God, I want to play this longer. It's making me recall the halcyon days of the other Infinity Engine games, playing until 2am every night, knowing nothing whatsoever about what was going to happen. I don't have a fucking clue how many party members there are or anything with this. I've managed to stay completely dark on it.

(Apart from what you've mentioned above you - But my brother had mentioned that character too, so it's cool).

The game really is beautiful too.

What you rolling as?

Human Paladin. Not my usual flavour, but hey. Had a very quick tinker with a mage and a ranger too (wanted a polar bear). Seem fun. 

The endurance vs health system seems a lot fucking better than the old DnD system. When I heard about camping supplies I thought that sounded a bit frustrating, but in reality you don't need to rest that much. Not so far, anyway. Half tempted to bump it up to hard - I'm just rolling around the woods smacking down trolls at the moment. Was a time a single Ogre would fuck you up in these games.

Anyway, I'm am loving this.

I eagerly await discussion on likes and criticisms come completion.

One more tip is to pay attention in spell descriptions to whether it's AoE or "Foe" Aoe. The latter will only effect enemies so you can sling it wherever you like. Curse of Blackened Sight is an early goodun from Wizards.

Also pay attention to the cast range. Some spells can have your casters literally running into the maws of death to cast.

PS - Holding tab highlights pretty much everything you can interact with just like old school. All characters with slightly gold name plates are backer characters and their little stories are written like a fan-fic writer has modded the game. I avoided them all after Gilded Vale.

Bollockoff wrote:

Also pay attention to the cast range. Some spells can have your casters literally running into the maws of death to cast.

Yeah, have seen this a few times.

Am an Infinity Engine pro again already, hitting tab and space bar near constantly.

I haven't played enough to give you a knowledgeable impression, but from what I hear there is a lot of party member chatter and the like. I haven't had much yet, but I'm only a few hours in.

There has a fair bit of fighting so far, but you could knock it down to easy and it would essentially negligible?

Just got the keep. Combat heated up a lot inside.

Childintime wrote:

How does this rate on the social scale?

Honestly I'd say it's halfway between the two BG's. With some characters having noticeably more love given to their writing than others. One complaint I've got is that (possibly due to them dropping the D&D alignment table) there are no genuine scum of the earth types to adventure with. Everyone is on the same page as far as saving the Dyrwood goes and you don't get the kind of steady boils between angsty characters over time that'l eventually blow up and cause a massive fight amongst the party to erupt as you're going along. Which is a damn shame because that presents really interesting dynamics.

Basically no psychopathic Dwarves (who unfortunately happens to be the best tank in the game) threatening to rape the Elf girl and forcing her to permanently leave.

I  Viconia.

He has an obsession with gameplay balance which I think has harmed certain aspects of the game and caused him to go defensive plenty on the Obsidian forums. Got to thank him for mostly delivering on the project though.

I concur. Aerie was a contender though due to just having a billion billion billion spells.

Nobody can touch Edwin. Legend. One of the things about BG was the whole Minsc, Dynaheir, Edwin thing. Brilliant.

Very different to Torchlight. Far more emphasis on dialogue and if you don't like reading swathes of text, I wouldn't bother. If it's your jazz, the Infinity Engine games really are they're own thing and are unparalleled at doing what they do (imo).

I'm not sure how much Beamdog sorted out Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition or whether your best bet would still just be community patches, but I think they all hold up - The original Baldur's Gate has issues but I think there is a mod that gives it an overhaul to play similarly to Baldur's Gate 2, which would be a must nowadays, I think. The original incarnation might be a touch too janky now if you don't have the nostalgia, I couldn't say.

Baldur's Gate then Baldur's Gate 2 then PS:T would be a fine order. Haven't played Divinity myself.

ok thanks.  hmm shall ponder.  i'm wary of the time commitment... but it is coming up to chrimbo...

Personally I'd say do BG2 first. Bg1 has a slow start in comparison and BG2 is one of the most frontloaded RPGs ever.