Will be playing Baldur's Gate 1 + 2 for the first time soon, any tips?

RiseToTheTop

I never played the games before. Around 2000 I had the PS1 and played and completed FF7, 8 + 9. I didn't have a PC though. (My Dad got a MAC OS9 in 2001 on recommendation from friend :mad: )

I know the style is different from Final Fantasy, but how should I approach the game?

**no spoilers!! I never even started the Baldur's Gate game**

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

click the mouse
read some stuff
move the mouse slightly
click again
read more stuff

pretty much that for 200 hours

Kiith

Just take your time, and do any quest you come across. Don't just stick to main quest, as the side quests are fantastic. Talk to you party members as well, as they are also brilliant (Minsc and Boo especially).

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

click the mouse
read some stuff
move the mouse slightly
click again
read more stuff

pretty much that for 200 hours

And that meant in a good way...i hope.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

no, i'm going to head onto retrogamers games forum and insult one of the most loved games of all time



I tried to play bg2 a few times, but I just couldn't get into it. at least with planescape the local map is revealed, so you have an idea where you should be clicking and what to look at.. baldurs gate is just a giant square of black and that always annoyed me too much to be able to stick it out for long.

Blowfish

I posted it on the other thread, but if you check the sticky on Gog.com and follow the steps, you can put BG1 in the BG2 engine which is much nicer overall.

As for the actual gameplay, first off, approach with caution. Unlike modern RPG's, you start off genuinely weak and squishy, especially if you play as a mage type character. As an example, at level one, after the initial 'bit', you will find yourself on the first open world map to explore. On this map are bears. If you go near them or piss them off, they WILL maul you to pieces.

Secondly, talk to everyone, read everything and explore everywhere. Think Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim in terms of how to approach questing. A huge amount of the content/lore is away from the main quest and can be found even by just wandering aimlessly through the countryside.

Thirdly, BG is based off the D&D ruleset and is designed to be turn based and not real time. Go into the options and enable auto pause on entering combat. During combat itself, pause (space bar) often to select what you are going to do next. If you don't pause, you simply wont have time to tell each of your characters what to do. Also, the D&D ruleset is fairly complex. While you can probably ignore most of it if you are playing on normal difficulty, you'll probably need to read up a bit on the basics of how rolls work, what THAC0 is etc.

Also, if you find the game plays out a bit slowly, you can go into the config program and bump up the AI Updates/Second. Be warned though, this messes up scripted events a bit and will cause them to not be synced with the audio etc.

ride-the-spiral

Enjoy it I only played both of them back in 2009 myself (Still have to finish Throne of Bhaal...)

Also, for the character creation, the rolling for the stats is stupid. It randomly allocates stat points, but if you minus all of the stats to their minimum, the total number of points will be a bit different each time, so keep rolling
until you get the most amount of points to allocate.

Sarky

Keep your wizards the f*ck away from everything, they're useless for the first few levels.

Morag

Make sure that the party members are using the best gear, and that they have enough ammo.

dibkins

You don't need a fulltime theif in either of them. I did fine with jan in BG2, and i think imogen can be multiclassed no probs once you get a few skill points in BG1.
You must gather your party before venturing forth.

I think there are a few add on packs that will tighten up the romances and other bug fixes if you search around. might be useful installing them. i wouldn't go for any additional content add ons for your 1st playthrouhg, since there is still a billion hours of fun in the vanilla+expansions.

quarryman

I love the Infinity engine games. LOVE them. Planescape Torment is probably my favourite game of all time after Oblivion.

However BG1 and BG2 did not gel with me. After multiple retries over the years to get into it and reaching various stages I realised the problem - quest overload. BG2 throws so many quests at you that it's easy to feel a bit swamped. Sometimes the lack of some linearity can overwhelm the player. This enters your mind when you hover the mouse over the icon to play again and spend an hour figuring out where you left off.

Planescape and IWD offered far tighter gameplay. BG felt like a slog at times.

Kiith

quarryman wrote: »

I love the Infinity engine games. LOVE them. Planescape Torment is probably my favourite game of all time after Oblivion.

However BG1 and BG2 did not gel with me. After multiple retries over the years to get into it and reaching various stages I realised the problem - quest overload. BG2 throws so many quests at you that it's easy to feel a bit swamped. Sometimes the lack of some linearity can overwhelm the player. This enters your mind when you hover the mouse over the icon to play again and spend an hour figuring out where you left off.

Planescape and IWD offered far tighter gameplay. BG felt like a slog at times.

I think i'm almost the exact opposite. I've played through the BG series multiple times, but i struggle to get through Planescape. I've tried a few times, and just can't seem to get that far into it. I think the amount of quality side quests is what i like about BG.

Not having complete Planescape is definitely one of my gaming shames though.

quarryman

Kiith wrote: »

Not having complete Planescape is definitely one of my gaming shames though.

Not at all. Each to their own.

I guess PS:T made me feel part of intricately woven story without being too linear. It also done away with most of bad parts of the D&D rules. Removed alot of the unnecessary complexities of the combat. It felt more like an RPG than a battle with THAC0s and other stats.
It also didn't have to rely on the typical character types, Paladin, Cleric etc. It made it's own world and was a relief from the ye olde D&D world.
BG2 just felt like million quests with a main strand that you could get dragged away from for weeks and I think it definitely suffered from staying faithful to D&D.

