Try the circus and keep Aerie in the next play through. Multi class Mage/Cleric is nasty tough. Especially in Theone of Bhaal. Also, make sure you have all 5 heads for the Flail of the Ages in Throne of Bhaal as it is the most powerful weapon by far.
Everyone should love that saving the drow lowers rep. It's the truth. You go against popular opinion you lose rep 😂 I always Dave her and she's a great cleric
I'm 32, I remember watching my dad play this game and narrate the story to me when I was a little girl. I thinl that's what prompted my fascination for fantasy. years later i completed 20+ playthroughs. It's still the best ever RPG game to me and hits a very nostalgic note. The lore, the music, the visuals, I love everything about this game so much !
I have been saying this for 20+ years. Although the first game holds a special place in my heart as the game that got me into D&D, RPGs and fantasy as a whole, BG2 is an absolute masterpiece. I play BG/BG2 every year, and still consider BG2 to be the father of modern RPGs. It is the gold standard.
@@Killswitch1986 Tweaks Anthology mod has a component that rebalances the Shapeshifter class entirely. Ends up being one of the most OP classes in the game.
@@chrisathian5450 I get that. Its an older game, and older games, being limited by the graphics of the time, encourage you to use your imagination more to get swept up in the world. The clunkiness might go away with time the more you play and get used to the controls, but honestly... Its possible the games might just not be for you. They're a cornerstone of the genre, but that doesn't mean everyone has to like them! I recommend that, if you're in BG1 and finding it hard to get into the game, trying playing BG2 first, instead. Most people enjoy 2 over 1. The opening cinematic will tell you everything you need to know about the first one. Its a perfectly viable way to get into the franchise and then, if you like it enough to want more, you can revisit BG1.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Also, the actual finale of the Bhaalspawn saga is Throne of Bhaal expansion (back in the day that's how DLCs were called, Expansions), and that's where you get to the DnD lvl 20 powerfantasy
@@Yaardrake seige of dragon spear is another expasnion that takes place afer the 1st balders gate and before BG 2 shadows of amn, it also take you to lvl 20 and has alot of the new mechanics, spells and weapons in the later expansions.
@@biscuitsticks3274 yeah none of the stuff in the Saughuin city you briefly vist with Havarian before ending up in the Underdark was critical , but there ARE some very nice items to be found there , you dont lose out on anything by taking that option as you still end up in the Underdark anyway ,and theres some fun interactions to be had there too so definitely worth taking that path next time . Theres far too many things to do for one playthrough , and a lot of choices you could only make if you were taking an evil route as opposed to the hero one, such as if you are an evil character you can continue the work of the seriel killer tanner and make a suit of human skin armor and a number of secret areas and dungeons you may not have found this time .
1) Hates Yoshimo. 2) Turns down Nalia De'Arnise (a mage) because he already has Yoshimo. 3) Doesn't recruit Edwin (best mage in the trilogy) when he encounters him. 4) Skips half the game because he's tired of not having a mage. My head is spinning... 😂
Counterpoint: He may be the best but he also deserves to have two boots permanently shoved up both of his main openings. Jan Jansen is an obviously superior choice for his turnip expertise.
@@biscuitsticks3274 I mean... you do know that what you did in the first game was basically a speed run, right? 😁 You skipped *THE MAJORITY* of the companions, for once. And all of the DLC (included in the EE).
Edwin is the best mage in the game, but he's useless for a good party as he will just leave if and when you max your reputation. IMO Jan Jansen is the best thief in the game, also a decent mage. A very useful and very fun character.
I first played Baldur's Gate 2 in 2022 and it felt like finally coming out of Plato's Cave. The reason is that I grew up playing so many RPGs and believing that each one of them was innovating in their own way, improving upon each other. Then I decided to play BG2 and realized that... it was all there. It has always been there since 2000. Any form of "digital" (or virtual, or computer/console) RPG peaked with BG2 because while technology evolved insanely since 2000, the content hasn't. By now I'm sure you know I'm not talking about gameplay, I'm not even talking about story. I'm talking about the blueprint, how it was done and then replicated hundreds of times during these 24 years. It can be isometric, 3rd person, 1st person, 2D, 3D or sidescroller, 99.9% of the western RPGs are in Baldur's Gate 2. There are two ways to look at this, either BG2 was so good that it peaked an entire genre and nothing was able to reinvent it 24 years later, OR we simply lack the creativity to come up with something new.
I think games went from a passion and art to corporate greed and live service fucking ur wallet and rearranging ur asshole like a rubix cube with frustration and drip fed content and the promise of it will be better next season or next year or next patch or next update or next this next that toss in battle passes and pay to win bs and u got games in a nut shell throne and liberty and ashes of creation is my last hope for gaming and diablo4 really hit my feelers hard in the omegalawl fuckn suck depression department d4 is so bad it hurts .. im so sad that years of anticipation and excitement and nostalgia is met with half baked games and unfinished unpolished dogshit
I don't think that's true. Games like NWN or the more modern Pillar of Eternity followed in BG's footsteps for obvious reasons. But many unrelated games also contributed to the pool of ideas. There's the Fallout series, which is unrelated to BG's heritage. I think the Elder Scrolls series is also unrelated. And what about games like Cyberpunk or Elden Ring (technically, this is an RPG game😂)? P.S. If you haven't played Disco Elysium, try it. It's refreshing.
A Viconia romance is worth a BG2 play through itself. While she doesn’t have a companion quest per se, her romance is one of the most complex and long running in any game I’ve ever played-spanning into the Throne of Bhaal expansion. There’s ups and downs, some exclusive fights, and a redemption arc that make it worth it. If, of course, you make the right choices. Lol.
The game has a fuckton of replay value. Kill the hidden liches, get every rare shard of weapons to assemble, heard every banter between party member....i'd replay just to hear jan mocking anomen again.
The Whole Demigorgon tower! ... Like yeah, we fought him well before Strangers things turned him into a freakin' low-level npc! Demigorgon is a fucking INSANE fight. You are literally going against one of the princes of hell. He has so much ahead of him if he plays this game again. Especially if he plays the *real BG3* , the expansion.
On one hand i get it. On the other hand my mc is mostly a wizard and i setup a few sequencers to kill dragons. You just strip them of their magic resist and then hit them with finger of death. This also works on Irenicus, he can be killed in 1-2 rounds of combat. The only things you can't really bully is stuff with mental effects like confusion... Those Illithids for example.
@@morgothable EE fixed a host of things such as berserking now making you immune to mind control ... so minsc or that berserk dwarf mince meats those illithids in short order also enemies in EE no longer have infinite spells so no longer Kangaxx the lich with infinite time stops nuking and time stopping your party until your deathward buffs run out ...
When you replay it I hope you find Lilarcor. Lilarcor and Minsc always was my duo of mad men. Godspeed to again playing this masterpiece. You have seen about 50 % of the game! Also, Nalia is a pretty decent mage herself, albeit with an evil playthrough you need to find Edwyn.
YESSSS!!!! That Serial Killer investigation quest is seared into my brain. Of all the things I remember about my Baldur's Gate 2 playthrough, that particular quest, that particular area and writing is just, ugh, disgusting and twisted beyond belief, and utterly amazing because of how it all comes together. I have only played the game once, (203 hours playthrough), but that quest is just, whenever I think about BG2, it's at the forefront of my mind. So glad you did it.
Heya just to let you know that I made a mod that expands on this quest (the Twisted Rune) and the Cowled Wizards. It's called The Cowled Menace on gibberlings3 website
That is why BG3 had such big shoes to fill. BG2+Throne of Bhaal are the masterpieces! Luckily, BG3 didn't disappoint, which was very possible, because of the quality of previous games.
I built my first computer right when BG2 was released. I was a 2.something gig install with a manual damn-near the size of a school textbook. It was love. The voice acting, the customization. I had to go back and get BG1 shortly after getting it. It made me fall in love with Forgotten Realms and eventually got me to go into a hobby shop and play for the first time (sometime after 3.0 came out, so the rules were different) I'm glad to see it get some love! This game is one of my all time favorites. I've got 700+ hours on the Enhanced steam version, and countless more from disk back in the day. My only regret is that I couldn't talk my friends into doing a BG2 lan-party. Just had to use GameSpy at the time
Just adding some quotes from the best sword in the history of video games: Lilarcor: "What's my status? Since when you do you care about me, unless I'm impaled in someone's guts? Oh, well, fine, let me think for a minute..." You get one of the four lines below: "Hmph. I suppose I'm okay. Why? Are we gonna kill something now? No? How about now? No? Hmmm... now, maybe? Grrrrrr..." "I think you need take better care of me. I've got more chips than a blind beaver... I look like a second-rate pig poker." "I'd appreciate some quality time in my scabbard. Take a break... ahhhh, who am I kidding? Attack! Battle! Kill! Hee heeee...... this is what I live for!" "Well, since you asked, I would like to register a complaint. I want to kill a dragon. Right now. Go find one and kill it. That would be SO cool." Note that if Minsc is in the party, he will respond: "Minsc agrees! It would be the essence of epic heroing! Dead dragons should litter our path wherever we go!" Lilarcor: "Ooh... I agree with the Rashemaar! Give me to him, will ya? C'mon! What a pair we'd make! Oh, me the brains with the edge, him the brawn with the hamster! A legend in the making..." When asking Lilarcor for advice Lilarcor: The sword whistles, incredulous. "Advice, eh? Well, besides working on your swordmanship. Besides that, I'd have to think." "Hmmm... find someone rich, and kill them. Find someone richer, and kill them, too! Hack and slash your way to fortune! Woo-hoo!!"
Quite a few side quests have exclusive paths that only become available to you if you are an evil alignment. You also missed Jaheira’s companion quest which is very long and fulfilling and masterfully written. Oh well
@@mercb3ast Nah Jaheira’s is better. Are you referring to her in ToB? She doesn’t have a quest in SoA. Jaheira (BG2 version) is the best companion in the entire Baldur’s Gate Franchise bar none, but Viconia is more attractive lmao.
@@mercb3ast fun fact - Viconia is the only companion without a side quest. She had one but the devs thought it too weird and scrapped it. She had been infected with lycanthropy and that is why she's being burnt at the stake by zealots of Basheba because she is a 'monster' referencing her lycanthropy and not her race. It's a double-edged sword because lycanthropes belong to Selune, who is Shar's opposite. I don't think the side quest offered much in the way of personal development for Viconia, I believe it was just another way to make her indebted to the player and their companions.
