If Baldur's Gate is a waist deep lake, how deep is this?

[Bintus]

I know this is incredibly subjective, but I was thinking of buying this and after consulting a few "tips for new players" guides, I am in awe of how deep this game can get. I have played Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity (both on Normal without much minmaxing), so how would this fare against the depth in those RPGs?

[jared.heath]

It's hard to quantify because BG leverages the D&D system, which is incredibly rich.

- BG has more weapon types but fewer special weapon based special power
- BG has more spells, but is based on the D&D "memorize" system, so you can't cast nearly as many....making BG way more melee dependent.
- BG has more Role in its RPG
- BG has a much better story and much better side stories.

Remember, Baldur's Gate is widely considered one of the best games ever made. Not just best RPG, but best game.

Divinity is knee deep vs it for me.

I have not played pillars yet.

[Sangredevida]

Divinity is a bit of a different game compared to BG.. Like Jared said BG was based on DnD rules and lore. Divinity to me is a great game and if you enjoyed BG you will most likely enjoy DOS also. Divinty have a large amount of gear and crafting you can do. Its a huge game and it was worth every ounce of the 100+ hours I spent on it. BG is the pinnicle of great story telling and game creation. Divinity stands just as tall for me.

[Maximum Sloth]

I'd say they're comparable to me.

[magicmazuma]

Its simply one of the better RPG's in my book. Really brings back that "oldschool" feeling. Has a nice amount of depth and cool graphics .. This is turnbased though and plays a little diffrent then BaldursGate or DA;O etc. Its more like the old fallout games but with orcs and wizards. ;)

[sbangs007]

I have played BG and just about all of the old school rpg games, including NW series as well. However having said that, I have to say DOS EE is now in my top 10 of best PC games made, its probably my favorite RPG game every made. I'm a huge multiplayer fan so the MP options alone helped in my rating.

[Reeno]

In terms of gameplay its alot deeper than BG but it has no lore whatsoever. Instead it has media and real life references and 4th wall breaking humor. In fact the jokes and references take up such a huge portion of the game that its the super serious story that feels very forced and out of place. Its often a borderline parody-RPG.

[csvii]

POE is going to be a buy for me when they finish patching it up. BG2 is one of my favourite games of all time and it is still very playable today, 17 years later. How does DOS:EE compare IMHO (I'm still playing through it at level 18):
- modern improvements such as fully rotatable camera, great visuals, full (and excellent) voice acting
- a very light-hearted RPG mostly played for laughs (don't be expecting serious, Jon Irenicus style D&D here)
- less choice, but more streamlined and focused (no need to consult D&D stat tables). Turn based battles are fun with elemental magic.
- a more linear game overall where you move from map to map
- much less hand holding for quests (have to consult a wiki if you get stuck or wander around in circles)
- max 4 party members not 6 like BG2

It's not a perfect game but still a 9/10 for me.

subjective opinion:
BG1->waist high
BG2->chest high
DOS:EE->waist high

[Lampros]

Originally posted by csvii:

POE is going to be a buy for me when they finish patching it up. BG2 is one of my favourite games of all time and it is still very playable today, 17 years later. How does DOS:EE compare IMHO (I'm still playing through it at level 18):
- modern improvements such as fully rotatable camera, great visuals, full (and excellent) voice acting
- a very light-hearted RPG mostly played for laughs (don't be expecting serious, Jon Irenicus style D&D here)
- less choice, but more streamlined and focused (no need to consult D&D stat tables). Turn based battles are fun with elemental magic.
- a more linear game overall where you move from map to map
- much less hand holding for quests (have to consult a wiki if you get stuck or wander around in circles)
- max 4 party members not 6 like BG2

It's not a perfect game but still a 9/10 for me.

subjective opinion:
BG1->waist high
BG2->chest high
DOS:EE->waist high

PoE is still buggy?!

