|
This provides unlimited options for strategy. Prepare your party with huge numbers of protective skills cast by your mages and clerics and then attack with powerful spells, use stealth and throw everything but the kitchen sink at your enemies or charge in to battle and just start hacking away. The Baldur's Gate series without a doubt stands as some of the greatest RPGs ever made for any system (The PC games included with this collection, not the 2 console titles which released for PS2 and XBox which are both decent games but have very little in common with their PC predicessors)These games also stand as a memorial to the day when PC gaming was great and not relegated to a dusty corner of your local game store (if even that - we can thank online roleplaying games.).Well sorry for my lement, back to the games.Why are these games so great. Story:For starters this "trilogy" - Tales from the Sword Coast is more of a large side quest - has one of the greatest stories you will ever come across in a game.
There are also so many options for character developement of your party you will likely find yourself experienting again and again with what characters you want to add to your party (all of which have different strengths,weaknesses and personalities you will have to deal with.The only words of caution however for newcomers is that the first game may turn some off (largely due to fact that your character starts off so weak and vulnerable, level 1, and that it takes awhile before things really get exciting and combat becomes indepth).Enjoy the games. Baldurs Gate II ranks as probably the second best game ever made IMHO (My first choice. Add in a rediculous amount of side quests (the second BG has a series of huge side quests in addition to all the others available based on the class of your main character and a giant world to explore this is truely a series that will keep you admersed for a long time.Gameplay:The gameplay is simply put perfect in every way, shape and form. From the death of the hero's father (the hero can be any class, race and either sex) to the climatic ending I was completely entranced.
The combat plays out in real time with the ability to pause at any time to redirect the attacks of the up to 6 members of your party. X-Com UFO Defense).
Definitely challenging enough and worth every penny. My advice for both or any adventure game is: TAKE NOTES. I still have yet to get to the bonus features. This game is so much fun.
This is a plus for me because usually when I buy adventure games, I almost always finish them in a few days, a week at most. I now have to go back and replay it entirely in order to see the added features. I have had it for almost two months and I still have not finished playing the entire compilation. However, that makes it easier to take the time and enjoy it in little pieces, rather than chunks. Even if its to remind you what you still need to do or if it's already recorded in the journal of the game.
It really makes one appreciate the more pixelated or older adventure playing games. Also there are a lot of a little annoying features, like you can't check your inventory when in pause mode. The not-so nice thing about the first game, is that the bonus features (on disk two) are incorporated into the first game, so there's extras, but I did not know this. All those kinks are finally dealt with in the second game, which is oh so much better, but a bit more mind bending. It still helps to have another reference at hand.
One of the greatest of the older RPG games. Hours of play. Truly a great game.
But I do mind playing a 1980s graphics game, and that is what you are buying when you buy Baldur's Gate. It is more like 1980 game graphics, instead of anything even closely resembling 1990 quality graphics. And worst yet, its not even a good quality 1980's graphics game. It wouldn't be so bad, if they actually had 1990 quality graphics.
Just I found the "stick figure" character graphics so bad, that it made it extremely difficult for myself to get into the game. Really ashame the developers did such a piss poor job on the character graphics in this game. None of that is true for Baldur's Gate. If you change clothes, or weapons, or anything else, then that change will clearly reflect on the character's model as seen on the screen.
But the stick figure graphics, just got under my skin after a while, and I stopped playing. Most good 1990 role playing games, you can see what the characters are wearing. They do not even resemble characters. And that is where I have an issue with the game and the series. Graphics were out of date when the game was released. The Ultima PC games that came out in the 1980s had better looking characters then this game does for a game released in 1998 or 1999.
I'm not trying to put down or criticize a game that a lot of people love. Your basically using "stick figure" characters, who resemble just what I said = stick figures.
But I played dozens of 1980 and 1990 roleplaying games, and this game most definitely fits in the lower end of 1980s type graphics. Since for a RPG, you don't focus on graphics.
I actually picked up one of the games based on this engine a few times in my life, and tryed very hard to get into it. Its the worst of the worst of 1980 quality graphics.
I don't mind playing a 1990 to 1998 role playing game, and having worst graphics. Now don't get me wrong.
Its difficult enough with the stick figure character graphics to even figure out who is a girl or a guy.
The ultimate long-term character for a great long-term game.
I played these when they first came out as I always wanted to play a D&D game.with attention.so it took me over three full years to go from beginning to end.
I'll let you know how it turns out in 2010 or so.Lastly, the audio and soundtrack from musical genius Jeremy Soule is probably the most sublime and inspired game soundtrack yet.
Doing as many quests and plot diversions as I could, such fun.it was like playing inside a comic book.About a year ago I discovered that the BGTuTu (strange name, but think of it as (Baldur's Gate to BG2) patch is an aftermarket add-on that not only fixes the remaining small minor bugs but lets you run the older BG1 game in the BG2 engine.
But, you are nine times as powerful when you get there.
This time I chose the hardest of all classes: the multi-classed fighter, cleric, magic user.
All you needed to do was have all the games, like this set.and follow the lengthy, but simple instructions on how to put it all together.Of course, I had to reinstall everything to try TuTu out.and now I'm a year into my next epic session.with all the benefits and better interface (and scripts and spell effects and audio).with more than a year to go with all the extra quests and mods available from third parties.In case you are wondering I chose a Paladin the first time around, as they are magnificent fighters and heal themselves easily and get bonuses against evil.and there's a whole lot of evil in Baldur's Gate.
You need three times as much experience points to get to the highest levels and you get their three times as slowly.
Perfect orchestrations, moods, genre choice, and all original.
|
