I really really enjoyed Baldur's Gate 1, like a lot.
There were some issues though: I felt companions to be a bit lackluster, and while some were memorable, it was more-so they were fun interesting ideas, action figures, without many quests or dialogue behind them. I loved the vibrant and pretty world full of quests and adventure! But due to the low levels of early Baldur's Gate you would have to reload an area often because you and your party kept dying. I loved questing and doing dungeons! But many quests were simple fetch this, fetch that. Etc. Etc. Baldur's Gate 2 does all of the things I loved better, and does all the things I had issues with SIGNIFICANTLY better.
The story and companions here are mwah, we went from barebones companions to full fledged questlines, romance, and tons of unique dialogue. A lot of the companions here are solidified as my favorites now in the genre, up there with Dragon Age: Origins companions (which I personally consider the crown jewel and example all other CRPG companions have to be compared to.) The romances are fun as well. And the addition of the majority of companions having a unique companion quest is great.
The higher DnD level play here is also just way more fun and interesting with more variety of enemies, loot, locations, spells, etc. Combat and dungeon exploration is so fun and far superior to the first game. I dreaded dungeon diving or large combats in 1, much preferring the hub-based content which was usually more interesting. But now in 2 I actively seek them out here! Also loot... This and Morrowind I think are tied for my favorite handling of loot in RPGs now. Never has it been so satisfying to haul back an inventory full of items to identify, sell, keep, compare. Watching gold increase and get more powerful items, and spend that gold on items you've been ogling... So fun. If ever I want the feeling of just wealth amassing in an RPG this is a great one for it.
The environments and locations in 1 were fun and pretty but oh my goodness here in 2 the world is just completely and utterly gorgeous. I love my hubs and cities in games and the main city, Athkatla, is even more impressive and interesting than the titular Baldur's Gate in 1. And the many other settlements like Trademeet are also just so aesthetically pleasing, interesting, and fun to explore and get quests in! Not to mention aesthetically diverse! From a fantasy medieval Istanbul to a traditional Medieval European trading town by a Druid's Grove to a picturesque sun-stained Greek island town overrun by pirates to even more I shan't spoil, not even naming the different dungeons and outdoors environments!
The sound and music is excellent too, the voice acting ranging from campy but fun to outright amazing, some famous voice actors here too like Grey DeLisle who I mostly know as Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In this she plays a Drow Death Cleric, excellently I might add... And is a romance option for those similarly messed up people who had an unreasonable crush on Azula when we were young. The voice barks NPCs give are charming as well, there are a few reused ones from 1 that I didn't mind. The music is beautiful, I already adored the tracks in 1 but here it is even better. More melancholic I'd say, for an example of one of my favorite tracks, look up Viconia's Theme!
The quests though are the biggest improvement after companions. They are almost entirely always memorable and fun. Gone are the constant boring fetch quests, replaced instead with whimsical and fun stories. It feels like they amassed a large group of DnD DMs and just told them to recount their best adventures. These may be my favorite side-quests in RPGs ever, maybe? They just breathe the fun DnD flair for interesting quirky quests. There is also the addition of player-housing in the Stronghold system! Which is a very fun system that adds even more replayability to the game! Every set of classes get their own unique questline and home, a thieves guild, a fighter castle, a druid grove, etc! The one weak point of the quests is the content added by Beamdog, as others have said the writing... leaves a lot to be desired. From a questline where the false evidence of a murder is the innocent person's name written in blood framing them... (Really?) To literally herding 8 cats in a boring fetchquest, to outright bad dialogue with modern slang that doesn't fit the tone at all, one companion is so bad I genuinely out loud muttered, "SHUT UP!" during their questline. The combat encounters too are the least balanced and most poorly planned of the entire game. Luckily all of the Beamdog added content is optional and I will probably skip on replays. There are also some bugs, mainly those related to dialogue and romances, romances especially are very bugged.
I recommend it wholeheartedly for RPG fans, it is possible to skip 1 and play here since there is a built in roleplay option to choose to be an amnesiac and thus not remember the characters and events of 1! Though I do recommend personally that people play 1 first and import a character as going from a weakling to a god from BG1 to BG2/ToB is such a satisfying experience across the whole series. It's not completely needed though. Just play it!
There were some issues though: I felt companions to be a bit lackluster, and while some were memorable, it was more-so they were fun interesting ideas, action figures, without many quests or dialogue behind them. I loved the vibrant and pretty world full of quests and adventure! But due to the low levels of early Baldur's Gate you would have to reload an area often because you and your party kept dying. I loved questing and doing dungeons! But many quests were simple fetch this, fetch that. Etc. Etc. Baldur's Gate 2 does all of the things I loved better, and does all the things I had issues with SIGNIFICANTLY better.
