Worth playing in 2022?

[MrMordekaiser]

Heyo i remember playing and loving the first baldurs gate back on playstation, and i was wondering if this is something i should sink some hours into still today? ive played a bit of baldurs gate 3 but with it being early access im waiting to really dive in.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Absolutely, even after all these years and many played games, it's still my favorite RPG.

[philos3]

Having just as much fun today as way back when.

[K***boo]

It was only worth playing until March of 2022. You're too late now, sorry.

[Hamish]

Play it yourself and see, only you can be the judge of that and nobody's else's opinion should matter.

[Lord Al]

Yes :)

[wedge]

Just be aware that the game is a bit junky compared to the improvements of any other recent CRPG like Pillars, Pathfinder or DOS

[Zig]

The game systems are a bit wonky and unbalanced compared to Pathfinder or Pillars, but it can be somewhat corectd with mods, environments still look good, the low res sprites certainly need some time to get used to.
Everything else is unmached to this day : writing, scenario, progression, variety of everything, epicness ... Some games did better in certain aspcts, but the BG trilogy still is the best overall package 20 years later.

[K***boo]

Originally posted by wedge:

Just be aware that the game is a bit junky compared to the improvements of any other recent CRPG like Pillars, Pathfinder or DOS

Hahaha... "improvements"... this guy

[Zotliatlicor]

I always turn of the new sprites. Dont like the Cartoon like look. I am comfortable with the old sprite graphics.

Play this game? YES it is SOOOO good.

[Sin]

Originally posted by Emperor Mordekaiser:

Heyo i remember playing and loving the first baldurs gate back on playstation, and i was wondering if this is something i should sink some hours into still today? ive played a bit of baldurs gate 3 but with it being early access im waiting to really dive in.

sadly (thogh luckily for you) still better than many cRPGs released over the past 10 years. (Not better than ALL of them, but better than alot of them.. )
So, YES. Play a class you haven't dabbled in before and it will feel fresh enough. :)
If that isn't appealing enough - there are rebalancing mods in case you are looking for more of a challenge (the most popular one just tweaks AI's and gives enemies their lore based abilities, so if you meet a level 9 mage than he will have the spells of a level 9 mage instead of beeing limited to level 4 or 5 )

[Giblets]

yep, it doesn't get much better than this

[Dorok]

In list of favorites RPG, I never put BG1 or BG2 top one. Even at BG1 release I doubt I would have put it better than Fallout 1. Perhaps for BG2, but not long, only some years, if not Gothic 1 then Gothic 2 a bit later would have top it. And I still prefer FO1 than both.

On most aspects, there's been better:
- Class design: It's old D&D and totally obsolete class design with very few choices on character building except spells of mages. From a party perspective it's less problem but the point is on the table anyway.
- Combats: On start it's RTwP not the best suited for depth, but even the later Bioware shifted approach, I can quote at least DAO widely superior for combats, for both diversity and quality. And even without a RTwP shifted approach of later Bioware, on that aspect, Icewind Dale is shockingly better at least in its first 2/3 (more or less). And if I put on the table TB, then they are blow out hard like by Temple of Elemental Evil, DOS1&2, Dragonfall, some more.
- Writing: Not even BG2 is that top level, it's mostly generic stuff, solid but generic, the constant popup of the Villain is rather artificial even if explained later it's still very weird writing.
- Puzzling, tricks to solve: It's solid level for tricks but mostly ignored for puzzling, but still it's low level, all Larian RPG are widely better on that aspect, and that's just an example.
- Choices and consequences is an overrated aspect for which many players constantly forget this can only mean small play and many plays to see most of the content, still neither BG1 nor BG2 are that great on that.
- D&D old alignment systems: You can be nostalgic of that, but didn't disappeared for nothing, it's plain weird stuff.
- Steal and thief systems: Weak in BG1&2, both on mechanic perspective than on opportunities and dedicated gameplay.
- Freedom: BG1 is big on that but BG2 is already the classic Bioware blueprint, that is much less freedom, to make easier the writing efficiency. And BG1 has been quite surpassed on that aspect, Gothic 1&2, but also ELEX, and there's other examples.
- As a Bilogy, firstly it failed achieve the trilogy, ok for now, but BG3 is so much later that it can't be a pure trilogy. Fallout already did better and more coherent, but even much stronger is the Mass Effect trilogy.

And I can continue the list.

But still as a package, and an amount of content, and a fair enough quality, I see only DAO to compete.

The question is in BG2 forum, but without BG1, it's just BG2, and for me DAO definitely compete with BG2 on the package and size perspective. And if you bring BG1 on the table, well it is a bit a blueprint draft that didn't get refined with BG2 but thrown to trash to be replaced by the blueprint Bioware reused many times.

Still for me and starting with BG1EE I'm re playing now (after many years since last replay), I would answer, yes both worth play, even BG1 if you can endure the harshness of D&D at low character levels, and inherent harshness of BG1 itself. In my opinion they aren't my first top favorites but both are still big marking party RPG packages that totally worth the play, and both are still unique even to each other (BG1/BG2).

[khumak]

Have only recently started playing this again and it's still just as fun I as I remember it from the originals and still clearly superior to most of the RPGs that came after it IMO. The story is better. The characters are better. The degree of character customization and depth far surpasses what's available in most other RPGs. Very few RPGs that followed BG II are even remotely close IMO. The only thing holding BG back was the dated engine and the enhanced version improves that significantly.

[Lathanx]

Originally posted by Dorok:

In list of favorites RPG, I never put BG1 or BG2 top one. Even at BG1 release I doubt I would have put it better than Fallout 1. Perhaps for BG2, but not long, only some years, if not Gothic 1 then Gothic 2 a bit later would have top it. And I still prefer FO1 than both.

