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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/25/2023 in all areas

  1. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition I bought this game dirt cheap to basically test out the series before taking the plunge on Baldur's Gate III. I know that it came out in 1998 so I wasn't expecting to know exactly what 3 will be like, but I had no idea what kind of game Baldur's Gate even was so I wanted to acquaint myself with the formula. As far as this particular entry goes, I...kind of liked it? I know it was made a long time ago, and there are good ideas in there, but boy this game did not really age all that well. Encounters often come down to trial and error or just plain luck, and I'm not kidding when I said I probably pushed the quick save and quick load buttons over a thousand times by the time I was done. You just have to save CONSTANTLY or risk losing precious progress in every single fight. I'm not against challenging mobs, but the game really feels stacked against you like it wants you to save scum. I cannot imagine trying to get through this without scumming, and that really kind of sucks. The pathfinding on your party members is also atrocious. Navigating six people through a narrow corridor is often pretty frustrating, let alone trying to fight in said corridors. Good luck using spells indoors when they have friendly fire and your people are all crammed together shoulder to shoulder. Ultimately my primary tactic was to have my archer go forward on his own, pelt an enemy with an arrow, then run away until they de-aggroed. Rinse and repeat until dead. Did it work? Usually, yeah, but I didn't like the fact it was my best option. I don't like D&D 2nd edition rules either, which this game utilizes. It's archaic, confusing, and frustrating. Most of these gripes are things I assume have been ironed out by the time the third entry was made. I like the general idea behind the series, where positioning of your party members in combat is important and battles need to be carefully planned out because every enemy is a legitimate threat. Despite how clunky this game felt (I'm sure it was great in 1998) there is a foundation of good ideas there that just needed more time and more polish to realize the franchise's potential. From what I'm hearing, that's what has happened now with Baldur's Gate 3.
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