BGI-TSC: It had very few dungeons and absolutely no dragons and am I glad it didn't. Even if you did *every* single area, and BGI had far far more area and in some respects far more small aside quests than BGII, you could only get level seven and pretty much everybody else was sooooo much higher level than you that the over all game was much harder. I mean I still think Sarevok from BGI was the toughest boss in the entirity of the series. Even in ToB Sarevok is no laughing matter. I mean he clived through my entire party when an Alu-fiend dire charmed him. In sort BGI was hard but enjoyable. I know a lot of you have been complaining about BGII being a lot of hack and slash but BGI was more of a hack and slash but the lack of dungeons just made it seem otherwise. Only thing that really bugged me about BGI was the lack of NPC interaction. Of course that was a limitation of technology and of course the game was painfully linear. But again that was a limitation of technology.
BGII: Lots of dungeon and not to mention dragons. Overall a non-linear game. Far less world map areas then BGI not to mention far, far less NPCs you can take in your party but the NPCs that you can take in your party are very interesting and the quest you can do vary depending on who you do take, that's always good. The romance was nice a touch. Though I think a lot of us wanted more choices. Some of the background changes from BGI was confusing. Like Imoen's background no longer mentioned that she spent more time with Winthorp the Inn keep than Gorian and thus her less than serious outlook in life and I remember in the original BG biography of her it was mentioned she arrived after you in Candlekeep but in BGII it was implied that she arrived at about the same time as you but than *who* brought her. It wasn't Gorian, especially since she is also a Bhaalspawn, because Gorian could only save one Bhaalspawn, the PC. Of course the most important of my question WHY did they have to kill Ajantis? I mean couldn't they have made it that you can take Ajantis' body back to the most Radient Heart and get him raised or something? I mean I really liked the guy. Of course there is my usually complain about not having more NPC interaction and maybe the game would have appeared far less hack and slash if they put in some more towns where you can go just to do small quests. But I think the development team knew that most people really weren't interested in doing minor unimportant to the storyline quest. But overall a first rate game even with the small flaws.
ToB: Well it was most definetly not long enough. I mean I seriosly felt as if all I was doing was going from one dungeon to another and lets face it I was. The fights were very, very difficult and though that's not really a bad thing it did make me not want to play again anytime soon. Plus I am seriously displeased with Imoen's ending. It would not have taken the programmers long to make that Imoen too had two ending. The one that they gave for *spoiler*
if you choice to be a god but another for if you choice to stay. I mean through out the game she keeps telling you that she will follow you anywhere. Despite her alignment she is one of the people who will join you even if your rep is low given ofcourse its not 0, 1 or 2. On top of everything she also tells you she will follow you anywhere and lets face it she has. So I don't think she logically would leave the PC for long even though the PC might be married with kids. She would at least stay in the same city as the PC but the ending implied otherwise. Lastly I wish there was a romance for her. I don't know maybe after you go get her and have Valyger in your team she could start showing Valyger that magic is not always evil and that it doesn't take control of all people and something like that... I don't know. But still ToB was enjoyable in its own way and overall the BG series is the best series I have ever played. Two big thumbs up.
