Neverwinter Nights; Baldur's Gate; Icewind Dale

BigBoss

BigBoss

Your Local Scrub
I bought these on Amazon:

• Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 (with expansion packs)
• Baldur's Gate 4 in 1 Box Set
• Icewind Dale 3 in 1 Box Set

Never played any of these before. I did a bit of back reading on them but I know you guys have played these and know them kind of well. What can I expect? Did you guys enjoy these games?
 
That's hundreds of hours of gaming right there. If you like story, go for BG or NWN. If you want to get used to the DnD battles, cut your teeth on some IWD. BGII is one of my favorite games ever.
Not sure how familiar you are with DnD based games (since you just bought like all of them haha) but here is my suggestions:
Don't use min/max guides or meta/power-gaming on your first runs. Read the PDFs that come with the games and learn as you go. The adventures are long enough to do this.
There might be some essential mods for each game like bug fixers or widescreen support but other than that don't use any quest/gameplay mods on your first run.
Pay Attention and read everything.
Save often, and in different slots.

BGII is one of my favorite games ever.
 
indeed, I think BG2 is the best buy, particularly if you got the expansion as well. Its really sad that they didnt get the chance to make BG3, though it became pretty much the expansion, or well some of the ideas became the expansion. And I agree. Dont look to much for BG2 on the net. Try to just play the game and get your self familar with the DnD rules. It will be a better experience if you dont spoil your self to much.
 
Hm, I was a little disappointed with BG2. There's more freedom in the first BG, better exploration, beautiful music and graphics. It's really charming game! Sequel is infested by numerous scripted events, cut-scenes, party banters and such stuff.

Icewind Dale is a decent game.

Neverwinter Nights sucks unholy arse. Prepare yourself for some generic campaign, boring copy-pasta level design and serious struggle with horrible 3D camera. Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack is the best part of whole thing, still crappy though. Shaken to the core by its crappiness, I've never touched sequel.
 
Last edited:
valcik said:
Hm, I was a little disappointed with BG2. There's more freedom in the first BG, better exploration, beautiful music and graphics. It's really charming game! Sequel is infested by numerous scripted events, cut-scenes, party banters and such stuff.

Icewind Dale is a decent game.

Neverwinter Nights sucks unholy arse. Prepare yourself for some generic campaign, boring copy-pasta level design and serious struggle with horrible 3D camera. Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack is the best part of whole thing, still crappy though. Shaken to the core by its crappiness, I've never touched sequel.
Click to expand...

Neverwinter only had 2 problems. Getting used to the camera and a lot of boring parts in the original campaign. Besides that the game was awesome! Never tried the second one tho since it seems to suck ass.
 
BigBoss said:
I bought these on Amazon:

• Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 (with expansion packs)
• Baldur's Gate 4 in 1 Box Set
• Icewind Dale 3 in 1 Box Set

Did you guys enjoy these games?
Click to expand...

Is water wet?

Yes i played the shit out of every one of them and would play them all again, if i hadn't finished them many times over (well ok, i didn't finish icewind dale yet, but i'm planning to and i still played both of them for many times with various parties, just haven't completed). These are the last resort for this hopeless D&Dholic. The graphics of the BG and IW take a bit of getting used to, but once you're hooked, you're hooked.
 
Last edited:
I'm surprised that while other D&D games are discussed, TOEE wasn't discussed at all.
I didn't played those games and don't know much but I heard TOEE has the best D&D combats.

I only played NWN2:SoZ and I liked it.
creating party, explore the world and solving quest by investigation and skill usages(although dialog options doesn't have much functions.) are what I want from party based games.
I heard it isn't good game as BG-like game but I don't care since I don't know BG.
and actually, I heard BG is the first CRPG that copied JRPG(removing quest and dungeon and replace them with combat and linear story) so I can't think BG 1,2 is worth for me.
SOZ isn't perfect game. it has many flaws. but I think it has embition of real RPG.

I heard NWN2:MotB is masterpiece.
 
valcik said:
Neverwinter Nights sucks unholy arse. Prepare yourself for some generic campaign, boring copy-pasta level design and serious struggle with horrible 3D camera. Shadows of Undrentide expansion pack is the best part of whole thing, still crappy though. Shaken to the core by its crappiness, I've never touched sequel.
Click to expand...
I have to agree. It's terrible, especially the stock campaign, which is quite possibly the worst campaign I've ever seen in any game.

The saving grace for Neverwinter Nights is all the user-made modules you can get. Some of them are really good despite the poor game engine. Skip the campaigns that come with the game and download every module ever made by Stephan Gagne. Play through them in order, starting with the Penultima series and ending with the HexCODA series. Here's a link:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=User.EntriesListing&id=25
 
UniversalWolf said:
I have to agree. It's terrible, especially the stock campaign, which is quite possibly the worst campaign I've ever seen in any game.

The saving grace for Neverwinter Nights is all the user-made modules you can get. Some of them are really good despite the poor game engine. Skip the campaigns that come with the game and download every module ever made by Stephan Gagne. Play through them in order, starting with the Penultima series and ending with the HexCODA series. Here's a link:
Click to expand...

I see people talking about this all the time and i have no clue what they are talking about. I finished the game and i thought the campaign was decent enough (i don't finish all that many games). It's nothing spectacular, but i enjoyed many areas and missions. On the flip side, i never got into that whole module thing.

woo1108 said:
I'm surprised that while other D&D games are discussed, TOEE wasn't discussed at all.
I didn't played those games and don't know much but I heard TOEE has the best D&D combats.
Click to expand...

