3143

Yeah, I think that’s what makes BG2 such a crowning achievement. It’s massive, the content is basically all good, and there’s incredible levels of attention to detail. Just all sorts of little things that you don’t see in modern RPGs, good as the Pillars games are, because nobody has the budget or time to do that kind of tiny bespoke shit anymore.

3144

I posted my thoughts on the game above, but I didn’t really touch on the mechanics part. I know there was a big discussion about what was more complicated - Pathfinder or POE rulesets? - in one thread or another.

And honestly, as someone who copes pretty well with complicated RPG rules, I have no clue what was going on in most of POE. Pathfinder is wide; there are an almost ton of specific rules to remember. But those rules are not complicated. Pillars, on the other hand, is fiendishly complicated.

Is attack speed better than this damage? What armour should I put my cleric in? My mage? Is this weapon better than that weapon? What stats should I build my character with? I have no idea to almost all of those questions. I can’t remember what the rough stats breakdown was for my monk in PoE, and despite dozens of hours, I can’t tell you what a good set of stats should look like, either.

3145

Well, this thread just gave Steam a $5 BG2 EE sale. Played it twice, last time in 2001. Gonna find out how it looks on this 34" monitor I use.

3146

It holds up very well and you just spent the best five bucks you ever will all year!

@John_Reynolds I can’t speak to playing it on a 34" display, though I think it will still hold up fine there - you could always play in a window if you needed to. Here is a shot I will preserve at the native screen size I’m playing at (1440p) and on a 27" display full screen and it looks perfect.

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3147

It’s also weird and counterintuitive in a lot of ways. The whole “might means both magical and physical power” thing, for example, where all the wizards can also benchpress 300 pounds.

3148

I can sort of ignore that. It’s evaluation of things relative to others I really struggle with.

3149

They actually changed that, then almost no one ended up liking it so they changed it back.

3150

I never had a problem with PoE’s stats as displayed on the character sheet; my problem is that most buffs/debuffs interact with the primary attributes instead of derived stats, so I constantly have to translate. “Oh, my character got an effect with -4 Intellect. What does that mean again?”

3151

Also most effects not stacking is kind of confusing.

3152

I am progressing well on Story mode difficulty.

Just made it to Caed Nua, also just noticed I have a run option for my characters!

My party is up to 5 people now, and 1 dog.

3153

Loving the level of detail in the locations I am visiting.

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Also anyone know whats up with the graphical glitch I am getting in the lower right corner?

I want to thank @tomchick for streaming this on Friday, got my really in the mood to give it a try again and now I am hooked.

Here was his stream incase you missed it:

3154

Hmm… not sure. What are you playing in (full screen/windows/borderless)?

3155

It was a messed up steam notification apparently. Its gone now after a reload. Also I changed my rez to 1920x1200 so it fits my screen right. Glad I got that fixed as I am only like 8 hours in.

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3156

How does hiring an adventurer work? Can I hire them just to guard my keep? I have gotten far enough along that I have barracks built at my keep.

3157

As I recall, once you hire one, they’re available for the whole game, just as any other companion, and yeah, you can just remove them from the party and use them for stronghold quests.

3158

Would be interested to find out what you think of the characters and story after your replay. I think I’m the only on the board who finds the writing dated and subpar compared to more recent RPGs.

3159

I’m about 60 hours into my replay, nearing the end of Chapter 9 (the middle of Throne of Bhaal) and I have some thoughts. Note that I’ve put hundreds of hours into PoE 1 & 2 as well as other RPG fare such as Pathfinder or Tyranny.

I think the writing is very good, and the stories they tell are just as good as the modern stuff, so I don’t agree about sub-par writing. The tales being told, from serial killers to mystery of the Planar Sphere are all really engaging and fun, and the dialog has ranged from laugh out loud funny to very cool history that really draws me in.

I don’t think the companions are as interesting as what everyone remembers, or I just have a party composition that doesn’t engage much with me or one another. There is some interaction and it’s fun when it happens, and I do really like these characters - don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of them, too - quite a few companions here, with unique equipment and (most of them have) side stories to resolve.

But the villains are excellent, the enemies are really fun to tackle, and overall BG2 even 20+ years later (especially with the EE quality of life improvements) it’s a fantastic, old-school game hindered mostly by it’s ancient mechanical system than anything else.

I’m surprised by how bland the Throne of Bhaal is though - I remember just loving it so much, and have played through it twice now (this is my third overall play through of BG2+expansion) and it’s really just one big combat slog after another, with some small errands here and there to run. And the level/power creep is crazy, another case for low level D&D being just more interesting fundamentally than the high level stuff. I’m still enjoying it because the combat is a lot of fun for me and the enemies and encounters are really well crafted, but BG2 has a LOOOOOT of content and that includes combat but also great locations, many fun characters and entities to interact with, and a lot of really fun ways your previous choices can bite you in the ass (though there has been some really cool “hey look who’s back from BG2” moments for sure). I’d give BG2 EE a 90% and Throne of Bhaal an 8.5 in today’s review system.

EDIT: In fact, playing BG2 again has gotten me feeling like reading some of the old AD&D novels that I enjoyed in Junior High/High School, so I picked up a copy of The Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles and already put nearly 200 pages in this last weekend, it’s a ton of fun.

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3160

I don’t think it is, but it also just tries to be a pretty straight-up heroic fantasy. While there’s a lot of care put into every quest and there’s basically no fetch quests at all, it also doesn’t try to hit a lot of complexity. You never question the nature of a man or fall into murky moral waters. You’re being served a burger, and it’s the most delicious burger ever crafted, but it’s still a burger.

3161

Ah, maybe I’m being a bit harsh, and maybe I have a lower threshold for humor/silliness in RPGs (wasn’t a fan of the humor in Divinity OS either) Still, I checked online for some samples of banter from the two games BG2 / PoE, and I like the ones in PoE a lot better. The BG2 banter feels like the characters are acting out some amateur skit. For example:

vs

3162

I guess to me both of those are entertaining.