I mean, there is no other RPG AD&D based computer game that shows such marvelous wild areas! Not even Baldur's Gate II, in my personal opinion.
Where else could you find waterfalls topped by driad trees? Where would you be able to find a perfect harmony among cliffs, rivers, ravines, etc.?

Begins to answer, then realizes the rhetoric. Nevermind. [img]redface.gif[/img] :D

BG1 is much more non-linear than BG2 (there's more freedom of moving around than in BG1, plus there are many more areas to visit, even if a bunch of them have very little in them).

Oh, and don't forget Six's pretty carpets!

I'm with Lord on this one! You can go practically anyware that your skills can take you! Seems like the only event triggered map-showing-upages are the Cloakwood maps and the city maps... and only the ifrst one of those reuqires the events!

When I finally finished BG1 for the 3rd or 4th time I had started to get quite bored of all the "clear this wilderness area" then "conquer that coastline" maps. It seemed like the real "dungeons" were too few and far between. Well, they added some nice ones in the TOTSC upgrade, which helped keep BG1 interesting.

Then when I got BG2 I was absolutely floored by all the subquests and dialogue. You could get absolutely lost in all the vividness of the characters and storyline that it was even MORE addictive if that's possible. Of course, it too eventually got somewhat tedious, with the little minor quests and things you feel like you have to tie up before moving on.

So when I decided to play all the way through BG1 to TOB I was pleasantly surprised again at how awesome BG1 was. The non-linearity was refreshing, the wilderness maps were very satisfying to clear (even if they were just kobolds or those wierd blue guys), and the dungeons were so well balanced for a beginning character. And building your PC from the very ground up seems like much more of an accomplishment than starting off at 7th or 8th level in SOA.

You've got to hand it to the game designers. A truly marvelous adventure.

::nods:: I concur... You get more of an untamed, wild, adventuring feel. I really enjoy the BG1 soundtrack, as well. I'm not saying I like it better than the BG2 soundtrack, mind you... It's not just as intrusive as the SoA soundtrack, because the areas themselves are less intrusive. The music and sounds sort of just blend in with the animation to make it a beautiful, satisfying experience. The battle music leaves something to be desired, but I do like the Bottom Of The Cloakwood Mines battle music, as well as the final battle. Ah well. You gain some, you lose some.