Baldurs Gate I And Ii

[Stroggy]

Yesterday myb rother, knowing how much I appreciate older games, bought me Baldurs Gate I and II.
So now I have a question: Is it possible to play Baldurs Gate II without finishing the first one (plot-wise) and which one is better.
The reason I ask is because I remember getting rather far in the original Baldurs Gate (before my brother gave the game to some jolly fellow who never gave it back and moved to the US) and I'm not really all too eager to play everything again. So is the second one better, and do I have to finish the first game to understand the sequel?

[Omuletzu]

BG 2 is better

[Rogue]

Second is better IMHO.

I still have not completed first part, and I have extension too. :blink:

[Havell]

Well I know that if you import a charactor from the first game you start with more experience points to spend and you get even more if you have the Tales from the Sword Coast expansion. As for the story, I'm not really sure but I know that many characters in 2 are from the first one so I would imagine that that the plot would continue.

[Tulac]

I actually finished the second one before the first one, but I think that it would be smarter to play the first one story-wise, and you can import your character into BG2.I like'em both equally, the first one is much harder.

[Blood-Pigggy]

First has better storyline and structure, second is has better gameplay and character development. The second one fills you in on the plot, but to truly understand everything playing the first is a must.

[Eagle of Fire]

The first part was better because you actually started at level one. On the second part you start to become uber aberations in levels and skills and I really hate that.

[Blood-Pigggy]

If you didn't know how to develop your character in the second one, you'd be screwed through most of the game.

[MasterGrazzt]

Actually Baldur's Gate 2 has the superior storyline, by far, by far. I got sick of BG and deleted it, and went on to play BG 2. I had no problem understanding the story or what the characters were talking about. The game tells you what happened in Baldur's Gate, pretty much, and that's all you need to know.

Baldur's Gate story is pretty much "Save the mines! Thank you for saving the mines. Kill the bandits! Thank you for killing the bandits."

And BG2 has Wish, damnit. WISH.

[FreeFreddy]

I played only Baldur's Gate II so far, and I didn't have real difficulties to go into the story, but I still intend to play the first part to know the story, how it all began, completely.

[Blood-Pigggy]

Baldur's Gate had a better structured story. There was a clear goal, everything else was either to get you sidetracked, or it seemed like a simple side quest, but once you actually did them you'd find little tid bits of the story and such. Baldur's Gate 2 was, "We'll just throw things at you as we go, here's a few random events!"

[Borodin]

BG1 has fewer features than BG2. For example, in BG2 you can press TAB to highlight treasure goodies on the ground (which might be hard to see); you can't do that in BG1. In BG2, the automapping facility also labels everything. In BG1, nothing is labelled, which becomes a real hassle once you get to the big city. (You can't make your own labels in BG1 for those maps, either.) Voiceover comments are repetitive and frequently stupid in BG1. There are far more of them per character in BG2, and a lot of additional written confrontations between party NPCs in BG2 where none are in BG1. You also can find/purchase a bag of plenty, and sorter/containers for potions, arrows, bolts, and scrolls in BG2, but none of that is in BG1. Quests are more interesting and more developed in BG2, and alignment has a much greater effect on travel and growth.

There's a lot more, but why bother. ;)

The one good feature about BG1 was stated well by Eage of Fire. The first game feels more realistic, because weapons and spells are less over-the-top. In BG2, especially in its add-on, ToB, it feels like "my atom bomb can beat your atom bomb" at times. There's just too much super-power stuff being thrown around. But I can live with that limitation, given the greater features in BG2.

Incidentally, there's a mod out there called BG Tutu (don't ask me why) that lets you move not only your basic character but your possessions as well into BG2, making it pretty seamless. It also adds (or attempts to add) many of BG2's features to BG1. I recall hearing it was still pretty buggy, but I haven't tried it to find out. You can discover more about it here (http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/).

Incidentally, there are a huge range of BG2 mods on that site, some of them very good.

I would also recommend checking out GameBanshee's BG1 and BG2 forums, which remain very active.

Hope all or any of this helps.

[Kestral]

Dude i wish aerie was real, she would be my babe, YOU CAN'T HAVE HER, for i have a +8 sword with your name on it, EH don't give me that mage bull crap...LOL..............But anyways................THE ROMANCE, to bad they didn't make it romantic enough fer adults gehehe

[Borodin]

If you want a romance for adults, go out and get one. It's called reallife. ;) No stupid piece of code created with a few words by a 300-pound bearded programmer named Lou can begin to come close.

