Finished BG2 twice,time for some thoughts,,,

[stred]

Hi all i just finished twice BG2 so i'd like to share some thoughts...
First of all i would like to say with what parties i finished the game:
1)a MP party with paladin(undead hunter),monk,mage(Conjurer),bard(skald),thief(swas hbuckler),cleric(priest of helm)
2)a SP party with fighter(me),Nalia,Keldorn,Jaheira,Jan Jansen,Aerie


>>>>>>>>>>
1)MP vs SP
Definetely my MP game was easier than the SP the only problem i had was that if someone imprisoned a character in my MP then if i cast freedom to get him back i couldnt cause it had a blue circle and he wouldnt talk to me...and if i would try to import him from the character modification screen the game crashed!
My SP was far superior for the fun with the dialogues among the NPCs.

2)BG2 vs BG
Okay BG2 is far superior game but i liked BG in some sections much better...
(a)Final Battle...In BG i had to summon thousant of monsters,cast web,entagle etc etc to kill Sarevok,in BG2 i only casted true sight,pierce magic,pierce and Irenicus was dead in my first try.
(b)Exploring...Ok we all agreed that some areas were too large in BG and we had to do much walking for nothing but BG2 had TOO small areas,i honestly cant remember a big dungeon.(game time in BG:90 days,in BG2 32 days)
(c)Generally the battles in BG2 were far better then BG but it hadnt any anxious battles like the battle in BG against the shapeshifters in the palace were you had to protect a grand duke,that were a kick-ass battle and i am sure we all remember it.
(d)NPCs...in my opinion BG had better npcs in quantity but BG2 had more quality.
In all the other game areas i think BG2 was better.

3)BG2 vs BG3 (!!!!),NWN
If in BG3,NWN continue our characters from BG2 then i seriously doubt how difficult are gonna be cause you will have in your army 6 god-like characters.Imagine in BG2 in my MP game i killed DRIZZT and his party with my first try using only 3 potions of healing.Also i thing that BG3,NWN are going to be very unfriendly for the new in RPGs user:imagine to start using a mage lev17,thousants of spells help heelp!!

4)BG2 vs Planescape:Torment
I personally consider Torment a faar better RPG cause it managed to give you the feeling of the struggling of the hero much more convinsing.I recognize allthough that in Torment was that much easier cause you could take only one-type of a hero the Nameless One.I also liked the final stages in Torment much better were you had to deal with the whole castle by yourself and the other you was killing your comrades,that was incredible!,anxious,dramatic and much more RPG.In BG2 you took your comrades with you in the Nine Hells cause they were wounded!,thats so bullshit,2 of my characters were by that time in full health,if they wanted to make it easier that wasnt the way...(does anyone know if in harder difficulty level you go in 9 Hells by yourself?)
Still BG2 has much more replayability.

5)BG2 vs IWD
There is no comparison between those two,BG2 is faar better,IWD was in my opinion a Ad&D Diablo.


>>>>>>>>>>>>
1)Classes/Kits was the big advantage of BG2,i am gonna finish at least 2-3 MP games yet in order to try all the kits/classes it has.
2)Battles...In BG2 i found some serious challenge in some battles,like against the red dragon(Firkaar??),the lich (Kangaxx) etc etc.In addition i liked that in BG2 you couldnt just rush into battle and be victorious,you needed to carefully plan your stategy,maybe the rush mode in some battles worked but try to rush in a battle against mindflyers,beholders,vampires you are dead in seconds!
3)Spells...there are a lot in BG2 and all have a use,it is really challenging to learn to use them correctly.
4)The NPCs interaction and dialogues...in BG2 were some of the best dialogues among NPCs i have ever seen,especially the dialogues Keldorn-Jan Jansen,Aerie-Jaheira were superb some times.Also other times you really had the feeling (like in Nalia's adbuction) that they were real.
5)The ability to change the difficulty at will,i personally used the normal setting if i had to learn many spells and do the levels ups then i changed to core rules.It was really annoying in bg that you had to reload all the time if you wasnt happy with your level up result or if you didnt memorize a spell.
6)The quests of BG2 were most interesting i would say not the simple go there bring that (except some).
7)The general design of the game indicates people that respect the player and i'd like that a lot.
Weapons...BG2 had all and for all tastes.I personally was happy that at last they understand that the 2-handed magical swords must have much more abilities than the single handed.
9)With the kits some classes that they were useless found a use like bards.
10)The ability to pause in a combat in your inventory and not allowing to change armour,makes perfect sence.
11)Monsters follow you from area to area.
12)Missile weapons are less important in BG2.
13)It doesnt exist any annoying prologue in bg2 instead it is a very good tutorial.
14)Small amounts of bugs,except one in modify character screen and one in the underdark i didnt meet any other and without any patch.
15)The drow city...they did catch EXACTLY the spirit of the drow society.


