On October 09 2020 19:05 Biff The Understudy wrote: Pity I'm a huuuuge fan of BG1 and 2 and was hoping this one would revive good memories. Does it really feel like a completely different game? And is it really badly written? The writing in the original game was amazing.
It could be called Divinity Original Sin 3 and people wouldn't shrug (aside from the world). That said DOS 1+2 are good games but further away from BG1+2 than Pillars of Eternity and the like.
I think the only game developer, who could've pulled off another great Baldur's Gate is Obsidian. Even though I thought the writting of their latest game (the Outer Worlds) was a little weak, they rarely disappoint storytelling wise.
On October 10 2020 00:38 thePunGun wrote: I think the only game developer, who could've pulled off another great Baldur's Gate is Obsidian. Even though I thought the writting of their latest game (the Outer Worlds) was a little weak, they rarely disappoint storytelling wise.
The games Obsidian released after Chris Avellone departure aren't inspiring hope, unfortunately. But there is Owlcat games, their Pathfinder: Kingmaker is my top 3 cRPG of all time right after PS:T and BG2.
On October 10 2020 00:38 thePunGun wrote: I think the only game developer, who could've pulled off another great Baldur's Gate is Obsidian. Even though I thought the writting of their latest game (the Outer Worlds) was a little weak, they rarely disappoint storytelling wise.
The games Obsidian released after Chris Avellone departure aren't inspiring hope, unfortunately. But there is Owlcat games, their Pathfinder: Kingmaker is my top 3 cRPG of all time right after PS:T and BG2.
I'm still following Black Geyser, which is basically a Pillars clone set to release this month according to the developers. There may be more frequent updates on the kickstarter page for it, the discord is pretty quiet. Also should note it's real time with pause, not turn based.
From what I have seen from streams it looks like it plays like Divinity Original Sins but set in the Balder's Gate D&D forgotten realms universe. Which is probably a good thing. D&D 3rd system is an outdated dice based system and not a good fit for modern CRPGs.
How do you feel about Larian's writing these days? Just completed D:OS 1 with my friend and it felt like the writing was a bit all over the place. Occassionally it's trying to deal with very dark and serious themes and then again around the next corner it's committing to silly jokes with quirky magic creatures that completely shift the tone. Also, everyone seems to talk in walls of text regardless of how important their actual role is.
Is that just how Larian tells their stories or have they refined it in more recent games?
D:OS 2 is more consistently dark than 1. It doesn't give you whiplash going from dark to silly and back. The story wasn't my cup of tea, but it works for other people.
I like the combat of D:OS. Pure turn-based works better for CRPGs than BG's hybrid. It has a much better tactical feel to it.
I really dislike the item system though. I spent too much time micromanaging junk. The game does a piss poor job of letting the player know which items are useful, which can be sold, which are used in crafting, which quest items are no longer needed, which items are just for flavor, etc. By the end game, I had hundreds of items in my inventory across numerous containers.
To be totally honest, the inventory was a huge problem in Baldur's Gate too. The amount of useless junk you were carrying was absolutely insane. In the second they at least introduced containers but they would fill really quickly.
I got along with Baldur's Gate inventory management much better than in D:OS. The lack of crafting system makes much easier to judge item usefulness, the magic items are easier to reason and for the most of it I also found it easier to recognize item types and such in Baldur's Gate. Usually it was good enough to dump all the letters, potentially useful potions and misc items onto your low str character and be done with it. Later on you can pick some odd barrell or cabinet somewhere and stash definitely useless items there. Not ideal, but sort of manageable.
I don't think playing D:OS as a multiplayer really helped my experience though, everything becomes double the unwieldy when you've got multiple players controlling stuff.
On October 12 2020 16:24 Biff The Understudy wrote: To be totally honest, the inventory was a huge problem in Baldur's Gate too. The amount of useless junk you were carrying was absolutely insane. In the second they at least introduced containers but they would fill really quickly.
I couldn't disagree more. This "junk" economy in modern RPGs is atrocious and D:OS and D:OS2 were, in my opinion, the worst in terms of itemization of them all.
