| MrBitter United States. September 19 2010 10:45. Posts 2859 | Profile Blog # |
And I'm about to start my first ever play-through. I thought I had played this game on Xbox, but the BG console games were, apparently, different from the PC ones.
I'm super stoked to play this game.
Anyone have any pointers or insights for me before I start? |
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| THE_DOMINATOR United States. September 19 2010 10:59. Posts 309 | Profile Blog # |
| go through all the sidequests and explore a butt ton it will be really rewarding. BG2 is amazing! |
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| kuresuti September 19 2010 10:59. Posts 854 | Profile Blog # |
The PC Baldur's Gate games are very different from the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games you've been playing. The general gameplay is more difficult, but also more rewarding.
All I can say is that you are embarking on an amazing journey. Don't get discouraged if you hit a wall or whatever, it's definitely worth it. Oh, try not to think up a too complicated character for your first playthrough. |
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| genwar Canada. September 19 2010 11:04. Posts 535 | Profile Blog # |
| The game is awesome. Just make to sure to do a lot of the side quests as gaining a level is absolutely huge in it. Never focus on making one character buff as the game is heavily reliant on the entire party. Remember to pause a lot during combat especially since you've never played the pc version. |
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| Semirhage September 19 2010 11:06. Posts 44 | Profile # |
It's based on Dungeons & Dragons 2.0, so the learning curve is steep, but so rewarding.
Just make any character class except mage and just start playing. Accept everyone in your party at the beginning and try to have at least one of each core class (mage fighter thief cleric/druid) Once you feel more comfortable with the game, after 10-20 hours or so, if you feel like you did a lot of bad character development choices, just start over. You can spend like 60 hours on a single playthrough so 10 hours isn't much anyway.
And yeah explore everything. |
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UniversalSnip September 19 2010 11:09. Posts 4820 | Profile Blog # |
This is gonna be nothing like dark alliance. The only similarity is that you will be looking at computer generated images on a screen.
I hope it's to your taste, it's a really good game.Last edit: 2010-09-19 11:09:39 |
| | Had you ever considered that all this is your fault? Your presence creates these animals... |
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| Mindcrime United States. September 19 2010 11:10. Posts 5984 | Profile # |
Install the most recent patch, then get the fixpack (http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg2fixpack/) and install the core fixes. Then play the game.
Also, pause often and become familiar with spell protections and what bring them down. |
| | That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery. |
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| Thereisnosaurus Australia. September 19 2010 11:18. Posts 1354 | Profile Blog # |
BG2 is probably second only to torment in RPG winary. Explore everywhere, there's just so much stuff going on, and definitely pick up throne of baal if you get through it. save often and try out different dialogues, and don't forget to try and get all the dragon kills!
Like the others, I recommend playing a melee class first time through. Paladins or fighters are safest but don't give you a lot of options come late game. A tanky cleric or monk are trickier but scale better.
Another trick, btw, if you want to skip on character dialogues and quests, is to play a multiplayer game, and just have 6 of your own custom characters as the party. Gives a lot more replayability gameplay wise |
| | Poisonous Sheep counter Hydras |
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| Misanthrope United States. September 19 2010 11:23. Posts 887 | Profile Blog # |
On September 19 2010 11:10 Mindcrime wrote: Install the most recent patch, then get the fixpack (http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg2fixpack/) and install the core fixes. Then play the game.
Also, pause often and become familiar with spell protections and what bring them down.
^^^This.
You can find walkthroughs, class/party creation guides, portraits, modding tools, and even new campaigns at http://www.sorcerers.net. There is also a helpful, tight nit group of experienced forum members that have literally thousands of hours in BG2 as well as other Infinity Engine games.
BG2 is a brilliant work of art, enjoy. |
| | Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. - Benjamin Franklin |
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| Aquafresh United States. September 19 2010 11:46. Posts 824 | Profile # |
Breach. You need the spell Breach. All good things begin and end with Breach.
Some battles are just not winnable with lower level parties unless you are very experienced as a player. You will find yourself getting absolutely destroyed by certain enemies and enemy parties, particularly spellcasters early on. The whole game is soloable however, and it is a popular and fun challenge provided you know exactly which insanely overpowered items and abilities to abuse.
Combat is very strategic and a whole lot of fun when you get the hang of pausing and giving orders. Pretty much any build is viable for your main character, but I find I have the most fun playing as a mage. Mages eventually become unstoppable juggernauts in this game, so if you like your hard work protecting your squishy 4 HP character early on to pay off by gaining near omnipotence late in the game you probably want to use a sorcerer or some sort of specialist mage.
Pay attention to the dialog and try to talk to all the various characters in town and pick up on the side-quests. Theres a whole wealth of information you would otherwise never find that is hidden in little sub-plots, maybe not to the extent of BGI , as BGII is more linear, but there is still a lot.
Don't worry about optimizing your party, the vanilla game is very beatable with basically any combination of NPCs and main if your combat strategy is solid, so pick the characters you like, as their personal quests can be very rewarding story wise.
Also you should install the expansion as well. It raises the experience cap and makes transitioning from the end of BGII to the beginning of the expansion much more seamless.
Enjoy one of the greatest games of all time.
Last edit: 2010-09-19 11:47:08 |
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UniversalSnip September 19 2010 12:24. Posts 4820 | Profile Blog # |
yeah as you gain levels the game becomes more and more about applying buffs and debuffs, especially on enemy mages. It's not really that balanced as far as character classes and such, but the result is a lot of fun anyway so it's not important - and if you're underpowered you can usually get more levels and equipment doing quests in an easier area before tackling one of the game's rape pits, like the beholder tunnels.
