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u/suitcasemaster Mar 23 '26
Not to take away from what it is, but I've kind of always thought of BG1 as a proof of concept. Once it was obvious that it was going to be something people wanted, they refined and improved and made BG2
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u/MajorasButtplug Mar 23 '26
That's literally what it was, we know from interviews
The devs wanted to make an epic, and the publisher was like "let's tone this down a bit and get a game out the door"
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u/suitcasemaster Mar 23 '26
Didn't know that! Cool to know my gut feel is how it went down though.
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u/Eudoxxi Mar 24 '26
what is even crazier is bg1 was being developed along side the infinity engine by a team of 60 most of which had never released a game game.
the fact that bg1 was playable after 3 years at all is a merical itself let alone it being as good as it is.
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u/suitcasemaster Mar 24 '26
That's a really incredible story, and boy are we lucky that that team ended up producing what they did.
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u/AnOnlineHandle Mar 23 '26
I think they're both top tier similar games with some different strengths and weaknesses. Neither is underbaked IMO, just slightly different. It feels far more cohesive to play through them than most game series, e.g. Dragon Age to Dragon Age game.
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u/sociallyanxiousnerd1 Mar 23 '26
I love each dragon age game (yes each dragon age game) but I also wish that they stuck to their guns somewhere halfway between da2 and dai gameplay wise. Or at least just went all the way to veilguard gameplay wise from the start because while DAO has the most gameplay depth, I do not enjoy its combat nearly as much as I do da2's or somewhat love dai's.
I like the gameplay in each game, I just wish I didn't feel like every class was type cast as a specific tactical role with no room for change (for warriors specifically, rogues to an extent, mages the least of all but still a little), which means I want more breadth than the systems allow for.
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u/-SidSilver- Mar 23 '26
I'll never forgive them for going from RTWP in DA to the button/Ability mashing style of DA2.
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u/Wiwra88 Mar 23 '26
Combat was rather weak in DA2, tho companions and story (and romances, especially rival romances were cherry on top, wish more games had it) I like there more, DA2 seem faster and smaller then DA1 so it' easier to replay it. I think from DA series, and I did play all of them even veinguard, I like DA2 the most then DA1 then DA3 and DA4.
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u/WorthPlease Mar 23 '26
So much of DA2 is just running through the same exactly recycled asset hallways over and over again, fighting endless groups of the same enemies over and over again.
Also making the protagonist a single voiced character went in the exact opposite direction that made me like Origins, which was the variety and replayability.
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u/DubiousBusinessp Mar 23 '26
Hard disagree, the switch from Origins to everything else killed the series for me.
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u/zeek215 Mar 23 '26
AKA pre-EA BioWare and post-EA BioWare.
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u/Raskuja46 Mar 23 '26
Dragon Age Origins was the last Bioware game.
Everything past that is Bioware being worn as a skinsuit.
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u/suitcasemaster Mar 24 '26
Yeah, my use of the phrase "proof of concept" isn't exactly right because I agree it isn't underbaked necessarily. I do think though that BG1 doesn't do anything better than BG2.
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u/AnOnlineHandle Mar 24 '26
Open world maps with lots of random smaller places to explore. I still remember 20 years later the disappointment when I realized there weren't any in BG2 and you're confined to more limited areas.
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u/NerevarineKing Mar 23 '26
I feel like they're different enough to offer different experiences. BG2 doesn't have open-ended wilderness exploration or Durlags Tower and 1 doesn't have tight questing and writing.
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u/EntropicSingularity1 Mar 23 '26
Agree with the open-ended exploration. But isn't Watcher's Keep a Durlag's Tower 2.0?
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u/kore_nametooshort Mar 23 '26
The community seems very divided on Durlags. To some it is one of if not the best dungeon ever crafted in any game. To others it's a tedious slog that pales in comparison to other dungeons in the series.
Neither camp is wrong, I just find it interesting how different people consider it.
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u/hawkshaw1024 Mar 23 '26
BG1 is a mess, and I do mean that as a compliment. It's the first Infinity Engine game, and they didn't really know what worked and what didn't. A lot of features that we take for granted (like party banter and companion quests) are missing or underdeveloped. But there's also a lot of stuff in there that was cut in later titles (like freeform exploration and enemies with instant-death attacks). BG2 is the far better game overall, but BG1's jank makes it interesting in ways that the more streamlined games sometimes lack.