@@jackhughes124 if you romance her, it’s effectively a game long companion quest that runs over into ToB. Her being hunted, her hot/cold back and forth, and ultimately, her redemption arc (if you’re able to pull it off) is definitely worth it.
Oh man you missed like half the game. The entire sewers below the city with temple of nameless gods, pirate island and underwater city, tower of Demogorgon (can be entered in Throne of Bhaal too though), so so many sidequests, like going to different planes of existance from portal beneath the theatre, or the giant golden ball in the Slums district... And romances, do you know you can be in a relationship with certain character and if you two keep being together she gives birth to a baby in the expansion? It literally becomes an item in the inventory like a familiar. Oh ya btw mages can summon their pets and interact with them, outside of the inventory screen. And one sideplot that hints at Mind Flayers plotting to take over Baldurs Gate! BG3 came to be with the story it did just because of one message from a side quest in BG2 !!! As someone who played BG3 first you really should have included that bit in the video. This game is HUGE. Perhaps you'll make another one for your second playthrough. Good video (both this and the one about BG1, though that one also misses 50% of game content), good for you for promoting old diamonds to newer audience. I'm looking forward to seeing the third video about ToB. Cheers!
Ithilid lair can be cheesed with a i-do-not-remember-the-name shield that negates their powers completely. You give it to a character, leave the rest of the party safely in the corner and solo the entire dungeon with no trouble
You can also use animate dead or summon invisible stalker. Those summons are immune to the mindflayer mind blast. Just cast haste on them so they kill faster.
The thing other reviewers often miss when comparing all 3 Baldurs Gate games to other games is the huge advantage these games have by being set in Forgotten Realms. First you have millions of D&D gamers being creative and a few of them being inspired to make games and write books in the setting from the 80s onwards. but then equally people being inspired by the books and games. With the advent of the internet huge communities popped up everywhere and added their own content to this world. No other Fantasy setting has more lore to access than FR. None. its not comparable. And that makes the games inevitably rich and full of interesting stories.
For your evil playthrough, I strongly recommend an elf fighter/mage multi class. Its one of the strongest classes in the game. You'll only be slightly worse than a normal fighter, which is easily compensated by broken magic. If you plan on romancing viconia, I'd go with half-elf, as viconia won't date elves because of the "elves vs dark elves" thing.
If you do date viconia though; and you decide not to ascend to godhood - which as far as I know since I've looked it up, is the only way to keep the romances; which sucks b(h)alls because Gods CAN have Consorts... - then she will die in the epilogue credits, from being hunted. So it's actually better not to romance her, because I think she lives through that. Which may be how she appears in BG3... but I still say that game should've been it's own thing because the rite to ressurect bhall required the deaths of ALL the bhallspawn, and he's canonically ressurected. (Which sucks even more for Abdel...) I will at some point repurchase the beamdog disks. I did try the series, but didn't actually beat the first game I don't think. I did try to get into the expansion before BG2... cause I know BG2 is supposed to be a lot more fun for Monk (sue me, it's my favorite fighting style... and yeah I like to do things the hard way lol) I just got disheartened when I read about the ascending to godhood means you give up your romance. : /
Duals from fighter to mage are stronger tbh, either kensai or berserker, grandmastery rocks and you level in mage much MUCH faster, and cause you're a human you get a drussy too
@@АртемРущак-ь7х Yes, but dual classes are not recommended for new players as it requires a lot of meta knowledge to do it right and for it to not be a really tedious experience. Plus the vanilla game is easy enough that you don't need that extra power. With a multiclass, you can still just enjoy the game without thinking about all of that.
@@localman9063 True, although i wouldn't say that you need to know that much, since your concerns for the build are mostly early exp to get your first class going and weapon choice, and there's guides for that, if you want to use them ofc, but yeah, you're right
Great video. You are wrong about Yoshimo, tho. Spoilers ahead. If you travel with Nalia, it quickly becomes apparent he is a good man when they banter. Yoshimo also gave at least lip service to a Lawful Good god called Illmater, which is the god of self sacrifice and martyrdon. The Geas that was on his heart was way, way out of the ordinary, put there by one of the greatest elven mages of the forgotten realms. And most important of all... Yoshimo came all the way here from his home-land in search of a loved one, Tamoko, which was Sarevok's lover. Same one that helps him kill Gorion. It is unclear if Tamoko is his sister or lover or what else, but when Yoshimo finds out about her death he wants revenge. He joins up with Irenicus and it is kind of implied he is also the person who captures you originally. But he has a bit of a change of heart, while travelling with you. There is some cut content on his quest and dialogues that some mods add back in and even expand on with a full romance, etc, but the gist of it is... Yoshimo was a good man who, driven to revenge, fell in with Jon Irenicus. And no one who has ever dealt with Irenicus comes out of it unscathed. It bothers me that you would leave his soul to languish in hell when it costs literally nothing to have his geas removed removed in a temple and it awards you with a lot of xp...
He would have allowed Ireicus to slaughter countless men woman and children in Suldanesallar just to save his own life. There is no amount of sad back story that would make me like him.
A good man doesn't seek revenge, he seeks justice. His sister Tamoko was a murderous bitch who fell for a psychopath. A good man would have admitted that, mourned her and do what he could to make up for her sins. A good man would have asked some questions around the Sword Coast and BG about who and what the Bhaalspawn had done to help the people. A good man would have recognised the pathology and malice that drove Irenicus and Bodhi.
Did you not get strongholds? Like the cabin in umar hills for your ranger. Not that they're necessary, but still an interesting and fun part of the game.
Evil playthroughs are very fun in this game. It also doesn't hurt that the evil party members are the most powerful in the game. Running the full evil cast of Edwin, Dorn, Viconia, Korgan and Clara/Hexxat is great and gives you a well rounded party covering all your bases. One warning I will give is just be carefull not to drop your reputation too low, too early on. The game will react to your evil shenanigans and send dudes to kill you. This can soft lock your game if your party is not powerful enough to deal with it.
I'm in the throws of my evil playthrough now and I'm loving Korgan so much. +4 in axes is kinda nutty. My rep also dipped too low after I killed Lady De Arnise for hating poor people and Yoshi and Cernd left my party so I'll have to balance that I guess.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Korgan is great and his battlerage ability is just a better version of beserk. Thankfully the enhanced edition adds 2 extra evil characters, so you can run a full evil party. You just have to deal with the other consequences of having terrible reputation.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Korgan is a killing machine and hands down the best martial companion you can get! If you buff him up a bit and haste him he can solo most encounters. And his dialogue is hilarious as well. "Me axe be bloody ready!"
The best part about the game... the epic voice acting. It's just a shame they didn't have voices for every single piece of dialogue (they only voice the first sentence). Which lends itself to the interactions between characters. Romance Aerie, Jaheira, and Viconia.... all 3 almost gets into catfights. Viconia and Keldorn chirping at each other the entire time. Edwin trash talking everybody. Minsc is comedic at all. Even the Lilicor sword is funny to equip.
@@biscuitsticks3274 IWD is a much more shallow experience. No companions with personality (your party is all player-created; useful, but not as fun), and it's a much more action/combat-centric game. I never got into either. I wouldn't discourage you from giving it a shot, but just know going in that it has nowhere near the depth in story or character. And IWD2, if I recall correctly, has 3rd edition rules... 3rd edition rules standardize some things in ways I find satisfying - it was bullshit that certain races couldn't be certain classes - but overall... 3rd edition sucks ass. I think 2nd edition is a lot more fun, and its nuances offer so much more, if you know how to take advantage of its idiosyncrasies. Again, I wouldn't encourage you to not play it; by all means, expose yourself to 3rd edition rules and decide for yourself which you prefer, what you like about each ruleset. But again, just don't go into IWD, 1 or 2, thinking it'll be more BG-esque story-telling, with rich companions and an epic powered protagonist.
@@biscuitsticks3274 In general, if you like the combat/tactical challenge of the BG games, you'll probably enjoy Icewind Dale a lot. If you like the story, themes, and characters of BG.... hoo boy. You'll REALLY like Planescape Torment.
I still play through Baldur's Gate II once a year as I have every year since it came out, it never gets old. After 20+ years I still find new items and quests I never knew existed. The game is just that big.
I have played it so many times and indeed still find new things that I haven't seen before. I love BG3 but BG2 SOA & TOB hold a special place in my heart. I'll probably be playing them for the rest of my life.
I guess you havent found kangax in the city because it would clealry have been mentioned. Probably the biggest oh f... moment in the game for me for the first time playthorugh
I'm about as old as BG1 but I'm really glad I went back to play it and BG2. BG2 is legitimately one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and considering that the gameplay is often painful that says even more. My biggest longshot dream is a recreation of BG2 in the BG3 engine. BG1 can come too.
Loved both this and the BG1 video! Amazing job doing a 30 minute video of what to me was like a 120 hour game but still getting the spirit of it down to a T. I'm curious since you turned down the difficulty of BG1 at the end what you played this at?
I played this on normal so I wouldn't hit another wall, but now that I'm more comfortable with these games I've started an evil run on veteran and I'm stomping everything so far. I'm really happy you enjoyed!!
I am not sure which is the greatest but I don’t think it’s BG2. Played it back at release. Beat it. Beat the expansion too. Tried a couple of mods. It’s great . Here’s my problems though : - it’s a theme park with rides everywhere. There is no organic feeling of the world whatsoever BG1 felt like a real world with plenty of forests and caves. - it turns into a light and sound spectacle pretty quick. Specifically it scales very badly - in Throne of Baal it becomes outright ridiculous : every weapon you find is +2 or +3 - limited choice and consequence - it’s a cornerstone of proper RPG. BG2 did develop romance , for better or for worse , but it offers Limited choices in quest resolution and close to none in the main quest. An evil playthrough is hard (your reputation will jack up the prices . You will have to deal with cops) and offers very little in content /narrative. Great RPG but nope, can’t be the greatest with that much shortcoming.
He did agree to serve Irenicus willingly to start with (can't recall if the mentions were cut, but he was intended to be Tamoko's brother and looking for revenge on her killers) and sadly he was already geased before coming to realisations about the character of Irenicus and the PC.
