Baldur's Gate 1 or Baldur's Gate 2
Baldur's Gate 1 is better than Baldur's Gate 2, but both games are good. Not only is Baldur's Gate 1 better as an overall package, but it's better in almost every single way as well. Story, writing, exploration, aesthetics, user interface, combat, dungeon design, sound, music, resource management and ruleset employment. All of these are better in Baldur's Gate 1, which is one of the best cRPGs of all-time.
| cRPG Blog | Baldur's Gate 1 | Icewind Dale 1 |
| Neverwinter Nights 1 | Baldur's Gate 2 | Icewind Dale 2 |
| Neverwinter Nights 2 | Baldur's Gate 3 | Planescape: Torment |
This opinion is shared by a small minority of BG-players, so I greatly appreciate your statement Lilura. Time and time again I was able to prove point by point why the first game did so much better, despite being developed alongside the engine and by an inexprienced team. Yet all the replies usually were "But BG1 is so empty, and party-members are talking more and you can romance them in BG2". To be honest, I consider myself a weird person compared to others, so that may be the reason why I prefer the first BG to the sequel, but some time ago my co-worker (in his 60's) told me something about me being weird: "Well, maybe you're not weird, but it's actually the other way around and you're the only sane person around here". I even considered for a while writing some sort of long post (maybe even divided into parts) analysing both games with my own experience with them thrown in there to better show my perspective, but it never left the "just thinking about it" stage.
ReplyDeleteHi, Tuth. As you know, BG1 vs. BG2 is my "long version". I'm heartened by the viewership it seems to have garnered thus far, but it's a tough and lengthy read for casuals (and it's a bit of a mess).
DeleteYup, love that post and I always come back to it when I'm comparing both titles, in order not to omit any crucial points.
DeleteI share the same feeling. I love the relatively low-magic setting in BG1, and the atmosphere is better. Durlag's Tower, albeit much smaller than Watchers' Keep, has more depth and a much more interesting story behind. Of course BG2 is still a great game and I played both countless times (but curiously I never managed to finish TOB once...)
ReplyDelete