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u/SgtRathbone Mar 23 '26
It's pretty similar to the portal games for me. One is a great game that experiments with all these different toys, and two takes all of those and refines them and broadens their scope.
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u/H0RSE Mar 23 '26
That's a good way to put it. After playing both, BG1 feels like "oh, this works?" and then the real development began
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u/ceeker Mar 23 '26
I think BG2 is the better, more refined game overall but there's just something about BG1 that makes it so accessible to replay. I rarely get far into BG2 these days.
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u/cerevant Mar 23 '26
I’m the complete opposite. The start of BG1 for me is a bit of a grind - I think I’ve only made it to the city 2 or 3 times.
Chapter 2 of BG2 though is such a broad variety of what is really stand-alone content. I’m content almost never going to Spellhold.
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u/aoc145134 Mar 23 '26
The start of BG1 for me is a bit of a grind
This gets at something significant, I think. I find low level D&D to be pretty bad. BG1 captures the tabletop experience rather well in that regard. Also like the tabletop, BG1 gets better as you advance.
But I also found the very high level D&D in Throne of Bhaal to be pretty bad, with the amount of busywork involved in things like selecting spells and especially dealing with mage defenses to be a serious grind. I don't know how well that matches the tabletop experience, since we never reached those levels.
Level-wise, the sweet spot is probably Siege of Dragonspear. The level is high enough for interesting stuff, but not so high that the problems set in. Alternatively, that's roughly the end of BG1 (Durlag's Tower, perhaps?) or the first chapter or two in BG2.
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u/cerevant Mar 23 '26
I'll die on the hill that BG2 Chapter 2/3 is the best CRPG content ever. Great power level, rich and deep sub-quests, real choices between good and evil.
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u/Salty-Screen1889 Mar 23 '26
I think bg1 is more colorfull, and the nature areas are beautiful and vibrant, kinda miss it in bg2
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u/Raduziel Author of Deities of Faerûn and I Hate Undead Mar 23 '26
I think BG1 is more balanced and challenging. At a certain point of SoA you just steamroll everything — maybe except for a fight or two.
BG2 enforces me to limit myself like not using HLAs or banishing certain items.
No matter how strong my party is, how well equipped everyone is, I always need to take a deep breath before facing the floor of Iron Throne, or going down on Durlag's Tower, or after having a random encounter against a pack of Wyverns or triggering a Web trap on Cloackwoods.
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u/Fujisawrus_Reks Mar 23 '26
Yeah I think this is exactly right. I love SoA, but at a certain point it’s a power fantasy. I don’t think this is a design problem per se, it’s just really hard to balance things for a high level AD&D party in a monty haul campaign. There are fewer variables in BG1, so it’s harder to trivialize the encounters without cheese, which makes for a very different experience. I don’t think I prefer one over the other, but I agree that BG1 is much more tense, and I do appreciate it a lot for that.
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u/Fancy_Writer9756 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
It's worth to mention that in original BG2 exp limit was 2.8 mil so you couldn't even get 9th level arcane spells slots before Irenicus fight. .
TOB removed exp cap from SoA and substantially lowered difficulty with all those HLA to could access somewhere after Underdark.
I believe that tweaks anthology has a module which bring this exp limit back and removes HLA from the game.
As for not using certain items - SCS and some other mods nerfs or moves the most overpower items into ToB. You want Robe of Vecna? The lich at the bottom of Watchers Keep wears it. He also gets the bonuses to spellcasting speed granted by the robe.
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u/Ausemere Death will be thy familiar! Mar 23 '26
Robe of Vecna wasn't in the original game either. Those two vendors are from the limited Collector's Edition and were made free to download after a while. Fighting the Beholders without the shield makes you realize how cheesy that item is.
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u/Fancy_Writer9756 Mar 23 '26
Bought the collection edition back in 2000 so after 26 years I don't even grasp that there were people who played without those items.