Fun fact about the adamantine armor... it only turns to dust in the map where you leave the underdark. And the script only checks your inventory every several seconds. So the trick is to leave the underdark and immediately drop all your adamantine gear. The script doesn't check items on the ground, only items in inventory. Then set up a train of your party members as far as you can, pause the game, and quickly transfer all the items from one member to the next. Do this until you can dump all the items at the edge of the map, gather the party, and then pick up the items and immediately leave. Congrats! You now have full sets of adamantine armor, and as long as you don't go back to the underdark exit (no reason to), it'll never go away! Oh, and Yoshiro used to be super powerful. Before one of the later updates (I think it might have been with ToB), there wasn't a limit for how many traps he could put down. The level you had difficulty killing that red dragon? No issue for me; I just spent basically a week putting traps down around him, sleeping, then repeating. The red dragon died the second he went hostile, quite hilariously. Oh, and pick up the halfling fighter/wannabe Paladin. She's voiced by Jennifer Hale.
ah... bg2 my favorite game of all time. There's sooo much you missed but I don't want to spoil anything. Anyways you should play Throne of Bhaal to really finish the story.
Yoshimo is so effective the first time around. You get him so early and likely played for hours before he betrays you. I remember being angry at him and myself as it was all to good to be true.
Took me 20 years to even realize Yoshimo betrays you! He's such a weak character that I always gave him the boot before spellhold. On another note, don't bring a 6 character party to spellhold without Yoshimo, you will lose one of your companions forever when Imoen re-joins.
Hahaha, I really like you analogy about older siblings in the intro! The only exposure I had to this game as a kid, was watching my best friends older brother play it. He let us play Heroes 3 on his computer, but Baldurs Gate was strictly only allowed to be watched. Seeing the intro, it all clicks into place now!
Well, now that you're hooked like the rest of us junkies, let me suggest Throne of Bhaal (seems lots of people are making this suggestion). So happy to see you are enjoying it. Thanks again for doing these.
In your next playthrough, look into mods that speed up movement, add new banter, allow changes in the classes of some of your companions. It can feel like a brand new game.
A handy trick for Adamantite Golems: The Innkeeper of the Copper Coronet sells a pink Throwing Axe that is a magic weapon +2. It takes ages but since those golems don't fit through most doors, you can bait them and kill them from a distance. And the smaller golems too if they are trapped behind the Adamatinte. I found that stupid pink axe insanly useful throughout the entire game. Also Jaheira has a Spell "Ironskin" (or something like that) that makes her practically immun against physical damage, like Golems. And the rest of the party gets some blunt weapons and just hit it.😊
Welcome to some of the greatest RPGs ever. I'm glad you had great responses from the community. Honestly, the community around BG1 and BG2 is some of the nicest ever I've never once seen an instance of gatekeeping from them. They want others to experience the games to the fullest and they'll offer helpful tips and background info to anyone that wants or needs it. There's so much to the games, and so many pop culture references, that you really can't experience it all at one time. You mention Silence of the Lambs which is spot on for the development team. You'll meet a man named Bub Snickt in BG1 who is a Wolverine from Xmen reference. Next up, you need an evil playthrough of the series for the fun of it and because the evil NPCs are bonkers. Edwin is by far the best mage. Baeloth was added in EE and another broken character. Vickie is weak, but the best casting Cleric. Kagain in BG1 and Korgan in BG2 are more than capable fighter archetypes. They are awesome. And you use them to kill Drizzt. That's a checklist item for DnD fans. And following that, if you want to really experience the pinnacle of Infinity Engine games and DnD storytelling you need to play Planescape Torment. It's affectionately known as "The Greatest Game I Ever Read." You don't go in for the combat or gameplay, you go in for the story. Just set your Wis 18 and Int to 16 minimum at character creation.
I remember when a mod came out for the vampire crypts that included a whole new companion, complete with side quests, romance options. I remember it blowing my mind that a mod could be so in depth, at the time most mods were just portraits. I forget the companions name, but she was incredibly powerful.
These game defined my childhood, love seeing new players enjoy them as well! When/if you play again, I highly recommend checking out some of the top mods for BG2. With how much time has passed, people have made some incredible content that's just as good or even better than the core game stuff; like for example, certain minor NPCs like Solaufein and Valen are made into fully voiced party members that you can recruit, and you can even bring Xan back from the first game with a ton of new dialogue and character development.
anyone gaming in the early 2000s and prior knows graphics dont make the game, storyline and gameplay do. BG1 and 2 will always be one of the best examples of this. BG3 was good but it didnt live up. this was part of the golden age of gaming. younger people will never know what they missed.
THAT BEING SAID... the backgrounds are gorgeous. The "graphics" are bad only in that the characters are vague... but they're stylized rather than bad, IMO. (Seriously, compare BG's characters to, say, Metal Gear Solid. Probably my fav two series of all-time... MGS1's graphics don't hold up. I'd argue BG's largely do.)
I just disagree story and gameplay isn't just what makes the game for crying out loud look at the biggest RPG ever Skyrim has probably some of the worst gameplay and story ever. But it's fun and goofy and people like it. Games shouldn't be judged based off Graphics gameplay or story they should be based off how people enjoy it. You can't say Baldur's Gate 3 didn't live up to the other balders Gate games because it's story or gameplay wasn't as good when Baldur's Gate 3 is arguably the biggest of the three games it's just simply more fun to the majority of people then Baldur's Gate 1 or 2. I'm not trying to say Baldur's Gate 3 is better than 1 or 2 I'm just tired of people like you undermining it's achievement because it's supposedly didn't hold up to 1 or 2 but it somehow is the most popular make it make sense. Anf the Golden Age of gaming I think is subjective there are plenty of games that have come out in the past 5 years that I think are way better than 90% of the games that came out during your supposed golden age of Gaming.
If you start a multiplayer game you can still play it as single player, but it allows you to create more than one character for your party. Useful if you ever want to go through the game with a fun party composition. In addition to my main character, I wanted a half-orc fighter/thief with 19 Str dual-wielding katanas for insane backstab damage. You can also modify companions to be different classes for variety. Since I already had a thief, I played Imoen as a straight wild mage (Included in the Throne of Bhaal expansion) and I changed Jaheira to a Ranger/Cleric. In future playthrough keep an eye out for the other super weapon in addition to Carsomyr. It's a katana named Celestial Fury. It only has a +3 bonus, but it stuns on hit which is broken. It also casts blind, lightning bolt and crits for 20 lightning damage. Make sure you get Edwin for your evil playthrough, he's amazing, and DO NOT miss his personal side quest.
I always struggle with mind flayers too. My usual method is summoning a powerful magical animated sword with a niche high level wizard spell. It can't get it's brain extracted and is highly resistant to all the illithid offensive powers, which makes it solo most ecnounters.
"Geas" is pronounced "gesh" by the way. (It was a lot of years before I found that out.) Love that you're finding and getting a chance to enjoy the glory of BG 1 and 2, though. I'm going to strongly recommend playing Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment as well.
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are my most favorite games of all time (and I love Icewind Dale 1 and 2 which is like a side quest to Baldur's Gate). After playing trough Durlag's tower and Watcher's keep DLCs for Baldur's gate 1 and 2, you understand why Baldur's Gate 3 needs a DLC that would be just one or two very long dungeons, filled with monsters and loot :) I would pay 100 eur for that DLC :)
Do we get alignment-based scruff anymore though? Like Victoria and Sarevok both can become closer to good? Did that with Sarevok my first time through and he could no longer use the Githyanki anti-Paladin blade which sucked.
Bg1 and 2 are great still amazing. Especially with the brilliant mods that expand on plots, companions, story and UI/QoL mods that make the game feel less old. If you're the least into RPGs, they're a must play, along with Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect (back when Bioware wasn't just EA "content").
So fun watching this, thank you! I still found new things in this game 20 years and thousands of hours of gametime after I first played it, and the dozens of combinations of class / race / dual-class / multi-class were brilliant fun. It also completely rewarded digging deeper and deeper into the mechanics of the game to truly master the functional aspects of weapon / spell / items. It was the second best story game, and best overall game, I ever played. Planescape Torment (same engine / style to a large extent) was the best story game I ever played. BG3 rivals it in some ways due to technology and breadth of interwoven story, but Planescape is still a monumental achievement on it's own.
You can bring Rejiek to ultimate justice after the serial killer quest. Explore the area he supposedly escaped to and do all the sidequests. There is a capstone to the serial killer quest for evil main characters. Keep the human skin suit. You should find a note on where the killer was going to meet someone. After you get back from the underdark with another special ingredient obtained in an evil way, you can have a contact create a special suit of armor.
Only partway through the video (came here from your BG1 vid), and I definitely love seeing younger gamers from the newer generations going back to these games and loving them. One thing I like to point out is that at this point in time, Bioware was still actually self-aware regarding their games, but in a good way generally. You mention two things really early on, and it's an older game at this point so not so worried about spoiler comments... - Khalid being dead at the start of 2. Bioware listened to the general feedback regarding the forced-pairing party members, and Khalid in particular. One *very* common thing we did back in the day was to accept these two into our party (druids are awesome), and then take away all of Khalid's gear and let him die. If he died in battle, Jaheira would be upset but stay with the group and carry on, as a way to split the pair up and dump a character that was (stat-wise) dead weight. Bioware saw this, and just wrote him a plot death in BG2. - Many of us also Dual-Classed Imoen into having Magic User levels, because she had the perfect stats for it. It was so common that, again, Bioware saw that and rolled with it in BG2. These are the kinds of things that make those of us who were staunch Bioware fans back in the day increasingly... let's just be nice and say Dispirited with the current state of the studio and their games.
Out of curiosity was this is EE version you played through or no? The EE editions are definitely the way to play these days, you've got to play through throne of Bhaal. It's short but it's good and more high level stuff.
Throne of Bhaal is a must. They call it a DLC but it's basically this game's "Blood and Wine". It's massive and could almost could have been called Baldur's Gate 3. Because it does cap the story of your character and your party.
Thank you for posting your play through, it brought me back. BG1 was great but BG2 blew my mind. When my addiction to BG3 tones down a bit I decided I want to do a BG3 play through again.
It would be SO great if Larian does what they say they won't, which is release a Baldur's Gate 4, being to BG3 what BG2 was to BG1. The level capping, the quest for godhood, the high level game mechanics. Baldur's Gate 2, Shadows of Amn and the expansion Throne of Bhaal, is truly my favorite of all time, and has been since the day it came out more than two decades ago.
I don't think people understand how hard it was to make Baldur's Gate 3 making games nowadays are a lot harder than what they were back then the reason why Baldur's Gate 2 came out 2.5 years after bg1 was because it was a lot easier to make games back then and larian has said that making Baldur's Gate 3 was a nightmare and was very stressful for them which is why they aren't making a DLC or a 4th game.
