Should I play these?

[maximaz]

So, I just realized that I haven't played quite a bunch of games people keep mentioning on the site. I want to know whether they're actually worth playing or just relevant to this board because of some connection to Fallout or Black Isle. Here goes the list:

Fallout Tactics
Bldur's Gate 1/2
Icewind Dale
X-Com
The Temple Of Elemental Evil

I've played demos of FT and TOEE and completely disliked the first while the second looked like it could be good. Have played BG on an xbox and disliked it as well. I do like Diablo so I might like BG's for PC. Any recommendations?

 

[quietfanatic]

If you didn't like the FoT demos, you won't enjoy the full game. I actually thought one of the demos was more fun than most of the real missions.

 

[maximaz]

If you didn't like the FoT demos, you won't enjoy the full game. I actually thought one of the demos was more fun than most of the real missions.

To be honest I didn't like them because I didn't get the combat system at all. I was expecting it to be straight out of Fallout but it was something weird, I don't remember what it was exactly.

 

[quietfanatic]

Did you play CTB rather than TB combat mode?

 

[SuAside]

only try TOEE if you're willing to fully learn the rules. if not, you'll get owned. hard.

 

[Sorrow]

I tried playing ToEE - the beginning was so boring and uninspiring, that I never played it longer than 20 minutes.

 

[SuAside]

i barely made it to the tower/temple/whatever.
after that, i gave up and cheated my way through it to see if the game was worth it storywise. with the exception of a few gems (like sleeping with the "evil dude's" concubines & having the man walk into the room, haha), it isnt really worth it.

 

[Per]

Bldur's Gate 1/2
Icewind Dale

BG and BG2 are both on my top 10 list. It helps if you've played and loved games like old Pool of Radiance and Eye of the Beholder. For 1, expect AD&D character and inventory management, large maps of pretty scenery with the odd bear or kobold, bunches of fetch and/or slay quests, epic scope, and a few awesome jokes. If you like 1 you'll also like 2 and probably IwD.

 

[SuAside]

Asswind Dale, Per?

i kid, i kid. wasn't that bad.

 

[WraithUV]

What Per said covers BG 1/2 and IwD pretty well, I think.

And heck, BG 1 and 2 are almost worth playing just for Minsk. Be damn sure to recruit that guy, he's hilarious.

So, I just realized that I haven't played quite a bunch of games people keep mentioning on the site. I want to know whether they're actually worth playing or just relevant to this board because of some connection to Fallout or Black Isle. Here goes the list:

Fallout Tactics
Bldur's Gate 1/2
Icewind Dale
X-Com
The Temple Of Elemental Evil

I've played demos of FT and TOEE and completely disliked the first while the second looked like it could be good. Have played BG on an xbox and disliked it as well. I do like Diablo so I might like BG's for PC. Any recommendations?

Meh. I know it can be a big flame topic, but I don't personally believe in the concept of "RPG + Console". Interactive (and sometimes fun) adventure? Sure, but not anything that I'd call a decent RPG. Controls are just too limited, which turns them all into little more than pretty twitch-fests, with long screens of monologue.

Now again, just from personal opinion here, but the X-Com series was awesomesauce in its day. 1 and 2 were particular favorites, and I won't even try to count how many hours I spent on those.

Yes, they have their problems, and trying to retro-jump back to them now without the nostalgia value might be a little tricky, since they're *very* dated by today's standards, but I'd say give 'em a go if you can lay hands on them for cheap/free.

ToEE I could never really get into. I think it's because the old pen and paper module series for that in the AD&D world was such a favorite with such great memories, and this computer version of it, to me, just didn't do it any justice at all. Kept feeling like the death of a dream or something, but again, that's largely due to my own expectations and memories.

FO: Tactics I'd avoid like the plague. Then again, I feel that way about virtually *any* "tactics" game, since every one I've ever seen feels like someone just slapped together some semi-familiar elements from some successful franchise, then slapped the logo on it and shoved it out the door hoping for a quick buck with minimal effort involved. More simply put, I have yet to play <anything>: Tactics and enjoy it, so I've learned to avoid them on principle.

My two bits. Take them as you will.

-Wraith

 

[Wooz]

Fallout Tactics
Bldur's Gate 1/2
Icewind Dale
X-Com
The Temple Of Elemental Evil

No
Yes
No
Yes
Meh

 

[Sorrow]

Bldur's Gate 1/2

It has a retarded CTBwP combat system with homing arrows and a lot of other glitches.
Characters get the same dialogue options regardless of stats, so you can play with a character with int and wis of 3.
It has a somewhat interesting (though linear) story and nice atmosphere.
There are some annoying situations when game goes into cutscene mode and the protagonist is forced to do/say stupid things.
Also there are some nice NPCs.

