I'll try. Please note that I'm probably biased, I started with NWN and I'm quite nostalgic about it, and you could argue it's not that far from BG compared to recent games.It's interesting to hear how much you like it, as some folks tend to maintain that we're all just wearing the nostalgia goggles. I still think it's great in many ways, and extremely immersive. I'd love to delete it from memory and start it again.
I've been tempted by BG a few times, but each time, after checking videos on the gameplay, I felt the aged graphics and an older D&D edition would quickly repel me. Time was also scarce, many other good games were available, and it just didn't happen. Even though I'd occasionally meet an RPG fan who would soon ask "Have you played BG?"
So the perception I had was not so engaging, I had no doubt the core of the game was great but it gave the impression of being too outdated. I can understand this "nostalgia glass" notion new players have about it.
One can also read how annoying the pathfinding was (be that exaggerated or not), and how lame Beamdog's port was (it's not true), so that added to the hesitation. Until I recently saw their new beta 2.6 and all the problems it solved. That's when I decided to make the jump, because why not? On top of that, it went on sale, 8 EUR - you only get two or three sandwiches for that.
=> So far, I'd say playing BG is adopting it. I didn't have to be patient and "endure" the first hours before getting to like it, it came straight away. Despite the apriori, despite a failed attempt at Baldur's Gate Reloaded (the "port" to NWN2).
I only struggled (just a little bit) with D&D 2E, because I didn't know they were counting down instead of up, and so the explanation of THAC0 and AC in Beamdog's manual wasn't making any sense to me, along with a few other things But I found the original manual, got a cup of coffee, and it became more clear.
The combat wasn't great at first, I'd lost the habit of RTwP, and frankly.. it's not always easy to see what's happening on a few pixels, and it's usually happening fast! That could also discourage someone new to the genre, or too spoiled by modern games, but it just requires a little getting-used-to.
IMHO, one has to like the cRPG genre, and not be discouraged by a few paragraphs of text to read (oops, I realize that's what I'm doing to you now - sorry for the long post! ). Given that, this game has more than enough charm to make up for feeling aged. But again, perhaps I was already biased.
The story is engaging, the humour is fun, exploring is interesting. There are many little things that show the game is a labour of love, too. It even has day & night! And at night, try to find this shop keeper! He's sleeping
It's simple, this game puts a big grin on my face every time I play it.
Wow! Well, I'm not entirely surprised. Perhaps if he tried it.. and perhaps it's not for everyone either.Damn true but this post is how modern players feel.
[. . .]
This was taken from a post about BG3.
Let me know if you think the same. Larian has an approach that makes the genre much more "affordable" to a larger audience: you can mess with the world, long texts are rare and there's voice acting anyway (and a very good one at that). It's less intimidating.
I've often heard people saying Larian's games are more combat than story (I may have said so myself). There is a story but it's diluted in dialogs, in lots of other things to do which are more casual. Or said differently, when I'm tired, it's easier for me to play D:OS2 or BG3 than Pathfinder, BG or NWN. But not as rewarding