Man, you really REALLY have to play again, find Valygar and do his quest. The Valygar family plot and quest is one of the best quests in the entire videogame industry!! Trust me, you dont regret to do it.
I knew something was up when yo usaid "30 hours". I remembered this game being a 40 to 60 hours adventure, PLUS the expansion which is like 20 or 30 more hours. It is such a good game!
If you loved drow society and its intricacies I recommend the Drizzt Do Urden books - specifically the Dark Elf trilogy by R.A Salvatore - It tells the life of the famous drow ranger - Drizzt Do'urden. The first book is all about the political intrigues and perils of growing up in drow society.
@@biscuitsticks3274 The final Book of that trilogy "Sojourn" is the best in my opinion, so you have the best yet to come. Also the Cleric Quintet Books which he wrote next are also really great and refreshingly different to the Drizzt books.
I remember play Baldur's gate 2 when I was young but was never able to finish it because I was too young to know what I was doing. I remember that at one point you get the to castle wheree you kill the troll and the game tells you that you need to defend the castle for an attack a day or 2 later. What i did next was dumb because I dump all my loot in a chest in the castle and left to kill the 2 shadow and red dragon. When I came back to the castle I couldn't go in because I failed to defend the castle so I lost all the quest item and I couldn't continue playing.
Biscuit Sticks did you do Anomen's quest? If you finsh his quest in the "correct" way he gets some stat increases, becoming a much better party member and changes personality where he stops being extremely annoying.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Irritatingly, the facts actually change depending on your choice. If you choose not to let him take revenge without evidence, then it's heavily implied it definitely was the rival guy, you just can't prove it well enough. If you do take revenge, on the other hand, it's revealed afterward to definitely not have been him. There's no winning with that quest, but it does make the choice to stick to principles more meaningful.
It still pisses me off how they butchered Viconia in bg3. not only did they turn her butt ugly, but they also completely destroyed her character. Woman who flees the drow because she refused to sacrifice a baby somehow ends up doing similar stuff for shar? That makes no sense. I wish they would have just left her out of the game completely.
I'm annoyed with it as someone who isn't at all invested in Viconia. Her identity feels like it should be an "Oh shit! It's *her!*" moment, but. I. Just didn't play these games, and Drow lore already annoys me with how pointlessly edgy it is. So... The Mother Superior is just. Fanservice, like Minsc. Jaheira and Sarevok very easily could have turned out the same if Larian didn't make them tragic.
my favourite mission is: Solve the "skinner" murders in the Bridge District... You should go with Saemon Havarian ... you lost a vorpal sword and the Wave Blade redeeming Yoshi's hearth gives a lot of XP
Glad you enjoyed BG2! I think it is the GOAT dungeon-crawler. There is a lot of stuff you skipped in BG1 if you want to start your evil character from level 1. The reputation system makes evil parties more fun (its easy in BG1/Siege of Dragonspear for a good party doing side quests to quickly become local heroes with 20 rep/OP merchant discounts/guard reactions, but an evil party collapses at that rep level, so you have to play with more thought). You get to do things like kill Drizzt Do'urden, a famous good-aligned Dark Elf ranger with some awesome loot. Your son of Bhaal powers are more predatory and combat oriented vs. good character party buffs. You get some great evil party members, like Viconia and Baeloth (the Entertainer!), who are the best cleric and spellcaster in BG1/SoD. Edwin is a very good caster too. Xzar is a bit shrill for me though. Baeloth gives Minsc competition for most beloved party member. Dorn, Kagain and Shar-Teel are all great evil warrior companions, with Dorn and Shar-Teel (need mod for her) available in Siege of Dragonspear too. Dorn also has a good revenge quest line. You can bring various neutral-aligned characters into an evil party. And you get to play some great BG1 content that you skipped--notably Durlag's Tower, but also battling sirens along the coast south of Candlekeep, doing missions in the village up the river from Baldur's Gate. Buying great stuff from the smith and Thalantyr the mage in/zone to the left of Beregost. Fighting for fun and loot various assassin teams sent to kill you. Doing some pretty fun side quests involving things like finding a lost dog, saving Thalantyr's wayward apprentice Mellecamp and taking on the world's fastest dart thrower and collecting some very rewarding bounties. And there are tons of good quests in Baldur's Gate city.
Thanks for the "heart". If you do BG1 again, here is some further advice. Pick up all the various permanent stat-buffing tomes you can, especially the three +1 wisdom tomes for Viconia. There is also one +1 strength tome, which you can use on a warrior (for example, if you do play the shadowknight you discussed), start him at 17 strength to conserve points for all the other stats a shadownight needs, then using the strength tome will permanently boost him from 17 straight through to 18/++, so gaining potentially 4 or 5 strength levels from one tome. There is also one each of dexterity tome (in a Baldurs Gate trash can of all places), constitution tome (gotta get that one from the sirens I mentioned) and a charisma tome (in Xvart/carrion crawler cave at the foot of the gnoll fortress. All these tome buffs last throughout BG1/Siege of Dragonspear/BG2/Throne of Bhaal for any character you use the tomes on.
Oh, and if you do Durlag's tower, start it from the quest village up the river from Baldur's Gate. That unlocks an extra, very fun quest line involving cultists trying to summon their patron diety.
Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and the dlc "Throne of Bhaal" (the end to the story of that Bhaalspawn) are a testament of how truly great games can stand the test of time. I think you would also like Planescape:Torment, another d&d game of those years with incredible story and characters.
After years of playing, i still uncover hidden gems in it. Best game ever made. And so many expansions to it ; aside from ThroneOfBhaal, there is also SiegeOfDragonspear prequal, as well as numerous unofficial patches and mods. In one of my favorite ones, in the TOB you get to resurrect Irenicus and have him join your party. There is even a redemption arc for him. 😊
I recently tried Boosteroid since my PC can’t run Baldur’s Gate III, and I was impressed. It’s a great solution for anyone with an older system-played smoothly without any lag or issues. Definitely a cool option!
Very Nice video. There's so much of the game you have yet to explore i envy you. If you are looking for a fresh and challenging experience i recommend the SCS mod. It's basically a community patch with balance changes. NPCs start using their potions, mages will start fights like they were pre-buff like your team and many other changes.
Use code BISCUITSTICKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box plus 20% off your next month at bit.ly/473lNhp!
Try the circus and keep Aerie in the next play through. Multi class Mage/Cleric is nasty tough. Especially in Theone of Bhaal. Also, make sure you have all 5 heads for the Flail of the Ages in Throne of Bhaal as it is the most powerful weapon by far.
Everyone should love that saving the drow lowers rep. It's the truth. You go against popular opinion you lose rep 😂
I always Dave her and she's a great cleric
Throne of Baal next hehehe
I'm 32, I remember watching my dad play this game and narrate the story to me when I was a little girl. I thinl that's what prompted my fascination for fantasy. years later i completed 20+ playthroughs. It's still the best ever RPG game to me and hits a very nostalgic note. The lore, the music, the visuals, I love everything about this game so much !
You have a wonderful father. Thank you for sharing.
You should try Icewind Dale (either one) and Neverwinter Nights 2.
I have been saying this for 20+ years. Although the first game holds a special place in my heart as the game that got me into D&D, RPGs and fantasy as a whole, BG2 is an absolute masterpiece.
I play BG/BG2 every year, and still consider BG2 to be the father of modern RPGs. It is the gold standard.
@@danbourlotos5188 I wish they would fix Druid xp at 13 ffs so I can solo the game
And fix werewolf shape shifter shits so cool to bad it’s completely useless after 5 hrs into the game other then a back caster and shitty tank
@@Killswitch1986 Tweaks Anthology mod has a component that rebalances the Shapeshifter class entirely. Ends up being one of the most OP classes in the game.
i have BG/BG2 on my switch. i try to play it but God it's so ugly and so clunky.
@@chrisathian5450 I get that. Its an older game, and older games, being limited by the graphics of the time, encourage you to use your imagination more to get swept up in the world. The clunkiness might go away with time the more you play and get used to the controls, but honestly... Its possible the games might just not be for you. They're a cornerstone of the genre, but that doesn't mean everyone has to like them!
I recommend that, if you're in BG1 and finding it hard to get into the game, trying playing BG2 first, instead. Most people enjoy 2 over 1. The opening cinematic will tell you everything you need to know about the first one. Its a perfectly viable way to get into the franchise and then, if you like it enough to want more, you can revisit BG1.
Just saying, that by not agreeing to team up with Saemon Havarian in Spellhold, you missed an entire big location with tons of loot
Oops... more fun for the second playthrough I guess lol
@@biscuitsticks3274 Also, the actual finale of the Bhaalspawn saga is Throne of Bhaal expansion (back in the day that's how DLCs were called, Expansions), and that's where you get to the DnD lvl 20 powerfantasy
@@Yaardrake seige of dragon spear is another expasnion that takes place afer the 1st balders gate and before BG 2 shadows of amn, it also take you to lvl 20 and has alot of the new mechanics, spells and weapons in the later expansions.
@@biscuitsticks3274 yeah none of the stuff in the Saughuin city you briefly vist with Havarian before ending up in the Underdark was critical , but there ARE some very nice items to be found there , you dont lose out on anything by taking that option as you still end up in the Underdark anyway ,and theres some fun interactions to be had there too so definitely worth taking that path next time . Theres far too many things to do for one playthrough , and a lot of choices you could only make if you were taking an evil route as opposed to the hero one, such as if you are an evil character you can continue the work of the seriel killer tanner and make a suit of human skin armor and a number of secret areas and dungeons you may not have found this time .
@@lobcat-j2oyou can’t get to lvl 20 in SoD. You can maybe get to lvl10 or 11.
You HAVE to play the expansion too, it has so many characters that will be familiar to you from BG3.
I'm stoked for Throne of Bhaal
like who?
@@vaclavgembala6773 the entire murder tribunal
@@paritoshd like sendai, abazigal and yaga shura?
@@vaclavgembala6773 yes
If only this game had more mages that were not Imoen.....
Isn't that right Edwin, Jan, Nalia and Aerie ?
Xan mod
@@TheLoneRanger-by2jp The Xan mod is a must-have for my playthroughs, love that rascal.
I am still obsessed with Aerie and wish she had been included in BG3
1) Hates Yoshimo.
2) Turns down Nalia De'Arnise (a mage) because he already has Yoshimo.
