantment are both super common.

It does actually have some decent encounters though. It covers that pretty decent gap of mid level encounters that stop just short of high level DnD insanity (which can be fun at times, don't get me wrong).

 

[Lacrymas]

Dungeon design and itemization are pretty great in SoD, it's the writing that sours the experience. To be fair, Beamdog had nothing to go off of in this hypothetical bridging game. BG2 itself is the problem here because it has nothing to do with BG1. The writers would have had to be wizards to pull off a coherent interquel.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Overall I had fun with the gameplay, though I can see why Beamdog was deemed undeserving of BG3.

Are you saying WotC made the right call? Possibly by reading the Codex too.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The dungeon design & art is quite good, the game is only ruined by terrible writing. Fine example for people who think you can just neglect any one area and still get a good game.

True. Fallout 4 neglects them all, and that's how nothing looks particularly bad. There is nothing to contrast it with.

 

[Roguey]

The companion selection in SoD is truly awful. Everyone will basically end up with the same party (because fuck beamdog companions), and if you want to replay you're best off doing it in multiplayer so you can create the full party.

Hey, Corwin was my 2nd best MVP after my own character. She comes with a great bow and will utterly rip through enemies with her bow mastery and archer boosts.

The companion selection in SoD is truly awful. Everyone will basically end up with the same party (because fuck beamdog companions), and if you want to replay you're best off doing it in multiplayer so you can create the full party.

I love how easily every one casts you aside or assumes your guilt at the end, too.

Eh, I thought it made sense that Corwin would put her daughter first over getting involved in your drama. She's the only Beampup companion I had at the end though so I can't speak for the others (I used Glint briefly until Jaheira was available and never looked back).

To be fair, Beamdog had nothing to go off of in this hypothetical bridging game. BG2 itself is the problem here because it has nothing to do with BG1. The writers would have had to be wizards to pull off a coherent interquel.

I disagree. It could be handled more elegantly, but it'd require more scripting which was apparently beyond their means to do.

a) It's incredibly frustrating that you get all these scenes with Hasenpfeffer being an obvious bad guy but you're not allowed to actually tell Caelar about what you've seen (or even show her the evidence that you can use to convince the Rashemi couple to go home). This gives the PC the idiot ball, and not her, which is aggravating. She's stupid and stubborn anyway so it'd be fine if she simply didn't believe you.

b) The ending they wrote works fine for an evil PC. For a good-aligned PC, they should have had most people believe in your innocence, go through questioning for procedural reasons, and then let you go so you could go find Skie's killer without all the secrecy and being-hated-and-feared.

 

[Atlantico]

BG2 itself is the problem here because it has nothing to do with BG1.

This is the crux of the problem. From a narrative perspective there is nothing to connect BG1 and BG2.

There are multiple Bhaalspawns, BG1 could be a story of one of them and BG2 the story of a totally different one, and it would change nothing. In fact, that would probably improve the narrative of BG2.

 

[Tacgnol]

b) The ending they wrote works fine for an evil PC. For a good-aligned PC, they should have had most people believe in your innocence, go through questioning for procedural reasons, and then let you go so you could go find Skie's killer without all the secrecy and being-hated-and-feared.

Yeah exactly this. Even weirder if you have a paladin PC who hasn't fallen. You'd think that would raise some eyebrows.

 

[Fedora Master]

Doo Doo peepee
Beamdog are bad devs

 

[Lacrymas]

The problem with SoD's ending is that it has nothing to do with either BG1, BG2 or SoD's main story itself, it's barely a side quest. It's as slapped on as BG2's opening.

 

[Grunker]

The problem with SoD's ending is that it has nothing to do with either BG1, BG2 or SoD's main story itself, it's barely a side quest. It's as slapped on as BG2's opening.

That's the problem with the whole thing, not just the ending. It's kind of bizarre that the entire point of the project was to "connect bg1 and bg2" but then SoD is 99% random, unrelated things and then the scene with kidnapping happens at the end... so all you really got connecting the two games was a cutscene instead of a slide in the book opening of BG2.

It's more or less like BG1 is just a few hours longer and then break to BG2 is just as abrupt as ever. The whole crusade and demon-thing is entirely immaterial to the bridge they were trying to make.

