Baldur's Gate II is the very first AD&D/RPG I've ever played, and I'm addicted. Once I finish ToB, which game should I play next? Any suggestions? I love the whole magic deal in the game, and my PC is a female mage. I'd like something that still has that (maybe they all do, and that was a pointless comment?). Thanks!

Baldur's Gate 1 is very good
Icewind dale is okey...
Planescape Torment is awesome
Neverwinter Night is essential... crpg doesn't get better than that.
and Minesweeper is always great... [img]smile.gif[/img]

ToEE or Morrowind...

BG2 is the best, nothing else can compare to it. I would say planescape torment would be your best bet, but thats getting hard to find. The newer Neverwinter Nights dosent come close to the feel of BG2 in singleplayer. Icewind is good, but more combat oriented than BG2.

Which aspects of BG2 did you enjoy the most? The characteristion, plot, dialogue and all that? Or the fighting?

If you are looking for a great rpg and don't mind trying another setting, you could try Fallout and Fallout 2. There is no magic, but I think everyone agree those are some of the best RPGs ever.

I liked the characterization, the magic, and the fighting. It worked for me because you don't have to pummel everyone, and the puzzles are fun. I do like the magic aspect because it's different than just running in with your swords/axes/hammers, etc. Someone had mentioned Icewind Dale to me. Which one is better. ID or Neverwinter? I don't know much about the games.

Icewind is similar to BG2, but take away all the interesting NPCs (all of your party are generated and do not have any banters, never mind romances and the like) and the plot is much more linear. The combat is much the same as BG2, but there is more of it. If you get IWD2 you get to play with the superior (arguably) 3rd edition ruleset which allows for some interesting flexibility in the character development. IWD1 uses the same 2nd ed as BG2 does.

Planescape goes the other direction - the NPCs personalities are more interesting that any game Ive played. They make better companions than most humans. And they are all unusual characters as well, none of your stereotypicaly elven mage, dwarven fighter etc. The plot of PS:T is everything, and it is genuinely interesting to find out more about whats going on. Combat is much less important, though there are some very nice spell effects. THe only drawback with PS:T is that it has a lower replayability - all the characters including your own is predetermined, and since the attraction of the game lies in solving the plot and finding out who the hell you are and what is going on, once you've done it a couple of times there isnt as much to interest you.

And after writing that about Planescape, I see you were asking about Neverwinter. Sigh.

Out of the box, Neverwinter is closest to IWD, combat is the main focus of the game. It uses the same 3rd ed ruleset as IWD2 does. One of the most annoying things about NWN is that you only control one character - any summons or henchmen (there is no true party in single player) have decent enough AI but you cant order them about properly, so they can do the most stupid things at times. There are hakpaks to improve matters though.

Also the campaign from the original neverwinter is pretty lame. Shadows of Undrentide, the expansion, is better. But the real point of NWN is online play and the 3rd party content. Said 3rd party content ranges from substandard crap that would have be at by a 13 year old DM running his first campaign, to some of the finest gaming out there. There are combat heavy modules, storyline based modules, pretty much any kind of module you can think of.

Online play can be pretty poor, a lot of players believe that the point of the game is to be as powerful as possible, but if you can find a good server (IWs is pretty good for a start) where roleplayng is encouraged it can be a lot of fun.

Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Planescape
Neverwinter Nights
Fallout 2

Morrowind, very good, any veteran or newb always has something new to discover, but the magic system is totally different. Warcraft III is awesome, but its not an RPG. Lionheart seems interesting, yet to read about it.

Oh, Lionheart looks excellent. I downloaded the demo (from their site! [img]tongue.gif[/img] - just to clarify things.) Like Neverwinter its only 1 person in a party, but the combat is cool. The game is very much combat orientated though, a lot of fighting. I think its better if you check it out for yourself:

Here is a load of info for Lionheart. Check it out, it looks very interesting.

Some of my opinions:

Baldurs Gate 1: If you've played Baldurs Gate 2 you almost have to play the original as it's the same story. Just remember that BG2 starts close to where BG1 ended (story-wise) and frankly BG2's intro is kinda spoilerish. But if you want to know exactly what happened before BG2 it's a good buy. Not as good as BG2 though.

Icewind Dale 1&2: In the Icewind Dale games there are no joinable NPC or interraction between party members as you create your own party, instead they focuses on battle. IWD1 uses the same rules as the BG games, 2nd edition, while the IWD2 uses the 3rd edition rules so that means learning a whole set of new rules. Personally I prefer the 3rd edition ones. The setting for IWD1 is in Icewind Dale far north of where BG2 takes place. It got a fairly linear but decent story. I have bought IWD2 some time ago but have not found the time to play it yet so I can't give any insight into the game but I assume that's it similar to IWD1 just with new rules. You should be able to find at least IWD1 in the bargain bin as it's a couple of years old.