3) Doesn't recruit Edwin (best mage in the trilogy) when he encounters him.
4) Skips half the game because he's tired of not having a mage.
My head is spinning... 😂
Bruh if there's still half a game left after everything I did, I don't understand how this game can be played on a mobile phone.
Counterpoint: He may be the best but he also deserves to have two boots permanently shoved up both of his main openings.
Jan Jansen is an obviously superior choice for his turnip expertise.
@@biscuitsticks3274
I mean... you do know that what you did in the first game was basically a speed run, right? 😁
You skipped *THE MAJORITY* of the companions, for once.
And all of the DLC (included in the EE).
Edwin is the best mage in the game, but he's useless for a good party as he will just leave if and when you max your reputation. IMO Jan Jansen is the best thief in the game, also a decent mage. A very useful and very fun character.
@@gharn2594in bg2 you don't even need to care about reputation since you can just turn slayer form to get it reduced
I first played Baldur's Gate 2 in 2022 and it felt like finally coming out of Plato's Cave. The reason is that I grew up playing so many RPGs and believing that each one of them was innovating in their own way, improving upon each other. Then I decided to play BG2 and realized that... it was all there. It has always been there since 2000. Any form of "digital" (or virtual, or computer/console) RPG peaked with BG2 because while technology evolved insanely since 2000, the content hasn't.
By now I'm sure you know I'm not talking about gameplay, I'm not even talking about story. I'm talking about the blueprint, how it was done and then replicated hundreds of times during these 24 years. It can be isometric, 3rd person, 1st person, 2D, 3D or sidescroller, 99.9% of the western RPGs are in Baldur's Gate 2.
There are two ways to look at this, either BG2 was so good that it peaked an entire genre and nothing was able to reinvent it 24 years later, OR we simply lack the creativity to come up with something new.
I think if more developers used the dnd blueprint like bioware and larian did, it would result in better games. I agree with your take 100%
I think games went from a passion and art to corporate greed and live service fucking ur wallet and rearranging ur asshole like a rubix cube with frustration and drip fed content and the promise of it will be better next season or next year or next patch or next update or next this next that toss in battle passes and pay to win bs and u got games in a nut shell throne and liberty and ashes of creation is my last hope for gaming and diablo4 really hit my feelers hard in the omegalawl fuckn suck depression department d4 is so bad it hurts .. im so sad that years of anticipation and excitement and nostalgia is met with half baked games and unfinished unpolished dogshit
bg2 is good but this level of glazing is actually delusional
I don't think that's true.
Games like NWN or the more modern Pillar of Eternity followed in BG's footsteps for obvious reasons. But many unrelated games also contributed to the pool of ideas. There's the Fallout series, which is unrelated to BG's heritage. I think the Elder Scrolls series is also unrelated. And what about games like Cyberpunk or Elden Ring (technically, this is an RPG game😂)?
P.S. If you haven't played Disco Elysium, try it. It's refreshing.
@@kirillbobrovskikh1174 glad someone has a reasonable take here
A Viconia romance is worth a BG2 play through itself. While she doesn’t have a companion quest per se, her romance is one of the most complex and long running in any game I’ve ever played-spanning into the Throne of Bhaal expansion. There’s ups and downs, some exclusive fights, and a redemption arc that make it worth it. If, of course, you make the right choices. Lol.
Quite a powerful companion and makes the underdark interesting especially if doing the romance. Really enjoyed Viconia in my party
Too bad her redemption isn’t canon, based on what she did to Shart.
Facts. It's dope how they made the Viconia romance able go in different directions depending on PC alignment decisions.
@@Fitzftw7 Larian turned one of the most complex BG2 characters into a comedically evil villain.
The game has a fuckton of replay value. Kill the hidden liches, get every rare shard of weapons to assemble, heard every banter between party member....i'd replay just to hear jan mocking anomen again.
The Whole Demigorgon tower! ... Like yeah, we fought him well before Strangers things turned him into a freakin' low-level npc! Demigorgon is a fucking INSANE fight. You are literally going against one of the princes of hell. He has so much ahead of him if he plays this game again. Especially if he plays the *real BG3* , the expansion.
Witness, Kangaxx!
Going back to bully the dragons from chapter 2 is such a satisfying experience.
Borderline therapeutic
On one hand i get it. On the other hand my mc is mostly a wizard and i setup a few sequencers to kill dragons. You just strip them of their magic resist and then hit them with finger of death.
This also works on Irenicus, he can be killed in 1-2 rounds of combat. The only things you can't really bully is stuff with mental effects like confusion... Those Illithids for example.
I bear the dragons as soon as I met them in core difficulty. 😤
That sword is great too if Kedlorn’s story wasn’t that he should accept being a cuckold with 8 Dex.
@@morgothable EE fixed a host of things such as berserking now making you immune to mind control ... so minsc or that berserk dwarf mince meats those illithids in short order also enemies in EE no longer have infinite spells so no longer Kangaxx the lich with infinite time stops nuking and time stopping your party until your deathward buffs run out ...
When you replay it I hope you find Lilarcor. Lilarcor and Minsc always was my duo of mad men. Godspeed to again playing this masterpiece. You have seen about 50 % of the game! Also, Nalia is a pretty decent mage herself, albeit with an evil playthrough you need to find Edwyn.
I just always have a soft-spot for Sentient weapons. (Plus, a +3 sword that early in the game? Beastly.)
@@SchulzEricT Sentient? Yes. Intelligent? ...not as such. :P
YESSSS!!!! That Serial Killer investigation quest is seared into my brain. Of all the things I remember about my Baldur's Gate 2 playthrough, that particular quest, that particular area and writing is just, ugh, disgusting and twisted beyond belief, and utterly amazing because of how it all comes together. I have only played the game once, (203 hours playthrough), but that quest is just, whenever I think about BG2, it's at the forefront of my mind. So glad you did it.
Heya just to let you know that I made a mod that expands on this quest (the Twisted Rune) and the Cowled Wizards. It's called The Cowled Menace on gibberlings3 website
That is why BG3 had such big shoes to fill. BG2+Throne of Bhaal are the masterpieces! Luckily, BG3 didn't disappoint, which was very possible, because of the quality of previous games.
I built my first computer right when BG2 was released. I was a 2.something gig install with a manual damn-near the size of a school textbook.
It was love. The voice acting, the customization. I had to go back and get BG1 shortly after getting it. It made me fall in love with Forgotten Realms and eventually got me to go into a hobby shop and play for the first time (sometime after 3.0 came out, so the rules were different)
I'm glad to see it get some love! This game is one of my all time favorites. I've got 700+ hours on the Enhanced steam version, and countless more from disk back in the day.
My only regret is that I couldn't talk my friends into doing a BG2 lan-party. Just had to use GameSpy at the time
great story
Which FR book is your favorite btw ?
Just adding some quotes from the best sword in the history of video games:
Lilarcor: "What's my status? Since when you do you care about me, unless I'm impaled in someone's guts? Oh, well, fine, let me think for a minute..."
You get one of the four lines below:
"Hmph. I suppose I'm okay. Why? Are we gonna kill something now? No? How about now? No? Hmmm... now, maybe? Grrrrrr..."
"I think you need take better care of me. I've got more chips than a blind beaver... I look like a second-rate pig poker."
"I'd appreciate some quality time in my scabbard. Take a break... ahhhh, who am I kidding? Attack! Battle! Kill! Hee heeee...... this is what I live for!"
"Well, since you asked, I would like to register a complaint. I want to kill a dragon. Right now. Go find one and kill it. That would be SO cool."
Note that if Minsc is in the party, he will respond:
"Minsc agrees! It would be the essence of epic heroing! Dead dragons should litter our path wherever we go!"
Lilarcor: "Ooh... I agree with the Rashemaar! Give me to him, will ya? C'mon! What a pair we'd make! Oh, me the brains with the edge, him the brawn with the hamster! A legend in the making..."
When asking Lilarcor for advice
Lilarcor: The sword whistles, incredulous. "Advice, eh? Well, besides working on your swordmanship. Besides that, I'd have to think."
"Hmmm... find someone rich, and kill them. Find someone richer, and kill them, too! Hack and slash your way to fortune! Woo-hoo!!"
Quite a few side quests have exclusive paths that only become available to you if you are an evil alignment. You also missed Jaheira’s companion quest which is very long and fulfilling and masterfully written. Oh well
Viconia had the best companion quest. The ultimate "I can fix her".
@@mercb3ast Nah Jaheira’s is better. Are you referring to her in ToB? She doesn’t have a quest in SoA. Jaheira (BG2 version) is the best companion in the entire Baldur’s Gate Franchise bar none, but Viconia is more attractive lmao.
@@mercb3ast fun fact - Viconia is the only companion without a side quest. She had one but the devs thought it too weird and scrapped it. She had been infected with lycanthropy and that is why she's being burnt at the stake by zealots of Basheba because she is a 'monster' referencing her lycanthropy and not her race. It's a double-edged sword because lycanthropes belong to Selune, who is Shar's opposite. I don't think the side quest offered much in the way of personal development for Viconia, I believe it was just another way to make her indebted to the player and their companions.
@@jackhughes124 if you romance her, it’s effectively a game long companion quest that runs over into ToB. Her being hunted, her hot/cold back and forth, and ultimately, her redemption arc (if you’re able to pull it off) is definitely worth it.
Oh man you missed like half the game. The entire sewers below the city with temple of nameless gods, pirate island and underwater city, tower of Demogorgon (can be entered in Throne of Bhaal too though), so so many sidequests, like going to different planes of existance from portal beneath the theatre, or the giant golden ball in the Slums district... And romances, do you know you can be in a relationship with certain character and if you two keep being together she gives birth to a baby in the expansion? It literally becomes an item in the inventory like a familiar. Oh ya btw mages can summon their pets and interact with them, outside of the inventory screen. And one sideplot that hints at Mind Flayers plotting to take over Baldurs Gate! BG3 came to be with the story it did just because of one message from a side quest in BG2 !!! As someone who played BG3 first you really should have included that bit in the video. This game is HUGE. Perhaps you'll make another one for your second playthrough. Good video (both this and the one about BG1, though that one also misses 50% of game content), good for you for promoting old diamonds to newer audience. I'm looking forward to seeing the third video about ToB. Cheers!
Great vid, consider the expansion - it's the finale that really ties the story together, "Throne of Bhaal".
