What do you think about BG2?

[Serus]

Seriously overrated.
I can't believe there are people out there who really think that BG2 is a better RPG than Arcanum or Fallout.
God damn idiots.

BG2 is "not bad/pretty good" but Fallout (1 and 2) and Arcanum are "awesome". However graphics are better in BG2 and combat sytem/difficulty/balance is broken in Arcanum (at least in latest official patch). It doesn't make BG2 a better RPG, not al all !

 

[Andhaira]

What a stupid comment! You invalidate your own statement. If 80% PLUS of a ame is combat, and its broken, how can the game be good?

 

[DraQ]

Ban Andhaira.

 

[xantrius]

I greatly enjoyed Baldur's Gate II (and its expansion) back in the day when it just came out, and have fond memories of it, though they are quite blurry by now. Would I truly enjoy it today? Would I be able to look myself in the mirror in the morning after having played it once again ; not very likely.

My interest have been piqued though somewhat concerning an Imoen romance mod

Anyone tried it?

 

[hiver]

I did, whatyawant to know?

-oh, and it did age quite well so you can freely play it again.
And there is more then enough mods to spice up different things about it, especially combat.

 

[Andhaira]

Theres no need for mods if you only played it once or twice. you can do things differently and or pick a different character (so many kits) AND you can select diff companions/alighment.

Also the companions/npcs of the bg series are FAR supeerior to Arcanum's. I mean virgil is the gayest npc ever. Also, you CANNOT CONTROLL FOLLOWERS IN ARCANUM!!! How stupid is that?

 

[Volourn]

Sounds like TRUE role-playing to me.

 

[Krash]

Great game, just a bit lacking in the C&C department.

 

[Qwinn]

Was thinking about this some more.

I'll concede that -all- "lack of c&c" complaints are absolutely valid when it comes to ToB, and anything to do with Melissan. ToB is pretty much a railroad, no question about that.

I just don't think that fairly applies to BG2 proper, though. There's a reasonable amount of c&c in it, IMO, comparable with most other games, including the ones we've been discussing here.

Qwinn

 

[Gnidrologist]

What do you think about BG2?

It's shit in many many ways. Both positive and negative.

 

[Black]

Also the companions/npcs of the bg series are FAR supeerior to Arcanum's. I mean virgil is the gayest npc ever. Also, you CANNOT CONTROLL FOLLOWERS IN ARCANUM!!! How stupid is that?

This reminds we why we banned him.
Because he was an idiot.

 

[KurtH]

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TOTALLY CONTROL YOUR COMPANIONS IN ARCANUM

 

[Liberal]

And you don't have a single companion in VtM:B. Bad game. Bleh.

 

[Squeek]

Some of the criticism of BG2 in this thread is right on the money, but make no mistake about it: If there were a Hall of Fame for CRPGs, BG2 is a game that would be entered into it immediately. It would make it in before games that were better all-around RPGs.

Obviously, that's an apparent contradiction. Here's how it still makes sense. The folks who made BG2 blazed a new trail, one that may seem perfectly obvious now, but it was new at the time, and I remember most folks who knew what they were talking about being very impressed with it.

Not only that, they explored that new trail systematically and exhaustively. In hindsight, it wasn't the preferred path for cRPG to go down, but it was a game well worth making and one a whole bunch of fans enjoyed playing.

 

[DraQ]

Also the companions/npcs of the bg series are FAR supeerior to Arcanum's. I mean virgil is the gayest npc ever. Also, you CANNOT CONTROLL FOLLOWERS IN ARCANUM!!! How stupid is that?

This reminds we why we banned him.
Because he was an idiot.

For stating the obvious in a conversation you gain 125xp.

 

[xantrius]

I did, whatyawant to know?

-oh, and it did age quite well so you can freely play it again.
And there is more then enough mods to spice up different things about it, especially combat.

I was just curious as to whether people had found the romance mod worthwhile; but I'll probably check it out myself regardless if I ever get around to playing the game again, which I'm quite ambivalent about... Will not be any time soon though, anyway.
But yes it could probably be spiced up with combat mods etc., for my liking, or else I'd just play it for the sake of nostalgia, if nothing else; perhaps I'd be positively surprised... the negative and the positive would reciprocally be there regardless of how it turns out, so WIN-WIN for me, yay me.