Skerries

if you haven't bought them yet then they are all in one pack for €6.78 here
Bundle Includes:

Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 + Expansions [Average Metacritic: 91%] “…reigns supreme over every RPG currently available, and sets new standards for those to come“ – PC Gamer Developer: Bioware

Icewind Dale 1 & 2 + Expansions [Average Metacritic 85%] “Once in a while, a game comes along that completely takes over your life. “ – IGN

Planescape: Torment [Metacritic 91%] “Is it possible for a computer game to have the intellectual heft and emotional impact of a good book while remaining as captivating as a well-paced film? If so, the first candidate may well be Planescape: Torment. . “ – New York Times

The Temple of Elemental Evil [Metacritic 71%] “A rock-solid RPG that faithfully re-creates a classic adventure.“ – Gamespy

Sephiroth_dude

I got BG2 and the expansions for xmas 2001 and just could not get into the game,it was first rpg and all

Seifer

Don't use fireball anywhere near your allies

quarryman

Skerries wrote: »

The Temple of Elemental Evil [Metacritic 71%] “A rock-solid RPG that faithfully re-creates a classic adventure.“ – Gamespy

For the love of god stay away from this one. Utter tripe.

danthefan

In the exact same boat as the OP, just started BG2 today. I don't have BG so I'm just not going to play it, this is possibly sacrelige but oh well. Just did the tutorial anyway, it's tough getting used to a game that (by modern standards) looks so awful. And I've no idea of the D&D rules either.

Sand

In BG1 missle weapons were fairly powerful. You're pretty weak, but so are most of the enemies youre fighting - slings and bows will mess up most enemies in the early stages very quickly.

In BG2 - man oh man, not sure there has been a game since that allows for so much outrageously imbalanced builds. Thieves in particular are awesome as a second class for their "Use Any Item" ability at later levels, which allows you to break all the class balance rules. They are also great with Traps - traps have a limit of 3 per map, but you can glitch it by saving and reloading so you can end up with dozens of traps per map - you can kill Dragons as soon as they spawn by prepping the area with traps. Mages can also use spells like Simulcrum which spawns an exact replic of yourself with all your items and abilities - use the Simulcrum to cast spells or use items with limited uses per day, whilst preserving your actual characters uses.

Aerie is an extremely strong character as well - IIRC, she can do a hell of a lot of damage with Wall of Blades mixed in with Sanctury/Invisibility. The dark elf Cleric (forgotten her name) can easily hit 100% magic resistance so you can send her up to soak all the Mage "One Cast - One Kill" encounters harmlessly.

On the other hand, theres a lot of intensely tough monsters and enemies to fight. Some of them require a checklist of buffs and casts prior to engaging that would rival a pilots checklist prior to take off.

Protection from Undead scrolls turns any fight with a Liche into a walkover. They are brilliant for some of the otherwise really tough fights.

RiseToTheTop

danthefan wrote: »

In the exact same boat as the OP, just started BG2 today. I don't have BG so I'm just not going to play it, this is possibly sacrelige but oh well. Just did the tutorial anyway, it's tough getting used to a game that (by modern standards) looks so awful. And I've no idea of the D&D rules either.

If the graphics for me are similar to Final Fantasy 7, i'll be cool.

blatantrereg

Realise that umpteen courier quests are not fun. Quit the game and play Dragons Age instead.

Or just skip the couriering and play Dragons Age instead.

Snobbery and nostalgia make people overrate those games. Dragons Age 1 is far better.

sillo

blatantrereg wrote: »

Snobbery and nostalgia make people overrate those games. Dragons Age 1 is far better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32UGD0fV45g

blatantrereg

sillo wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32UGD0fV45g

That made me lol. I wasn't trolling though. I got bored of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 because of all the courier quests, and I didn't find the plot engaging. I much preferred DA1. I honestly can't imagine someone preferring BG if they approached it now for the first time. It's a bit like expecting people to prefer Doom 1 to Half Life 2 really.

sillo

Ah each to their own - I loved BG2, but I also loved Dragon Age. I'd also say I prefer Doom to HL2 but almost entirely for nostalgia reasons. I'm not sure painting anyone who disagrees with you as some mad elitist snob is the way to go - having said that, painting anyone who disagrees with me as a trololol probably wasn't very fair of me :P

sink

Loved those games at the time. Still have the original disks. I also recommend fallout 1 & 2 for some more old school crpg goodness. I can't imagine playing them on my 27" monitor will be any good. Perhaps when I get a windows 8 tablet I will give them another whirl.

quarryman

danthefan wrote: »

In the exact same boat as the OP, just started BG2 today. I don't have BG so I'm just not going to play it, this is possibly sacrelige but oh well. Just did the tutorial anyway, it's tough getting used to a game that (by modern standards) looks so awful. And I've no idea of the D&D rules either.

To get around the graphics looking a bit VGA, make sure and install the resolution mod. See my thread here.

I'm against mods in general but this one really transforms the look of the game to something that feels a lot more modern.

gvzAxle

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but there has been some activity on baldursgate.com the last few days. It's just a static page with the logo, a quote and some music playing but there are also clues in comments in the html code. There are rumours doing the rounds of a HD re-release on Steam, iOS ports and BG 3 amongst others. I'm not too sure if I like the idea of a BG 3 since Atari has the license, but considering that Fallout 3 did really well, and Diablo 3 looks like it will be big, it certainly is a possibility.

If they kept the games the same and re-release them in HD on Steam I'd buy them. I wouldn't bother with a mobile version though, I don't think it would work that well.

Creature

Kivan is the best NPC in the game. Give him boots of speed and no enemy mage will ever trouble you again.


Always bring a thief. Always.