Yeah, for real. It's called the Baldur's Gate Trilogy quite commonly because the expansion is so goddamned good it could have been its own game
@@mickrov If you add in the Watcher’s Keep it really is big enough for its own game.
You're Nobodhi till Somebodhi loves you!
Ithilid lair can be cheesed with a i-do-not-remember-the-name shield that negates their powers completely. You give it to a character, leave the rest of the party safely in the corner and solo the entire dungeon with no trouble
Thats for one of the other lairs in that area. Not going to say which one for spoilers
You can also use animate dead or summon invisible stalker. Those summons are immune to the mindflayer mind blast. Just cast haste on them so they kill faster.
The Shield of Balduran iirc. It's been a few years
Balduran’s Shield. Apparently he didn’t have that when going to Moonrise in BG3, lol
@@moody_mage3724 and it doesn't block/reflect everything, the... tougher ones, can still mess you up with spells IIRC.
Finally you have a mage? You can get access to Edwin in the docks district almost immediately! And he’s the best caster in the game!
Not to mention he could also have picked Nalia (who’s also a thief) and Aerie (who’s also a cleric)
The thing other reviewers often miss when comparing all 3 Baldurs Gate games to other games is the huge advantage these games have by being set in Forgotten Realms. First you have millions of D&D gamers being creative and a few of them being inspired to make games and write books in the setting from the 80s onwards. but then equally people being inspired by the books and games. With the advent of the internet huge communities popped up everywhere and added their own content to this world. No other Fantasy setting has more lore to access than FR. None. its not comparable. And that makes the games inevitably rich and full of interesting stories.
For your evil playthrough, I strongly recommend an elf fighter/mage multi class. Its one of the strongest classes in the game. You'll only be slightly worse than a normal fighter, which is easily compensated by broken magic.
If you plan on romancing viconia, I'd go with half-elf, as viconia won't date elves because of the "elves vs dark elves" thing.
If you do date viconia though; and you decide not to ascend to godhood - which as far as I know since I've looked it up, is the only way to keep the romances; which sucks b(h)alls because Gods CAN have Consorts... - then she will die in the epilogue credits, from being hunted. So it's actually better not to romance her, because I think she lives through that. Which may be how she appears in BG3... but I still say that game should've been it's own thing because the rite to ressurect bhall required the deaths of ALL the bhallspawn, and he's canonically ressurected. (Which sucks even more for Abdel...)
I will at some point repurchase the beamdog disks. I did try the series, but didn't actually beat the first game I don't think. I did try to get into the expansion before BG2... cause I know BG2 is supposed to be a lot more fun for Monk (sue me, it's my favorite fighting style... and yeah I like to do things the hard way lol) I just got disheartened when I read about the ascending to godhood means you give up your romance. : /
Duals from fighter to mage are stronger tbh, either kensai or berserker, grandmastery rocks and you level in mage much MUCH faster, and cause you're a human you get a drussy too
@@АртемРущак-ь7х Yes, but dual classes are not recommended for new players as it requires a lot of meta knowledge to do it right and for it to not be a really tedious experience. Plus the vanilla game is easy enough that you don't need that extra power.
With a multiclass, you can still just enjoy the game without thinking about all of that.
@@localman9063 True, although i wouldn't say that you need to know that much, since your concerns for the build are mostly early exp to get your first class going and weapon choice, and there's guides for that, if you want to use them ofc, but yeah, you're right
best class for a 2nd playthrough is a wild mage.
i recomend planescape torment after Bg2 dlc
Great video. You are wrong about Yoshimo, tho.
Spoilers ahead.
If you travel with Nalia, it quickly becomes apparent he is a good man when they banter. Yoshimo also gave at least lip service to a Lawful Good god called Illmater, which is the god of self sacrifice and martyrdon. The Geas that was on his heart was way, way out of the ordinary, put there by one of the greatest elven mages of the forgotten realms. And most important of all... Yoshimo came all the way here from his home-land in search of a loved one, Tamoko, which was Sarevok's lover. Same one that helps him kill Gorion. It is unclear if Tamoko is his sister or lover or what else, but when Yoshimo finds out about her death he wants revenge. He joins up with Irenicus and it is kind of implied he is also the person who captures you originally. But he has a bit of a change of heart, while travelling with you. There is some cut content on his quest and dialogues that some mods add back in and even expand on with a full romance, etc, but the gist of it is... Yoshimo was a good man who, driven to revenge, fell in with Jon Irenicus. And no one who has ever dealt with Irenicus comes out of it unscathed.
It bothers me that you would leave his soul to languish in hell when it costs literally nothing to have his geas removed removed in a temple and it awards you with a lot of xp...
He would have allowed Ireicus to slaughter countless men woman and children in Suldanesallar just to save his own life. There is no amount of sad back story that would make me like him.
@@biscuitsticks3274 not like. Understand.
Counter-point, what if you are doing a dwarf-run and elf lives don’t matter.
She was his sister, I think, IIRC.
A good man doesn't seek revenge, he seeks justice.
His sister Tamoko was a murderous bitch who fell for a psychopath. A good man would have admitted that, mourned her and do what he could to make up for her sins.
A good man would have asked some questions around the Sword Coast and BG about who and what the Bhaalspawn had done to help the people.
A good man would have recognised the pathology and malice that drove Irenicus and Bodhi.
Did you not get strongholds? Like the cabin in umar hills for your ranger. Not that they're necessary, but still an interesting and fun part of the game.
I left a lot out because the video was already pretty long but yeah I did the Umar Hills mission.
Evil playthroughs are very fun in this game. It also doesn't hurt that the evil party members are the most powerful in the game. Running the full evil cast of Edwin, Dorn, Viconia, Korgan and Clara/Hexxat is great and gives you a well rounded party covering all your bases.
One warning I will give is just be carefull not to drop your reputation too low, too early on. The game will react to your evil shenanigans and send dudes to kill you. This can soft lock your game if your party is not powerful enough to deal with it.
I'm in the throws of my evil playthrough now and I'm loving Korgan so much. +4 in axes is kinda nutty. My rep also dipped too low after I killed Lady De Arnise for hating poor people and Yoshi and Cernd left my party so I'll have to balance that I guess.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Korgan is great and his battlerage ability is just a better version of beserk. Thankfully the enhanced edition adds 2 extra evil characters, so you can run a full evil party. You just have to deal with the other consequences of having terrible reputation.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Korgan is a killing machine and hands down the best martial companion you can get! If you buff him up a bit and haste him he can solo most encounters. And his dialogue is hilarious as well. "Me axe be bloody ready!"
The best part about the game... the epic voice acting. It's just a shame they didn't have voices for every single piece of dialogue (they only voice the first sentence).
Which lends itself to the interactions between characters. Romance Aerie, Jaheira, and Viconia.... all 3 almost gets into catfights. Viconia and Keldorn chirping at each other the entire time. Edwin trash talking everybody. Minsc is comedic at all. Even the Lilicor sword is funny to equip.
I always gave that sword to minsc. It just seemed appropriate he would have a talking sword lol
not to mention romances and bonds created between the NPCs themselves!
I would really recommend play Planescape Torment as well. The less you know going into it the better.
I'm considering Icewind Dale after my evil playthrough but I'll check it out for sure!
@@biscuitsticks3274 IWD is a much more shallow experience. No companions with personality (your party is all player-created; useful, but not as fun), and it's a much more action/combat-centric game.
I never got into either. I wouldn't discourage you from giving it a shot, but just know going in that it has nowhere near the depth in story or character.
And IWD2, if I recall correctly, has 3rd edition rules... 3rd edition rules standardize some things in ways I find satisfying - it was bullshit that certain races couldn't be certain classes - but overall... 3rd edition sucks ass. I think 2nd edition is a lot more fun, and its nuances offer so much more, if you know how to take advantage of its idiosyncrasies. Again, I wouldn't encourage you to not play it; by all means, expose yourself to 3rd edition rules and decide for yourself which you prefer, what you like about each ruleset. But again, just don't go into IWD, 1 or 2, thinking it'll be more BG-esque story-telling, with rich companions and an epic powered protagonist.
@@biscuitsticks3274 In general, if you like the combat/tactical challenge of the BG games, you'll probably enjoy Icewind Dale a lot. If you like the story, themes, and characters of BG.... hoo boy. You'll REALLY like Planescape Torment.
I still play through Baldur's Gate II once a year as I have every year since it came out, it never gets old. After 20+ years I still find new items and quests I never knew existed. The game is just that big.
I have played it so many times and indeed still find new things that I haven't seen before. I love BG3 but BG2 SOA & TOB hold a special place in my heart. I'll probably be playing them for the rest of my life.
I guess you havent found kangax in the city because it would clealry have been mentioned.
Probably the biggest oh f... moment in the game for me for the first time playthorugh
To the point that Dragon Age 1 has a direct homage which wrecks almost as much face as a bonus boss.
I'm about as old as BG1 but I'm really glad I went back to play it and BG2. BG2 is legitimately one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and considering that the gameplay is often painful that says even more. My biggest longshot dream is a recreation of BG2 in the BG3 engine. BG1 can come too.
Loved both this and the BG1 video! Amazing job doing a 30 minute video of what to me was like a 120 hour game but still getting the spirit of it down to a T.
I'm curious since you turned down the difficulty of BG1 at the end what you played this at?
I played this on normal so I wouldn't hit another wall, but now that I'm more comfortable with these games I've started an evil run on veteran and I'm stomping everything so far. I'm really happy you enjoyed!!
I am not sure which is the greatest but I don’t think it’s BG2.
Played it back at release. Beat it. Beat the expansion too. Tried a couple of mods.
It’s great . Here’s my problems though :
- it’s a theme park with rides everywhere. There is no organic feeling of the world whatsoever BG1 felt like a real world with plenty of forests and caves.
- it turns into a light and sound spectacle pretty quick. Specifically it scales very badly - in Throne of Baal it becomes outright ridiculous : every weapon you find is +2 or +3
- limited choice and consequence - it’s a cornerstone of proper RPG. BG2 did develop romance , for better or for worse , but it offers Limited choices in quest resolution and close to none in the main quest. An evil playthrough is hard (your reputation will jack up the prices . You will have to deal with cops) and offers very little in content /narrative.
Great RPG but nope, can’t be the greatest with that much shortcoming.
16:50 Leave my boy Yoshimo alone, he is under the effect of Geas and if he disobeys he dies 😢
IM A YOSHI HATER TILL I DIE
@@biscuitsticks3274 noooo
He did agree to serve Irenicus willingly to start with (can't recall if the mentions were cut, but he was intended to be Tamoko's brother and looking for revenge on her killers) and sadly he was already geased before coming to realisations about the character of Irenicus and the PC.