 

[Korgan]

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TOTALLY CONTROL YOUR COMPANIONS IN ARCANUM

He said "ConTROLL", not "Control", you dumbass.

 

[nomask7]

I did, whatyawant to know?

-oh, and it did age quite well so you can freely play it again.
And there is more then enough mods to spice up different things about it, especially combat.

I don't think he was worrying about the game's aging, but his own.

 

[bailuu]

currently replaying BG2 right now and it's just as glorious as ever.

"KAI!!... yeah."

 

[hiver]

I was just curious as to whether people had found the romance mod worthwhile; but I'll probably check it out myself regardless if I ever get around to playing the game again, which I'm quite ambivalent about... Will not be any time soon though, anyway.

It offers a lot of dialogue options. Some of them pretty abusive towards Imoen and i dint find those interesting or particularly well written.

As far as i can remember the romance part itself was not bad if you dont mind incestuous romances and if you dont expect really good writing, but you can also go down the friendship line and still have all of the additional content.

I would mostly recommend it as additional flavor to the game not something anyone should base a whole playthrough on.

 

[Relayer71]

I'm going to quote VD on this one because he hit it right on the head:

"Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn - the best Bioware game to-date and one of a very few games that deserve to be called epic. While it was a bit weak on the role-playing side forcing you to follow a very linear storyline with few true choices, it was a grand adventure with amazing hand-painted backgrounds. I doubt we'd see a game like that ever again."

It's no Fallout or Arcanum as far as role-playing, it's no PS:T as far as story and characters, and we know how the IE engine's combat isn't the greatest.

Still, there was something special about that game. Like Wizardry 8, it was the last of it's kind. And like Wiz 8 it had something a lot of recent games don't have and that is "character". These games have a certain undeniable charm and flavor to them whereas most other games feel flat no matter how graphically impressive or how high their production values.

And it was just a beautiful game as far as presentation with a great score and breathtaking graphics for the time which still look good today. Not to mention it also had a good interface.

 

[Xor]

I've considered playing through it with 5 crappy fan-made follower mods for the lulz, or maybe 4 fan-made followers and the Imoen romance mod.


Actually, someone should do a LP under those conditions.

 

[Relayer71]

I'm going to quote VD on this one because he hit it right on the head:

"Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn - the best Bioware game to-date and one of a very few games that deserve to be called epic. While it was a bit weak on the role-playing side forcing you to follow a very linear storyline with few true choices, it was a grand adventure with amazing hand-painted backgrounds. I doubt we'd see a game like that ever again."

It's no Fallout or Arcanum as far as role-playing, it's no PS:T as far as story and characters, and we know how the IE engine's combat isn't the greatest.

Still, there was something special about that game. Like Wizardry 8, it was the last of it's kind. And like Wiz 8 it had something a lot of recent games don't have and that is "character". These games have a certain undeniable charm and flavor to them whereas most other games feel flat no matter how graphically impressive or how high their production values.

And it was just a beautiful game as far as presentation with a great score and breathtaking graphics for the time which still look good today. Not to mention it also had a good interface.

 

[Relayer71]

I'm going to quote VD on this one because he hit it right on the head:

"Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn - the best Bioware game to-date and one of a very few games that deserve to be called epic. While it was a bit weak on the role-playing side forcing you to follow a very linear storyline with few true choices, it was a grand adventure with amazing hand-painted backgrounds. I doubt we'd see a game like that ever again."

It's no Fallout or Arcanum as far as role-playing, it's no PS:T as far as story and characters, and we know how the IE engine's combat isn't the greatest.

Still, there was something special about that game. Like Wizardry 8, it was the last of it's kind. And like Wiz 8 it had something a lot of recent games don't have and that is "character". These games have a certain undeniable charm and flavor to them whereas most other games feel flat no matter how graphically impressive or how high their production values.

And it was just a beautiful game as far as presentation with a great score and breathtaking graphics for the time which still look good today. Not to mention it also had a good interface.

 

[Gragt]

You're sure quoting VD a lot.