Generally, you want at least one cleric or other healer, a thief for disabling traps/scouting/initiating, a couple casters and two tanks. In the early game you stack buffs on the tanks and have them +forward into the enemy team while your casters pick up kills on squishy enemies with damage spells. As casters become stronger and stronger with levels enemies start doing much the same so it becomes a debuff war where you try to take down the defenses of enemy mages as fast as possible without losing your casters. Even with pausing it gets pretty frantic. |
| | Had you ever considered that all this is your fault? Your presence creates these animals... |
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| junemermaid United States. September 19 2010 12:37. Posts 981 | Profile # |
On September 19 2010 11:46 Aquafresh wrote: Breach. You need the spell Breach. All good things begin and end with Breach.
Some battles are just not winnable with lower level parties unless you are very experienced as a player. You will find yourself getting absolutely destroyed by certain enemies and enemy parties, particularly spellcasters early on. The whole game is soloable however, and it is a popular and fun challenge provided you know exactly which insanely overpowered items and abilities to abuse.
Combat is very strategic and a whole lot of fun when you get the hang of pausing and giving orders. Pretty much any build is viable for your main character, but I find I have the most fun playing as a mage. Mages eventually become unstoppable juggernauts in this game, so if you like your hard work protecting your squishy 4 HP character early on to pay off by gaining near omnipotence late in the game you probably want to use a sorcerer or some sort of specialist mage.
Pay attention to the dialog and try to talk to all the various characters in town and pick up on the side-quests. Theres a whole wealth of information you would otherwise never find that is hidden in little sub-plots, maybe not to the extent of BGI , as BGII is more linear, but there is still a lot.
Don't worry about optimizing your party, the vanilla game is very beatable with basically any combination of NPCs and main if your combat strategy is solid, so pick the characters you like, as their personal quests can be very rewarding story wise.
Also you should install the expansion as well. It raises the experience cap and makes transitioning from the end of BGII to the beginning of the expansion much more seamless.
Enjoy one of the greatest games of all time.
God... I cannot stress this post enough. You need to breach everything towards the end of the game.
Also, spell mantles are your friend. As are Sequencers. Pretty upset they took out sequencers in the latest iterations of d&d rules.
Also, make sure your warriors are carrying some kind of bludgeoning weapon in their inventory. I've had so many instances where I'm fighting a goddamn golem and I had to backtrack to find a stupid mace or hammer. Just save yourself a bunch of time and keep a hammer & mace stashed in your inventory.
Last edit: 2010-09-19 12:39:12 |
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| deth2munkies United States. September 19 2010 12:54. Posts 1838 | Profile Blog # |
| Just do everything. Do all the sidequests, don't be afraid to use guides. Pick the class you want, not the class you think may be the best and GET THE EXPANSION, it's so freaking awesome. |
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| Chancho United States. September 19 2010 15:01. Posts 50 | Profile # |
Your pathetic magics are useless. Let this end!
This was a great game. There's so many characters, both possible party members and other NPCs you just run in to, keeps, dragons, places.... The game is old now, but when it was originally released there was a collector's edition which came with a special shop - better double check that you didn't forget that. Have fun! |
| | http://www.infowars.com http://www.prisonplanet.com It ain't Disneyland out there, it's Fuck You land. |
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| Alak Sweden. September 19 2010 19:14. Posts 370 | Profile # |
I found that all the anti-magic I needed was a single Inquisitor, as their dispel magic skill is quite insane. Picking up Keldorn (or rolling an Inquisitor yourself) is highly recommended, especially since paladins can use the best sword in the game.
As everyone has said, explore a lot. There are tons of sidequests, great and small, to pick up. There are also encounters here and there that have equipment that will make your life MUCH easier later on in the game, especially a certain cloak... |
| | Amateurish. Nearsighted. A waste of my time and everyone else's. |
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| bakedace United States. September 19 2010 19:16. Posts 659 | Profile Blog # |
I absolutely loved loved this game!!!!!!! The best RPG to date.
Dragon Age did a great job living up to the baulders gate 2 legacy, but not quite as good.Last edit: 2010-09-19 19:17:22 |
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| xti.aden Germany. September 19 2010 19:27. Posts 65 | Profile # |
there are a bunch of mods for the game (and other games with the same engine) especially the widescreen mod makes it even more enjoyable. playing BG II with high resolution just looks awesome. you can find it on the bottom of this page:
http://www.gibberlings3.net/downloads/#widescreen
hope you enjoy it.
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| NIIINO Slovakia. September 19 2010 19:30. Posts 1223 | Profile Blog # |
| OMG baldurs gate ?! this was my 1st solid game i played on PC, never played second but now im going to download it and play wow love you for remember me this ! thanks mate |
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| Manit0u Poland. September 19 2010 19:35. Posts 9883 | Profile Blog # |
| You could also look into BG trilogy mod, which lets you play through BG1, 2 and SoA as a single story, all on BG II engine. |
| | Time is precious. Waste it wisely. |
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| BeMannerDuPenner Germany. September 19 2010 19:39. Posts 5170 | Profile Blog # |
On September 19 2010 19:35 Manit0u wrote: You could also look into BG trilogy mod, which lets you play through BG1, 2 and SoA as a single story, all on BG II engine.
whut
that sounds awesome.
have fun with the game. its imho one of the best games ever made . stuff like dragon age is utter crap compared to BG II. |
| | life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery |
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