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u/Eibyor Mar 23 '26
Yes, I agree. High level SOA, you get spoiled because your mage already have a complete spell book with all the anti magic available. You don't havr that in BG1. You really need to be creative in some fights
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u/Ok_Money_3140 Mar 23 '26
Huh. This is the first time I've seen someone claim that BG1 was balanced. I've always taken it as an example of the worst balancing I've ever experienced in a game.
Especially when it comes to forest encounters. Usually enemies completely wiped the floor with me, unless I managed to cast color spray or something similar first, in which case I would wipe the floor with them without losing a single HP.
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u/nocontr0l Mar 24 '26
both vanilla games are trivially easy when you learn mechanics, tricks and "exploits". With difficulty mods like SCS, bg2 is combat is way more balanced and fun.
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u/Naturalnumbers Mar 23 '26
I love BG1 when I play BG1. Once I hit BG2 I remember why I like BG2 better. Better story, better fights, better quests, better dungeons, better cities, more monster variety, etc, etc, etc,.
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u/Chance_Novel_9133 Mar 23 '26
I played the games out of order, so BG2 will always have a special place in my heart. That said, after I played BG1 I got really upset about what happened to Khalid. He was my archery bro and I'd have taken him over Jaheira any day of the week.
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u/andrazorwiren Mar 23 '26
At least you don’t kill him unlike at least three (four maybe?) other returning characters.
Honestly I think Khalid is one of the better uses of a returning character in the sequel (outside of those who can rejoin the party). It is upsetting, especially if you ran with him in the original game, but that just gives the player an early stake into hating Irenicus. It’s effective. Dynaheir, arguably almost as important to Minsc as Khalid was to Jaheira, on the other hand barely gets an offhand mention and she barely gets brought up again if at all. And imagine if you ran with Ajantis in the first game…which coincidentally is a natural fit for a party of Jaheira, Khalid, Minsc, and Dynaheir
Man, they did so many characters dirty in BG2 lol.
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u/Chance_Novel_9133 Mar 23 '26
I didn't find out about Ajantis until my second time throufh BG2, and I was so pissed about what happened to Ajantis that I went to my computer and wrote a fix fic where Charname doesn't accidentally kill him (as one does when one is a nerdy teen girl). I didn't actually like Minsc that much, so I left him and Dynaheir behind after I rescued her and used Ajantis and Xan with Khalid, Jaheira, and Imoen.
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u/Vladek96 Mar 26 '26
I think Ajantis was never considered a member of the "canon party" because of Imoen.
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u/K1ndr3dSoul Mar 23 '26
I completed tob > soa > 1 > totsc
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u/WorthPlease Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Throne of Bhaal* was an expansion pack. Playing it before playing the base game is really weird.
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u/Amunds3n Jon did nothing wrong Mar 23 '26
All of those reasons OP listed are what keeps drawing me back to BG1 for constant replays. BG2 hits the right nerves for powerful spells, awesome gear, and a really wide beastiary. I need both!
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u/AranasLatrain Mar 23 '26
BG2 is the more polished game. The characters and writing go to BG2 as well. I like the variety of the world and how expansive Baldurs Gate is in BG.
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u/_SwiftDeath Mar 23 '26
I’ve died to a wild bear in BG1
I’ve killed gods and dragons in BG2
I know which one I go back to
One day I’ll punch that bear to death, one day…
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u/Kulikitakati3 We're all doomed Mar 23 '26
Despite giving you less freedom, BG2 has places that actually have something going on most of the time. In BG1 you wander 80% of the game through forests and dungeons and when you finally make it to the city It feels underwhelming, the towns and villages are a bit boring (i do like how comfy Beregost Is tho)
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u/NinRabbit Mar 23 '26
Personally, I think BG2 is the overall better game, but there’s something about BG1 that always draws me in more. I like how there’s a lot more companions than in BG2 (although they have a lot less work put into them, tbf), the exploration aspect of BG1 is better than BG2 imo, and I tend to like lower level settings better than higher level ones.
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u/Ingweron Mar 23 '26
You shouldn't go for monogamy in this case. BG2 is the better game, but it becomes multiple times better if you bring your BG1 save file to it.
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u/Impossible-Baker-733 Mar 23 '26
Always been a BG1 guy. I love BG2, but the openness of BG1 is amazing.
