[Neomi]

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.