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Baldur's Gate - Okay To Start With 2, Skip 1?


Komag

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If anyone has experience with these games (Baldur's Gate 1, exp Sword Coast, 2 Amn, exp Baal or something), can you advise me where to start if I wanted to?

 

I just remember like five years ago I installed part 1 and I right away hated the controls for some reason, but I can't remember. Plus, I've always heard tons of great things about 2, but not 1. Should I just play Baldur's Gate 2 (plus expansion) and forget 1? Will I miss anything significant? I don't have endless time, so the quick answer "just play both!!!!" is not the right answer, unless there is really a good reason I should play 1.

 

Thanks!

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It's not essential to play the first one. The story arc does follow on from 1 to 2, and comes to a climax in the bhaal expansion but SoA is also a self contained story.

You start the first game at level one, and start the second game at level 6-8 (depending on class).

SoA is definitely the best of all the BG games (best game ever made in my view)

The controls in the second are more or less the same as the first, it's an improved engine, but still point and click.

I@m not sure why you wouln't want to play BG1, it's not as good as BG2, but if you like that sort of game (and obviously you do if you're goign to play the second one) then you won't want to miss out on the first one either, and if you are going to play them all, it's better to play them in order.

You can play the old BG1 using the newer BG2 engine now. You just have to install all 4 games, and use a utility called bg1tutu.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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A quick exploit, if memory serves me, along the western coastline there is a small cave where your party can camp. But when you do, its almost always attacked by flesh golems. When your party is strong enough to handle them handily, find the cave and stay there for a while. Each golem is worth like 2000 xp and they keep on coming, so you can boost your parties experience really quickly. I used it to move up like 2 or 3 levels in like half an hour or so.

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I've played SoA and Bhaal and they are both great games.

It's funny, I played the demo for SoA, hated it and played it for only like 10 minutes. I then went to future shop a week later and saw the box for the game and loved the box art. (I still don't know why)

I installed the game, and played the whole way through. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget, and bhaal was just as good, only more action oriented. I just hated alot of the fed-ex missions, the filler.

 

Other than that, a good story, and the expansion is fun especially when they make you choose when to transform.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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I liked BG2 at first, but the tortoise-slow gameplay, huuuuuuge load times, and abysmal pathfinding killed it for me. Eventually I got to the point where I was trying to wade through the gameplay in order to get to the story, which is not a good way to play a game; it became more like work than play. So I stopped.

 

In retrospect, I probably should have just cheated my way through it. :)

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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What do you mean 'tortoise slow gameplay'? I suppose unless you have 3 mutant aliens to shoot around every corner, it's not hectic enough for you. The game wasn't made for people with the attention span of a goldfish.

Tortoise slow load time? - not if you do a full installation, and increase your area cache size. the laod times are no more than a few seconds.

You can also increase the accuracy of pathfinding in the options.

Anyone who wold dismiss a great game for those few spurious reasons is a fucking idiot who's opinion isn't required.

Best if you just finsih off those last few aliens in <generic shooter> with your big gun.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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I started with two, but I will give you some prior warning. Save often and at key parts of the game. I've started and played through half the game twice before getting irreversably stuck.

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Nonsense, I've played it through about 15 times and never had any problems with dead ends or wishing I'd made separate saves eariler.

What specifically went wrong with your game?

Of course there have been various patches released, so install ToB and get the lastest ToB patch.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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I had a feeling you wouldn't take kindly to that, oDDity. :laugh:

 

I did do a full installation, but remember this was on a very old computer (I've upgraded twice since then). Some of the larger areas took about 30 seconds to load, and there wasn't much I could do about that. Very frustrating.

 

I agree that this was not the game's fault; it was my computer's fault, and this is why I'm not saying it was a crap game. It was a decent game which, through unavoidable circumstances, I found to be unplayable. Under any other circumstances I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more. It was not my intention to come across as dismissive.