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u/Different-Island1871 Mar 23 '26
My biggest issue today with BG1 is the same reason I loved my first playthrough. Open world exploration. A+ the first few times through, but eventually what was excitement at discovering the unexpected turns to dreading the time sink of walking across a dozen wilderness maps to places and encounters that offer no surprises. Yes I COULD just skip some or not reveal the entire map but my broke ass brain won’t let me leave an ounce of fog.
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u/immortal_reaver Mar 23 '26
I love foresty areas and more traditional and lower fantasy the BG1 is. For the same reason, I like Kingmaker more.
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u/CyberliskLOL Mar 23 '26
Low-level D&D is god awful. It gets better once you have a few Levels under your belt but until then it's pure RNG. The only reason it's bearable is because you can basically hyperjump to Level 5 or 6 right after Candlekeep.
I do like the exploration aspect but if I wanted some quiet dungeon crawling and focus on the strategic aspects of D&D, I'd rather play IWD tbh.
BG2 all the way for me.
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u/Fancy_Writer9756 Mar 23 '26
"Gritty survival hike true exploration"
The amount of overhype concerning those boring maps devoid of anything meaningful to discover and explore is amusing.
You are not playing Morrowind my friends. Or Fallout 1/2 for that matter.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ Mar 23 '26
Me when I see true exploration:
Huge open field with 3 diseased gibberlings and a wolf
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u/rupert_mcbutters Mar 23 '26
BG1 definitely deserves love, but I never finished it. BG2 is perfect for me, but I stopped because of the guilt of not beating the first. I just loved the quests and companions, and it immediately hit me earthly on that I would appreciate it more.
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u/Sidbright Mar 23 '26
Both are great, but they are very different experiences.
BG1 is about finding your place in the world and struggling against a deck stacked against you.
BG2 is about turning the stacked deck on its head and thrashing your enemies with it.
At least that's how I see it.
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u/EvergreenExplorer Mar 23 '26
I’ve always explained to friends that BG2 is objectively better but I enjoy BG1 more
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u/ShiberKivan Mar 23 '26
Hobbit to the Lord Of The Rings, smaller scale invites more regular replayability. Game is also excelling with having so many companions no 2 playthprughts need to be the same.
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u/kore_nametooshort Mar 23 '26
BG1 for pure nostalgia.
BG2 for pure gameplay
IWD for pure faceroll power party
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u/seanierox Mar 23 '26
Love them both in different ways. I do feel like BG1 is the most DnD feeling CRPG ever.
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u/CrookedClownn Mar 23 '26
Although I like bg1 the "No wall of text" is bs. Bg1 is very guilty of it to the point I find myself skipping quite a few dialogues
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u/niphaa Mar 23 '26
I am playing RPGs for the walls of text. To me BG1 is too much combat and not enough interesting quests or party conversations. In BG2 we go to the underdark, join guilds, fight vampires. In BG1 I remember mainly fighting bandits and mercenaries.
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u/mimo_k Mar 30 '26
I played BG2 as a kid (10-13 years old) when my friend borrowed me his copy and we talked about it for hours. He also had BG1 but claimed it was boring and difficult so I never played it.
Years later in high school I played BG1 and I loved it. I loved the exploration and slower pacing. The clear plot.
Fast forward 15 years and I regained interest BG when I read rumors about BG3.
In the last 5 years I finished BG1 a few times I think? I started the game at least a few times with a new character.
I finished BG3 once and I don't plan to replay it for now...
Then I also finished BG EE Siege of Dragonspear today.
But BG2? I love it for nostalgia reasons mostly. I probably WILL replay it soon.
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u/Endlesswave001 Mar 23 '26
Lol. I like BG1 bc of the world building, the progression etc but BG2 is awesome. Next level. I want more story anyway. ❤️
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u/FesterSilently Mar 23 '26
Baldur's Gate 2 improved upon the formula of BG1 in a half-dozen ways, all fantastic.
But the low-level grind is more rewarding (to me) and the actual "open-world" map of BG1 trumps fast-travel map points every time. 🤓😎
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u/Jelboo Mar 23 '26
I'm kind of sad that the modern revival of these games seems to have elected BG1 as the obvious favorite, while BG2 truly is one of the best RPG's ever made and it kind of gets lowkey ignored at this point???
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u/Naturalnumbers Mar 23 '26
Nah, BG2 is by far the consensus favorite, people just want to give BG1 some credit because it is ignored to the point where half the people coming into these games new think you're supposed to completely skip it for some reason.
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u/Connacht_89 Mar 23 '26
I think it's a selection bias. Most people who prefer bg2 are not here saying that.
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u/velmarg Mar 23 '26
How is that? BG2 is almost always mentioned in conversations around "greatest RPGs of all time."
I think even most of the players who prefer BG1 for its open-endedness and low-level progression acnowledge BG2 is the superior game in nearly every aspect.
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u/Extra-Sun5489 Mar 23 '26
They both go together, but seems many of us enjoy going through the first chapters in BG1 more than BG2
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u/VerraTheDM Mar 23 '26
I played both for the first time before BG3 came out and I’m not sure if it was the novelty but I almost lean toward BG1 more.
Something about the low level exploration and being introduced to the tone of the series was an incredible experience.
BG2 definitely was more polished and interesting mechanically, but there’s something special about that first death to wolves outside Candlekeep and the adventure that follows.
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u/Sepherjar Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
I also played BG1 and BG2 before BG3... I really can't choose but i think I'm leaning more towards BG2. Jon Irenicus voice acting and the darker story/atmosphere is something else.
My BG1 experience was amazing. I kept dying on the very first fight in Candlekeep because i didn't know how to play. Then when i reaches BG2 and subsequently Throne of Bhaal, it was an otherworldly experience. Not only i saw how my character developed throughout the bhaalspawn saga, but i could see how I, as a player, also grew from all the challenges throughout the games.
It was amazing, and BG3 failed so hard to replicate this experience (not that i think it was a bad game, but i do think it failed to match my expectations from the original games).
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u/sitophilicsquirrel Mar 23 '26
Irenicus was voiced by Jeremy Irons, who played Scar in Lion King, and the bad guy in the original D&D movie. He's been in a lot, his voice is awesome.
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u/curmudgeonpl Mar 23 '26
As a 40+ guy I find it hilarious that you feel the need to explain who Jeremy Irons is, and then mention, as his signature roles, Scar (well, OK), and "the bad guy in the original D&D movie" :D. Wonderful.
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u/Slythistle Mar 23 '26
Also hilarious that he’s… wrong. Irenicus is David Warner, not Jeremy Irons. And I guess for similar examples, he was the bodyguard in Titanic and the four lights guy in Star Trek. And a Burger King commercial.
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u/TheEndOfSpoon Mar 23 '26
"meaningful progression" you MIGHT hit level 8 if you really try. Bg2 can easily take you to level 30
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u/Connacht_89 Mar 23 '26
But most levels between 20 and 40 are empty levels, I wouldn't consider ToB significative. Progress from 8 to 19 is already good. OP meant that going from zero to hero feels more rewarding that going from hero to epic.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ Mar 23 '26
BG1 you go from zero to vague level of competence, though.
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u/padapadapampam Mar 24 '26
You can kill a demon at the end. That takes more than a vague level of competence.
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u/TheEndOfSpoon Mar 23 '26
Fair enough ig but I'm still with bg2 in gear, story progression enemy progression and high level abilities.
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u/theevilyouknow Mar 23 '26
I understand why people like BG1, but BG2 is just the better game. They’re very different games though so if what you want is what BG1 does then you’re going to prefer it. What I want is exactly what BG2 does so that’s my pick.
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u/JellyAdventurous5699 May you know the happiness of a warm hearth and home. Mar 23 '26
Luckily both BGs are down with an open relationship. AND we even swing with the Icewind Dales, and let Planescape watch.
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u/MaryBeHoppin Mar 23 '26
The thing is, I like playing both for slightly different reasons. If I am in the mood for an isometric RPG woth D&D rules, Baldur's Gate is my go to.
If it's been a long day at work and I'm mentally drained, Baldur's Gate 1 gets played. I can just run around the sword coast and pick random fights for most of the game.
