Holy shit dude.
Hard to figure out where to really begin with this one. It was a lot of firsts for me - first CRPG, first experience with Baldur's Gate and hell, first experience with D&D in general aside from the fantastic D&D movie earlier in the year.
I was worried about how I'd respond to the combat. And while it was a bit of a struggle at first, I really came to love it. While I love a good visually satisfying button mash session, I also loved the super strategic nature of this combat. Strategizing how to play to your party's strengths and what spells to add to the mix was a lot of fun for me.
But that's not what makes this game incredible for me. First, the setting. All 3 acts had outstanding, and most importantly, distinct from one another settings. All of them are visually striking and packed with cool cutscenes. It felt like 3 phenomenal games combined in to one. Plot threads that you start in the first act come all the way back dozens of hours later in the final act, from the most minute of encounters to, of course, significant plot threads.
Which leads me to my next point, the main story here is truly excellent and compelling. But the side content is also phenomenal. There are some very charming and fun one-off encounters, but it's the members of your party that shine through. I have only played a couple of games in my entire life that have a cast that resonated with me as well as these guys did. All of the characters are incredibly complex (and tragic for that matter), and I genuinely cared about securing the best outcome for all of them. Each of their plot threads felt like its own epic inside of a story that is an epic on its own. And they are all voice acted to utter perfection.
Finally: YOUR. CHOICES. MATTER. There are very few, if any, games that I have played where I felt I could impact the world around me more than this one. This gives it SO much more replay value than most single player games, because I feel as if there's practically an entirely different story waiting for me if I choose to do an evil playthrough. This just further engulfs you in to the roleplaying of it all.
This one was kind of an essay LOL but man, I am blown away by this. I won't ever forget this band of would-be mind flayers and this incredible world, along with the paths I took to forge it in to what it became
Hard to figure out where to really begin with this one. It was a lot of firsts for me - first CRPG, first experience with Baldur's Gate and hell, first experience with D&D in general aside from the fantastic D&D movie earlier in the year.
I was worried about how I'd respond to the combat. And while it was a bit of a struggle at first, I really came to love it. While I love a good visually satisfying button mash session, I also loved the super strategic nature of this combat. Strategizing how to play to your party's strengths and what spells to add to the mix was a lot of fun for me.
But that's not what makes this game incredible for me. First, the setting. All 3 acts had outstanding, and most importantly, distinct from one another settings. All of them are visually striking and packed with cool cutscenes. It felt like 3 phenomenal games combined in to one. Plot threads that you start in the first act come all the way back dozens of hours later in the final act, from the most minute of encounters to, of course, significant plot threads.
Which leads me to my next point, the main story here is truly excellent and compelling. But the side content is also phenomenal. There are some very charming and fun one-off encounters, but it's the members of your party that shine through. I have only played a couple of games in my entire life that have a cast that resonated with me as well as these guys did. All of the characters are incredibly complex (and tragic for that matter), and I genuinely cared about securing the best outcome for all of them. Each of their plot threads felt like its own epic inside of a story that is an epic on its own. And they are all voice acted to utter perfection.
Finally: YOUR. CHOICES. MATTER. There are very few, if any, games that I have played where I felt I could impact the world around me more than this one. This gives it SO much more replay value than most single player games, because I feel as if there's practically an entirely different story waiting for me if I choose to do an evil playthrough. This just further engulfs you in to the roleplaying of it all.
This one was kind of an essay LOL but man, I am blown away by this. I won't ever forget this band of would-be mind flayers and this incredible world, along with the paths I took to forge it in to what it became