 

It's true that my attention span was probably partly to blame, since I was about 11 or 12 at the time. Maybe I'll give it another go one day.

 

For the record, I hardly ever play generic shooters. :) The fact that I'm a Thief fan should tell you something here.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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I'd recomend SoA over Baldur's Gate I; though back in the day I always thought Baldur's Gate was the ultimate. Get ToB as well, it has great closure to the whole story, though there are some references to BG 1 in it.

 

Once you finish SoA you should also play the first Icewind Dale, which is an awesome game as well, though not as good SoA or ToB.

 

Hands down, one of the best rpgs if not games of all time is Planescape:Torment (also by Black Isle studios). If you can still get a hold of it you should definitely play it. You'll probably end up playing it through more than once; since the game is pretty deep.

 

I miss Black Isle's rpgs :( now all we have these days is Diablo clones like Neverwinter Nights. Though I'm very interested in seeing what Obsidian Entertainment can do, as that company was apparently formed by ex-Black Isle developers.

 

Oh and make sure you get Jan Jansen in your party. And Korgan!

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For the record, I hardly ever play generic shooters. :) The fact that I'm a Thief fan should tell you something here.

 

I'm a also a Thief fan, but I still like to play shooters as well. Depends on the overall atmosphere though. I liked Painkiller and Prey, but I definitely didn't like Doom 3 even though I fervently played D1 and D2. And I also liked Quake 2 a lot (but not Q1). :)

Gerhard

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but I definitely didn't like Doom 3 even though I fervently played D1 and D2.

They are definetly very different, graphics aside. Doom 1 and 2 was just good insane fun, "oh my god all I did was step here and now all the walls are opening up and armies of pinkys and imps are flooding out at me!!" kind of thing. Doom 3 is "Walk walk, boo! augh, I nearly died. Walk walk, boo! augh I nearly died." the whole fucking game. It was alright, but man, they should never have fired Romero.

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The planar sphere quest for one. I did it immediately when it was available and once you are in there, you must get the heart of a demon. Well...I couldn't kill a demon to escape. Thus I was trapped in that dimension with no way to progress.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I shouldn't have done it, but last week I felt an urge to play it, and so I started. That's pertty bad, because now I spend all my time playing BG2. :) Or :( depends on the view.

 

Quite funny, because when I first started to play it, I didn't like it so much. Not because it was bad, but because usually I don't like these kind of games. It had something though that kept me playing every day for several weeks though and I only stopped playing it after that, because at that time some other game came out which I liked to play.

 

Now when I started to replay it, I actually liked it, and now I'm hooked. One thing I really like about it is, that you can actually make use of the different characters and their individualy strengths. In most games it doesn't really matter which character you use, because all of them usually play the same. In BG2 it really makes a difference. For example, you can use the thief to scout ahead and check out the area before you actually go there. Well, you could also rush in, like in other games, but if there are some strong foes, you are toasted. :)

 

Only thing I don't like is the magical system. That you have to choose the spells beforehand and then have to rest to memorize them. That's pretty stupid IMO, because it would mean that you need some foreknowledge. Well, you can use some good spells which are quite handy in combat, but if you need something specialized, then you wouldn't know about it, and just waste time (or reload).

Gerhard

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Only thing I don't like is the magical system. That you have to choose the spells beforehand and then have to rest to memorize them. That's pretty stupid IMO, because it would mean that you need some foreknowledge. Well, you can use some good spells which are quite handy in combat, but if you need something specialized, then you wouldn't know about it, and just waste time (or reload).

Yeah, that's a D&D thing that's always annoyed me. I played as a Sorceror exactly to avoid that restriction. :) Of course this doesn't help for the NPCs...

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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I shouldn't have done it, but last week I felt an urge to play it, and so I started. That's pertty bad, because now I spend all my time playing BG2. :) Or :( depends on the view.

