Baldur's Gate II too easy!?

[josh]

Well, after reading some of the topics in this forum, I have found that some people have found BG2 easy. Of course its going to be easy if you always save just before you are going to turn a corner. You would then have the option to start back there if you got your butt kicked to the nine hells and back. Has anyone beat the game without doing this first time? My adventure would have ended in the dungeon where you start the game if it was a proper D&D game with the dice rolling and a DM. Maybe in the later BG games, the programmers should put save points in specific areas like in an inn.

[Drakron Du´Dark]

Well, that you be stupid, its a dangerouse game and the game does not let you save when hostiles are in view.
Well for me BG II is NOT easy, its hard, people that say "like dragons are ssooo easy" usually knows what spells combination and weapons to use against one, usually by trial-and-error.
Besides a lot of people forget to save the game and have to go back to reloads that were made a long time ago...

[Xandax]

I agree with Drakon , people that says the game is easy due this beacuse they KNOW how the game reacts to this and that.
For instance if you know that Kangaxx throws off a certain spell before fighting him, it is easy to counteract this - therefor when the beat him, they say it is easy.

I doubth that many people found the game easy the first and second time they played it. It is when you start playing it the 3-?? number of times.

[two]

Originally posted by Xandax:
<STRONG>I agree with Drakon , people that says the game is easy due this beacuse they KNOW how the game reacts to this and that.
For instance if you know that Kangaxx throws off a certain spell before fighting him, it is easy to counteract this - therefor when the beat him, they say it is easy.

I doubth that many people found the game easy the first and second time they played it. It is when you start playing it the 3-?? number of times.</STRONG>

This is intersting...I just wrote about this in another post, and have discussed it before with others... My first time with BGII I quit because it was too easy (others since have discussed doing this as well). I discovered very early on (the prison) that you can sleep as much as you want...and that Web+Web+a damaging area effect spell takes care of almost all the early/medium level battles in the game. For example you can get CFury right out of the prison with some invisibility and web+web+attack spell. I remember the poor guy holding it never unwebbed before dying.

In general, I didn't save much at all, but I did rest a lot and never went into a new room/unexplored area at less that 100% health. There was no penalty for resting...and hell if I am "role-playing" I sure as heck want to be fully armed and happy before stepping into battle, right? What sort of idiot confronts danger when injured? That's ain't "real."

I did not battle Kangaxx my first time (had no idea he was even there) but the dragons were not too bad (probably 10 reloads for Red+Black) and a lot of fun. Actually they were the most fun/challenge. After that I just lose interest...Mind FLayers? Yawn. You have so many ways to kill things at that point!

But yes, after you read a walk-through and some strategy guides, the game goes from easy to ridiculously easy. In fact if you can't wax the game after reading a walk-through, it's pretty sad!

[evermoor]

Oh, c'mon. How can you rest before entering every new room, that's ridiculous!! I went through Firkraggs dungeon at level 10 and rested only ONCE until i got to the lizard himself.

If you did that in my PnP game i'd have you robbed everytime you slept. You want to rest every 15 mins...fine everytime you rest one of your items goes "missing".

BW should def. sort this out and allow resting in VERY few outside underground areas, even then their should be some associated risk greater than being attacked by a few skeletons. I.E. random party members wandering off and leaving the party ( go to sleep wake up..hey, where's Minsc gone?) until you leave the area / finish the quest. (oh, Minsc chase Boo down small Hole and get stuck...)

[two]

Originally posted by evermoor:
<STRONG>Oh, c'mon. How can you rest before entering every new room, that's ridiculous!! I went through Firkraggs dungeon at level 10 and rested only ONCE until i got to the lizard himself.

If you did that in my PnP game i'd have you robbed everytime you slept. You want to rest every 15 mins...fine everytime you rest one of your items goes "missing".

</STRONG>

Well, how did I do it? I hit the button that looks like a gear. After about .5 seconds I clicked through the "sleeping" movie thing and it was done, about 2 seconds total. And the last time I checked I was playing BGII not your pen and paper game.

If you don't want to rest while going through a dungeon that is your decision. Of course it will make the game harder. In fact I wish the resting rules were firmed up -- a lot. But they are what they are...and I was playing BGII as it was shipped. What does it say about a game that you have to handicap yourself in order to make things a challenge? I thought that was the game designer's job.