Planescape: Torment: This game is all about story, character interaction and quests. Or rather the focus is on these things. It got one of the best main plots ever in any game and it's the heart of the game. There is some interaction with your fellow party members that can give you insight on their past and even teach you a spell or two. The main character is set though, since he is so connected with the plot, and there are only three playable classes for you: fighter, thief and mage. If you're love playing a mage you will love this game as playing one arguably get you most out of the game. PS:T can be a little tricky to find I have been told so you might have to search.

Neverwinter Nights NWN uses the 3rd edition rules and it's main focus is on multiplayer. The single player Official Campaign that come with the game is decent although you'll most likely only play it through once. There is alot of combat and sometimes it feels like it never ends. No what makes NWN a good game is it's multiplayer capabilities. You can play online with your friends at no charge any time of the day, it ships with a Toolset so you can create your own 'games' called modules with everything the Official Campaign contains and you can download other modules for free. Some of these modules are plain lousy and some are more or less brilliant. If you don't intend to play online NWN hasn't got much to offer and in that case I woulnd't bother with this game if I were you.

Fallout 1&2: These games are very different from D&D and are not set in a fantasy world. Instead they take place on future Earth after a global nuclear war that have completely destroyed the civilisation. They have completely different rules than D&S and there's no magic but alot of guns, both 'normal ones' and more exotic one like laser rifles and plasma rifles. You create and play one character but there are NPC's that can join you during the course of the game. Their AI are pretty limited though. Further there are no classes like in D&D so you are free to create the character you want. Both this games are somewhat old but very good ones.

Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind: This game is alo different than the D&D games but they still takes place in a fantasy world. It doesn't have the over-head view that is so common for CRPG's but instead uses a first-person view as a default. There are classes but that is a very loose term and only applies for which skills the characters focus on in the beginning. All skills are available to all characters and all can be increased and trained by you. Morrowind is a very non-linear game to such an extent that some people don't like it be´cause the feel lost and they don't know what to do. It boasts a very good graphics, better than any of the above mentioned and it has gotten good reviews.

Lionheart: I haven't played this game myself but I know that it's considered a mediocre game. The game haven't recieved great reviews so I assume it's something of a disappointment. Of what I know about the story it takes place in a alternative history where magical forces have been released in a medieval Europe. It has been released recently and it uses the same rules as the Fallout games.

Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE): This games is to be released in the US in a couple of days so I haven't played this one either but it looks promising. It's a single player only turned-based D&D game that uses 3rd edition rules just like NWN and IWD2. There's been a new forum dedicated to this game opened yesterday(?) so you might check it out.

[ 09-15-2003, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

lion heart link in the micel forum
http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...;f=22;t=000561

people who have played it says the game is not as good as it seems :(

perhaps you want to try an online game thats based on database actions...

www.trollscantsing.com

sadly i must agree with those people. the story isnt all that good(it certainly didnt inspire me to finish it yet...), and it seems theyve chosen to combine all the worst things from many games. to mention a few:

theyve got this diabloish spell casting thing going on, what with the mana being able to cast spells super fast and having to improve the spells to make them affective. sad really, 'cause this is the only thing i DIDNT like too much about Diablo(2)

well, to their defense, they put the Baldurs Gateish interface, meaning massive 3d background and a 2d paper doll. i like this! the downside: the paper doll sucks! it doesnt even have a standing picture(!), it just freezes in mid walk. stupid, IMO...

the voice acting in this game isnt all that good. the voices fit with the characters, but they are NOT very enthusiastic(sp?) or anything. not very inspiring...

now comes the thing i loathe about the game the most: the arsenal of weapons/armor is PATHETIC!!! lets see, these are the different kinds of weapons ive run into(hopefully theyve put more in the end); Long Sword, Two-Handed Sword, Short Sword, Warhammer, Mace, Long Bow(no short bow) and the X-bow(no light or heavy, just a regular), and maybe Club, dont remember. truly a weak show...and to add to that, i dont think theyve put too many unique weapons. theyre all like Long sword of Carnage or Fleshseeking(then theyve put different modifiers on them, to make them different)

out of ten points, id give it a 4...my advice, dont pay more than 20 bucks for it...

...Which just goes to show - don't trust demos! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Man, I would've thought there were far more weapons in the game. That just sucks. As I only played the demo I thought more weapons would turn up later. Right. Thanks, I was gonna buy that game! For £28 too! Rip-off!

Planescape Torment wil be ery satisfying, I garantee it!