In BG2 you had weapons that enemies dropped (which they were in fact using, you didn't have squirells dropping two-handed swords) - that's useful in early game and becomes trash later on. But that's at least easy to ignore, since only the magical items you care about and they could be easily filtered from non-magical items upon pickup.
All magical items (other than the generic +1, +2 etc.) had wonderful art, descriptions, had unique names and were one-of-a-kind.
The only other "trash" items in the game were the gems - the containers in BG2 mostly solved that, but I didn't like them either. However, there were nowhere near as many as you make it seem.
With few minor tweaks the item economy in BG2 (including the fantastic crafting system the game had) could easily become the best accross all RPGs. D:OS keeps literally throwing hundreds of generic items your way, most of them trash or barely useful in some obscure scenarios. It almost felt like a bad copy of Diablo 2 in this regard.
Unfortunately they seem to be continuing this route in BG3, but we'll see. I pretty much only started the early access now and I'll have tons of feedback once I get through everything.
Hmm I remember spending hours in BG trying to find how to squeeze those 51 quest object from Durlag tower with those 20 stacks of arrows you absolutely needed, those 1500 potions that you were actually never gonna use (seriously there were 8 different strength potions - 18/00 to 25 - it was horribly confusing), the scrolls of protections that would definitely come handy one day, the equipment of a whole party you massacred in the second level of that dungeon that was worth a fortune so that you needed to carry to sell later and so on and so forth.
I mean hear me, BG is my favourite game of all time. But the inventory IS a bit of a chore. Haven't played those other games and it might be much worse.
On October 12 2020 22:36 Biff The Understudy wrote: I mean hear me, BG is my favourite game of all time. But the inventory IS a bit of a chore. Haven't played those other games and it might be much worse.
I think it's mostly that things got far worse since the BG series. Now we are dealing with crafting components everywhere, consolified UI and randomly generated generic loot and so on. There's more clutter everywhere and most of the actual equipment is a huge sea of muddle you have fish for that one item that gives you an extra stat point or 3% more resistance to random element.
On October 13 2020 12:00 necrosexy wrote: inventory problems in BG? why not just put stuff in an inn?
i like the bottomless bag of holding mod in bg2
Of course, you can do that. Although, I am a VERY casual gamer, and I know that there is a game I would like to finish in a heavily modded version I have, that I haven't touched for over a year. One of the reason I delay playing again is that I don't remember in what chest I put all my items and it's gonna take ages to find out 😁
The game has nothing in common with BG2 except for the name and the setting. Which is a good thing, the story of 1 and 2 is holy and shall never be touched again and as fun as the gameplay was, 2d engines have obvious limitations. Like lacking a dimension. The item system will be adjusted to DnD, which does not support an endless scaling itemisation system, so those of you who don't like that will be happy as well. I am looking forward to palying this with 3 friends in coop from the start, and i will not compare it to BG2 at all, because that would be silly.
Also, larian is not necessary great with overarching story lines, the main story of both divinities was meh. They are great at bringing their world to life though. Side quests are fun and interesting and the settings of the campaigns are as well. Compared to that the pillars of eternities felt empty. The world was simply not that interesting to interact with. And dos is also no never winter nights. The main story is not that bad.
On October 12 2020 16:24 Biff The Understudy wrote: To be totally honest, the inventory was a huge problem in Baldur's Gate too. The amount of useless junk you were carrying was absolutely insane. In the second they at least introduced containers but they would fill really quickly.
It was a huge problem in BG1 and 2. D:OS makes makes it look like not a problem in comparison.
D:OS has randomized loot with randomized stats. It has a crafting system with way too many items. It has gems you can socket into gear and a crafting system for said gems. It has way too much useless junk. And too many of the flavor items look like quest items you should keep.
And unless I'm remembering incorrectly, it has no button to highlight stuff you can interact with, something that I think BG has. I can't remember which game had it first.
No love for Icewind Dale? I think I liked it even more than BG.
With this title I guess I'll wait about a year before getting it. So that bugs and issues can be ironed out. From what I've seen so far from people playing early access it's a bug-ridden mess at the moment.
I'm not really a fan of moving too much into the 3D. I like my RPGs to have simpler artwork and aesthetic, it's easier to focus on the important stuff then (and I don't think such games should be the ones straining your PC).
EPT