 

Quite funny, because when I first started to play it, I didn't like it so much. Not because it was bad, but because usually I don't like these kind of games. It had something though that kept me playing every day for several weeks though and I only stopped playing it after that, because at that time some other game came out which I liked to play.

 

Now when I started to replay it, I actually liked it, and now I'm hooked. One thing I really like about it is, that you can actually make use of the different characters and their individualy strengths. In most games it doesn't really matter which character you use, because all of them usually play the same. In BG2 it really makes a difference. For example, you can use the thief to scout ahead and check out the area before you actually go there. Well, you could also rush in, like in other games, but if there are some strong foes, you are toasted. :)

 

Only thing I don't like is the magical system. That you have to choose the spells beforehand and then have to rest to memorize them. That's pretty stupid IMO, because it would mean that you need some foreknowledge. Well, you can use some good spells which are quite handy in combat, but if you need something specialized, then you wouldn't know about it, and just waste time (or reload).

Only for mage charcaters, socerers can use any spell they know, but of couse all charcaters only have so many uses and then have to rest, otherwise the game wouldnt' be balanced if you could just cast your best spell endlessly in a fight, and them rememorize it striahgt away.

The tactical nature of fights is a great feature of the game. You have to think up specific stratiges for many of the enemies, and this includes having to have a limtied number of spells. A lof of RPGs just have you wade in with your uber sword and kill everything the same way.

Sorcerers have innate magical ability, and get to choose a couple of new spells every time they level up, and they cannot learn from spell scrolls, so they have a limited selection even thoguh they can use them all. Sorcerers are hard to play for new players, because you really have to know what the best spells to choose are at each level, otherwsie you end up with a useless character, but when you know what your'e doing, sorcerers end up as the most powerful characters in the game at high levels.

A mage has a lot more spells to choose from, since they can buy any spell they can find and put it in their book, but to balance it, they can only have so many memorized at one time.

Yes, you do need foreknowledge of what sort of thing you'll be facing, but often you have that from knowing what quests you are on, and anyway, nearly all enemies are in areas where you can rest, and for everythig esle there are good general spells you should always have, like magc missile, haste, slow, hold person, greater malaise, reduce MR, invisibility, blur, mirror image, shdow door, stinking cloud (kills things like umberhulks instantly)

Dont' get too attatched summoning creatures either, becasue later on all the enemy casters will kill them straightt away with death spells.

ALso, later enemy mages love to use imprisonment, and there is no save against it, so have the opposite spell, 'freedom' I think it'as called.

The great thing about this game is that you can replay it many times and get a very different experience. you can solo it as a caster, fighter, or thief and get a very different gameplay challenges, and there are also many differet routes to take though the plot and choices to make - you'll at least what to side with the shadow thieves once, and side with the vampires the next time. Also, there are so any areas, you'll never find them all, even after 3 or 4 play throughs.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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Only for mage charcaters, socerers can use any spell they know, but of couse all charcaters only have so many uses and then have to rest, otherwise the game wouldnt' be balanced if you could just cast your best spell endlessly in a fight, and them rememorize it striahgt away.

 

The ersting itself is not the problem. But I must say it was more annoying until realized that I can switch an option on, that resting should be done until all characters are healed. I didn't check it, but I had the impression that it still takes 8 hours, so I wonder why they switched this off by default.

 

The tactical nature of fights is a great feature of the game. You have to think up specific stratiges for many of the enemies, and this includes having to have a limtied number of spells. A lof of RPGs just have you wade in with your uber sword and kill everything the same way.

 

That's right. In this case it's actually fun, because you have to make use of all the characters abillities. I remember when I played Might & Magic, it ended up that my two magicians were so strong that they usually cleared the path straight away. :) Up from a certain point there was almost no use for the other characters.

 

Sorcerers are hard to play for new players, because you really have to know what the best spells to choose are at each level, otherwsie you end up with a useless character, but when you know what your'e doing, sorcerers end up as the most powerful characters in the game at high levels.

 

That's also a big problem, because there is such a huge number of spells to choose from. :) You really have to play it to see which spells are really usefull because from the description many of teh sounds like it.

 

greater malaise, reduce MR, invisibility, blur, mirror image, shdow door, stinking cloud (kills things like umberhulks instantly)

 

Ah! Never found any use for that stinking cloud, even though it sounded quite funny. :)

 

Dont' get too attatched summoning creatures either, becasue later on all the enemy casters will kill them straightt away with death spells.

 

In the beginning they are quite usefull as a destraction. Does enemy AI has the same limitation with spellnumbers? Then you could still summon them, so they use up some of their spells on them.

 

ALso, later enemy mages love to use imprisonment, and there is no save against it, so have the opposite spell, 'freedom' I think it'as called.

 

I'll remember that. :)

 

The great thing about this game is that you can replay it many times and get a very different experience. you can solo it as a caster, fighter, or thief and get a very different gameplay challenges, and there are also many differet routes to take though the plot and choices to make - you'll at least what to side with the shadow thieves once, and side with the vampires the next time. Also, there are so any areas, you'll never find them all, even after 3 or 4 play throughs.

 

Currently I play a good guy, but I was wondering how it would be if I play the bad guy. I guess when I replay it sometime I will give this one a try. Currently I'm still in the beginning. Out of the dungeon and cleared the Zirkus so far. Now I'm at this castle Angerinis(?) which is infested with the trolls.

Gerhard

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Enemy mages do have the same spell number limitations, most of them are in the 20's though, so they have plenty of spells.

Playing a really evil character with a reputation way down at 1 means you will be attacked by cowled wizards and guards while in the city. They are quite strong as well, so it's not a good idea, you get the benefit that you kill people you wouldn't kill as a good guy and get he xp and items. Playing evil also means that you'll only be able to keep NPCs in your party that are also evil, the other ones will complain and eventually leave, and also as an evil character, you have to pay more for goods in stores.

This is one of the few games in which you can go around killing children if you really want to, but you do get punished for being evil.

There are usually evil ways to complete most quests, and the text often has evil optons as well, so you can role play as evil.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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The memorizing spells beforehand is leftover from the pen and paper experience. Its part of the D&D game that I don't think the CRPG adaptations have ever handled well and that I miss: expedition management. In a good D&D campaign, a dungeon expedition is a thought out event. You have to think about what you might need ahead of time, what you can carry, and what to leave behind. In most CRPG adaptations, its mostly about cramming your pack full of everything you want the most, and if you don't have something you need you just reload. Its a shame personally. If done right, expedition management increases the feeling of exploration. I'd like to see more of that "exploration simulation" in future crpg games.

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That's what I want to try. *HEHE*

 

And now the CIA kicks in and gets me for interrogation. :)

 

 

Heres a tip for BG combat, outfit your thieves and warriors with those throwing knives or shuriken or whatever, especially the poisonous ones. They dont do much damage themselves but they are usually the first missiles to strike a foe and as such they are great for interrupting enemy magic users that are in the process of spell casting. I didnt use them at first cause of their inconsiderable damage but when I realized they could hamper magic casting I always kept one party member armed with them in a lead position. This advantage fades as your foes become tougher but its valuable in the earlier stages.

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Heres a tip for BG combat, outfit your thieves and warriors with those throwing knives or shuriken or whatever, especially the poisonous ones. They dont do much damage themselves but they are usually the first missiles to strike a foe and as such they are great for interrupting enemy magic users that are in the process of spell casting. I didnt use them at first cause of their inconsiderable damage but when I realized they could hamper magic casting I always kept one party member armed with them in a lead position. This advantage fades as your foes become tougher but its valuable in the earlier stages.

 

Titties and WORD YO!!! lol

I seriously loved that game, especially the Power Word: Death spell. Awesome.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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