Black Geyser - Review @ Mortismal Gaming

Restarted BG1 tonight just to compare. Oh gosh, what a difference. Interface is better (except for a few quirk due to the year it's been released. No wasd to control the camera, can't assign quicksave to f5). Story is so superior. You actually have a reason to go forwards (assassins are after you!). The companions you meet, it actually makes sense that they join you (unlike every Black Geyser companions). Each battle is actually risky and ressources are scarce. The only place where Black Geyser is truly superior, it's the graphics but the game is almost 25 years old!
 
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Interface is better

What, exactly, aren't you enjoying about the UI?

Story is so superior. You actually have a reason to go forwards (assassins are after you!).

Lol, the motivation in Black Geyser is perfectly understandable.

The companions you meet, it actually makes sense that they join you (unlike every Black Geyser companions).

Not really.

Each battle is actually risky and ressources are scarce.

Lol, not really.

The only place where Black Geyser is truly superior, it's the graphics but the game is almost 25 years old!

Oh, you want Baldur's Gate to be 'superior' do you? Is that what this is about? You're enraged by the concept that this game is 'like' Baldur's Gate? That it dares to be 'compared' to Baldur's Gate?

LOL. Oh my.

Well there ya go.

So now you've got all that Baldur's Gate fanboy defence force mania off your chest, how about you say some things you 'like' about the game.

I mean, you haven't quit within the first few hours & no-one's paying you to play it, so what are you finding 'enjoyable' about the game?
 
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You can't relate what? That a lot of RPGs have the things I mentioned or that BG 1&2 don't?

Here ya go:

This. Baldur's Gate had things spread out in a somewhat realistic manner.

No it didn't. & things are spread out perfectly fine in Black Geyser relative to Baldur's Gate. If you're talking about other RPGs, yes, there's some weird ones out there, that's for sure.

I actually appreciated that as opposed to so many games that have different factions of enemies camped out a stone's throw from one another or a new dungeon behind every hill.

Well that's good, because Black Geyser doesn't have different factions of enemies camped out a stone's throw from each other or a new dungeon behind every hill. At least no more or less than Baldur's Gate.

I've no doubt there are other RPGs which do it poorly. But I have no idea why it's a point to make in this thread.
 
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BG had more than 20x the number of people working on it with "professional" writers. It is not really hard to figure out why it might be superior in some regards.

Personally, I can't wait to sink my teeth into Black Geyser. I not bothered by a few UI quirks. I've been playing cRPG's for over 30 years. Based on the things I am reading I keep getting more excited but I am the kind of person who can get as much enjoyment out of an indie/eurojank cRPG as a AAA one.
 
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I'm quite enjoying it! Put in about 40 hours already and level 11. I definitely think it gets better (story-wise) as you progress. I prefer D&D mechanics, but I've put that aside and think it was worth the (lowish) price. The greed mechanic was a bit off-putting at first, buit it is not as bad as the EA: looting slain opponents or randonly looting chests doesn't really change it (well not with more mainstream loot). Mainly majory story events (very large shifts) and decisions you make when being rewarded (much smaller impact). Also, they have changed how potion brewing works so most things don't need 8 hours (which I know irked some people ;) They really do need a separate inventory UI for ingredients - that's all my one character can carry. Difficulty wise, probably easier than BG - I'm playing on veteran and generally fine (I think I may be over-levelled though...too much completionist in me).
 
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Personally, I can't wait to sink my teeth into Black Geyser. I not bothered by a few UI quirks. I've been playing cRPG's for over 30 years.
Me too, I was there 3000 years ago when the strength of men failed.
 
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Me too, I was there 3000 years ago when the strength of men failed.

If you are going to create an argument at least get your dates right? The end of the Second Age, when Isildur took the one ring, was ~9,000 years ago. I guess old age has addled your mind? No wonder you are struggling with the UI! ;)
 
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BG had more than 20x the number of people working on it with "professional" writers. It is not really hard to figure out why it might be superior in some regards.

You are certainly right. Despite that, some argue that it's an equal/superior game.

I'm not saying the game cannot be enjoyable. It can certainly be fun at time. But let's be honest about what it is.
 
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I certainly wasn't arguing it was equal or superior :p Simply that it is a good game for what it is. I think its a bit of a disservice really to try and compare it to BG or POE myself, even though it is very hard not to compare them.
 
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What, exactly, aren't you enjoying about the UI?

It requires way too many click to do most of the things you want to do. The icons aren't clear and so many things aren't explained. For a lot of spells, the description just say "give status X to target". Instead, they should explain what status X does.

Lol, the motivation in Black Geyser is perfectly understandable.

Really? Glad they were for you, because for me they are fairly obtuse. It seems one of your best motivation would be to avenge your lord/father but they don't make use of it.

Not really.

Imoen wants to join you because she is your childhood friend, wants to leave the boredom of Candlekeep. The two "bad guys" you meet next want extra muscle to know what's wrong with the mines. Jaheira and Khaled vowed to your dead step-father that they would help you and protect you. In comparison, in Black Geyser, that dwarf fighter doesn't need any help to just go to the city and talk with the archivists. That wizard girl motivation to join you are very obscure. All you did was to make some suitors go away.

Lol, not really.

Yes sir. Even sick Gibberlings can kill your characters if you are not careful. Not to mention nastier NPCs who want to kill you at the friendly arm inn, or the Hobgoblins around that same inn. In comparison, in Black Geyser, you can hit every traps those two first dungeons have and your hit points are barely dented. But you were right in your other post, I should try a higher difficulty level. It might be a bit more fun and challenging.

