While I wait until Baldurs Gate 3 I started to play other Forgotten Realms games

Maurgrim

I love Forgotten Realms campaign world, have been since I started playing the Advance Dungeon and Dragons 2nd edition in early 90s.

Played all the SSI games set in Forgotten Realms and ofc all other games set in Forgotten Realms except Daggerdale, heard that one was a complete disaster.

I have just finished Baldurs Gate 2 enhanced edition and was wondering what to play next.

Then it hit me I have Sword Cost Legends, I havent played it since launch, got about 20 hours in back then but got a bug that crashed the game as soon as I logged in, so I shelved it.

Been playing SCL for a while now and they really cleaned up a lot of bugs and released a DLC, to bad the developers closed the studio but it is the closest CRPG I can get today with good graphics.

To bad SCL are not around anymore, I really loved that GM mode you could use and make adventures for CO-OP.

Anyone else played SCL?

Adamantine

Yeah I've played BG1 and BG2 through and currently I'm on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

I will probably play some more BG but SWKotOR currently keeps my interest.

And DAMN those are good games.

Definitely wont touch Neverwinter Nights again, nooo thanks. Weakest Bioware title ever, and by a large margin. Well, of those I've played.

Also definitely not Neverwinter Nights 2, by Obsidian. Wasnt as bad as NWN, not by a long shot, but it was still a severely limited game that was in many ways annoying. Obsidian just isnt as good a storyteller as Bioware.

I might consider playing Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir again, though. That was a very different experience. Especially with the original bug that could make you insanely rich lolz. Which actually you needed for crafting was hella expensive.

Maybe I'll retry Icewind Dale 2, but frankly IWD2 was very unfun because you had to design your own party and their implementation of DnD3 was far from stellar. At least you could pick fun races like Drow.

Dunno if I will ever play BG3. I dont like Steam. And I bet it will only be available with Steam. Steam was what back then killed my interest in games and whats keeping me from playing newer games ever since.

13lake

The 2 Neverwinter Nights expansions are quite good, though I prefer the Hordes of the Underdark over Shadows of Undertide, mostly due to the scale of Shadows, but it's also a very interesting story.

As for NWN2 the first expansion Mask of the Betrayer is just awesome. Zehir is a different breed, interesting in its own way.

AlBQuirky

Adamantine said:

Yeah I've played BG1 and BG2 through and currently I'm on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

I will probably play some more BG but SWKotOR currently keeps my interest.

And DAMN those are good games.

Definitely wont touch Neverwinter Nights again, nooo thanks. Weakest Bioware title ever, and by a large margin. Well, of those I've played.

Also definitely not Neverwinter Nights 2, by Obsidian. Wasnt as bad as NWN, not by a long shot, but it was still a severely limited game that was in many ways annoying. Obsidian just isnt as good a storyteller as Bioware.

I might consider playing Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir again, though. That was a very different experience. Especially with the original bug that could make you insanely rich lolz. Which actually you needed for crafting was hella expensive.

Maybe I'll retry Icewind Dale 2, but frankly IWD2 was very unfun because you had to design your own party and their implementation of DnD3 was far from stellar. At least you could pick fun races like Drow.

Dunno if I will ever play BG3. I dont like Steam. And I bet it will only be available with Steam. Steam was what back then killed my interest in games and whats keeping me from playing newer games ever since.

I have all these games, but the Forgotten Realms games I have not played much. I never finished BG1, and BG 2 never caught my interest in the small amount of time I tried it (way back when). I have played NWN 1 to the end. Once. That is a damned loooong ass game. But I did spend a lot of time playing the game with the loads of mods that are available for it.

Thanks to GoG, I have picked up Icewind Dale 1&2, NWN 2, and all of the older "Goldbox" games like Pool of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder 1 through 3, and so on.

May I suggest a run through Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE)? It's not forgotten realms, but the older Greyhawk setting. It is the old starter module "Village of Hommlet" from long ago put in cRPG form

NorseGod

Pretty smart.

Adamantine

I loved TToEE's combat system SO MUCH.

The first five or so character levels in TToEE are really a challenge. Every combat keeps you fully engaged, it was so challenging and the combat system was so complex and fun.

It sort of stayed fun through the game, though it never again was as good as the first five levels.

The rest of the game however ...

1. The game was riddiculously bugridden.

2. The game was also clearly unfinished, with essential features like knowledge skills missing.

3. There was no friggin story. The intro of the game was super promising, with individual intros depending upon your groups alignment.

And by the way, since when does D&D limit the alignment choices in your group to being within one step of a group alignment ? That never occurred in any other D&D known to me. Not that I would know them all.

And the first town already was a lot worse, there still was some story if you looked very hard. And after that it was a completely linear dungeon crawl. No story, very little choices.

Total fail.

4. The companions you could pick up sucked so hard it was just unbelievable. For starters, they had awful stats. For compensation, they also had no personality whatsoever. But dont worry, additionally access to their inventory was also limited, so getting any equipment on them was a PITA. And worst of all, they stole parts of your loot and didnt even improved their own gear with the money they stole from you by themselves, either. What the frak ?

But worst was one wizard who SERIOUSLY. Stole. Every. Single. Scroll you looted. What the hell was going on in the mind of the developers who implemented this ? Oh this is a character people will actually want in their group ? Like, ever ? Yeesh.

In the sum, you got forced to create all your characters yourself. And for some unknown reason, in a game that supported up to eight characters in the group, it was only possible to create up to five characters by yourself.

5. The game was excessively poorly balanced towards the end. Seriously, you fought a level 17 monster near the end. According to the rulebook, a level 17 mob is supposed to reliably kill a level 10 group, otherwise the GM has to check whats wrong. Granted, this is for a four member group, and I had five people. But still.

So I have no clue how you're supposed to ever win against that without bug abuse. About as bad as some battles in BG1, really. Like the one against Sarevok, or the final battle of TotSC.

6. I was far from impressed by the interface, either. For example I lost many character actions and whole battles simply because it was impossible to move a character to a location which already had a corpse without also starting to loot said corpse.

7. The waysearch was worse than even that of Baldurs Gate, which definitely is an archievement of sorts, but not a good one.

Torkald

Adamantine said:

Definitely wont touch Neverwinter Nights again, nooo thanks. Weakest Bioware title ever, and by a large margin. Well, of those I've played.

Also definitely not Neverwinter Nights 2, by Obsidian. Wasnt as bad as NWN, not by a long shot, but it was still a severely limited game that was in many ways annoying. Obsidian just isnt as good a storyteller as Bioware.


NWN's main campaign might be considered weak by some, but the point of the game is its toolset, its persistent worlds and multiplayer LAN, and its extensive moddability. Visually, it is dated, but no other game has achieved what it did. To judge it by its included campaign is to kind of miss the whole point.

Arglebargle

Someone would have to pay me (a lot) to go through those games again.  I think you had to be at a certain point of time in your life to get that bug.  Anyway, didn't care for them then, would surely like them less now.

Going to wait for the reviews on BG3 as well....

Ungood

Well if you are looking for a AD&D game to get lost into, I am going to suggest Dungeons and Dragons Online.

It may or may not be the game for you.