If Shotgun really enjoyed the interaction between the NPCs, then that is definitely the way to go. Arguably the best story in any RPG. Some of the best NPCs, too.

However, if combat is Shotgun's forte, then maybe Icewind Dale (1 or 2) may be more appropriate. Create your own party, pretty linear, mostly combat.

I'd suggest you toss ToB to start off with; it's about half as good as SoA.
Just to add this in there, Arx is pretty good for a FPRPG.

Neverwinter nights and morrowind are a must play for any d and d fan

Morrowind isn't D&D.

Add ToEE to the list. I've been playing it since buying it this week, and it is quite good, if you don't mind turn-based combat.

Let's see...

Baldur's Gate 1: Great game, this. Obviously, it's the prequel to BG2... It uses 2nd Edition AD&D rules, with many of the same modifications as BG2 had, although BG2 had a good bit of extra stuff added in (other than in-game content liek weapons, I'm talking about kits, sorcerers, monks, barbarians, higher-level spells, and some other things). BG1 takes you from levels 1-7.

Icewind Dale: Another game using 2ed AD&D rules and the Infinity Engine, but with more combat and less plot. Still, it's a pretty fun game... Just don't expect a brilliant and intriguing storyline.

Planescape: Torment: I've never actually played this game. However, from all I've heard, it's excellent, so it very well might be worth taking a look at.

Icewind Dale II: Similar in content to IWD, but IWD2 uses 3rd Edition D&D rules instead of 2nd Edition. Whether this is better or not is debatable. Plot-wise, like IWD, it's not that strong... Still, a reasonably fun game.

Neverwinter Nights: Didn't like it too much, myself. With one character, combat seems to be a lot more hack-and-slash, and the lack of a decent single-player plot doesn't help any. Now, I'll admit I haven't played much online, and I've only gone through a few user-created modules; this might redeem it. However, I'm not so sure of that. Oh, and it uses 3rd Edition D&D rules.

Morrowind: I liked this game... It doesn't use D&D rules, but still quite nice. The main thing for me was exploring the massive, beautiful landscape. Now, I should note that once I'd more or less finished with that, the game got dull pretty fast, so I haven't actually finished it. Still, I got quite a few hours of fun from it. Now, it does have flaws. Combat, for example, it very simplistic; NPC dialogue also isn't all that great, although it's not absolutely horrible, and I don't know how strong the main plot is. Still, I liked it.

Summoner: Older game, this... However, not THAT old, pretty good graphics, and just in general (at least to me) quite fun. The age will also means it's a fair bit cheaper than some of the newer games. This is another game that doesn't use D&D rules. You control a party of between 1 and 4 character at any given time (the number is based on the plot), and the system is largely skill-based (as in, you get skill points each time you level up, which you assign to various things, like weapon skills, magic skills, backstab, pick locks, etc), although not all characters get all skills. It also has an interesting chain-attack system. After you make a successful attack/chain-attack, you have a certain time at which you can right-click and initiate another chain attack... Characters start with 4 chain attacks, each of which has a distinct affect (not just always more weapon damage... many have other results, like healing yourself, slowing the enemy, elemental damage, and other stuff), and end up learning up to 8 by the end of the game, depending on how proficient you were with chaining (you learn new attacks faster the more you use chain-attacks). The number of attacks you can string together into one chain is unlimited. Anyways... this helps to keep you focused on combat rather than just sitting around waiting for someone to beat up someone else, and maybe hitting a hotkey every so often. The plot's good, and the enemies (and ways of dealing with them) are reasonably varied. Anyways, this is a game I'd suggest picking up, if you can find it... Not up to BG2 qualoity, but then, I have yet to see another game I personally thought was.

Gothic II: Another game not using D&D rules. Also another I've yet to finish, actually, although that's not really the game's fault. You control 1 character. The plot, which I haven't experienced that much of yet myself, is supposedly quite good. Exploration is fun, although not in my opinion on the level of Morrowind, but some things (such as walking near trees making it nearly impossible to see where your character is or what's nearby) are rather frustrating. Combat, on the other hand, is a bit less simplistic than Morrowind... You actually manually parry and choose the type of attack to do, and you can (to some extent, anyway) string attacks together into combo type things. Also, there's three main paths of prgression through the game. I'll note, btw, that this game is hard. Quite hard. If you play it, expect to die quite a bit. Oh, yes... Load and save times for this game are PAINFUL.

Temple of Elemental Evil: 3.5 Edition D&D rules, to which it apparently sticks very faithfully. It's a remake of the old 1st Edition D&D by the same name. I don't actually know if it's good or not, although iirc it's been praised a good bit.

[ 09-24-2003, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Encard ]