[csvii]

It's probably playable but I like fully patched games :P

[NewRaven]

Originally posted by Foxxylicious:

In terms of gameplay its alot deeper than BG but it has no lore whatsoever. Instead it has media and real life references and 4th wall breaking humor. In fact the jokes and references take up such a huge portion of the game that its the super serious story that feels very forced and out of place. Its often a borderline parody-RPG.

Actually, it has it's lore... no full fledged out forgotten realms, but enough to give the world a unique character which stays the same in all games. However, all of these Divinity games don't take themselves very seriously. As I personally like Larians sense of humor, these jokes are fine for me, but they could easly destroy the immersion for other people, I guess.

As comparing this to BG or PoE. Both games are darker toned. BG quite a bit, PoE a huge amount. As far as the combat system goes, I prefer OS over both of them, mainly because of strategy you need to invest. Using your enviroment in combination with the elemental stuff just plays awesome. On the other hand... even besides the humor which could turn you down, the story is in no way as good as in the classic Baldurs Gate games nor are the characters anywhere near as deep.

OS is a great "classic style" Party-RPG, but BG is just one of the best games ever made. If I had to compare it to PoE on the other hand, I would prefer OS at any given day, to be honest. PoE has the better story, but that's it - at least for me. I don't like the combat of PoE that much and much prefer the world design of OS. Technically, while both titles aren't top notch, OS is just a lot more modern.

[Teralitha]

I think divinity is a good game, but the conversation dialogues are a bit overdone with redundancy. Compared to BG2, its a different game. Different system altogether. Has its own style and its own depth. I think BG is much deeper and richer in its experience im many ways, and probably makes it more replayable than divinity. Divinity is like a tryhard version of a BG type game. Its still good though.

[♡ soap ♡]

I turned down the voices (which some other forum genius suggested, which is completely obvious, but I didn't think of it because I'm probably dumb, etc.), and the game seems LOADS better. The writing's dump as ♥♥♥♥, but that's just how things are, right? I.e. it's hardly David Foster Wallace in RPG mode. Short version: Pillars is better.

[Zaris]

The problem is that Divinity and Pillars of Eternity are both low budget games and Baldurs Gate 1+2 had no such issues.

I played all of them multiple times and in the end, Baldurs Gate has overall the best story, interesting dungeons, good combat system and much variety and the dialogs have the right length without becoming boring.

Pillars of Eternity come close to Baldurs Gate but its just to short. The main story is finished at a point where i thought it just began and there are to few side dungeons. In BG2 you had about 10-12 real side dungeons while in PoE there is maybe a castle and thats it, the mini fetch quests doesn't count. The dialogs are exhausting and i have the feeling that they talk about the same things in 10 different ways. Combat system is alright and nearly the same as BG.

Divinity Original Sin has also to much dialog at some points that it becomes boring quite fast. The combat system is broken like hell (without summons nearly every enemy encounter crush your party in 1-2 rounds because of crowd control spell spamming). The combat is also way to slow, i needed about 50hrs to complete it the first time and most of the time i had to wait for the enemy turn because the animations for everything are just to long. There are also no bigger side dungeons to explore but thats not the problem because the mainstory and normal sidequest content is long enough. There are also many riddles to solve to solve many quests like physic puzzles which is very nice.

In the end i would rather play BG 10 more times or POE but Divinity is just to long because of the slow combat animations and the overall slow pace of everything. Its not a bad game but you need a lots of patience and time and to be honest i don't want to waste my time again with mostly watching the slow combat again.

[XxBarakaxX]

Originally posted by InvictusCobra:

I know this is incredibly subjective, but I was thinking of buying this and after consulting a few "tips for new players" guides, I am in awe of how deep this game can get. I have played Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity (both on Normal without much minmaxing), so how would this fare against the depth in those RPGs?

For the combat i can say, its the best i have ever seen at this kind of systems
The Main Story is really not the best, but also not bad.
The strong parts are the little storys around and also the atmosphäre is fantastic.