Baldur’s Gate II: BioWare's Best RPG?

[@peterlustigmann307]

Love your vids, i am binge watching them . Thanks for All the work

[@computergamingyesterday]

Glad you're enjoying them!

[@MrGb666]

Great job on this thorough research on BG! I loved both videos related to this saga and loved the games and expansions too. It was a pity BG3: The Black Hound got cancelled. Luckily, Obsidian's Pillar of Eternity (a marvelous descendant of BG imo) showed that a bunch of years later games like BG still have space in the industry.

[@MO-bo2du]

Love your stuff. Will have to watch this tonight after work.

[@lullylew9083]

I really do love this game. It is still my favourite cRPG to this day. Nothing comes close. If Pillars of Eternity managed to get the rights to use the DnD universe it would have been a dream come true.

[@TheCrawl]

Awesome stuff, Matt! I definitely need to spend more time with these games. I played them ages ago as a kid, but never really *played* them, y'know? Also, I like that we both published deep-dives on super influential RPGs on the same day. Great minds 🧠

[@computergamingyesterday]

Thanks man! That's hilarious we both uploaded today. I'll give your Wizardry video a look soon. That is a series I did not play much of back in the day, I could really stand to learn more about it.

[@PolityczneLSD]

this should have much more views man.

[@computergamingyesterday]

Thanks!

[@Banefane]

1:09 min where can we get this book? Any pdf online? 24:19 min where did you get this image. Is there any source which we can read how to do model for BG2?

[@classica1fungus]

You're underrated, this is good stuff G

[@endan_Official]

Irenicus, for me is the best villain of the Bhaalspawn saga The entire Shadows of Amn was mostly about Him.

[@computergamingyesterday]

He’s great. Honestly modern BioWare games fall way short of him.

[@Alianger]

Great vid, learned some new stuff here!

[@collosiamusic3036]

another great one! your channel will be at 100k subs soon

[@computergamingyesterday]

Yes! Let's GO! Thanks Collosia.

[@AlexGorskov]

Amazing review!!! Very in-depth! Thank you!

[@videogamesruinedmylife3769]

i have been Bing watching your videos. make some more please

[@incanu7]

Fantastic video. Keep it up!

[@lold6130]

Love BG2!

[@snakeplissken111]

I prefer BG1 over BG2 to this day. Much of BG2 is actually an overreaction to vocal fan demand: Plenty people found the wilderness to be empty and filler -- so instead of populating it more, they got rid of it entirelly. You can hear people screaming about the lack of unique loot in BG1 to this day (and even 1999 was year 3 after Diablo had hit...) -- in BG2 there's magic stuff +2 +3+ 4+ left, right and centre. And so on. This reminds me of another series not quite as reknown: Realms Of Arkania. They had a travel and resting system in there that was quite micro-intensive, and as such didn't suit everyone. Shoes could break, characters could get sick -- and generally travel took a while. Due to vocal demand of a group of fans, they took it out entirelly for the third game. Nowadays the main designer (the dude on PS:T's cover artwork) regrets this, recognizing they were doing something special nobody else did. And lo and behold, it's influenced the Expedition series and Pathfinder games since -- in particular how you have to assign jobs upon setting up camp. That's all from Realms Of Arkania -- Owlcat have admitted such. And lo and behold, I have a feeling that the devs of games like Kingdom Come Deliverance took a few cues from BG1 and its "empty" wilderness as well -- forests occasionally can exist for existing, as that's what places are like. Unless they're theme or amusement parks and specifically set up for entertainment (as in so many games, modern and old).. To be fair, games like Ultima 7 kind of did that before BG1. BG2 is still a great game, although a very different one. Though funnily everybody seems to remember the opening chapters. And not much the entire middle section, which basically is just one linear dungeon crawl (which Icewind Dale had done better before). Much the same would apply to Throne Of Bhaal, which I was disappointed with back then already -- it's just a series of fights woven together. But without any of the twists and atmospheric locations of IWD, it's pretty hollow. (The first Icewind Dale is often overlooked in general out of the Infinity Engine games... and not merely for its far superior background art and soundtrack).

[@Hilipinapixili]

You're not alone; I also like BG1 more than 2, but in my case it's because I prefer the lower-level gameplay and setting. I really disliked how BG2 pushed liches down your throat as if they were on sale, really undermined the mystique of the creature. Also, while Irenicus was more fleshed out and had an outstanding voice actor, I never thought he was a particularly interesting villain either, all things considered. Sarevok wasn't stellar either, but if I'm being honest I kinda appreciated the whole Highlander spin of his motivation, made me feel like I was a part of the conflict and not just someone who got caught in the crossfire. That's not to say I disliked BG2. Far from it, I think it's excellent. But I did like the first one more. Now, Throne of Bhaal I DID actively dislike though.

[@snakeplissken111]

​@@Hilipinapixili Yeah, I like the low-level gameplay also better. Wizards may not have much of an arsenal, but BG2 went really overboard with all the high-level stuff. Including magic and spells. It's as if they tried to cram every stuff D&Dish into the game you possibly can. BG1 is much more coherent in its world building in that sense too.

[@Hilipinapixili]

@@snakeplissken111 To me it's also got to do with the sense of progression. In BG1 you start out running away from packs of wolves of all things, and then become a powerhouse in the end. I found that journey through the growth of your characters to be very satisfying. In BG2 you start out as a powerhouse and end up becoming... a bigger powerhouse. There is a sense of progression, but it's kinda subdued when right from the start you're already beating up liches and the like (which again I was kinda annoyed about how many of them there were, a lich encounter should be a friggin' event IMO, not some random encounter you find guarding some loot in the inn's basement, but I digress). Be as it may I just didn't feel like I had come nearly as far in BG2 as I did in BG1. The journey felt more static to me.

[@jaketyler9003]

Where 1bil views? :o

[@nft3]

And "Enhanced" Edition is the worst piece of work ever performed, every graphical change they made was terrible and for worse, the default resolution with characters being so tiny is ridiculous and not the way the game was designed. Original BG2 is indeed the best game ever though.

[@radiance9657]

You revisioning history bro. Fallout 1 is THE game that laid out the blueprint for modern Western RPGs.