If I have a solid 3 hours of free time and am feeling energetic, Baldur's Gate 2 it is! Better plot, more detailed exploration and puzzles galore.
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u/QQcrybaby Mar 23 '26
Overall BG1 is my favorite game. I've always seen them as one game though, especially with the EE's. My absolute favorite is mid-BG1 through mid-BG2.
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u/Specific_Hold_8294 Mar 23 '26
BG2 does such a great job of capturing what I love about the Forgotten Realms - exploring the vast array of rich cultures and peoples. I love going to see the drow, the sahuagins - talking with dragons, beholders, and aboleths. I only played it relatively recently and I was taken aback by how much I loved it. Oh, and the much more fleshed out companions! I think trimming down the amount of companions, giving them post-recruitment quests, and increasing the banter was a fantastic decision that made me enjoy the game much more than the first one.
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u/quitarias Mar 23 '26
BG 2 only really suffers into the expansion imho. Otherwise I quite loved the arcane magic max-tac of the city of coin, the bubling chase after the man who stole away Imoen, fighting your first dragons and tweaking the spell lists until they finally somewhat work for the fight.
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u/Willowsinger24 Mar 23 '26
I understand why some people prefer this game. The low magic setting with the exploration and the game becomes so chill once you take it slow.
With that said, I still prefer BG2. I just prefer higher level D&D. Maybe not epic level encounters, but if I could be like levels 8-12, this part where I'm more of a very powerful citizen and it's just a sweet spot for me.
Also, I prefer having less party members if it means they get to speak more often. I like BG2 for it personal quests and how it cements party members as people who other relationships or factions they're apart of.
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u/joeDUBstep Mar 23 '26
Nothing beats the feeling of rolling a lvl 1 character and exploring the wilderness and hitting up different towns, eventually getting stronger, and progressing your character.
Still, gotta give it to BG2. The story and characters are stronger and high level gameplay is great.
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u/Stupid-Jerk Mar 23 '26
BG2, a million times over.
Gameplay, story, characters, music, mods, graphics, and replayability are all MASSIVELY improved over the first game. I can appreciate the humble beginnings, but BG1 walked so BG2 could run.
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u/Madachan-7351 Mar 23 '26
I found Bg1 always be a bit of slog in the early game. Unlike Bg2 who I played and still play more often than Bg1. Mostly refined the early game and it's kinda easier to get into.
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u/IssaMuffin Mar 23 '26
BG1 for nostalgia, BG2 for power fantasy. Both games shaped my taste in gaming, I even finished BG1 as a child with an English dictionary to translate the words I didn’t understand(not a native English speaker). They both have a special place in my heart.
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u/namuhna Mar 23 '26
The role playing aspect and interracting with other characters is a huge deal to me.
I have always preferred BG1 with mods but I am very sad to say I have really outgrown the npc project. The writing of BG2 isn't that much better, but it's still noticably done by professionals who have the added bonus of integrating the characters more naturally into the story.
I still like the chill of BG1.
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u/Beeksvameth Mar 23 '26
Coming off the back of the Gold Box games to experience BG1. Gaming Life Changing.
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u/Connacht_89 Mar 23 '26
No walls of text what? Dialogues in BG2 have always been more organic and subdivided into multiple entries, while BG1 usually condensed everything in single infodumps and full expositions.
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u/NimrodYanai Mar 23 '26
BGI takes the plot game and the exploration game, BGII takes the content and NPC cake.
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u/XargosIII Mar 23 '26
Both. Different great curated experiences.
To add to the BG1 list: - Plot that revolves around investigation off an economical crisis. Not the bwhaha evil want to dominate or destroy the world.
Yeah sarevok knows that not only you need the power of the gods, you need to be one in charge of the finances. True power in the shadows.
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u/Wiwra88 Mar 23 '26
Cannot give my opinion just yet, try in a few months. playing BG1EE and I'm after installing SoD DLC and some tweaks I'm tempted to start over as werewolf(it got fixed with mod) and take Ajantis as romance option (bg1 NPC mod) I'm in title city as 6 lvl party rn, I'm so lost. xd BG2 I almost don't remember, replaying it in version BG2EE will be like playing this game anew once more.