Icewind Dale

It's very linear, boring and has the same retarded combat system as BG. The good sides are a good atmosphere and stats sometimes influencing dialogue options.

X-Com

UFO: Enemy Unknown (the first part of X-Com) is worth playing. I played it in times when it's graphics were already outdated and it sucked me in for long weeks.
It has a turn based, it has atmospheric music, the combat is very deadly and creates a good tension, also discovering the secrets of the aliens is interesting.

 

[maximaz]

Thanks for all the replies.

Did you play CTB rather than TB combat mode?

You know what, I have no Idea. I remember that it was definitely not TB like Fallout, it was sort of real time but sort of not. It could have been real time tb or something but at the time I didn't get it and there didn't seem to be anything tactical about it. Also, I was weirded out by the atmosphere, it wasn't fallout-like at all.

TOEE

I've played the tutorial and liked it. I got the feeling that there probably isn't much dialogue or NPC interaction but I liked Diablo so I don't know. Is there anything specific about the actual game that sucks?

BG 1/2

I've heard only good things about those games but I really disliked the Xbox version. The PC version must be vastly different. Are there many NPC's to interact with and are dialogues any good or is it mainly hack & slash kind of like Diablo?

X-com

Looking for it...

 

[Starwars]

The trouble with ToEE is that the whole character interaction/quest part of the game feels completely uninspired. While I think this is partly due to the mod itself (it's nostalgic yes, but not all that good I think), it's still a bit strange since Troika was pretty good at that stuff.

It's also *really* buggy, but you can install the Circle of Eight mod which fixes a lot of stuff (and adds some new content, both good and bad). I highly recommend doing that though if you're gonna play through it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a lot about the game flat out sucks, EXCEPT the combat system which is just bloody awesome. Very faithful to D&D and certainly my favourite combat system in a cRPG. I'm not normally a fan of dungeon crawling, but I really enjoyed this in ToEE for the most part.

A mod team is also working on remaking Keep on the Borderlands in the ToEE engine. That should be a good time once it's finished. I really liked the ToEE engine, and was sort of a shame to not see it used again.

 

[Sorrow]

Heh...
A ToEE remake of Baldur's Gate would be great...

 

[Per]

BG 1/2

I've heard only good things about those games but I really disliked the Xbox version. The PC version must be vastly different.

Umm, they are. If you're talking about Dark Alliance. These are RPGs at heart, not action games.

Are there many NPC's to interact with and are dialogues any good or is it mainly hack & slash kind of like Diablo?

Many, many NPCs. Interaction is less detailed and significant than Fallout's, but there's a lot of it because the game is so big. Dialogue is better than average, I would say. Icewind Dale is much more linear and Diablo-ish by comparison, with more fighting than dialogue.

 

[maximaz]

Many, many NPCs. Interaction is less detailed and significant than Fallout's, but there's a lot of it because the game is so big. Dialogue is better than average, I would say. Icewind Dale is much more linear and Diablo-ish by comparison, with more fighting than dialogue.

Sounds good. BG: DA had like one NPC that didn't do anything except have big boobs. I think I will definitely try BG.

 

[Madbringer]

It has a retarded CTBwP combat system with homing arrows and a lot of other glitches.
Characters get the same dialogue options regardless of stats, so you can play with a character with int and wis of 3.
It has a somewhat interesting (though linear) story and nice atmosphere.
There are some annoying situations when game goes into cutscene mode and the protagonist is forced to do/say stupid things.
Also there are some nice NPCs.

Let's not forget that both of those games have a fertile modding scene. Really, there are tons of mods which greatly enhance your Baldur's Gate experience, fix bugs, change/finetune rules, add additional npc's etc.

Maximaz, if you're willing to make an effort in downloading and then installing the biggest mods, you can go for Baldur's Gate Trilogy.

Search the sites below for details/additional links etc, good places to start if you're willing to add some mods.

http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/
http://www.gibberlings3.net/

 

[Per]

Maybe play it through once without mods? Except for my little fixpack of course (follow my sig).

 

[maximaz]

One important thing I wanted to ask: does the full FOT game have a more fallouty atmosphere? It didn't even smell like it in the demo but who knows. How is character interaction and is there any fallout feel to the game?