Fun fact about the adamantine armor... it only turns to dust in the map where you leave the underdark. And the script only checks your inventory every several seconds.
So the trick is to leave the underdark and immediately drop all your adamantine gear. The script doesn't check items on the ground, only items in inventory. Then set up a train of your party members as far as you can, pause the game, and quickly transfer all the items from one member to the next. Do this until you can dump all the items at the edge of the map, gather the party, and then pick up the items and immediately leave.
Congrats! You now have full sets of adamantine armor, and as long as you don't go back to the underdark exit (no reason to), it'll never go away!
Oh, and Yoshiro used to be super powerful. Before one of the later updates (I think it might have been with ToB), there wasn't a limit for how many traps he could put down. The level you had difficulty killing that red dragon? No issue for me; I just spent basically a week putting traps down around him, sleeping, then repeating. The red dragon died the second he went hostile, quite hilariously.
Oh, and pick up the halfling fighter/wannabe Paladin. She's voiced by Jennifer Hale.
ah... bg2 my favorite game of all time.
There's sooo much you missed but I don't want to spoil anything. Anyways you should play Throne of Bhaal to really finish the story.
Yoshimo is so effective the first time around. You get him so early and likely played for hours before he betrays you. I remember being angry at him and myself as it was all to good to be true.
Leaves a perfect slot for Imoen to return, at least, so you don't need to decide who you're removing from the party at spellhold.
Took me 20 years to even realize Yoshimo betrays you! He's such a weak character that I always gave him the boot before spellhold. On another note, don't bring a 6 character party to spellhold without Yoshimo, you will lose one of your companions forever when Imoen re-joins.
@@alexg5189 In that regard, he's handy to bring to Spellhold :P
I played BG2 back when it came out. And started playing in 2024 and it’s still my favourite PC game ❤
Hahaha, I really like you analogy about older siblings in the intro! The only exposure I had to this game as a kid, was watching my best friends older brother play it. He let us play Heroes 3 on his computer, but Baldurs Gate was strictly only allowed to be watched. Seeing the intro, it all clicks into place now!
That's really awesome thank you for sharing that.
BG2 is the reason i hide an annoying sentient weapon in all if my dnd campaigns 😂
Well, now that you're hooked like the rest of us junkies, let me suggest Throne of Bhaal (seems lots of people are making this suggestion). So happy to see you are enjoying it. Thanks again for doing these.
I'm really glad you enjoyed!! I think im going to take my evil run into the expansion first.
Yes it is arguably one of, if not THE, best game ever made.
BG3 was pretty great all things considered, but doesn't hold a candlekeep to this one.
Contrary to a lot of players i really liked having Neera on my team in both BG 1 and 2. She might be my favorite character from the series.
In your next playthrough, look into mods that speed up movement, add new banter, allow changes in the classes of some of your companions. It can feel like a brand new game.
Top game of all times, i still remember how much fun i had with Edwin, Korgan and Jan playing as a kid.
A handy trick for Adamantite Golems: The Innkeeper of the Copper Coronet sells a pink Throwing Axe that is a magic weapon +2. It takes ages but since those golems don't fit through most doors, you can bait them and kill them from a distance. And the smaller golems too if they are trapped behind the Adamatinte. I found that stupid pink axe insanly useful throughout the entire game.
Also Jaheira has a Spell "Ironskin" (or something like that) that makes her practically immun against physical damage, like Golems. And the rest of the party gets some blunt weapons and just hit it.😊
Be sure to have a Rogue Stone in your inventory and go around Athkatla's Bridge District and start unlocking doors to houses.
Oh, boy, I've subbed when the first one released, waiting for this one. I'll grab the popcorn.
Heeellll yeah
If you have a character who can wield a hammer you may want to forge the Crom Feyr. It's pretty good... Also, cool playthrough 👍
0:58 they had us in the first half but we come back around
Welcome to some of the greatest RPGs ever. I'm glad you had great responses from the community. Honestly, the community around BG1 and BG2 is some of the nicest ever I've never once seen an instance of gatekeeping from them. They want others to experience the games to the fullest and they'll offer helpful tips and background info to anyone that wants or needs it. There's so much to the games, and so many pop culture references, that you really can't experience it all at one time. You mention Silence of the Lambs which is spot on for the development team. You'll meet a man named Bub Snickt in BG1 who is a Wolverine from Xmen reference.
Next up, you need an evil playthrough of the series for the fun of it and because the evil NPCs are bonkers. Edwin is by far the best mage. Baeloth was added in EE and another broken character. Vickie is weak, but the best casting Cleric. Kagain in BG1 and Korgan in BG2 are more than capable fighter archetypes. They are awesome. And you use them to kill Drizzt. That's a checklist item for DnD fans.
And following that, if you want to really experience the pinnacle of Infinity Engine games and DnD storytelling you need to play Planescape Torment. It's affectionately known as "The Greatest Game I Ever Read." You don't go in for the combat or gameplay, you go in for the story. Just set your Wis 18 and Int to 16 minimum at character creation.
still the best dungeons and dragons game to date
I remember when a mod came out for the vampire crypts that included a whole new companion, complete with side quests, romance options. I remember it blowing my mind that a mod could be so in depth, at the time most mods were just portraits.
I forget the companions name, but she was incredibly powerful.
These game defined my childhood, love seeing new players enjoy them as well! When/if you play again, I highly recommend checking out some of the top mods for BG2. With how much time has passed, people have made some incredible content that's just as good or even better than the core game stuff; like for example, certain minor NPCs like Solaufein and Valen are made into fully voiced party members that you can recruit, and you can even bring Xan back from the first game with a ton of new dialogue and character development.
anyone gaming in the early 2000s and prior knows graphics dont make the game, storyline and gameplay do. BG1 and 2 will always be one of the best examples of this. BG3 was good but it didnt live up. this was part of the golden age of gaming. younger people will never know what they missed.
THAT BEING SAID... the backgrounds are gorgeous. The "graphics" are bad only in that the characters are vague... but they're stylized rather than bad, IMO. (Seriously, compare BG's characters to, say, Metal Gear Solid. Probably my fav two series of all-time... MGS1's graphics don't hold up. I'd argue BG's largely do.)
I just disagree story and gameplay isn't just what makes the game for crying out loud look at the biggest RPG ever Skyrim has probably some of the worst gameplay and story ever. But it's fun and goofy and people like it. Games shouldn't be judged based off Graphics gameplay or story they should be based off how people enjoy it. You can't say Baldur's Gate 3 didn't live up to the other balders Gate games because it's story or gameplay wasn't as good when Baldur's Gate 3 is arguably the biggest of the three games it's just simply more fun to the majority of people then Baldur's Gate 1 or 2. I'm not trying to say Baldur's Gate 3 is better than 1 or 2 I'm just tired of people like you undermining it's achievement because it's supposedly didn't hold up to 1 or 2 but it somehow is the most popular make it make sense. Anf the Golden Age of gaming I think is subjective there are plenty of games that have come out in the past 5 years that I think are way better than 90% of the games that came out during your supposed golden age of Gaming.
You do of course need to play the expansion "Throne of Bhaal" to get to the ending of your characters story.
If you start a multiplayer game you can still play it as single player, but it allows you to create more than one character for your party. Useful if you ever want to go through the game with a fun party composition. In addition to my main character, I wanted a half-orc fighter/thief with 19 Str dual-wielding katanas for insane backstab damage. You can also modify companions to be different classes for variety. Since I already had a thief, I played Imoen as a straight wild mage (Included in the Throne of Bhaal expansion) and I changed Jaheira to a Ranger/Cleric. In future playthrough keep an eye out for the other super weapon in addition to Carsomyr. It's a katana named Celestial Fury. It only has a +3 bonus, but it stuns on hit which is broken. It also casts blind, lightning bolt and crits for 20 lightning damage. Make sure you get Edwin for your evil playthrough, he's amazing, and DO NOT miss his personal side quest.
I always struggle with mind flayers too. My usual method is summoning a powerful magical animated sword with a niche high level wizard spell. It can't get it's brain extracted and is highly resistant to all the illithid offensive powers, which makes it solo most ecnounters.
loved both your BG1 and BG2 video, didn't know they were that good. Might have to give them a shot myself.
"Geas" is pronounced "gesh" by the way. (It was a lot of years before I found that out.) Love that you're finding and getting a chance to enjoy the glory of BG 1 and 2, though. I'm going to strongly recommend playing Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment as well.
I did buy ice wind dale! I'm excited for it
Baldurs gate and IWD were some of my faves! Fem Boy Certified!
Love the vid :)
Based
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are my most favorite games of all time (and I love Icewind Dale 1 and 2 which is like a side quest to Baldur's Gate). After playing trough Durlag's tower and Watcher's keep DLCs for Baldur's gate 1 and 2, you understand why Baldur's Gate 3 needs a DLC that would be just one or two very long dungeons, filled with monsters and loot :) I would pay 100 eur for that DLC :)
Do we get alignment-based scruff anymore though? Like Victoria and Sarevok both can become closer to good? Did that with Sarevok my first time through and he could no longer use the Githyanki anti-Paladin blade which sucked.
Bg1 and 2 are great still amazing. Especially with the brilliant mods that expand on plots, companions, story and UI/QoL mods that make the game feel less old. If you're the least into RPGs, they're a must play, along with Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect (back when Bioware wasn't just EA "content").
So fun watching this, thank you!
I still found new things in this game 20 years and thousands of hours of gametime after I first played it, and the dozens of combinations of class / race / dual-class / multi-class were brilliant fun. It also completely rewarded digging deeper and deeper into the mechanics of the game to truly master the functional aspects of weapon / spell / items.
It was the second best story game, and best overall game, I ever played. Planescape Torment (same engine / style to a large extent) was the best story game I ever played. BG3 rivals it in some ways due to technology and breadth of interwoven story, but Planescape is still a monumental achievement on it's own.
You can bring Rejiek to ultimate justice after the serial killer quest. Explore the area he supposedly escaped to and do all the sidequests. There is a capstone to the serial killer quest for evil main characters. Keep the human skin suit. You should find a note on where the killer was going to meet someone. After you get back from the underdark with another special ingredient obtained in an evil way, you can have a contact create a special suit of armor.
well.. no argument there, I am playing BG2 on a loop since it released.