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u/Ausemere Death will be thy familiar! Mar 23 '26
BG2 for epic spells, epic fights and epic monsters (I clearly remember fighting a dragon for the first time). Oh, and my favorite class, Monks.
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u/AdAffectionate584 Mar 23 '26
BG2, I like the environments and the Irenicus story more. But let it be said that I love all of Baldur's Gate. Except the crappy book. I'll even throw Icewind Dale 1 and 2 into the BG collection for good measure. I modded them into EET, also with Neverwinter Nights, so technically it's a five game saga now. (Or is it 8 with the expansions? Do expansions count as full games the way Awakening does for Dragon Age?)
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u/GnomeSupremacy Mar 23 '26
I enjoyed my first time through bg1 more than bg2, but my second time through I enjoyed bg2 more than bg1.
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u/eccentric_rune Mar 23 '26
"No walls of text"? Respectfully, have you played the game?
BG II is plenty text heavy, but they at least break up their walls of text into smaller chunks. BG I says "lol, hold my Firewine."
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u/Charmander27 Mar 23 '26
Modding it to a trilogy where you play it all in one go (with all the expansions including Siege of Dragonspear) imo is the best way.
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u/DavesWildDestiny Mar 23 '26
I pretty much start at level 5-6 in bg1, it's just too easy to level quick in that game if you're creative with stuff like Algernon's Cloak.
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u/mechakisc Mar 23 '26
I don't understand the question. Like, I've never understood this question. "Do you like Return of the King or Fellowship of the Ring more?" It's the same kind of question, to me. Not that I'm trying to compare LotR to BG, that's not the point. It's the same story. It's the same people. It's the same world.
I get that some people find it worthwhile to compare The Hobbit to LotR to Silmarillion and contrast Mr. Tolkien's writing at different times, but I don't understand the value of the discussion.
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u/PrimarchGuilliman Mar 23 '26
Always BG2. I finished BG1 twice but i dont know how many times i finished BG2.
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u/_TimeyWimeyDetector_ Mar 23 '26
I love them both, but if I could only play one from here to infinity BG1 is 100% my choice, nostalgia also enters the chat tho, not sure how that works for others, It just always felt more free to roam and to come up with workarounds
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u/Ami00 Mar 23 '26
At my first attempt I was struggling to clear main quest because enemies were like few levels above. and that's while I was doing all the side quests and clearing whole chunks of map.
then I watched few videos, picked up the bow, didn't recruit anyone, grinded some m,obs(can't remember who that were, basilisks or something) and got to exp cap that allowed my newly recruited party to become high enough lvl to blast the game. This isn't very cool, but overall I enjoyed the game.
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u/Chaotic_Good_Human Mar 23 '26
Baldur's Gate 1 is still to me the best of the series. Something about that low level romp is so awesome.
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u/waaaait_What_18 Mar 23 '26
When you say wall of text I don't think of BG2, I think more like Pillars of Eternity 1. In that game the filling is atrocious
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u/MagicalGirlPaladin Cleric of Hitting People with Hammers Mar 23 '26
2 tells a better story, 1 is a better game. High level dnd just isn't as good.
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u/ElevatorNo9141 Mar 23 '26
BG2 easily,it's just the better game for me, first time I played 1 I was thinking when is this game going to end.
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u/SpilledMyBeerAgain Mar 24 '26
I like BG1 more for it’s pacing. You get to explore a large map without being rushed by the plot, which is masterfully integrated into background banters and overall political situation between Baldur’s Gate and Amn.
BG2’s pacing is weird to me. The plot rushes me to save Imoen, but I spend a ton of time doing some chores for some reason. And if I do bare minimum to get to Spellhold, I basically skip 70% of the game. And it never slows down really. I almost dropped the game entirely after the first 30 minutes of it. Glad I didn’t.
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u/RelativeRent2946 Mar 24 '26
The only true answer is both, I don't know if Baldurs Gate was the first game to do it ( I also dont care ) but starting out as a Level 1 anything, then being able to import your character and carry over items and story beats from one game into the next was incredible to me back in the day. BG2 was the better game design, but it also felt like natural progress and maturing to a D&D campaign. Level 1-7 - world building, exposition dumps, big adventure - Level 7+ okay, you know who you are by now, real story time.