[MasterGrazzt]

Originally posted by Kestral@Jan 22 2005, 04:25 AM
Dude i wish aerie was real, she would be my babe, YOU CAN'T HAVE HER, for i have a +8 sword with your name on it, EH don't give me that mage bull crap...LOL..............But anyways................THE ROMANCE, to bad they didn't make it romantic enough fer adults gehehe
There is nothing that can be done to remove that from my mind. You've scarred me for life. Again. Great.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by MasterGrazzt@Jan 22 2005, 04:58 AM
There is nothing that can be done to remove that from my mind. You've scarred me for life. Again. Great.
You mean he's done that before? :blink:

[Stroggy]

Originally posted by Borodin@Jan 22 2005, 04:44 AM
If you want a romance for adults, go out and get one. It's called reallife. ;) No stupid piece of code created with a few words by a 300-pound bearded programmer named Lou can begin to come close.
I'm not sure, I think you'll be flamed on the KOTOR forums by the women if you claim the romance with Carth was weak and badly done.
For some reason the women adore that piece of coding and will go to great lengths to defend it :blink:

Anyway, thanks for the info. I'm still not quite sure what to do since there isn't really a consensus about it. I guess I'll just play the original. I still fear I won't make it, I've never been good at these RPG games (isometric) I remember that most of the time in Planescape I was just running and (somehow) it worked! Well it worked until my unexperienced character had to face much more experienced creatures... but I was stupid back then.

Anyway I'm babbling, thanks for the help!

[Blood-Pigggy]

If Ariel was real and I knew here, I would tear my own ears off, put them in a grinder, then throw the remains in her face. That woman has the most poor use of tact I have ever seen in a game.

I mean seriously, I was in a battle with a demi-lich, three of my characters were dead, and two were level drained while one, Jahiera (Can't remember how to spell her name) health was all the way down to a stupendous 2. It was at this moment, as I stood with my beaten and bloodied party that Ariel had to comment on how nice Jahiera's hair looked.

The instant I turned chaotic Neutral she also seemed to go into a whiney rampage, and not only that, she had the most annoying sound bytes ever. "Oh... I'm not so sure about this..."

This is my most disliked character ever in the history of anything, the only thing that comes close is the atrocious Jar Jar Binks.

[Eagle of Fire]

Dude i wish aerie was real, she would be my babe, YOU CAN'T HAVE HER, for i have a +8 sword with your name on it, EH don't give me that mage bull crap.................But anyways................THE ROMANCE, to bad they didn't make it romantic enough fer adults gehehe

Happened to me too once, it was an arcade cat-like female fighter which I fell in love with on first sight.

I never told this to anyone and purposefully avoided the particular arcade for the rest of the time I was there. Since I don't frequent arcade houses it wasn't much of a trouble, but I could say that I was acting strange the next week or two...

It's a sad thing actually when you consider I never experimented love on first sight IRL. :cry:

Best advice: forget it and move to something else. Don't play that game again.

[Blood-Pigggy]

The only romance I've ever had in the game was with Jahiera. The bad thing was that she was a insanely sensitive character. You could say something that would insult her for some unknown idiotic reason.

[Eagle of Fire]

Anyway, thanks for the info. I'm still not quite sure what to do since there isn't really a consensus about it. I guess I'll just play the original. I still fear I won't make it, I've never been good at these RPG games (isometric) I remember that most of the time in Planescape I was just running and (somehow) it worked! Well it worked until my unexperienced character had to face much more experienced creatures... but I was stupid back then.

You need to be patient and take your time exploring well each maps before going away. Oftentime very powerfull relics can be found in places you would never think of.

For example, I used to often play druids or clerics. They usually use blunt weapons, and I was looking for a good mace. I was wandering on a road and was aimed to another map when I got to a quest or a lone agressive necromancer (I don't remember). Anyways, killing the necromancer I found a +2 magic hammer on his corpse... Let me tell you that this hammer comes very handy at the start of your journey, since you can meet that necromancer at the very beginning and manage to group him easily enough! :ok:

Also, make a lot of quests. They usually bring you the best XP. If you are playing good, refusing to be paid usually give you bonus XP too, tough you'll do need money after a while or you'll get ugly equipment.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Eagle of Fire@Jan 22 2005, 07:10 PM
Also, make a lot of quests. They usually bring you the best XP. If you are playing good, refusing to be paid usually give you bonus XP too, tough you'll do need money after a while or you'll get ugly equipment.
I think you're remembering IWD2, not the BG series, with this. There's no ability to refuse payment for a successful quest in either BG title. On the other hand, you can decide to avoid payment in IWD2. In fact, if you have a paladin leading your party and somebody decides to stiff you, you'll be able to do nothing about. :angry:

I've been contemplating starting a new BG2 game for some time, with the introduction of so many new mods. I've been gathering them carefully, but I'm still a ways off. And what with X2 sitting on my hard drive, awaiting the end of some heavy work, I'm pretty well set for the moment.