The story and companions here are mwah, we went from barebones companions to full fledged questlines, romance, and tons of unique dialogue. A lot of the companions here are solidified as my favorites now in the genre, up there with Dragon Age: Origins companions (which I personally consider the crown jewel and example all other CRPG companions have to be compared to.) The romances are fun as well. And the addition of the majority of companions having a unique companion quest is great.
The higher DnD level play here is also just way more fun and interesting with more variety of enemies, loot, locations, spells, etc. Combat and dungeon exploration is so fun and far superior to the first game. I dreaded dungeon diving or large combats in 1, much preferring the hub-based content which was usually more interesting. But now in 2 I actively seek them out here! Also loot... This and Morrowind I think are tied for my favorite handling of loot in RPGs now. Never has it been so satisfying to haul back an inventory full of items to identify, sell, keep, compare. Watching gold increase and get more powerful items, and spend that gold on items you've been ogling... So fun. If ever I want the feeling of just wealth amassing in an RPG this is a great one for it.
The environments and locations in 1 were fun and pretty but oh my goodness here in 2 the world is just completely and utterly gorgeous. I love my hubs and cities in games and the main city, Athkatla, is even more impressive and interesting than the titular Baldur's Gate in 1. And the many other settlements like Trademeet are also just so aesthetically pleasing, interesting, and fun to explore and get quests in! Not to mention aesthetically diverse! From a fantasy medieval Istanbul to a traditional Medieval European trading town by a Druid's Grove to a picturesque sun-stained Greek island town overrun by pirates to even more I shan't spoil, not even naming the different dungeons and outdoors environments!
The sound and music is excellent too, the voice acting ranging from campy but fun to outright amazing, some famous voice actors here too like Grey DeLisle who I mostly know as Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In this she plays a Drow Death Cleric, excellently I might add... And is a romance option for those similarly messed up people who had an unreasonable crush on Azula when we were young. The voice barks NPCs give are charming as well, there are a few reused ones from 1 that I didn't mind. The music is beautiful, I already adored the tracks in 1 but here it is even better. More melancholic I'd say, for an example of one of my favorite tracks, look up Viconia's Theme!
The quests though are the biggest improvement after companions. They are almost entirely always memorable and fun. Gone are the constant boring fetch quests, replaced instead with whimsical and fun stories. It feels like they amassed a large group of DnD DMs and just told them to recount their best adventures. These may be my favorite side-quests in RPGs ever, maybe? They just breathe the fun DnD flair for interesting quirky quests. There is also the addition of player-housing in the Stronghold system! Which is a very fun system that adds even more replayability to the game! Every set of classes get their own unique questline and home, a thieves guild, a fighter castle, a druid grove, etc! The one weak point of the quests is the content added by Beamdog, as others have said the writing... leaves a lot to be desired. From a questline where the false evidence of a murder is the innocent person's name written in blood framing them... (Really?) To literally herding 8 cats in a boring fetchquest, to outright bad dialogue with modern slang that doesn't fit the tone at all, one companion is so bad I genuinely out loud muttered, "SHUT UP!" during their questline. The combat encounters too are the least balanced and most poorly planned of the entire game. Luckily all of the Beamdog added content is optional and I will probably skip on replays. There are also some bugs, mainly those related to dialogue and romances, romances especially are very bugged.
I recommend it wholeheartedly for RPG fans, it is possible to skip 1 and play here since there is a built in roleplay option to choose to be an amnesiac and thus not remember the characters and events of 1! Though I do recommend personally that people play 1 first and import a character as going from a weakling to a god from BG1 to BG2/ToB is such a satisfying experience across the whole series. It's not completely needed though. Just play it!
All_Regrets
2 months ago
I completely agree with the quests and companions being a significant improvement. In many ways BG2 feels like the precursor to the BioWare style of RPG that has come to dominate the genre since the 2000s. Sadly, I cannot really comment on the romances. I was never quite sure how to get them to advance, and it felt random at times, which could have been due to bugs or maybe selecting the wrong options. I guess my feelings for Jaheira are canonically unspoken in my playthrough :'(.
I may have to disagree on the combat encounters. Perhaps this is because I did not experience much of BG1, but I felt they were often well-balanced, if a bit challenging. While they often required me to re-try many times, it always felt like solving a puzzle. Admittedly, I did get exhausted towards the end, where I would even turn it to easy just to get through a lot of the generic mobs. But, I would turn it back to core rules during the boss encounters. That being said, spending minutes buffing my party before some encounters and then having to re-do that when I failed was mind-numbing.