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?

BG 2 is better

Second is better IMHO.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.