On most aspects, there's been better:
- Class design: It's old D&D and totally obsolete class design with very few choices on character building except spells of mages. From a party perspective it's less problem but the point is on the table anyway.
- Combats: On start it's RTwP not the best suited for depth, but even the later Bioware shifted approach, I can quote at least DAO widely superior for combats, for both diversity and quality. And even without a RTwP shifted approach of later Bioware, on that aspect, Icewind Dale is shockingly better at least in its first 2/3 (more or less). And if I put on the table TB, then they are blow out hard like by Temple of Elemental Evil, DOS1&2, Dragonfall, some more.
- Writing: Not even BG2 is that top level, it's mostly generic stuff, solid but generic, the constant popup of the Villain is rather artificial even if explained later it's still very weird writing.
- Puzzling, tricks to solve: It's solid level for tricks but mostly ignored for puzzling, but still it's low level, all Larian RPG are widely better on that aspect, and that's just an example.
- Choices and consequences is an overrated aspect for which many players constantly forget this can only mean small play and many plays to see most of the content, still neither BG1 nor BG2 are that great on that.
- D&D old alignment systems: You can be nostalgic of that, but didn't disappeared for nothing, it's plain weird stuff.
- Steal and thief systems: Weak in BG1&2, both on mechanic perspective than on opportunities and dedicated gameplay.
- Freedom: BG1 is big on that but BG2 is already the classic Bioware blueprint, that is much less freedom, to make easier the writing efficiency. And BG1 has been quite surpassed on that aspect, Gothic 1&2, but also ELEX, and there's other examples.
- As a Bilogy, firstly it failed achieve the trilogy, ok for now, but BG3 is so much later that it can't be a pure trilogy. Fallout already did better and more coherent, but even much stronger is the Mass Effect trilogy.

And I can continue the list.

But still as a package, and an amount of content, and a fair enough quality, I see only DAO to compete.

The question is in BG2 forum, but without BG1, it's just BG2, and for me DAO definitely compete with BG2 on the package and size perspective. And if you bring BG1 on the table, well it is a bit a blueprint draft that didn't get refined with BG2 but thrown to trash to be replaced by the blueprint Bioware reused many times.

Still for me and starting with BG1EE I'm re playing now (after many years since last replay), I would answer, yes both worth play, even BG1 if you can endure the harshness of D&D at low character levels, and inherent harshness of BG1 itself. In my opinion they aren't my first top favorites but both are still big marking party RPG packages that totally worth the play, and both are still unique even to each other (BG1/BG2).

Saying dragon age origins has better variety is just shockingly incorrect and downright idiotic.

Bg1's freedom is wandering empty forest landscapes for 20 hours, it's incredibly boring bg2 has better character interaction and lots of quests that actually interact with eachother, much more interesting.

Half of what you said doesn't even make sense "Low level puzzles, larian is better on that front" what does this even mean? Larian's gameplay design is utter garbage and has been since the release of dos2, YEAH LET'S GIVE EVERYONE MAGICAL ANIMATIONS AND HAVE LOTS OF FIERY EXPLOSIONS AND POISON FARTS EVERYWHERE.

You know i wouldn't really have a problem with this comment if the ♥♥♥♥ you wrote was actually coherent, but bringing up TOEE on the same level as the baldur's gate franchise? Just LOL.

Saying the writing for bg is generic but quoting divinity is just utterly nonsensical, they aren't even in the same stratosphere.

"Class design is limited except spells of mages" Yeah no, not even close to the truth.

[Dorok]

To make it clear, I never wrote what RPG should be better than some other for the whole humanity. I just pinpointed that no matter how big and good can be BG2, on various precise design topics he was not as good than some other RPG. namely:
- Class design.
- Combats.
- Writing.
- Puzzling.
- Choices and consequences.
- Steal and thief systems.
- Freedom, perhaps openness would be more clear.

It's not saying BG2 is bad on those aspects. I don't even agree on comments I can regularly read on BG2 combats, sure too many tend be solved with magic along first seconds, but it's still good to fairly good stuff, and fillers work properly as some quick trash combats quickly done that contribute to setup a mood.

So yeah:
- Class design of D&D2 is totally obsolete with very few choices along level up, but at size of party of 6, with classes diversity, it's still good stuff overall.
- Combats often tend be solved in few seconds by magic, but it's still a solid diversity and quality overall.
- Writing has some seriously good aspect like a lot of stuff around companions, but also some other stuff. It's still very far from a few RPG as Dragonfall or The Witcher 1 that are leagues above on this aspect. But BG2 is still quite good on that overall.
- There isn't much puzzling, that's problems to solve to progress in an exploration, find something searched, solve some quests, more, but it is still better than BG1 on that, and many RPG aren't that good on that. In fact some older RPG and Larian RPG are more exceptions compared to modern RPG released since 20 years.
- Choices and consequences, it's limited but still it has stuff, a lot is related to companions but not only, so overall it's a good value on that aspect.
- Steal and thief systems, well on that, I'm not sure, I remind it even worse than BG1 that at least had put more efforts in opportunities even if inside a context of a very bad system.
- Freedom, again, BG2 is already the classic Bioware blueprint, but it's not meaning that it hasn't openness aspects. The point here isn't to have any RPG using the "open world RPG" blueprint, very annoying modern tendency with Skyrim and Bethesda that influenced too much RPG market.

Moreover I would agree that it is still unmatched on companions depth, amount of development, and overall design. On this point I see only DAO compete, and DAO having the best ever companion, but DAO uses a more artificial approach by using the camp for most interactions with player.