I guess I could do a review instead of a rant, but it's just an expansion, so I'm mostly interested in a rant right now.
It was fine until after the final fight (same demon as IWD if I recall correctly, nice touch there), but then.. what? Excuse me? That crap doesn't add up at all. It completely ruins the start of BG2, as the initial conversation would be something like this:
YOU SON OF A.. five minutes later.. WHERE'S THE DAMN DAGGER YOU WORTHLESS PIECE.. several more minutes.. *SLAMMING FISTS AGAINST BARS* I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS.. etc etc etc
And then the quest would be to clear the name. Or at the very least it would be mentioned time and again that you're accused of such a serious crime. That's not something they'll let slide just because you're a bit further south along the coast. I'm going to assume they'll add a DLC or something where the damn dagger is mentioned (and probably found) and "sent to Baldur's Gate to clear my name", because otherwise the entire thing will just be a massive cliffhanger. Maybe this is their BG3 pitch? No idea, but right now I'm just a wee bit frustrated.
Also, a few other things that were off:
- The pacing. It's too slow. It's got about the same amount of content as ToB, yet I only gained about 2 levels per character (we knew this would be the case, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels too slow). 10 hours between each round of level ups is too much.
- The NPC situation is a bit problematic. Actually, it's more than a bit problematic; it's a real issue. Let me explain:
SoD is considerably harder than BG, yet the party options are very limited, especially when it comes to tanks. Basically, the main character should be some sort of tanky character, or you'll end up with Minsc as your only semi-tank for half the expansion, and he's just not very tanky. No Kagain or Ajantis at all, and Dorn/Khalid are gained halfway through it.
Beyond that, the wizard situation is also an issue. Basically, Wizards are fairly big investments in the sense that it takes a long time to get the right spell selection for them (scroll hunting etc), so if you happen to be using Xzar, Neera or Xan, you're screwed initially in SoD. Dynaheir was the only available Wizard, and she started at 30k xp with an empty spell book because I had invited her into the party during her rescue mission, and then dumped her (new NPCs start at about 200k xp, but Dynaheir was a blank slate because I had invited her for about 5 minutes).
Oh yeah, and quite a few bugs. Some serious, most not.
Other than that, it was a fun experience, but I do hope they leave the Bhaalspawn alone for BG3 and just fix the murder issue with a DLC or mini-expansion or something. It's too jarring to keep piling on stuff for the same character, as it's almost impossible to reconcile the new stuff with the old, as SoD is a very good example of. The overall tone, the story and the characters all fit the BG series, but it's all way too significant to suddenly be forgotten by the start of BG2.
Anyway, that's enough of a rant for now, time to import my character into BG2 and see how that works out.
It was fine until after the final fight (same demon as IWD if I recall correctly, nice touch there), but then.. what? Excuse me? That crap doesn't add up at all. It completely ruins the start of BG2, as the initial conversation would be something like this:
YOU SON OF A.. five minutes later.. WHERE'S THE DAMN DAGGER YOU WORTHLESS PIECE.. several more minutes.. *SLAMMING FISTS AGAINST BARS* I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS.. etc etc etc
And then the quest would be to clear the name. Or at the very least it would be mentioned time and again that you're accused of such a serious crime. That's not something they'll let slide just because you're a bit further south along the coast. I'm going to assume they'll add a DLC or something where the damn dagger is mentioned (and probably found) and "sent to Baldur's Gate to clear my name", because otherwise the entire thing will just be a massive cliffhanger. Maybe this is their BG3 pitch? No idea, but right now I'm just a wee bit frustrated.
Also, a few other things that were off:
- The pacing. It's too slow. It's got about the same amount of content as ToB, yet I only gained about 2 levels per character (we knew this would be the case, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels too slow). 10 hours between each round of level ups is too much.
- The NPC situation is a bit problematic. Actually, it's more than a bit problematic; it's a real issue. Let me explain:
SoD is considerably harder than BG, yet the party options are very limited, especially when it comes to tanks. Basically, the main character should be some sort of tanky character, or you'll end up with Minsc as your only semi-tank for half the expansion, and he's just not very tanky. No Kagain or Ajantis at all, and Dorn/Khalid are gained halfway through it.
Beyond that, the wizard situation is also an issue. Basically, Wizards are fairly big investments in the sense that it takes a long time to get the right spell selection for them (scroll hunting etc), so if you happen to be using Xzar, Neera or Xan, you're screwed initially in SoD. Dynaheir was the only available Wizard, and she started at 30k xp with an empty spell book because I had invited her into the party during her rescue mission, and then dumped her (new NPCs start at about 200k xp, but Dynaheir was a blank slate because I had invited her for about 5 minutes).
Oh yeah, and quite a few bugs. Some serious, most not.
Other than that, it was a fun experience, but I do hope they leave the Bhaalspawn alone for BG3 and just fix the murder issue with a DLC or mini-expansion or something. It's too jarring to keep piling on stuff for the same character, as it's almost impossible to reconcile the new stuff with the old, as SoD is a very good example of. The overall tone, the story and the characters all fit the BG series, but it's all way too significant to suddenly be forgotten by the start of BG2.
Anyway, that's enough of a rant for now, time to import my character into BG2 and see how that works out.
Last edited: