Baldur's Gate EET - is it any good?
- Thread starter Ivanwah
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Gloomseeker
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See, that's where we have to agree to disagree.
I wouldn't mind a modder saying the very same thing but if you're going to ask me for money and if you expect me to consider your work as "canon" then you can't give me that sort of attitude.
The last straw is that the writer in question didn't come up with any of the original material so if she chooses to alter existing characters and make unfounded claims regarding some sexist bias in the original game then she is in no position to expect me to treat her work as anything but fanfiction.
Telling potential customers that you don't give a damn is not ballsy, it's just not professional so I have no qualms about dismissing SoD altogether.
You've asked me why I didn't want to get SoD and I think I've answered extensively. I did take note that you've enjoyed the content and I'm glad you're having fun with the game but I think that by now you can understand my decision to stick to the original game.
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I think that by now you can understand my decision to stick to the original game.
Oh, I understand. More power to you!
To those who may be on the fence, I am over 10 hours deep into Siege now and can safely say there is nothing at all wrong with anything, writing or otherwise, in the game. It's a little too "epic" for my tastes as Pongo so eloquently pointed out, a few too many magical items, a few too many creatures from the bestiary, but character writing, dialogue, story, etc., is perfectly fine. And I just finished a very long run of Baldur's Gate before playing so it is fresh in my mind. AND I just met Jaheira in the game, t'was lovely. She's the same old Jaheira that I knew from BG, so I'm happy with it.
For my money I can tell no discernible difference between the writing in BG vs. SoD, except for the fact that SoD has more voice acting and not as many cringe-worthy lines (I shuddered at Shar-Teel in the original game.)
I rather like it when a developer or anyone is honest enough to be direct and doesn't spit out brown-nosing kiss-ass PR comments just to appease over-sensitive users. So good on her.
To those who may be on the fence, I am over 10 hours deep into Siege now and can safely say there is nothing at all wrong with anything, writing or otherwise, in the game. It's a little too "epic" for my tastes as Pongo so eloquently pointed out, a few too many magical items, a few too many creatures from the bestiary, but character writing, dialogue, story, etc., is perfectly fine. And I just finished a very long run of Baldur's Gate before playing so it is fresh in my mind. AND I just met Jaheira in the game, t'was lovely. She's the same old Jaheira that I knew from BG, so I'm happy with it.
You're not doing anyone a service when you try to state your opinion as if it's fact. What you mean is that you don't have any issues with the writing or dialogue.
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The point I was making is that I have not noticed anything that digresses from the original characters' personalities in any way. When people bash the writing in this game they usually have 2 things they say - either that characters were gutted and written with new personalities, or SJW and "political agenda" is thrown in your face. I have not seen that. In terms of the character writing, for example:
Safana is still very sexual, even more in your face than in BG, in a dominating/dominatrix-y type of way.
Jaheira is still the strong, somewhat prickly woman you met in Baldur's Gate 1.
Khalid has the same confidence issues but with a good heart.
Viconia is nasty, maybe not as nasty as she was in BG but still not very "nice."
Dynaheir, haven't used her much but she seems the same.
Skie is still a brat looking for adventure, often to hilarious affect.
Imoen, same as BG. Witty but air-headed at times.
I killed Minsc in BG so I can't use him. (Enhanced Edition Trilogy combines the games so all of this remains consistent.)
Neera/Baeloth/Dorn and the Beamdog characters possess the same personalities as the EEs.
And the voice acting for everyone, I believe, is done by the original actors? It sounds that way to me.
So I would say it is a fact that there is no huge departure in terms of the character writing from the original games. If someone would like to quote lines that show a huge departure from the original personalities of the characters, feel free to do that. I'm saying that in 10 or so hours with the game, the original characters are well represented. And I just finished almost 100 hours of Baldur's Gate so it's very fresh in my mind.
In terms of SJW stuff, I haven't noticed much of anything. Unless you consider gay relationships some sort of sin to include to in an RPG. Corwin was hitting on Safana in my game, so there you go.
And it took me some digging in the game to even see the 2 lines about the transgender character's past (which was a touching story, and such a minor, inconsequential detail that anybody taking "offense" to that is extremely petty. I would use stronger words but you get the idea. )You can still roleplay an evil character, there are plenty of nasty things to say and you can treat people like shit if you want. I'm not saying the expansion is perfect, not at all, in my opinion it's great, though. But I'm saying that to rally against this game like it's committed some sort of sin against the original Baldur's Gate is over-exaggeration of the highest degree.
And while the expansion is still not perfect, it's great as hell to me to be able to play new Infinity Engine content. I love Baldur's Gate and the Infinity Engine, so I welcome all that gooey new content with open arms. As a fan of these games I cannot possibly be picky enough to turn my nose up and skip what is obviously a labor of love done by vets of the genre for a 20 year old classic CRPG. If, at the very least, it encourages more people to revisit these games, perhaps making content in the original Infinity Engine itself, then that is a huge boon to me, the Infinity Engine, Dungeons & Dragons & CRPG Fan.
Cheerio.
That's a much better explanation than "I can safely say there is nothing at all wrong with anything".
Glad you're enjoying it, and I'm quite looking forward to playing it myself.
Glad you're enjoying it, and I'm quite looking forward to playing it myself.
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That's a much better explanation than "I can safely say there is nothing at all wrong with anything".
Glad you're enjoying it, and I'm quite looking forward to playing it myself.
Have you played the EET yet? I'm liking it a lot so far. While there's not a great roleplaying reason (yet) to head back to BG1 areas, you could do so when you want. I ended up postponing Ulgoth's Beard content for now, but once I get a "breather" in SoD or BG2 I can head back and finish that up. There are also other little touches that EET adds, like consistency between stories, such as Minsc staying dead between BG and SoD in my playthrough, and all the stats, equipment, spells, etc., carrying over for all characters (Xan still has my second Improved Cloak of Non-Detection, the bum. Wait until I see him!
) It's pretty neat. And apparently there is a way to access the Black Pits content, but I can't figure out how yet.I'd recommend Big World Setup with mods, too. All of the "Recommended" package I added + the additional tactical challenges have been very high quality. That includes new companions, banter, the improved encounters and the like. I can also safely say nothing has stuck out in a bad way with any of the mod content so far, besides maybe the nitpick to say that a couple of Isra's lines sound like lower quality recordings (serious nitpick.) Finch sounds professional the whole way. And there are a boatload of new companions and quality quest content for BG2.
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More on the roleplaying aspect. There are plenty of opportunities to be as evil as you like. Last night I had the choice to
. In the expansion you often get these moral choices to make, just like in the original games.
I think Beamdog wanted to do even more epic, ambitious things, like
Regardless, you do get choices of being good/neutral/evil in dialogue for less important things like the torture issue I just mentioned, how you deal with your enemies and so on.
For example,
You can do whatever you want with them, you're not railroaded into some politically correct response. There's choices to be made throughout the game like this and it's 100% similar to the originals in that way, which as we know did not feature game-bending C&C, but had moral roleplaying opportunities in dialogue. And the same BG alignment roleplaying system matters here.
Also had a cutscene with
last night, and it was amazing. The writing in this particular cutscene was crazy good, and the cutscenes they have sprinkled throughout the game are great with a very nice atmosphere and high quality to them. I was/am impressed. I did not expect it the expansion to be this good or this high quality, thinking like I'm sure many others did that Beamdog did not have the talent or know-how to create a game like this. Happily, I was wrong, and I find the whole thing surrounding this game so bizarre in a way, based on how a certain group of people were talking about the game and its writing as if it was a mortal sin against Bhaal himself. As I mentioned before there is no "agenda" or whatever else in the writing, other than what relates to the issues going on in the game itself (which again, you can roleplay your choices how you see fit, be as evil or as good as you like and so on.) And the writing at times is excellent, with lots of morally grey area, especially in the main villain of the game.
I'd link a video of the cutscene but don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just know that there will be some cool 'wow' moments in the game, for sure, especially for those who love the story behind Bhaal and the Bhaalspawn Saga.
endorse torture as a wartime tactic or denounce it
I think Beamdog wanted to do even more epic, ambitious things, like
let you join the villain's side in the campaign (which, I'm not sure if you can do that or not after 10+ hours with the game, and I don't want spoilers so I don't look it up.) They hint towards that in dialogue a lot. Say someone from the villain's side tries to recruit you, you may have 3 responses all saying 'no' in different ways. Or if your commander on the good side wants you to do something against the enemy, you may just have 3 ways to say 'yes', and so on. I figure that they didn't have the resources to add an entirely "dark path" through the campaign, but perhaps they wanted to (or maybe just wanted to stick to the original BG-style which is full of false choices.)
For example,
the last dungeon I was in gave me the option to instantly kill imprisoned members of the villain's side. There was a switch that I could have pulled to drop them into a spike trap. Obviously you have other options, too, like saving them, which could get you in good with the villain's side or help you later, and stuff like that. There are plenty of things like this that are not sugar-coated and let you choose your path. Another example is that in camp one of the commanders is racist against Half-Orcs. So, there's a group of Half-Orc mercenaries that show up and want to bash skulls of the enemy for their own reasons, but the racist commander wants you to chase them off or kill them.
Also had a cutscene with
a certain "hooded man"
I'd link a video of the cutscene but don't want to spoil it for anyone. Just know that there will be some cool 'wow' moments in the game, for sure, especially for those who love the story behind Bhaal and the Bhaalspawn Saga.
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Although I'm sure you didn't think about it beforehand, you need to realize you're dropping a lot of spoilers there.
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Eh, I thought about it, but those are pretty borderline to be considered spoilers. Just vague quest things, nothing serious.
I added spoiler tags for future readers. Didn't mean to spoil anything for you bro.
There's nothing borderline about giving a ton of examples of things you can do in the game that are quest-related.
Not a huge deal, but if you want to give examples, you could keep it a little more brief that's all.
Not a huge deal, but if you want to give examples, you could keep it a little more brief that's all.
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I mean, yeah, you're right. I fixed the post. Play the game soon so you can post your thoughts about it.
I've been wanting to play SoD for a long time. Wading through my backlog has been a slow process with my schedule though.
It will be a full replay of the trilogy, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use any mods other than restored content and bugfixes.
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Cool. If you do decide to use mods, let me know. I have a lot of good things I learned while modding the game that you'll find useful.
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I might take you up on that advice later this year, Fluent. I've never played BG modded, it might be time to give it a go. I've got quite a bit of backlog to get through first, but a BG replay is inevitable at some point in the future...
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I might take you up on that advice later this year, Fluent. I've never played BG modded, it might be time to give it a go. I've got quite a bit of backlog to get through first, but a BG replay is inevitable at some point in the future…
Cool stuff. The mods I've used so far have been quality. But there are some insider things you need to know to get the most out of an EET run (settings that vets of EET use, which I had to find out the hard way.
)Just loaded it up for the first time. Everything is so tiny. I was expecting it to be more upscaled.
Not sure what you mean? You can zoom in and out if that helps. Overall it's the same type of graphics as the originals (it's the same engine after all), but IMO it's a very beautiful representation of it. They squeezed out a ton of graphical effects and quality from the IE, quality that I didn't really know was there like that. Stuff like roaming morning fog in areas, "explosions" in cutscenes, different filters and tints for areas, nice effects for water/lava/etc., as well as some beautiful backgrounds and areas to explore. But overall it *is* still the Infinity Engine. Which is also why I love it even more.