That's what is most bizarre about it. But then, everyone called this before the game was released. Because it would take good writing skills to make BG2-related stuff happen without explaining why the protag doesn't know in BG2 - they're already stretching this with the shitty Irenicus appearances.

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

I hated Zaviak the most in the game.

Zaviak is one of the quest NPCs that I find very annoying, although the quest associated with him is quite creative.

He reminds me too much of a stoned student talking about unrelated topics in relation to his term paper.
I wanted to unleash my inner aggression on him until he spoke a normal sentence.
I realized that whoever was writing his lines might have had the mind of a teenager and projected his/her personal experiences into the game in a way that failed the transition of this world and the game's fantasy world (like a human transforms into a werewolf, and stops transforming halfway through, making it look goofy).

All in all, I was glad that Beamdog made an effort to improve the game's design.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

BGT mod handled the transition from BG1 to BG2 just fine. The Dukes send you as courier to Amn to smooth things over since they narrowly avoided mobilizing for war against them. On the way, you get ambushed per BG2 intro vignette and BG2 starts. No interlude module was needed. If I had been writing it, the premise would have been about cleaning up Sarevok's network. Along the way the PC would begin to discover some snippets about Alaundo's prophecy. The final dungeon could have been a former Bhaalist temple occupied by Cyric worshipers. The PC would then learn in ToB that is where Gorion's Harper's had interceded at. It would have been very short. No more than 5-10 hours of plot. Everything else would just be BG1 TotSC style content.

 

[ArchAngel]

Overall I had fun with the gameplay, though I can see why Beamdog was deemed undeserving of BG3.

Are you saying WotC made the right call? Possibly by reading the Codex too.

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

 

[Tyrion8338]

Overall I had fun with the gameplay, though I can see why Beamdog was deemed undeserving of BG3.

Are you saying WotC made the right call? Possibly by reading the Codex too.

Beamdog is small studio without any big games under thier name, they only did enchanced editions of old games which is great in inself and they did it well enough so no wonder they wont get to make an AA(A) new entry into great franchise.

Larian proven they can do good looking games with interesting combat but tbh divinity writing was infantile and mostly bad in original sin 1 & 2, story isnt captivating at all.

From what Ive seen in baldurs gate 3 so far in the early access they stepped up thier game luckily and ad&d verse is generally much more interesting so it help too.

 

[Roguey]

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

While not great, D:OS and D:OS 2 have far-better constructed stories than Dragonspear. Hell, Pillows has a far-better constructed story than Dragonspear. Utterly dimwitted writing.

 

[ArchAngel]

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

While not great, D:OS and D:OS 2 have far-better constructed stories than Dragonspear. Hell, Pillows has a far-better constructed story than Dragonspear. Utterly dimwitted writing.

Lol no. Stories and the "we are all hilarious" tone of DOS was terrible. Freedom was kind of cool but then the combat system made is so it was just forcing you to do areas based on your level. In IE games at least you could take your low level party and go tackle higher level content and be able to win. And then of course all the focus on stupid gimmicks and shit. From what I read DOS2 also fucked up basic stuff like armor and from what I have seen of BG3 so far it is also full of gimmicks now. Pillars is miles beyond anything Larian made.

 

[Grunker]

Larian stories were utter trash. To be worse, they'd have to be full of nonsense and grammatical errors. They pretty much mark the bottom of RPG writing

 

[Chippy]

Dungeon design and itemization are pretty great in SoD, it's the writing that sours the experience. To be fair, Beamdog had nothing to go off of in this hypothetical bridging game. BG2 itself is the problem here because it has nothing to do with BG1. The writers would have had to be wizards to pull off a coherent interquel.

Even if the story didn't make that much sense based on events and canon, I'm sure it could still have been an enjoyable game if it was written by a functioning adult.

I think they brought that guy in who wrote 'Cowboys and Aliens' to counterbalance Amber Scott, but he failed totally. The fact that she has a job writing anything at WOTC tells me it's either nepotism or her competence is judged by her level of wokeness.

