Well yesterday i started playing BGEE and had some questions that got answered. I ended up fixing some of the problems i had with the game, but some of them still remain. Anyway, i'm a bit dissapointed with this game. I don't regret speding money on it, as i think it's money well spent. But in the form the game is right now i don't feel that it can stand up to the hype, and neither that it can stand up to Trilogy.
1.) The interface looks odd, it's hard getting used to it after so many years of Baldur's Gate 2 interface. It's not bad in anyway, it's just different and in this case different isn't what i'm looking for. They could have touched up the BG2 one instead of making a new one with that hideous blue colour (Opinion).
2.) I love the way the large shield looks in BGEE, but i wish they had taken more from the original Baldur's gate. My full plate still looks like someone molded metal onto a rock, and i wish they had taken the avatars from Baldur's gate I. This might not be possible but it would have been great if they atleast had done something with the plate look.
3.) The new NPC's are nice enough, but they just don't fit into the game for me. I can't put my finger on it, but they don't have that feel to it that the old ones have. And yes the old ones barely have any dialogue, but they still get me to smile and laugh. The new NPC's are a little bit like having a brand new radio in a antique(?) shop.
4.) Black pit. Alright this is a thing i love and hate at the same time. First of all i enjoyed the black pit custom scenario. I played first through it with a party of three, and everything went smooth. There were certain things that were frustrating and you had to have meta knowledge beforehand (Clay golems, trolls, etc) to beat. But you could always load and get the items you needed for the fight. The second time i played through as a solo blade, it was enjoyable and it reminds me a little bit of IWD, it has that nice feeling to it of gloom and doom. Baelokh(?) had a nice voice and felt very much alive.
Now for the negative about Black pit, and the one thing that ruins it for me completely. You can't enter it from inside the original game. Now i know that the experience would make it so that the rest of BG1 was a cakewalk. But i'm sure they could have done something inbetween. Call it a black pit 'lite' or something that you can get into from the original game. Cut the XP rewards to 100-500 XP for the early ones, and 3-5K for the last ones. Also put some of those nifty items in the shop that you can't get from outside the game. Sure keep the +1 swords or armors and such, but then remove the unique items (from the original, boots of talos etc) and make your own 5-7 unique items to put in the shop. You can even make it so that you can only buy theese after you completed the black pit. Also make it as the frozen iceland so you can't return before you have done it all, and put a level requirement of 5 onto entering The black pit.
So much more could have done to make this a part of the game, instead of an arena scenario. Would have LOVED to go to this place before or after durlag's for some extra hours of fun. Especially with the NPC's from the original game (I'm not going to edit them in).
5.) Many small things like the zoom and such are nice enough ideas, but could have spent time on other things instead of them. There were some bugs (Firebead) that wasn't there in the original that they could have fixed aswell.
Ofcourse there were many nice additons aswell, but i feel right now that the bad overweight the good.
I'm going to keep my eyes open for any new updates and such, and i'll probably complete the game i got running now (No reload, so would like to get it done and not put it on hold) . But even without mods, i feel that trilogy is the better edition.
1.) The interface looks odd, it's hard getting used to it after so many years of Baldur's Gate 2 interface. It's not bad in anyway, it's just different and in this case different isn't what i'm looking for. They could have touched up the BG2 one instead of making a new one with that hideous blue colour (Opinion).
2.) I love the way the large shield looks in BGEE, but i wish they had taken more from the original Baldur's gate. My full plate still looks like someone molded metal onto a rock, and i wish they had taken the avatars from Baldur's gate I. This might not be possible but it would have been great if they atleast had done something with the plate look.
3.) The new NPC's are nice enough, but they just don't fit into the game for me. I can't put my finger on it, but they don't have that feel to it that the old ones have. And yes the old ones barely have any dialogue, but they still get me to smile and laugh. The new NPC's are a little bit like having a brand new radio in a antique(?) shop.
4.) Black pit. Alright this is a thing i love and hate at the same time. First of all i enjoyed the black pit custom scenario. I played first through it with a party of three, and everything went smooth. There were certain things that were frustrating and you had to have meta knowledge beforehand (Clay golems, trolls, etc) to beat. But you could always load and get the items you needed for the fight. The second time i played through as a solo blade, it was enjoyable and it reminds me a little bit of IWD, it has that nice feeling to it of gloom and doom. Baelokh(?) had a nice voice and felt very much alive.
Now for the negative about Black pit, and the one thing that ruins it for me completely. You can't enter it from inside the original game. Now i know that the experience would make it so that the rest of BG1 was a cakewalk. But i'm sure they could have done something inbetween. Call it a black pit 'lite' or something that you can get into from the original game. Cut the XP rewards to 100-500 XP for the early ones, and 3-5K for the last ones. Also put some of those nifty items in the shop that you can't get from outside the game. Sure keep the +1 swords or armors and such, but then remove the unique items (from the original, boots of talos etc) and make your own 5-7 unique items to put in the shop. You can even make it so that you can only buy theese after you completed the black pit. Also make it as the frozen iceland so you can't return before you have done it all, and put a level requirement of 5 onto entering The black pit.
So much more could have done to make this a part of the game, instead of an arena scenario. Would have LOVED to go to this place before or after durlag's for some extra hours of fun. Especially with the NPC's from the original game (I'm not going to edit them in).
5.) Many small things like the zoom and such are nice enough ideas, but could have spent time on other things instead of them. There were some bugs (Firebead) that wasn't there in the original that they could have fixed aswell.
Ofcourse there were many nice additons aswell, but i feel right now that the bad overweight the good.
I'm going to keep my eyes open for any new updates and such, and i'll probably complete the game i got running now (No reload, so would like to get it done and not put it on hold) . But even without mods, i feel that trilogy is the better edition.