Approximately 15 years ago, shortly after I had bought a new computer, my uncle bought BG1 for me as a Christmas present. I had never heard of the game (I was still playing mainly video games at that time, and was completely ignorant of PC games), and I don't know whether he was at all familiar with what he had bought me, either. Even before I had installed the game, as soon as I saw some of the character portraits in the manual, I was already in love with it. And once I actually began playing, it lived up to all of my expectations. I loved the artwork, the gradually unfolding stories, the freedom to explore, and the very memorable characters, among many other things. The attention to detail (i.e.: the stories outlined in the various books) was unlike anything I had ever seen!
The problem is, I have spent ever since looking for another CRPG that can measure up to BG1, but have yet to find it. Even the other IE games just could never quite fill the gap for me. BG2 looked great on the surface, but I didn't like the artwork or the characters (even though they talked a lot more, their personalities were either boring or unlikable), the heavy bias toward magic, and the lineality/repetitiveness that became increasingly apparent on subsequent playthroughs. IWD traded away much of the RP aspect of BG1 in place of greater emphasis on action, and PST went too far in the other direction IMO, with sheer volume of content, story, and characters that was simply overwhelming for me. Not only that, but I find that the controls and rules-sets of many other games (particularly the newer, 3D ones) are just too complicated for me and don't allow me the room to appreciate my surroundings. I had hoped that PoE might finally be the game that would fill BG1's shoes for me, but while it's probably the most visually impressive 2D RPG to date, I feel that it borrows too heavily from IWD (i.e.: repeated lineal dungeon crawls against repetitive waves of monsters), and the portraits are bland and fail to bring the characters to life IMO. (I'm still clinging to the hope that Tides of Numenera would be much more to my liking.)
IMO, BG1 struck the perfect balance between story, freedom, and action, combined with inimitably great artwork and some of the most memorable characters (both joinable and non-joinable) in any game. It was just challenging enough to be interesting, but not so much that it preventing you from appreciating the game content and experimenting with various types of characters and strategies.
Has anyone else here shared my struggle? And should I still be holding out hope for a "cure"?
The problem is, I have spent ever since looking for another CRPG that can measure up to BG1, but have yet to find it. Even the other IE games just could never quite fill the gap for me. BG2 looked great on the surface, but I didn't like the artwork or the characters (even though they talked a lot more, their personalities were either boring or unlikable), the heavy bias toward magic, and the lineality/repetitiveness that became increasingly apparent on subsequent playthroughs. IWD traded away much of the RP aspect of BG1 in place of greater emphasis on action, and PST went too far in the other direction IMO, with sheer volume of content, story, and characters that was simply overwhelming for me. Not only that, but I find that the controls and rules-sets of many other games (particularly the newer, 3D ones) are just too complicated for me and don't allow me the room to appreciate my surroundings. I had hoped that PoE might finally be the game that would fill BG1's shoes for me, but while it's probably the most visually impressive 2D RPG to date, I feel that it borrows too heavily from IWD (i.e.: repeated lineal dungeon crawls against repetitive waves of monsters), and the portraits are bland and fail to bring the characters to life IMO. (I'm still clinging to the hope that Tides of Numenera would be much more to my liking.)
IMO, BG1 struck the perfect balance between story, freedom, and action, combined with inimitably great artwork and some of the most memorable characters (both joinable and non-joinable) in any game. It was just challenging enough to be interesting, but not so much that it preventing you from appreciating the game content and experimenting with various types of characters and strategies.
Has anyone else here shared my struggle? And should I still be holding out hope for a "cure"?