I expect Trent Oster is either a pussy or had no power to change anything, because any manager with a functioning brain should have seen her style of writing would not have worked for the fans of BG and nipped it in the bud. Then (if I remember correctly) she goes off on the fans and started insulting them before release.

It was like giving a finely tuned F1 racing car to a retard with physical tourettes and expecting them to hit an all time high at Nuremberg.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The "it had no room to fit in the story!" argument is bullshit.
It's a bad story because it's just bad writing across the board. Every minor character, every story arc, everything.

 

[Roguey]

The "it had no room to fit in the story!" argument is bullshit.
It's a bad story because it's just bad writing across the board. Every minor character, every story arc, everything.

A lot of the situations were just fine for a Baldur's Gate game. It's not highbrow entertainment.

 

[Atlantico]

A lot of the situations were just fine for a Baldur's Gate game. It's not highbrow entertainment.

Granted, but it has standards that this pos simply can't fulfill.

 

[Average Manatee]

SoD's writing is really fucking weird too because you'd think that if the writers are going to force the PC through all that Skie shit by heavy handed DM fiat that it'd be neccessary for their purpose of connecting BG1 and 2. Except it's not. It'd be perfectly fine to delete that part of SoD and just have the party get captured as they set off for another adventure. It's like we're seeing the first draft of the plot before someone asked some basic questions about it.

 

[Cael]

SoD's writing is really fucking weird too because you'd think that if the writers are going to force the PC through all that Skie shit by heavy handed DM fiat that it'd be neccessary for their purpose of connecting BG1 and 2. Except it's not. It'd be perfectly fine to delete that part of SoD and just have the party get captured as they set off for another adventure. It's like we're seeing the first draft of the plot before someone asked some basic questions about it.

That kind of railroading nonsense is what gets DMs hit in the head with the DMG. It is shit, it will always be shit, and it is 100% pure cuckdog.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

While not great, D:OS and D:OS 2 have far-better constructed stories than Dragonspear. Hell, Pillows has a far-better constructed story than Dragonspear. Utterly dimwitted writing.

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

While not great, D:OS and D:OS 2 have far-better constructed stories than Dragonspear. Hell, Pillows has a far-better constructed story than Dragonspear. Utterly dimwitted writing.

Lol no. Stories and the "we are all hilarious" tone of DOS was terrible. Freedom was kind of cool but then the combat system made is so it was just forcing you to do areas based on your level. In IE games at least you could take your low level party and go tackle higher level content and be able to win. And then of course all the focus on stupid gimmicks and shit. From what I read DOS2 also fucked up basic stuff like armor and from what I have seen of BG3 so far it is also full of gimmicks now. Pillars is miles beyond anything Larian made.

Larian stories were utter trash. To be worse, they'd have to be full of nonsense and grammatical errors. They pretty much mark the bottom of RPG writing

Guys we all know WotC cared about none of that. It's all the sales numbers

 

[ArchAngel]

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

While not great, D:OS and D:OS 2 have far-better constructed stories than Dragonspear. Hell, Pillows has a far-better constructed story than Dragonspear. Utterly dimwitted writing.

Nope. Larian Studios are also bad. DOS I played about 3/4 and lost the will to finish. DOS2 I didn't even try to play and BG3 looks stupid. I would rather have Beamdog make BG3 in IE engine than this shit Larian are making.

While not great, D:OS and D:OS 2 have far-better constructed stories than Dragonspear. Hell, Pillows has a far-better constructed story than Dragonspear. Utterly dimwitted writing.

Lol no. Stories and the "we are all hilarious" tone of DOS was terrible. Freedom was kind of cool but then the combat system made is so it was just forcing you to do areas based on your level. In IE games at least you could take your low level party and go tackle higher level content and be able to win. And then of course all the focus on stupid gimmicks and shit. From what I read DOS2 also fucked up basic stuff like armor and from what I have seen of BG3 so far it is also full of gimmicks now. Pillars is miles beyond anything Larian made.

Larian stories were utter trash. To be worse, they'd have to be full of nonsense and grammatical errors. They pretty much mark the bottom of RPG writing

Guys we all know WotC cared about none of that. It's all the sales numbers

I guess you are right.