Oh, you want Baldur's Gate to be 'superior' do you? Is that what this is about? You're enraged by the concept that this game is 'like' Baldur's Gate? That it dares to be 'compared' to Baldur's Gate?

I don't want it to be superior. It *is* superior. I don't understand why you keep arguing against that. If anything, I wish Black Geyser was a better game but they didn't have the ressources for it, unfortunately.

So now you've got all that Baldur's Gate fanboy defence force mania off your chest, how about you say some things you 'like' about the game.

I mean, you haven't quit within the first few hours & no-one's paying you to play it, so what are you finding 'enjoyable' about the game?

As I said, it can be enjoyable. Unlike BG1, it provides a fresh adventure that I don't know how it's going to finish and RTwP party based rpgs are fairly rare nowadays. It's certainly a labour of love. I just wish it could have been done better.
 
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I don't want it to be superior. It *is* superior. I don't understand why you keep arguing against that.

I never made any statement as to which was superior.

The context of this discussion arose because "Black Geyser is the best Baldur's Gate game since Baldur's Gate"

Whether it is superior or inferior is irrelevant to that statement.

In regards to whether it is superior, then personal taste will play a big part. It will also depend a lot on what's being highlighted as points of comparison in such a debate.

There certainly isn't any objectivity in the statement "Baldur's Gate was better because it had lots of big empty areas whereas Black Geyser's empty areas aren't quite as big".

Erm. LOL. Ahem.

You know what I mean.

I wrote more, but got a 403 when I tried to post it, so I'm just testing this bit for now.
 
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Part 2, since that seemed to post:

Regarding your Player Character's motivations in this game, the bad guy just murdered your dad in front of your face. You are heir to his title. I can't imagine anyone thinking this is 'weak motivation' to go and find out more about why this happened.

Meanwhile, in Baldur's Gate, you might well witness the murder, but that's about it. It might as well have been a street mugging murder for all the level of drama in invoked. The game wont even let you go to the city to investigate the murder properly until you've basically forgotten all about it from spending 3 years wandering nowhere in particular.

I mean, that kind of debate is always going to be entirely subjective. There's no means to establish any kind of objectivity there. I only know that Black Geyser's story has me more invested than Baldur's Gate ever did, while you think the reverse. Neither of us can really quantify that into words that would establish an objectivity.

Companions? Well, I completely ignored those two obviously thoroughly evil dudes when I played Baldur's Gate, I can do without cartoon comedy evil sidekicks in my party, Imomen was bland and, IMO, very annoying. Jaheira and the other guy were, erm, OK I guess. I can't say I remember anything about them until BG2. Like you, I only played Baldur's Gate 1 relatively recently, maybe 5-10 years ago'ish, and I can't even remember who I had in my party for most of the game. I honestly couldn't tell you the name of one single character who I felt was my 'bestie' in it. And I'm not the swap-outer kind of player.

Is Black Geyser any better in this regard? I suppose, objectively, they have less dialogue, input, character, as in number of words written for them, but I feel much more attached to them as a party generally. They might not make you love them, for sure, but there's a lot to be said for them not being annoying or irritating either. It's going to be very subjective which is better for each individual gamer's taste. They don't have the Bioware issue of being 'botched builds' or 'overly quirky for the sake of being overly-quirky'.

And, no, I think Black Geyser is much, much better than I expected. I think the development team did better than they could have done. They surpassed my expectations.

I agree that the spell descriptions are annoyingly vague though, that is definitely a nit-pick we can both agree on.

To which, are you in agreement that what we're dealing with here is fine margins rather than a massively relevant gulf.

As in, you think:

Baldurs Gate -> Black Geyser

While I think:

Black Geyser -> Baldur's Gate

But neither of us think it's:

Baldur's Gate - much, much, much better than -> Black Geyser

or

Black Geyser - much, much, much better than -> Baldur's Gate

Which, between the two of us, would make:

Baldur's Gate = Black Geyser.

Or are you trying to suggest that Black Geyser is, objectively, genuinely a 'pale comparison' to Baldur's Gate?
 
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(it turned out I couldn't use more than one hyphen in a row which was causing a 403, so I changed the hyphens to the word 'much')
 
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The 403 error is caused by ModSecurity. It processes everything that is typed in and sent to the server. You probably used a construction of a word or words and/or characters, like the hyphen, which happens to be in the ModSecurity database for whatever reason and thus flagged as a security threat.
ModSecurity just thinks you are hacking us :)
 
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I'm in!

tumblr_ne8fbcYjVR1ru5h8co1_500.gif
 
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For anyone still following the thread, I can confirm I've just been through a larger dungeon. It's no Dragon's Eye or Durlog's Tower, but it certainly isn't nothing either and fully dispels the myth that the game lacks dungeons.
 
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How long is the game looking? 40-50 hours?
 
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How long is the game looking? 40-50 hours?

Difficult to be anywhere accurate here as it's one of those games where bee-lining the main quest will be significantly shorter than trying to do everything.

I'm currently at 61.5 hours according to steam, and I'm somewhere in Chapter 4 (out of 5 I think), and on my 7th Main quest strand.

However, I've also completed 44 side quests with 3 still outstanding, and I haven't been swapping companions in and out, so have also likely missed some content as well.

Because it's a new game I've also spent a few hours practicing stuff here and there and also I've probably spent an hour or two doing 'me' type stuff, like selling certain items to certain specific traders, to try and keep things neat and memorable if I need to buy something back.
 
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Thanks. I do quite a bit of flower sniffing too so it is good to hear there is some real meat to the game. I would of been happy with 30 hours to be honest.
 
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