Still to this day, my favorite game of all time. I can't thank you enough for this. This game is slowly being forgotten. Let's keep it alive!!!!
Only partway through the video (came here from your BG1 vid), and I definitely love seeing younger gamers from the newer generations going back to these games and loving them.
One thing I like to point out is that at this point in time, Bioware was still actually self-aware regarding their games, but in a good way generally. You mention two things really early on, and it's an older game at this point so not so worried about spoiler comments...
- Khalid being dead at the start of 2. Bioware listened to the general feedback regarding the forced-pairing party members, and Khalid in particular. One *very* common thing we did back in the day was to accept these two into our party (druids are awesome), and then take away all of Khalid's gear and let him die. If he died in battle, Jaheira would be upset but stay with the group and carry on, as a way to split the pair up and dump a character that was (stat-wise) dead weight. Bioware saw this, and just wrote him a plot death in BG2.
- Many of us also Dual-Classed Imoen into having Magic User levels, because she had the perfect stats for it. It was so common that, again, Bioware saw that and rolled with it in BG2.
These are the kinds of things that make those of us who were staunch Bioware fans back in the day increasingly... let's just be nice and say Dispirited with the current state of the studio and their games.
Grew up playing the original BG series and BG2 is one of my all time favorite games. I play through it every couple years.
Out of curiosity was this is EE version you played through or no? The EE editions are definitely the way to play these days, you've got to play through throne of Bhaal. It's short but it's good and more high level stuff.
Throne of Bhaal is a must. They call it a DLC but it's basically this game's "Blood and Wine". It's massive and could almost could have been called Baldur's Gate 3. Because it does cap the story of your character and your party.
my favorite game of all time, I go back and play it like once a year
Thank you for posting your play through, it brought me back. BG1 was great but BG2 blew my mind. When my addiction to BG3 tones down a bit I decided I want to do a BG3 play through again.
It would be SO great if Larian does what they say they won't, which is release a Baldur's Gate 4, being to BG3 what BG2 was to BG1. The level capping, the quest for godhood, the high level game mechanics. Baldur's Gate 2, Shadows of Amn and the expansion Throne of Bhaal, is truly my favorite of all time, and has been since the day it came out more than two decades ago.
I don't think people understand how hard it was to make Baldur's Gate 3 making games nowadays are a lot harder than what they were back then the reason why Baldur's Gate 2 came out 2.5 years after bg1 was because it was a lot easier to make games back then and larian has said that making Baldur's Gate 3 was a nightmare and was very stressful for them which is why they aren't making a DLC or a 4th game.
Man, you really REALLY have to play again, find Valygar and do his quest. The Valygar family plot and quest is one of the best quests in the entire videogame industry!! Trust me, you dont regret to do it.
I knew something was up when yo usaid "30 hours". I remembered this game being a 40 to 60 hours adventure, PLUS the expansion which is like 20 or 30 more hours. It is such a good game!
You better be doin Throne of Baal, it just ties up the story so well.
If you loved drow society and its intricacies I recommend the Drizzt Do Urden books - specifically the Dark Elf trilogy by R.A Salvatore - It tells the life of the famous drow ranger - Drizzt Do'urden. The first book is all about the political intrigues and perils of growing up in drow society.
best FR books by a country mile but i aso get sentimental about the Phlan books and the Shandril books
I started reading them and I'm almost done with Exile. I've only cried like twice so far.
@@biscuitsticks3274 The final Book of that trilogy "Sojourn" is the best in my opinion, so you have the best yet to come. Also the Cleric Quintet Books which he wrote next are also really great and refreshingly different to the Drizzt books.
My hat off to you. A beautiful, thoughtful walkthrough of BG 2. Thank you.
What kind words, I appreciate it very much.
The silver dragon in the Underdark and the Skinner mission are connected if I remember correctly.
I remember play Baldur's gate 2 when I was young but was never able to finish it because I was too young to know what I was doing. I remember that at one point you get the to castle wheree you kill the troll and the game tells you that you need to defend the castle for an attack a day or 2 later. What i did next was dumb because I dump all my loot in a chest in the castle and left to kill the 2 shadow and red dragon. When I came back to the castle I couldn't go in because I failed to defend the castle so I lost all the quest item and I couldn't continue playing.
Biscuit Sticks did you do Anomen's quest? If you finsh his quest in the "correct" way he gets some stat increases, becoming a much better party member and changes personality where he stops being extremely annoying.
I sure did. I did not let him kill that one dude with no evidence and he changed to Lawful Good I think.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Nice. I think he is quite underated and is actually a very solid compainion.
@@biscuitsticks3274 Irritatingly, the facts actually change depending on your choice. If you choose not to let him take revenge without evidence, then it's heavily implied it definitely was the rival guy, you just can't prove it well enough. If you do take revenge, on the other hand, it's revealed afterward to definitely not have been him. There's no winning with that quest, but it does make the choice to stick to principles more meaningful.
I’ve felt that way since 2000. My love for BG2 is beyond measure.
It still pisses me off how they butchered Viconia in bg3. not only did they turn her butt ugly, but they also completely destroyed her character. Woman who flees the drow because she refused to sacrifice a baby somehow ends up doing similar stuff for shar? That makes no sense. I wish they would have just left her out of the game completely.
I'm annoyed with it as someone who isn't at all invested in Viconia. Her identity feels like it should be an "Oh shit! It's *her!*" moment, but. I. Just didn't play these games, and Drow lore already annoys me with how pointlessly edgy it is. So... The Mother Superior is just. Fanservice, like Minsc. Jaheira and Sarevok very easily could have turned out the same if Larian didn't make them tragic.
my favourite mission is: Solve the "skinner" murders in the Bridge District...
You should go with Saemon Havarian ... you lost a vorpal sword and the Wave Blade
redeeming Yoshi's hearth gives a lot of XP
Throne of Bhaal has some of my favourite content from the two earlier games. I wish Cespenar would have had a cameo in BG3.
Glad you enjoyed BG2! I think it is the GOAT dungeon-crawler.
There is a lot of stuff you skipped in BG1 if you want to start your evil character from level 1. The reputation system makes evil parties more fun (its easy in BG1/Siege of Dragonspear for a good party doing side quests to quickly become local heroes with 20 rep/OP merchant discounts/guard reactions, but an evil party collapses at that rep level, so you have to play with more thought). You get to do things like kill Drizzt Do'urden, a famous good-aligned Dark Elf ranger with some awesome loot. Your son of Bhaal powers are more predatory and combat oriented vs. good character party buffs. You get some great evil party members, like Viconia and Baeloth (the Entertainer!), who are the best cleric and spellcaster in BG1/SoD. Edwin is a very good caster too. Xzar is a bit shrill for me though. Baeloth gives Minsc competition for most beloved party member. Dorn, Kagain and Shar-Teel are all great evil warrior companions, with Dorn and Shar-Teel (need mod for her) available in Siege of Dragonspear too. Dorn also has a good revenge quest line. You can bring various neutral-aligned characters into an evil party. And you get to play some great BG1 content that you skipped--notably Durlag's Tower, but also battling sirens along the coast south of Candlekeep, doing missions in the village up the river from Baldur's Gate. Buying great stuff from the smith and Thalantyr the mage in/zone to the left of Beregost. Fighting for fun and loot various assassin teams sent to kill you. Doing some pretty fun side quests involving things like finding a lost dog, saving Thalantyr's wayward apprentice Mellecamp and taking on the world's fastest dart thrower and collecting some very rewarding bounties. And there are tons of good quests in Baldur's Gate city.
Thanks for the "heart". If you do BG1 again, here is some further advice. Pick up all the various permanent stat-buffing tomes you can, especially the three +1 wisdom tomes for Viconia. There is also one +1 strength tome, which you can use on a warrior (for example, if you do play the shadowknight you discussed), start him at 17 strength to conserve points for all the other stats a shadownight needs, then using the strength tome will permanently boost him from 17 straight through to 18/++, so gaining potentially 4 or 5 strength levels from one tome. There is also one each of dexterity tome (in a Baldurs Gate trash can of all places), constitution tome (gotta get that one from the sirens I mentioned) and a charisma tome (in Xvart/carrion crawler cave at the foot of the gnoll fortress. All these tome buffs last throughout BG1/Siege of Dragonspear/BG2/Throne of Bhaal for any character you use the tomes on.
Oh, and if you do Durlag's tower, start it from the quest village up the river from Baldur's Gate. That unlocks an extra, very fun quest line involving cultists trying to summon their patron diety.
Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and the dlc "Throne of Bhaal" (the end to the story of that Bhaalspawn) are a testament of how truly great games can stand the test of time.
I think you would also like Planescape:Torment, another d&d game of those years with incredible story and characters.
For some reason this vid popped up in my feed I’m 3 minutes in and now need to go meet Mr.Mike Hawk at level 1
Same experience here! “He likes 2, hmm did he cover 1? Yeeesssss!”
After years of playing, i still uncover hidden gems in it. Best game ever made.
And so many expansions to it ; aside from ThroneOfBhaal, there is also SiegeOfDragonspear prequal, as well as numerous unofficial patches and mods. In one of my favorite ones, in the TOB you get to resurrect Irenicus and have him join your party. There is even a redemption arc for him. 😊
Glad to see some younger people enjoying these games. This era of D&D RPGs was fantastic. BG, BGII, Icewind Dale, NWN, NWN2 are all great imo.
I loved your BG series! I absolutely adored BG2 and save scummed the hell out of my romance with Aerie. Still one of the best RPG’s to this day
One of my favorite things about Baldur's Gate 2 was the villain's voice acting
I recently tried Boosteroid since my PC can’t run Baldur’s Gate III, and I was impressed. It’s a great solution for anyone with an older system-played smoothly without any lag or issues. Definitely a cool option!
It is a fantastic game, my favourite as well since 2003. There are so many mods that makes it even larger- and also makes it actually difficult.
I ran with a character 10/30, Berzker/Sorccer, weapon master quarterstaff. Staff of the Magi main weapon. Totally fun.
Hm how did you dual Sorcerer? its not possible without mods or editing.
The first BG is pretty darn good, too.
Very Nice video. There's so much of the game you have yet to explore i envy you. If you are looking for a fresh and challenging experience i recommend the SCS mod. It's basically a community patch with balance changes. NPCs start using their potions, mages will start fights like they were pre-buff like your team and many other changes.
My favorite game ever... I have the originals from PC up to today. Deserved a remake to complete the new BG3!