[Xandax]

Originally posted by two:
<STRONG>This is intersting...I just wrote about this in another post, and have discussed it before with others... My first time with BGII I quit because it was too easy (others since have discussed doing this as well<snip></STRONG>

Well I didn't find the game easy the first couple of times - and had to resort to a walkthrough at some areas.
And even though there are some gamers that find the game so easy as you do, I still think that the majority dosen't find the game that easy.

[koz-ivan]

i would have liked to see a few other battles that really pushed the envelope, once your party gets it's tactics squared away you can pretty much screw w/ everything.

i remember the den of 7 vales as being a tough fight & trying all sorts of diff tactics, hit & run lure guys downstairs one at a time, and still taking a beating.
now of course it's real easy.

that being said, i still think mindflayers are hard, i wouldn't screw w/ a beholder w/o the shield, and dragons are a neverending source of frustration. and kangnxx just flat out scares me.

[evermoor]

Originally posted by two:
<STRONG>Well, how did I do it? I hit the button that looks like a gear. After about .5 seconds I clicked through the "sleeping" movie thing and it was done, about 2 seconds total. And the last time I checked I was playing BGII not your pen and paper game.

If you don't want to rest while going through a dungeon that is your decision. Of course it will make the game harder. In fact I wish the resting rules were firmed up -- a lot. But they are what they are...and I was playing BGII as it was shipped. What does it say about a game that you have to handicap yourself in order to make things a challenge? I thought that was the game designer's job.</STRONG>

Maybe. But why complain about the game being too easy when you went out of your way to play the game in such a manner as to make it just "the too easy" your criticising now ? I mean, your right, but it's kind of a moot point for you to be making isn't it? I mean if you didn't enjoy playing it that way, then why do it? If you did enjoy playing with the "rest between every fight option" "on" then you don't seriously have a problem with the rules or programmers now do you? Essentially what you seem to be saying is that your annoyed with the game because it ALLOWED YOU to cheat yourself out of some absolutely cracking fights. Well, sorry but i have no sympathy.
Personally i DIDN'T rest every five minutes only when "fatigued" and sounds like i enjoyed the game more...at least i'm not the one crying about how easy it was.

oh, and NOT sleeping every five minutes is a "handicap"? I thought being able to operate for about 24 hours before exhuastion set in was a rather realistic feature myself...
You've apparently confused playing at a disadvantage with taking active advantage of the holes in the game. Yes, you can exploit it and cheat it, you can beat it easily by doing so, but..and i hate to say it..in the end your only cheating yourself. Isn't that how you feel..slightly cheated? Wonder why that is.

[Drakron Du´Dark]

I only rest when my party is fatigated, is very injured and I am out of healing spells or potions or when I will be fighting a very powerful monster and most of my spells are gone.

[evermoor]

Originally posted by two:
[QB]Well, how did I do it? I hit the button that looks like a gear. After about .5 seconds I clicked through the "sleeping" movie thing and it was done, about 2 seconds total. And the last time I checked I was playing BGII not your pen and paper game.[QB]

WOW!! I AM IMPRESSED !!! did you figure all that out by yourself or did you get a grown up to show you how to do it ?? and well spotted your not in my Pnp game. No flies on you, huh?

[aperry]

I had this same argument wit TWO in a previous post "an easy way to balance the game". Go read that topic!!!! I would be happy with stricter rules on sleeping, that would be fun as i will fight even when i almost dead. But what good will that do, if you can just reload anyway. Two will just reload and then complain that they let you reload to much, and that was my argument in the last topic. I can remember playing some of the old gold box games, and sweating because i had made it almost to the end of a dungeon and was dead. Running back to the top to get to a preist and heel because everyone had 1 hit left and running into a random monster eeek... Now that was fun....

[koz-ivan]

those gold box games were the best

[Zartuul]

Some of those gold box battles were amazing. I remember fighting HUGE battles in gold box games that just aren't here in BG. Anyone here remember the final fight for the pool of radiance series? Can't remember the name of the game but it was the final game in a 4 part series with a level cap of 36. The last fight had you up against an army of demons. Not just a few but more like 20-30 demons.

Many of the battles in that final gold box game of that series was epic. It was a chess match where you had to make some of the best possible tactical decisions in order to win and it was CHALLENGING.