[Eagle of Fire]

That advice was for any RPG in general. And I remember some quests in BG where you could not be paid and either leaded to bonus item or bonus xp. They are sparse but they do exist.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Eagle of Fire@Jan 23 2005, 02:26 AM
That advice was for any RPG in general. And I remember some quests in BG where you could not be paid and either leaded to bonus item or bonus xp. They are sparse but they do exist.
Could be; it's been a while since I played the first title. And there may be something involving the hell run in BG2 where you can trade some item-based reward for virtue, which just happens to be accompanied by experience. ;) I really should try that game again, too, but I don't think I have the patience to meticulously label on paper all those maps of each Baldur's Gate sector. What a chore that was, the first time.

[Kreepah]

i thought both of em were excellent yeah bg 2 was better, i loved the scenery in both an same excellent game play, time consuming though, i wish i had em still :( lent 2 of the cds to someone who went 800KM away, second one vanished off the face of the earth :blink:

[dishwasherlove]

Second is definately superiour but if you don't play the first one first you may find it very hard to get back into it. The graphics \ UI is were improved substancially in the second so the first is a little fiddly. Plus the first is DAMN hard..

[FreeFreddy]

Originally posted by dishwasherlove@Jan 23 2005, 08:17 AM
Plus the first is DAMN hard..
That would be ok for me. After successfull fights with dread dragons and liches in BG2 I doubt it will be really harder than that in the first title. ;)

[Tulac]

No really the first one is much harder because your a small level, with 8 hps even a goblin can kill you with one shot , while liches in BG2 have too fight for quite some time.

[Borodin]

Really depends on your party, and how willing you are to exploit cheese. But since I don't use cheese, I never found BG1 anywhere near as difficult as BG2, especially the add-on, ToB.

[Tulac]

Well it's completely opposite to me, the bigger the level I am the easier the game is, I guess I'm quite experienced with adnd, so I know which spells are usefull on higher levels.

[FreeFreddy]

Though the higher spells are without doubt very useful and effective, the low-level spells are also good enough, I guess they will do they part in Baldur's Gate 1. Magic missile, summon skeleton, acid arrow and like them, they're also good enough for low enemies in Baldur's Gate 1. ;)

[Borodin]

They're the only ones available, and in my opinion, they're better balanced against melee and ranged weapons in BG1. In BG2, you reach a point where you have spells that let you create doubles of yourself, then stop time, then cast spells--both of you--then create more doubles, etc. It all becomes a bit overwhelming for me. But I admit, I still prefer the fantastic dialog, the multiple paths, the long quests and stronger writing of BG2. -Again, just my point of view. The sad thing is that the franchise was allowed to wither by Interplay after Bioware accepted other deals. I can't help wondering if Interplay might have rehired some of the good programmers they fired from BIS, whether they might not have turned out a really good BG3.

[MasterGrazzt]

I don't think there should be a BG3... The story of Baldur's Gate was over with ToB.

[Borodin]

The story ends for the main character, and I wouldn't suggest otherwise. But who said that another character couldn't come along, say, 20 years later, with a different story in the same area? Perhaps running into one or two of your old character's NPC companions, now acting as a questgiver. Or even receiving quests from your old character.

[Jwh Dar]

I must admit something. BG series is, for me, the best game ever. I haven't stopped playing for years now and I practicaly live in Amn. Currently I'm playing 2 paralel campaigns - a solo and a full party. I don't even remember how many times I started a new game, but it's at least 70-80 times. With tons of mods and it's replaying value it never gets boring.
It's hard to compare BG1 and BG2. You must play both and decide for you.
Talking about the BGtutu mod (and it's called that because it makes BG one transfer to BG two settings), it now works with few bugs and is great for one who wants to play the whole saga from the start. The only problem is that it could make BG1 a little bit too easy if using BG2 class kits and features like dual-wielding and some other abilities.
When installing mods for BG2 me sure to use the right order to avois screwing your game:
BG2
TOB expansion
TOB patch
Baldurdash fixpack
non-weidu mods
weidu mods - they can be installed in whatever order you like

I suggest using weidu mods and avoiding non-weidu.

If you want to play BG1 with BGtutu mod you must install both BG1&2 and follow the instructions.

I wish you happy adventuring. :ok:

[MasterGrazzt]

Originally posted by Borodin@Jan 24 2005, 04:47 AM
The story ends for the main character, and I wouldn't suggest otherwise. But who said that another character couldn't come along, say, 20 years later, with a different story in the same area? Perhaps running into one or two of your old character's NPC companions, now acting as a questgiver. Or even receiving quests from your old character.
Better to start a new series set in Faerun that could have a few references to Baldur's Gate or share a few characters. I'm sick of the Sword Coast and the countries near it. Hell, perhaps dust off the Infinity Engine and make a game in the Dalelands? Why not even a different AD&D campaign setting, even a cancelled one such as Dark Sun?