No one is talking about it, because it is utter crap... Now having said that, it is utter crap with the potential of being GOAT, if it only had a story and gameplay that was not broken even after numerous fan made patches. The D&D mechanics are the best there ever were in computer games, but since it's only half of the game, you can't really do much with it.

woo1108 said:
I only played NWN2:SoZ and I liked it.
creating party, explore the world and solving quest by investigation and skill usages(although dialog options doesn't have much functions.) are what I want from party based games.
I heard it isn't good game as BG-like game but I don't care since I don't know BG.
and actually, I heard BG is the first CRPG that copied JRPG(removing quest and dungeon and replace them with combat and linear story) so I can't think BG 1,2 is worth for me.
SOZ isn't perfect game. it has many flaws. but I think it has embition of real RPG.
Click to expand...

BG 1 (decent), but not worth it if you're not a fan, however BG2 blows NWN2:SoZ away as if SoZ were dust on the table. You should play it someday.

woo1108 said:
I heard NWN2:MotB is masterpiece.
Click to expand...

It's a superb game, though you tend to get a bit overpowered in that game.
 
Last edited:
NWN is really selling the toolset. It's a shame the default game was rather uninteresting, and multiplayer (of the default game) was a chore.

@BigBoss: Black Ilse has crafted some of the top RPGs ever made; [In Many Opinions]. :cool:


There is a Fallout easter egg in the Baldrur's Gate [series]...
But you have to collect one item from each game and have them all [via imported party] in the end of the ToB expansion.
If you import your BG1 party into BG2, you will notice that the game removes a lot of items & equipment, but it leaves the special (seemingly useless) item if you have it.
(And that's a clue from the game.)
 
Last edited:
@UniversalWolf:
Thanks for the link! I'll give it a go someday.

AskWazzup said:
Now having said that, it is utter crap with the potential of being GOAT, if it only had a story and gameplay that was not broken even after numerous fan made patches.
Click to expand...
That story is a carbon copy of Gary Gygax's module actually:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235760.Temple_of_Elemental_Evil

There's pretty good interview with Tim Cain on RPG Codex regarding ToEE development:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=8416
Tim Cain said:
We were trying to recreate the original Temple module, something that had required a group of players and a DM, in a computer game using the 3.5 rules. In hindsight, yes, I think I stayed too close to the original module, which contained a lot of nonsensical plot lines, characters and items. While we were making the game, I spent two hours each week playing tabletop D&D with the development crew, so they would see what the tabletop experience was like. I used a module of my own creation, and many of them liked it better than the Temple module. Perhaps it would have made better source material.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
valcik said:
That story is a carbon copy of Gary Gygax's module actually:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235760.Temple_of_Elemental_Evil

There's pretty good interview with Tim Cain on RPG Codex regarding ToEE development:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=8416
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty shocking, considering how unprofessional and rushed the whole thing felt (story, characters, dialogues etc.). If only Cain would have made the turn... Still, i can't see how they didn't notice the sloppiness and let it slide by. Maybe time constrains? But they really blew it, with such an elegant system the game only needed a decent setting, story and characters to make it into a superb game.

I tried to finish Toee (with the latest community patches) and played a decent part of it. But even though i really enjoyed the skill system and how it was fleshed out into turn based combat, the empty characters, idiotic dialogues and terrible missions with a heap of crashes and bugs just killed it completely for me and this was a game with a decade worht of patches no less! I can only imagine the hurt, that players had to through, to play the game when it came out...
 
Last edited:
AskWazzup said:
UniversalWolf said:
I have to agree. It's terrible, especially the stock campaign, which is quite possibly the worst campaign I've ever seen in any game.
Click to expand...

I see people talking about this all the time and i have no clue what they are talking about. I finished the game and i thought the campaign was decent enough (i don't finish all that many games). It's nothing spectacular, but i enjoyed many areas and missions.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think we may have played different games. Are you sure it's NWN you're thinking of? :smile:

The great thing about playing Gagne's modules is seeing a guy who gets more and more sophisticated with his storytelling as he gets better and better with the toolset. His very first series, Penultima, is already far and away funnier, more original, and flat out superior to anything in the stock game, but by the time you get his Eternum and HexCODA modules...those have some of the best writing I've ever seen in any game, ever. They're actually emotionally engaging.

At one point he was working on an official module that was supposed to be on sale from Bioware, but it got cancelled. Too bad, because I read somewhere that it was about a band of professional wrestlers who travelled around the Forgotten Realms putting on shows.

As for ToEE, I really can't defend it because all the faults people complain about are true. On the other hand, the combat is superb. Also, the game gets a lot better if you can make it into the Temple. It's also suprising how many different things you'll see and hear if you choose a different kind of character on a subsequent playthrough. But you have to put up with a legion of flaws to do that.
 
UniversalWolf said:
As for ToEE, I really can't defend it because all the faults people complain about are true. On the other hand, the combat is superb. Also, the game gets a lot better if you can make it into the Temple. It's also suprising how many different things you'll see and hear if you choose a different kind of character on a subsequent playthrough. But you have to put up with a legion of flaws to do that.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Co8 did a superb job on the game, and it's almost entirely stable now.
 
Ausdoerrt said:
To be fair, Co8 did a superb job on the game, and it's almost entirely stable now.
Click to expand...

Well, that is just not true. As i mentioned, i played with the latest co8 patch and i experienced a huge chunk of bugs and errors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top