Don't feed me this horse dung where we have to handicap ourselves in order to make the game harder. What I want are tough battles, not pain in the ass rules where I have to spend 5 minutes leaving the zone in order to rest because I can't rest within a dungeon. Instead put us up against 10 guys instead of 6. Two dragons instead of one. 4 Demons instead of 2. Got the idea?

Twisted Rune was a good fight but it wasn't a super tough fight. When I left the underdark I went to Twisted Rune and destroyed them. First try, one person died I think. Reloaded the fight a few times just to relive and savor the challenge and won every time. What does this mean? It means we need more opposition, more opponents, tougher opponents.

Instead of making the game harder by increasing the damage the mobs do increase the number of mobs when you increae the difficulty setting.

[UberJason]

Hey I know this is off topic, but can you still buy the gold box games anywhere?

[koz-ivan]

Some of those gold box battles were amazing. I remember fighting HUGE battles in gold box games that just aren't here in BG. Anyone here remember the final fight for the pool of radiance series? Can't remember the name of the game but it was the final game in a 4 part series with a level cap of 36. The last fight had you up against an army of demons. Not just a few but more like 20-30 demons.

Pools of Darkness.

i've seen the cd collection of them in stores fom time to time. perhaps you can get it online? try amazon or somesuch

[Nick_Dude]

I find the battles in BG2 to be challenging if I play at harder levels. I mean, how can someone not find an iron golem challenging, when you are only level 10 and he deals out 30 damage/hit to you?

[Ashuermen]

I think part of the problem is that if you're playing every bit of the game, it can get very easy. My 1st time through I only did 3 or 4 major subquests. As a result, I had a HELL of a time with the latter parts of the game. I think that the underdark to the end of the game is best suited for level 13's or so. The problem comes when you have done every little subquest you can get your hands on before advancing the plot (particularly if you do them in easy-hard order) The boss troll in de'arnise keep beat the crap outta me the 1st time, but after a few reloads and a lot of work on strategy i pulled a narrow victory. I personally disagree with people resting a lot, but I find the game more interesting when I haven't saved for 30 minutes, my berserker is at half health, and I run into 4 vampires, 3 grater mummies, and some lesser undead. THose are fights to remember because you truly have something to lose. But in the end, people will do what they want. You have the ability to make the game harder for yourself.

[two]

Originally posted by Zartuul:
<STRONG>Some of those gold box battles were amazing. I remember fighting HUGE battles in gold box games that just aren't here in BG. Anyone here remember the final fight for the pool of radiance series? Can't remember the name of the game but it was the final game in a 4 part series with a level cap of 36. The last fight had you up against an army of demons. Not just a few but more like 20-30 demons.

Many of the battles in that final gold box game of that series was epic. It was a chess match where you had to make some of the best possible tactical decisions in order to win and it was CHALLENGING.

Don't feed me this horse dung where we have to handicap ourselves in order to make the game harder. What I want are tough battles, not pain in the ass rules where I have to spend 5 minutes leaving the zone in order to rest because I can't rest within a dungeon. Instead put us up against 10 guys instead of 6. Two dragons instead of one. 4 Demons instead of 2. Got the idea?

Twisted Rune was a good fight but it wasn't a super tough fight. When I left the underdark I went to Twisted Rune and destroyed them. First try, one person died I think. Reloaded the fight a few times just to relive and savor the challenge and won every time. What does this mean? It means we need more opposition, more opponents, tougher opponents.

Instead of making the game harder by increasing the damage the mobs do increase the number of mobs when you increae the difficulty setting.</STRONG>

Rant on brother! I agree 100%. 10 nasty demons would be the bomb! Yes! I don't want to handicap myself either (NOT resting, NOT doing all the subquests, NOT using certain spells, NOT playing certain classes, etc. the list goes on and on).

Imagine a game that was so challenging you had to rest whenever possible (it didn't allow you to rest every other step), you couldn't save/reload every second, you sweated to make it to a safe room/out of a dungeon in order to recover, etc. Am I crazy -- perhaps I just have a good imagination -- but I can visualize a game very much like BGII that does all these things. Sadly, it's not the BGII that was shipped.

Still, I am only annoyed at BGII becuase I love the game enough to want it to be even better!