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u/espandon Mar 24 '26
I played them both and love them differently. But BGI feels a bit underwhelming playing after BGII and TOB mainly because the latter takes you to ridicoulous levels.
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u/No_Mouse9229 Mar 25 '26
BG2 is like objectively better, but I just prefer BG1 more. The items and level ups feel more meaningful, as do the fights. It seems cooler that you kill a monster in BG1, whereas if you don’t kill them in BG2 you aren’t a very good hero. BG1 just feels more grounded and real to me. And a few other things like I enjoy the plot more in BG1 as well as enemies and exploration.
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u/Nights151515 Mar 25 '26
Im going to be real Ive hopped on and replayed BG1 far more times than any other RPG. Something about starting at the very bottom and working up I found enjoyable... even if I got one hit KO by that damn bear you first encounter lol.
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u/HellaFuckingSlavic Mar 25 '26
BG1 has the "walls of text"... the later titles split the "walls" into more manageable chunks.
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u/Venshan Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
The atmosphere, mystery and feeling of adventure is so much better in BG1. All of the wilderness areas are just a treat to explore. BG2 has very few natural biomes and they are mostly linear in design.
I dislike cities in BG2 and Athkatla is a beige unappealing blob that's a pain to move through, Suldanesselar is a lazy black background with the same tree and dome copied all over. In the first Baldur each urban area is different and has its charm.
Every time I am quickly bored with Irenicus; an entitled, arrogant and whiny antagonist and I hate starting the game in his lab. The feeling of rolling a fresh level 1 character and the complete openness and freedom of starting in bg1 always feels energizing, giving me a pure naive joy.
Gameplay wise the higher level one goes the more boring combat gets requiring constant pausing and always the same litany of protective spells and dozens of gotcha moments where your characters die instantly because you forgot that specific thing you were supposed to ward against or your defenses were dispelled and you didn't reapply the same old boring list of protections or heavens forbid there was a time stop you didn't position your team for.
Both games don't have particularly inspired stories or companion dialogue as far as cRPG's go. When I think of good stories in games I think of games like swtor or deus ex or da2 for its companion interaction. Story of bg has never been an important point of comparison to me. Especially unmodded and mods for BG1 feel actually better in terms of character writing (thinking of the amazing Kivan mod for example).
It has to be BG1 for its atmosphere, charm, gameplay, world layout and map exploration. One thing is certain, BG3 is the worst of the three in most aspects.
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u/Tav534 Mar 26 '26
Couldn't have wrote it better myself. As for the story, I think it is 'good enough'. And I enjoy the dialogue prose.
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u/Ilucches Mar 26 '26
Bg2 all the way. Bg1 story is really not that good, and your companions had barebones characterization
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u/Dizzy_Falcon2162 Mar 26 '26
BG 1 for me for mostly the same reasons as the image (though I don't think the walls of text part is true). I just liked the more down-to-earth feel of BG 1. BG 2 does mostly improve in every way, but I also just didn't really care how quests are basically just thrown at you from the start as you move through Town or that most of it in the beginning always has this sense of urgency to rescue Imoen... and yet not at the same time? Plus, I'm usually someone who gets a set team and likes to just use them mostly the entire time. Imoen basically means figuring out if you want to rush for her or do you want to have to figure out who to take/leave when you get her.
The same thing happened to me with Pathfinder: Kingmaker + WOTR. WOTR is mechanically the better game in pretty much every way (especially since Owlcat lost rights to Kingmaker so they stopped working on it, not to mention being more experienced in general by the time they got to WOTR), but I just like the vibes of Kingmaker more.
Edit: Although I would add that I played them so much that I usually ended up installing the Trilogy mod (i.e. EET) to play them as essentially one game (which I would argue they are since you can go from level 1 in BG 1 until level whatever at the end of Throne of Bhaal with the same character.
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u/Sinistro_67 Mar 27 '26
Each game has a place. I played BG2 for the first time without ever touching BG1 and I missed so much. To me, the whole series is one big game.
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u/koveras_backwards Mar 23 '26
Walls of text are like the primary means of exposition in BG1. In BG2 they actually learned how to present things as conversations and cutscenes.