>>>>>>>>>>>>
1)Few NPCs,and most of them multi/dual classed or not with the better kits available,most of us had to start a MP game just to try a monk or sorcerer,i recognize allthough that if they had more NPCs to cover all classes/kits it would be a really huge (in disk space required) game.
2)The "you must gather your part to proceed" thing.Ok,i understand that you cant have 2 in amn,3 in umar hills and 1 in trademeet! but i cannot understand why all my party has to go down the stairs to the tomb of kangaxx,thats soo unrealistic...
3)The fact that with the death of the main hero ended the game,again thats unrealistic cause my comrades could raise me or freedom me.The right thing to do is to not have the main plot active till the hero is still alive,i recognize that this needs carefully planning cause it could screw the game up.
4)a monk cannot specialize in katanas,quarterstuffs.
5)As described above the very easy end game battle(it was a mistake that they seperate irenicus and bohdi) and the fuct that the game didnt take any end-game autosave,i would like to have somewhere my characters exactly afte the dead of irenicus.
6)The BG2 graphics,its just my idea or IWD and Torment had better graphics.Also with the 3dcard use on the game had many problems.
7)Slow loading/saving.I know that in bg2 the game data were much more compressed but sometimes it wasnt annoying.Especially the slow clearing game data,but i heard that with the 128 mbs ram i am gonna have from tomorrow this will be fixed.
Why so little amount of protection from magic scrolls?
9)XP CAP,i reached it without solving the half quests of the game!! (imagine i never went to trademeet,and all the forests.)
Its a shame that it wasnt 3.000.000 so we could use level9 spells.its unfair!



>>>>>>>>>>>>


paladin-->undead hunter, ok i know cavaliers are most popular but for me the immunity to level drain and to hold was much more importand from immunity to fear,poison.After all for fear i had the dragonslayer sword,and for poison the ring of gaxx.

thieves-->the swashbuckler was great,with a good short bow he was leathal!

fighters-->berseker,the enrage ability is incredibly powrfull.

bard-->skald,his song makes a good party allmost undefeatable! when my bard was level20 and invisible was behind my monk,they faced about 10 mindflyers withoyt any problem!




1)monks! they are incredibly powerfull in mid-high levels.they are ideal for the second fighter of the party.
2)paladins! i dont know why but it was much better fighter than my fighter!!!



1)cloak of mirroring (very inbalancing item,poor beholders!)

2)celestial fury

3)ring of gaxx

4)ring of regenaration that you steal from adventure mart,never used any serious healing after that.



we all know it,we all love it, its the Breach spell (clap clap !!)




full plate mail!! (i dont believe that anyone would exchange a little better AC from -2 in his saving throws..(ring of protection) )
also the melodic chain for bards,very usefull.




for me Jan Jansen,very usefull and very funny.



that beholder in the underwater city,very funny.

[Zoratorak]

wow... took you a long time to put this post up i wager... for me... (well... im tired maybe next time...BUT

1) i like bg2 than planescape torment
2) bg1 and bg2 is of equal standing with me
3) i have a necro (cool!), cleric/mage, and a fighter/thief (these 3 combined is good party for me. oh yeah i have 3 other npc, misnc, aerie, and jahera
4) didnt do the single player
5) thats it for me...
6) oh yeah ... greatest enemies? khanxx and the rune quest
7) why necro, love being a mage and can cast lots of spells
why fighter/thief and cleric/mage ? they are the best backup a mage can ask for... besides they have the crom foyer for the cleic/mage who is wearing elven chainmail and the deepnight (i think) for my fighter thief
9) forvorite weapon? well... like using the staff of magi but i also like to let my fighter be an archer (thats why her dex is 23, LEGIT from bg1, because of tombs) and fire away while the ras+2 blocks off any enemies nearing her
10) well i ran out of things to say for the moment see ya =)

Hhhm how the heck did you get 23 dex??

There is only one tome of dex in bgate1

you must have imported/exported 4 or 5 times, depending on whether you had 19 as an elf and played through.

Man i couldnt stand playing the game 5 times up to chapter 6 (with same char) just to get that dex point.

So either your telling fibs or you were extremely mad/dedicated/bored